Remember back to when you were a kid. Did you ever want to be superman? After all, he was the strongest guy in the world. He could fly anywhere—without the FAA’s approval. If you had to confess this morning, how many of you tied a bed sheet around your neck and jumped off your bed or something higher, wishing you had a super huge “S” on your chest? We are enamored with this figure of strength because we are not that strong. In fact, Christopher Reeves who played Super Man, is now paralyzed after falling from a horse. Falling from a horse! We are fragile. Life is short! The good news for Christopher Reeves is that just this week, he can now wiggle toes and fingers after several long months of no movement. When I heard about his slight recovery, I thought again, how we are not guaranteed tomorrow and that we are so fragile. And when I saw his toes moving on the news, I thought of God’s healing. As Christians, we ought to see everything as it relates to our faith. When we are sick, we need to look for God’s healing. In Super Man’s case, he may never walk again un-assisted, but God’s healing takes different forms. Why is it that God heals some and not others? Some go through the same sickness or surgery and one recovers , one suffers. Why is that?
I was privileged to attend Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore Kentucky for my Master degree. One of its early presidents, Dr. J.C. McPheeters taught that there were at least 5 miracles of healing that he could find evidence for from his own experience and study of the scriptures.
1. The miracle of instant cure through faith and prayer. This is the one we all want to experience when we need healing. We want it now, and pray for God to do it immediately. Last night on television, the movie “The Green Mile” was playing. Some of you have seen it. It features a black man in the 1920’s rural south, who has the gift of healing and feeling other’s pain. The interesting thing about this movie is that the healing does not glorify God in the least. It is our culture’s way of secularizing even the act of healing. But this is the way we like to see someone healed—this instant—now. The movie won all kinds of awards because, I think, the world is looking for someone, something that has the power to heal their wounds and pain.
2. The miracle of God’s undertaking. This miracle is God giving us the natural capacity to be healed through nature, medical science, doctors and nurses. We all pray hard for this miracle especially as we see patients wheeled off for surgery, or as we wait to see if medical or psychological treatment can alleviate the person’s problem.
3. The miracle of God’s guidance to remedy the situation. God guides us to the right doctor or medication, or hospital that can provide the kind of help we specifically needed. Or perhaps, God provides the right friend or counselor with whom we can share our deep hurts. It may be a service of worship like this one where the Word of God is shared and we receive strength to live on and overcome the maladies of life. This is the miracle of God’s guidance.
4. The miracle of the sufficiency of God’s grace. The classic example from scripture of this miracle is Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’. Scholars are not absolutely sure what Paul’s thorn was for sure, but they think it may have been his eyesight. Do you remember Paul wrote on one occasion ‘see with what large letters I write’ and when Jesus encounters him on the road to Damascus his eyesight is affected. (When Jacob wrestled with God in the Old Testament, it left a lifelong scar). At any rate, Paul prayed and prayed that God would remove this obstacle from him, but instead God provided himself—through others help-- and that was enough. That is the miracle of God’s sufficiency.
Joni Eareckson Tada, paralyzed from the neck down after a swimming accident, wrote of her experiences of her disability and her faith. She became convinced of God’s healing power for her life. Several ministers gathered around her, laid hands on her and anointed her with oil while praying fervently—believing God could heal her if He wished. She fully expected God’s healing. When nothing seemed to change after one month then two, then three, Joni began to search the scriptures and prayed even harder. She sought to make sure she had not sinned, and she prayed with even more faith. It became clear to her and I quote “from time to time, God in his mercy, may grant us healing from disease as a gracious glimpse, a ‘sneak preview’ of what is to come. It is my opinion that he sometimes does heal. But, in view of the fact that the kingdom has not yet come in its fullness, we are not to automatically expect it.” God did not heal Joni. But her life is a testimony to the sufficiency of God’s grace. He has allowed her to paint with her teeth and write and speak about her experience and how God has provided the peace and comfort she needs from day to day.
