Christ the Healer (Part 2)

This sermon picks up from S016

(2Co. 12.1-10)

Every year, as we approach Lent, the Anglican Church has a few weeks during which we look at the ministry of Jesus. Last week was 'Education Sunday', when the theme was "Christ the Teacher". ...And our theme today is "Christ the Healer".

Now when I preached on this theme last year, I confessed that I felt as if I was standing in a bit of a fog.

My problem, quite simply, was this. When I look at the wonderful healing ministry of Jesus and the disciples 2000 years ago, and I compare it with my own experience of healing in the Church today, the two things appear to be very different.

Well afterwards quite a few people said that they too have the same problem.

Well during this last year, I've faced a number of situations which have prompted me to think a bit more about 'healing'. On the whole, I'm still standing in the fog, ...but I've one or two insights from our New Testament reading that I would like to share with you.

Let me begin by telling you about three situations which I have encountered.

A few weeks ago David talked about baby Brogan. This little baby had been diagnosed as having leukaemia, ...and the doctors gave the parents very little hope, ...but she is doing well.

Well Brogan is not the only baby we have prayed for. In October we baptized baby Daniel. His parents were told that he had 'Microcephatic Condition', which meant he had a very small head and was brain damaged.

We prayed for his healing, and he is doing very well. The doctors are really amazed at his progress, ...and the latest development tests are showing that he is doing more than an average child of his age.

Both these babies have got a long way to go, ...but their progress so far is very encouraging, (and I see that as a direct answer to prayer).

The second situation which I want to tell you about concerns my mother.

Some of you know that for the last six months her eyesight had rapidly deteriorated. The consultants said that she would have to give up driving, ...and then, shortly before Christmas, they discovered that the cause of the problem was a brain tumour.

Lots of people prayed that God would heal her, either miraculously, or medically.

A miraculous healing did not happen, but a couple of weeks ago she was admitted to hospital to have an operation to remove the tumour. The day before the operation he blood pressure was sky high, and the doctors said that unless it came down they would have to cancel the operation.

We prayed for her blood pressure to come down, ...but it didn't.

The following day the doctors decided to take the risk of proceeding, despite her high blood pressure.

The operation was a great success. They managed to completely remove the tumour, ...and her eyesight is slowly recovering. And she has asked my to thank everyone for their prayers.

She did not receive a miraculous healing, but she thanks God for her medical healing. Furthermore, during these past few months she has had a great sense of God's peace. On several occasions she said to me, "I just can't worry about things, because I know that I'm in God's hands." And I see that freedom from anxiety as another answer to our prayers.

The third situation comes from a placement that I have been doing this year.

Over the last few months I have been visiting Hereward College, over in Tile Hill. It's a further education college for students with physical disabilities. Many of them are confined to wheelchairs, some of them are unable to speak.

One of the students told me about one of the most embarrassing things that had ever happened to her. She was going through Coventry City Centre in her wheel chair, when some people came up to her. They explained that they were Christians, and then they laid hands on her and prayed that God would heal her.

Nothing happened, ...and she felt a mixture of anger, and humiliation, that people should treat her in such a way.

Three very different experiences ...with three very different outcomes. But I chose these examples because they seemed to cover the whole range of experiences which we face.

- Sometimes God seems to bring healing which goes beyond medical expectation.

- Sometimes God seems to bring healing through the work of the medical profession.

- Sometimes God doesn't seem to bring healing at all.

And my dilemma is this, ...How do we reconcile this sort of experience, with that of the early church, ...where Jesus and his disciples appear to heal everyone who asks for it... instantly.

But perhaps we are viewing the experience the early church through rose coloured spectacles, ...perhaps their experience of healing was in fact similar to ours.

Let's look again at our New Testament passage. St Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth:

"...to stop me from getting too proud I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me and stop me from getting too proud! About this thing, I have pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me, but he has said, 'My grace is enough for you: my power is at its best in weakness."

Paul is talking about his 'thorn in the flesh'.

Now no-one knows exactly what this thorn in the flesh was.

Some think it was some sort of physical illness. Perhaps he suffered from bad eyesight, or perhaps he was particularly prone to malaria. Others think that he is talking about a spiritual problem.

Precisely what it was doesn't matter, ...the main point is that Paul pleaded with God three times for it to go, ...but it didn't. The great St. Paul knew what it felt like to pray hard for something, and yet not to receive it.

But why?

Well St. Paul gives two reasons.

First, he says that it was to stop him from getting too proud. A few verses earlier Paul had been talking about the visions and revelations he had received from the Lord. And as we know, Paul had been a terrible enemy of the Church, but God had forgiven him, and used him greatly in proclaiming the gospel throughout the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the more that God uses us, the greater is the temptation to become proud. We forget that it is God working through us, and begin to take the credit for ourselves.

So God sent Paul the thorn in the flesh, to help to keep him humble.

And that's something that I can identify with. I remember when we first had Christopher... (Talk about things going well, then going wrong). Also in this job?

Secondly, Paul says that God said to him "My grace is enough for you: my power is at its best in weakness."

This is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life. It is when we are weak and helpless that God is most able to use us. It's because it's when we are weak and helpless we are totally dependent upon God.

(Illustration)

It is the same paradox that we find in the cross. On the cross, the Son of God was totally helpless and abandoned by God. And yet, at the same time, God used it to win a great victory over the powers of evil, and to reconcile the world with himself.

Those are two reasons that Paul gives for his thorn in the flesh not being taken away.

But as I said last time, perhaps there are many other reasons why God does not answer our prayers in the way that we want. Why God choose to heal some people and not others.

- Perhaps it's because God has appointed a time for each of us to die, ...and even those whom Jesus healed had to face death in the end.

- Perhaps it's because suffering sometimes brings out the best in people. During some funeral visits I've discovered that illness has sometimes helped to develop characteristics such as bravery, courage, and determination. And it has helped to bring out love in others.

- Perhaps it's because pain can sometimes be a gift from God, for our own good. If we put our hand in a fire it hurts, ...but the pain makes sure that we take it out.

- Perhaps it's because in our pain God is suffering alongside us, and it causes us to draw nearer to Him.

- Perhaps it's because we want God to heal something on the surface, but he is waiting until he can heal something much deeper in us.

This side of heaven we might never know. But God knows.