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September 10, 2005
Healing
Reading the Bible one comes across a lot of miraculous healing stories and there is always a debate about why we no longer see any. Come to that, why do we find them in the Old and New Testaments and in very few, if any, other religious writings. In fact, "healing" was a major part of the early Christian Church, but does not seem to have had the same sort of profile in Islam or any other religious movement except Judaism.
Until I really started digging I found no reference to it at all in Islam and I find no "miracles" ascribed to Mohammed until three centuries after his death. So is the age of miracles past? Was there ever an age in which, the Biblical stories notwithstanding, miracles actually happened? Are the Biblical stories merely "poetic" or wishful thinking on the part of the Gospel writers and chronoicallers of the Old and New Testaments? The evidence seems to suggest not. When one applies a critical review of these events it rapidly becomes apparent that "healing" is a very complex action, one which affects more than the person "healed" in the final "healing" action.
Firstly we need to look at the sequence of events. In almost all the miracles described in the Gospel, particularly those ascribed to Christ Himself, we find that a key element of the healing is that the afflicted person "comes to Christ" - a positive statement which includes; "I believe you can heal me where others can't"; "I want to be healed" and "I accept your decision". This is equally true of the Old Testament miracles of healing, the three elements of approach, wanting God, and acceptance of God's will are all there. The only exceptions I can find are those where Christ has raised someone from the dead and the Centurion's servant. Clearly the deceased cannot ask for healing, yet the action seems to include others becoming whole or perhaps even discovering God through the "healing" action. In the case of the Centurion the servant is healed by the soldiers faith - but it would seem that Christ also reaches out and brings the Centurion and his family to God through the action of healing the servant.
In Acts, we find the same sort of pattern, the person seeking healing makes the approach; in short, "comes to God" to find healing. There is a positive action there and the further elements of desire for wholeness and confirmation as one of God's people is also present. So why do we seem to have difficulty in this day and age? Why do we seem to have lost the art of miraculous healing?
Perhaps it is because we are looking for the wrong thing, or even, looking at it in the wrong manner!
Healing is still a very large part of the Churches ministry to the world. Miracles do occur still, they happen all around us, quite often to people we know, but, because we are looking for the wrong things we do not see them for what they are. Instead we see only the "failures" the occassions when we fail to get the "cure" we want, and get something else instead. Dying is also a part of God's world and plan, sometimes death is the cure - because the person continues into a new life, one we simply do not understand or recognise yet. We think that because the person we have prayed for, or who has received annointing or laying on of hands is not instantly cured of cancer, deformity or some other affliction, we have somehow "failed" or, worse, that the afflicted has somehow "failed".
During the medieval period the concept of "sin" being linked to affliction gained ground. By the reformation this link was taken as the ultimate answer, all affliction was seen as "puinishment" for some "sin". THis can clearly be seen in the Book of Common Prayer in the services for the Sick which give almost all their focus to exhorting the sick person to repent of sin. You could be forgiven for thinking the Lord was present in these services only as a courtesy - in case He decided to be forgiving and merciful! It is this concept which still permeates a lot of our thinking on the subject of healing and miracles even now - and it is one we should strive to lose!
Look again at the miracles of the New Testament particularly. As I said at the beginning of this ramble, the three elements are present, "approach", "desire to be healed" and "desire to accept God's decision". But there is something else as well, there is a wider healing of the bystanders who see, believe and themselves "come to God to be healed". There is more too, there is a transfer of power, a passage of energy between the healer and the healed, between the healer and the witnesses. And again, although the word "sin" is sometimes used in the healing process, it is not the same sense that we have come to use and understand - in the New Testament, the "sin" is anything which separates us from God. Which may be some "bad" act in our past, but it can equally mean a lack of faith, a lack of understanding or even a lack of love between individuals or groups!
We need to recapture the understanding that healing is present even in the death of a loved one. For that person it may be the final act of reconciliation with God, the surcease of pain and rejection, for those around them, it may be the discovery of a deeper sense of love, of appreciation of that person's virtues and the source of the persons strength and fortitude. There are many things to be learned about ourselves and others - and especially about God and life itself - at a deathbed.
Christianity is a "healing faith", healing of this broken world lies at the heart of the Gospel and Christ himself came to bring Healing to the World. We need to remember that and to recapture that in our worship, in our understanding of our faith and in the way we respond to the world around us. Above all, we need to keep our faith in the healing powers of prayer, and of God's healing love - no matter what the outcome in relation to our wants and expectations.
God's healing frequently transcends death itself, we need to remember that we worship a loving and forgiving God, but, we also need to remember that, in answering our prayers, He gives us that which we need, not necessarily that which we want.
Posted by The Gray Monk at September 10, 2005 12:22 PM
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