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I have always been amazed at how often people want to show me their scars. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a hospital room and before I have a chance to say please don’t, the bed sheet or the hospital gown gets moved and there is a scar I didn’t need to see. Maybe it’s the medications; I don’t know, but I’m not much on seeing scars.
Scars become, however, markers – literally – of some of our experiences in life. I have a scar on my right wrist that I’ve had since I was in 5thgrade. I wish there was a dramatic story behind it, but there isn’t. I have one on my left hand and another on my left arm, all of which are part of the story of my life. They also are physical evidences that healing has taken place, thankfully. I have quite a collection of other scars as well, but they are not scars that can be seen. They are scars of the heart, and of the soul, and because they are not visible it’s impossible to see if healing has taken place with those wounds.
Last Sunday I began a new series of messages, titled What Jesus Did. Today, as we continue the series, we remain in the gospel of Luke, picking up just after the story from last week, when Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth. The theme of this passage is healing, and the title of this morning’s message is Lord, Please Heal Us.
Follow along as I read from Luke 4:38-44 –
38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her.
39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
40 At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.
41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.
42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.
43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”
44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Listen again to verse 40 – At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. I don’t know how many people are covered by the word all, but I assume it is quite a few. Luke tells us that Jesus healed them(verse 40). The gospels often tell us of the large crowds that followed Jesus, and one of the reasons why so many people flocked to Jesus was their hope of being healed.
Let’s talk about healing.
Healing takes time.
Several years ago, I officiated at a funeral here in town, and the burial was in Eminence. After the funeral, as we processed to the cemetery, we passed Kroger. As we went through the traffic light, I looked in my mirror and saw a car pull out of the Kroger parking lot and end up in the back end of the funeral procession. Well, it’s hard to keep a funeral procession together and sometimes that happens. We were about a mile down the road when I looked in the mirror on the passenger side of my car. I was the third car in the processional, and it was a rather long processional. I was amazed at what I saw in my mirror – the car that got into the funeral procession was making its way down the shoulder of the highway, passing the cars in the processional. I’ve seen a lot of interesting things happen at funerals, but that was a first. And, interestingly, the driver was not in much of a hurry, as you might expect when they decide to pass the line of cars by driving on the shoulder of the highway. The funeral procession was going about 35 mph, and I would estimate the car on the shoulder was going about 35¾ mph. As the car passed me, I looked over and was surprised to see, for one, that I knew the person. And, second, the person was cruising along as though they were out for a Sunday drive and that passing a funeral procession while on the shoulder of a highway was the most normal thing in the world to do. I wanted to shout, speed up! If you’re in that much of a hurry, get moving!
But some things can’t be made to go any faster, sadly. And healing is something we cannot make go faster. If you’ve been through any surgery, you know the healing doesn’t come quickly enough. When you lose a loved one, you know the healing of that loss does not come quickly enough. Some healing might come in a few days or weeks, but some healing takes months, and even years.
I often wonder, how long will it take to heal the losses and the wounds of the last 4½ months? How long will it take to find healing from the wounds inflicted by Covid-19? Those wounds are much more than the physical, though the physical wounds are plenty. There are the wounds of an economy that has collapsed out from under scores of people. There are the wounds of the family members who could not be with their loved ones as they were in hospitals, and the wounds of not being with a loved one when they departed for eternity. The wounds of not being able to be at a funeral or memorial service. There are the wounds of the racial struggle of the time, and all the years that have led to this moment. There has been so much suffering, and we need healing.
We see the healing that Jesus brings to so many, but we sometimes overlook that much time led up to some of those moments of healing. John 5:1-9, for instance, tells us of the man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda (1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 4From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.)
It was a healing that came in a moment, but we must remember the man had been an invalid for 38 years. His 38 years of struggle was not just his physical difficulty, but also the lack of anyone in his life who could care for him. In verse 7 of that story, the man tells Jesus I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. Yes, there was a great need for physical healing, but there was a great need for healing of the man’s spirit as well. For 38 years he had been suffering, and many of those years, it appears he had suffered along. Mark 5:25–34tells of us the woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years (And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering). For 12 years this woman had been suffering. There was physical suffering, and also the economic devastation that came as she had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. Mark 5:1-20 tells us of the demon-possessed man who lived in a cemetery, for we don’t know how long, but it had been a while (1They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!” 9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. 14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. 18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed).
It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard to wait. But sometimes, healing takes time.
Healing is painful.
I have been very fortunate in my life in a number of ways, and one is that I have never had any kind of surgery, except one very small procedure that really doesn’t count. I’ve never been under anesthesia.
