Jesus went around healing. The Gospels are full of sickness, serious illness and healing, Jesus’ insistence on healing. We often focus on the healing miracles, stopping at their enormity, when, of course God can do anything and Jesus did the same. But something deeper seems to be going on here, and it should resonate in this year of Coronavirus. For perhaps Jesus is breaking the bondage to disease and ill-health and opening up a “national” and world health service. Not only has that been the history, but it continues to be what the gentle Government of God is like world-wide. So let’s look at it.
Jesus went about “preaching the good news of God’s Government and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases…” From the beginning it was transnational – Syria was largely non-Jewish – and it was across a range of diseases.
It was also holistic – body and soul. We are raising mental health as a pandemic problem, but it is always there – schizophrenia, loneliness, phobias, PTSD, abuse sufferers, obsessions, depression, addiction, those hooked on evil, cruelty, the vast darkness of humankind. Jesus did it all. Here at the beginning it is the demon-possessed – those doing evil inexplicable things. But really it is everything. Persecution complex- “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for they live in the Government of God.” If you are really persecuted for justice, you are in God’s place, holding the line for God’s goodness. The complex falls away. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Do not dwell in the death of the loved one, but be comforted by God. So billions move through the loss they feel. Later we will look at more mental health issues, but always it is holistic. Do not worry, let alone be neurotic.
There is one emphasis which should appeal in this Coronavirus time. A leper comes hoping Jesus can make him clean. Jesus touched the untouchable and he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus did the public health bit. From the Mosaic Law there was public health – to isolate the dangers – Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Jesus is not doing secrecy, but requiring the route through the public health system first, the one we all have rediscovered this year – test and untrace because you’re better.
Then there is one of my favourites. Again it is called “demon-possession”, but let us call it PTSD. The Romans were vicious. The region of the Decapolis and Gadarenes had been partly subjugated by the Romans, and that meant crucifixions, killing and control and a raw fear of torture and death. The demon-possessed man says to Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us?” He is obviously not relating to Jesus but to the Roman killing he has experienced. He asks “not to be tortured”. Again, it has no meaning in relation to Jesus, and must have come from Roman abuse. Further, as Dr Luke, notes, Jesus elicits his name “Legion”. He has become the Roman legion, the oppressor and is possessed by them. It is war-based PTSD, and Jesus heals him and drives out the demons into the pigs, lots of them. After each of the two World Wars there were over a hundred million sufferers from PTSD and we have tens of millions now throughout the world; it is one of the ignored realities of modern medicine and history, but it was in Jesus’ perview. They wanted Jesus away probably because he might focus Roman reprisals against the town. Jesus healed trauma, and prevented it.
Jesus’ healing knew no limits. The Roman Centurion in Capernaum, hated but making access to Jesus, comes asking for the healing of his Jewish servant affirming his care. Jesus responds and the Roman’s faith precludes even the need for a visit, and Jesus nails the event in public as faith at work. Many will come from east and west and take their seat here, but insiders will not see.
So, Jesus calls out the healing – the mentally ill, the paralysed man, the unclean woman. Her “unmentionable” problems are called out into the open and dealt with, and the dead beloved daughter of the local ruler is raised to life. The two blind men see. The unimportant and the important are all important. And healing, not triumphal, is Christ’s good way.
When the disciples are sent out on their own, they are to heal all as part of the Government of God, and it is to be free. This is not the medicine man concocting some supposed cure for which the needy will pay, but God’s gentle government over our lives and sickness to heal whatever because of the need. It is easy today to forget the faithful quest of so many for cures and healing over centuries, the Christian hospitals, the orders working for the sick, the Christians like Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell dressing the wounds of war, the scientists of the 16th and 17th century working out how the body works and the great principle of public health which we address shortly, but this has shaped the human history of healing. Jesus set this in train and it is with him we face the epidemic.
Perhaps we do not hear Jesus gentle correction of the beloved John the Baptist. Are you the Messiah or do we look for another? When is the insurrection happening? Jesus replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Do you want God’s leader to mount an uprising, or do these fundamental goods for humankind? This is politics, man. And just to extend the scope, Jesus pronounces the end to slavery, pointless and burdensome work. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Not just for the few but for all. We are not to work ourselves to death, but know rest and recuperation.
Jesus does not just do healing but addresses the causes of sickness, death and poverty. In the 20th century 10% of the world population at a minimum have suffered death, trauma, injury or sickness through war. War has eaten up or eradicated 15% of world GDP. Jesus addresses war. Love your enemies, don’t do weapons, learn to reconcile, don’t do nationalism and don’t do war. He feeds people. People can be fed. We have the means, but still there are famines. It can all be done, but we must do it.
It requires faith – understanding plus action – and compassion. The crowd rebuked two more blind men and told them to shut up. Jesus stopped, asked them what they needed and healed them. So Jesus is the signpost for humanity, the signpost we have seen and needed this last year. Boris tries to triumphalism of science and medicine, but neither is triumphalistic; that is the misplaced answer. Still we will die, mourn and be sick, but the gentle caring, healing framework of Jesus is there.
And of course, it is all in the context of the parable that gave us the NHS. The injured man was put in the ambulance and taken to the inn, and cared for and paid for, and Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” And Aneurin Bevan did, and although the Tories had tried to change it into a money-making capitalist system, it has done likewise with help from all its professionals, Captain Tom and others this last challenging year. The Health Service is the Good Samaritan and its workers profess the faith of the Good Samaritan, and we thank them for it, especially in this year of the epidemic.