5. The final miracle of triumphant crossing from death to eternal life. This is the ultimate healing at the hands of Christ who gives us a new body, a new residence and a new part and purpose in his eternal kingdom. Scripture tells us there will be no tears in his presence, only unbounding joy and peace as we worship and fellowship with the God who made us.
We could talk about healing in many ways. I want to focus on one of Jesus’ healing incidents—the one we read about just a moment ago. Keep your Bibles turned to John chapter 5. Before we look at this passage, we have to acknowledge that Jesus ministry was a healing ministry. He taught and preached, but wherever he went, he also healed. Recall the demon possessed man in the region of the Gerasenes. When confronted by Jesus, he confessed his name was legion—for there were many demons in him. His friends and family had tried to chain him up so that he would not cut and hurt himself, but he was so wild, that he broke even these chains. He was wild and naked, spitting out murderous hate at Jesus. Mark chapter 5 records that Jesus commands the demons to leave the man and head into a herd of pigs. At that moment of healing, the man was once again whole. Mark expresses the case in a powerful understatement that says it all “and they came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there clothed and in his right mind.”
I hope some excitement fills you as you hear these stories of God’s healing power and grace. Remember the woman who was hemorrhaging for twelve years? Jesus was on another mission—a mission to heal a little girl and as he was moving through the crowd, this woman who had spent all she had to find a cure, put her faith in a wandering teacher. She touched his robe, and she was healed. Jesus did a curious thing. He stopped in the midst of his entourage and asked who touched him. His disciples thought that was a ridiculous question considering all the people walking around him and surely bumping him from time to time. But Jesus’ question prompted an answer from the woman. She confesseed her faith in Jesus—she believed that if she just touched his robe, she would be healed. And as she did, she became whole again.
Jesus ministry was a teaching one to be sure, but he healed just about wherever he went. The only time he refused to heal, was when the people demanded a miracle or sign to prove his identity. The message is clear—we cannot manipulate God. Faith like the woman in the crowd, is the key to healing.
Let’s look now at John 5 and this man by the pool of Bethesda. In verse 5, John tells us that the man Jesus approached had been sick for 38years—38 years! Can you imagine? Whatever his problem was, he could not work and so everyday, he was brought to the pool because people superstitiously believed that when the waters were stirred, it was the angels doing it, and the first to hit the water when they were stirred would be healed.
You might think this man strange, but when you have been sick that long, you might just try anything. Jesus approaches the man and asks him a shocking question: ‘Do you want to get well?’ What we expect the man to say is ‘of course’. Why do you think I’ve been coming here everyday for several years? We expect the man to give a simple yes or no. Did you notice the man didn’t answer Jesus’ question? Instead he poured out his story of loneliness and frustration at being disabled and not being quick enough to jump into the pool. 38 years and this man’s hope was on the edge.
Why does Jesus ask him if he wants to be healed in the first place? It’s clear the man is disabled, an outcast of polite society, someone to be discarded at worst—ignored at best. Isn’t it clear the man would want to be whole again? Yet asking the question in the first place is within Jesus’ character and his style of relating to us. He does not violate our personhood, or trample upon our freedom. He does not command us, force us, invade us—He invites. He invites us to be saved, to be healed. He invites us to participate with him in the transforming work of the Kingdom.
Listen closely now—because I don’t want to be misunderstood. There are stories in the New Testament of Jesus healing persons without their knowing it, stories of one person’s faith operating for the healing sake of another. But in this instance, I think Jesus is teaching us a big lesson: some healing is up to us.
Think about the man in the story for a moment. He had been ill for 38 years. Had the hope died out that he might actually become well someday? Had he adjusted himself to the fact that this was his lot in life? Consider the possibility that the man might not have wanted healing. Could it be that the man was content in his illness, secure and comfortable in being sick because if he were well, he would have responsibilities to face, like making decisions and earning a living? Are you shocked by that? Are you outraged? But let’s be honest now. There are some people in this world, and indeed in the church who relish their sicknesses. The love their illnesses because it gets them attention, they can manipulate others to get their own way.