I have, however, spent a lot of time with a lot of people before and after their surgeries, so I know there is a certain amount of pain involved in healing; sometimes it is a lot of pain. I often remind people there are two kinds of pain involved in healing – there is the chronic pain that makes surgery necessary, and there is healing pain that comes after, and that pain goes away. People often tell me they can tell the difference between those two kinds of pain.
When we have a physical ailment, we go to the doctor and get the needed surgery scheduled, even if we really don’t like the idea of surgery. We know we need to see a doctor and we know we need to endure some amount of pain and we are willing to do so. When I tore the meniscus in my right knee several years ago, I was in terrible pain. I wanted relief, and I was quick to make a doctor’s appointment to find relief. Even though I do not like needles, I was very happy to have a big needle stuck in my knee, providing cortisone that gave me relief.
But it is often very different when it comes to other kinds of healing – the spiritual, the emotional, and the psychological healing that we need. We aren’t as quick to seek out healing for those difficulties, even though they cause us great pain. I will hurry to the doctor when my knee hurts so that I can get that shot of cortisone. I can’t get there fast enough to get that pain take care of, but when I am in need of other kinds of healing, I will go out of my way to avoid the healing I need for those.
I could – but I won’t – talk to you about some of the kinds of healing that I would like to find in my life, but I struggle with the pain that is involved. It’s a pain that is greater than a physical pain so I will do what I can to avoid it. So what I do, then, is carry around the chronic pain instead of opting for the healing pain. And you know what? I suspect you all are the same. Am I right?
Healing Always Happens.
One of the questions I have been most asked over the years is this – why are some people healed, but not others? All of us have prayed for a friend or loved one to receive healing. We have all enlisted others to pray on behalf of someone we love, someone who needed healing. We have all been enlisted by others to pray for someone who needed healing. And we have all wondered why healing did not come, in spite of all the prayers that were offered. I have witnessed situations where healing has come, thankfully. I have heard doctors tell families, we do not know why your loved one was healed, other than to say it was a miracle. But I have also been with many families when it became obvious that healing was not going to happen. If you have struggled with the question of why some prayers for healing – and in many cases, quite a few prayers – were not answered, I have an answer to give you this morning, and it is only three words – I don’t know. I don’t know why some people are healed while others are not, and if anyone tells you they have the answer to that question I would recommend you keep a fairly skeptical sense about you.
While I don’t claim to have any definitive answers to questions about healing, I do believe that healing always comes. Always. I know this sounds as though I’m contradicting myself by offering an answer when I have already said I do not have one, but I don’t claim this as an answer as much as I hold to it as a statement of faith. Healing, in my opinion, always comes, and that is the good news. The bad news, however, is that it does not always come when we want it to come or in the way we want it to come. Much of the time, healing does not come until we have entered eternity. When we think of healing I believe, then, that we must take the long view, that is, a view that incorporates eternity. Our lives are not measured only by the time we spend in this temporal world, but also by the eternal world. I will admit this is not the most satisfactory response, as all of us have prayed and hoped for healing to come to someone we have loved, and that it would come in this world. Well, looking at it from an eternal rather than temporal perspective, healing does come, when we enter eternity. For me, I accept that as enough. I might hope and pray for healing now – in this world – but I also know that it is not guaranteed to come. I will, though, hold to faith that the person will find healing and wholeness in eternity, and that I will see them once again. For me, I find great comfort in this truth.
When I was serving as an associate in Anderson County, a member of our congregation was diagnosed with cancer. He and his wife were very important to Tanya and me. They were like adoptive grandparents to us, and we cared very deeply for them. I remember visiting with Bill on a number of occasions when he would talk about what he would do when he was healed. He and his wife owned a business in town, and he would often say, I’m going to sell that business, retire, and spend time fishing. And I’m going to come by and pick you up and we are going to do some fishing together. As the weeks passed, he did not get better. His condition continued to deteriorate, and he often expressed his questions about why he was not getting better. He was convinced he was going to be healed, but he was not, and eventually passed away. But here is what I believe – I believe he was healed. It was not in the way he had hoped, or that his family had hoped, or that I had hoped, but he was healed. When he was welcomed into eternity it was without any physical ailments or disease. And though everyone who knew him wished he had been healed and given more time in this world, we also know we will see him again.
There is not a person in this sanctuary who does not have a need for some type of healing in their life. Perhaps it’s a tattered or fractured relationship that needs healing; perhaps it’s forgiveness that needs to be offered or accepted; perhaps it’s guilt that needs to be let go of; perhaps it’s grief that has stayed with you for so long. There are as many different needs of healing as there are people here today or any other day. Healing might be, at times, slow and painful, but remember this – healing always comes. Always.
Lord, Please Heal Us. God is a healer, and will heal us.
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