Think about that in your own life and in the lives of those around you. There made indeed, be people who do not want to get well. Do you know people who intentionally withhold forgiveness and harbor resentment because of the power it gives them in relationships? The power of the victim in this sense is even carried out in class warfare in our society. You have heard the case of the burglar who was breaking into a house and fell through a sky-light and was paralyzed. He sued the homeowner and the manufacturer of the sky-light for making a window that was not strong enough. Even though he was about to rob the house, he won the case and received millions in payment for his injuries. The power of the victim. Some people do this in relationships too. They hold onto the hurts and disappointments, never really wanting healing in those areas because of the power it gives them over others.
When Jesus asks the question, ‘do you want to be healed?’, he makes the point that we have to desire healing. We have to desire to be whole persons. It is at the point where our desire meets our faith, faith that God begins to work. In a sense, the paralytic in John chapter 5 was not just physically paralyzed, he was emotionally and socially paralyzed.
Note something else from our passage. In verse 7, the man says that there is no one to help him get into the pool. He had been coming there every day now, for years and years, but no one helped him on his journey to healing. I think that is the saddest part of this story. In the Christian community, we know that healing, more often than not, is a community affair. We all pray together, we anoint people, we support them and lift them up to God in faith. The man at the pool had no one.
We met Ralph and Grace Yoder in Wilmore Kentucky. Ralph followed God’s call to the ministry in his 40’s. He and his family felt called to minister in the African nation of Liberia. He had just completed his education when he fell from a roof and suffered a spinal cord injury that left all four of his limbs paralyzed. Immediately the community of Christ gathered around them. They brought food, and they watched their kids so Ralph’s wife could get some rest. Very soon they realized their missionary plans were dashed, and they had to start a new life. They were living in a rented home—ready to leave for Africa. Some leaders within the Christian community formed a committee that helped plan, find the land, receive funds and eventually build a beautiful wheel-chair accessible home for their family. I have met Ralph and Grace Yoder. I have seen their beautiful home. That is what being part of the community of Christ is all about. The man at the pool had no one. At least the other paralytic had friends that lowered him to Jesus—not so the man at the pool. What would it be like if we cared that much about one another, and especially the weaker one’s among us?
Did you notice that Jesus was in Jerusalem for one of the feasts of the Jews? It does not say which festival it was, but it does say it was the Sabbath. What was Jesus doing at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath? Why wasn’t he at the temple? I think the answer lies in the fact that Jesus is always where people need healing. He is at the tax collector’s house eating, at the water well when only the outcasts come to draw water, he is touching the unclean. Does this speak to you as it does me? Jesus is always where people need healing, and so we can be sure he is here with us today.
Here’s the application: What kind of healing do you need from the master today? Is it a physical healing? Will you only be satisfied if it is completely taken away, or will you look for his strength and provision in the midst of the storm? Do you even want to be healed? Are you harboring resentment and unforgiveness as your badge of honor? Are you using your illness for selfish goals? God heals in many different ways. I gave you at least 5 to start with today. Learn the lesson of the paralytic in John chapter 5. His will to be healed was paralyzed. Jesus restored his hope, and actually gave him the will to be healed, but in the end, the choice was his. The question for us this morning is, do you want to be healed?
This morning, we are going to close this service with a time of prayer around the altars. If you are struggling with a physical need and you need God’s healing, I want you to come forward now. This is the call to healing. It may be that God wants to work a miracle in your life. It may be that he wants to give you the strength to bear up under it as Paul did.
Some of you may need healing in your emotional life. You are struggling with forgiveness and bitterness. You have been hurt. Do you want to be healed? Some of us need healing in our relationships. Let’s gather around these altars and ask the Lord for his will. As the community of God, let us surround those who have come with prayer support. Our task is to lift one another’s burdens to God. Saints, come gather around these who have come. Let’s pray.
