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Matthew 9 : Call and Response leads to healing. Matthew 9 strikes me as a frantically busy chapter in which people come and go in Jesus’ life as he goes about his ministry. Through all this busyness, we can learn something of the nature of Jesus’ ministry : · We learn that it was full of many and varied interactions and challenges, · that healing and restoration of those who were physically, emotionally and spiritually unwell , was a very important focus of his ministry · and that, as he called people forth or as he was called upon, his response to people was consistently one of compassion and grace There are several layers of call and response in the Gospel reading for today. As we work our way through the text we notice that · Jesus graciously calls Matthew, who was a social outcast because he was a tax collector, to follow him. And something about the way Jesus called Matthew, made him respond without hesitation. · Next we hear of Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees and religious leaders while he is having dinner at Matthew’s house. During this encounter, the Pharisees, in a spirit of judgement, demand to know why Jesus is dining with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus reveals his compassionate and graceful nature as he states that the very reason he has come to be amongst us is to call sinners, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” He goes on to quote God’s words to the prophet Hosea “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” · Then the text moves on ironically to Jairus one of the religious leaders whose daughter is at death’s door. He calls on Jesus for help and Jesus puts his own words into practice by responding to Jairus with unconditional mercy, by getting up and going with him to his house. · En route Jesus’ journey is arrested by a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years . Her bleeding would have made her unclean and therefore a social outcast. She touches his cloaked, thereby calling on his healing powers. Jesus responds with compassion calling her daughter. Interestingly enough she is the only person that Jesus addresses as daughter in the whole of the New Testament. Through these stories of call and response, Matthew tells the good news revealed through Jesus, that if we call on God he will respond with compassionate healing. Jesus’ mission and ministry is to call out unconditionally those in need of healing and wholeness. Throughout this passage, in each interaction Jesus ‘ words and actions speak invitation and enact restoration and healing. Let’s look again. · He calls out Matthew who is then restored to new life as he finds acceptance in the community of disciples. · The hemorrhaging woman, who called out to him, is restored to wholeness since her bleeding has been stemmed and it is now possible for her to return to her community for she is no longer unclean. · Jairus’ who called out to Jesus on behalf of his daughter finds that she has been made whole and restored to her family. God’s call and the faithful response of those who believe and trust in him find parallel treatments in the Old Testament, Genesis reading also as Abraham and Sarah are called out and then blessed to be a blessing. And so we can see that the Biblical narrative confirms for us that call and response, faith and healing mark the lives of all who would follow God’s leading. The gospels further confirm more specifically that Jesus’ who was God incarnate, came to call out and to respond to those in need of healing and wholeness. Do you know that there are more healing stories told about Jesus, in the Bible than any other figure in the Jewish tradition. In the New Testament, miraculous healings constitute the largest single element in the Jesus narrative. He must have been a remarkable healer! In the passage today we see that he healed both with the words he spoke as well with as with physical touch and these healing stories illustrate God’s compassion for humanity especially those in need of his healing. Where does all this leave us today? How does it impact on us? The name Jesus means Healer or Saviour. That healing and salvation is freely available to anyone who needs it today also. This is so whether we need spiritual or physical or emotional healing, healing from sin or from disease. Now while most Christians probably do not have much difficulty believing that Jesus is able to heal us spiritually by restoring us to a right relationship with God, many people still find the concept of Jesus’ healing people physically much more of a challenge . Perhaps you have a physical or emotional disability today and you are wondering whether Jesus can or will heal you from whatever it is you are struggling with. This wondering may cause you to ask some hard questions like: 1. Does God want everyone healed? 2. How does God’s healing work? 3. Why are some people healed and others are not? 4. How should we as Christ’s Church respond when we come across people who are struggling with physical or emotional pain and suffering? I’d like to respond to each of these questions briefly in turn. 1. Does God want everyone healed? I believe that God wants everyone to be healthy. I further believe that since he is both omnipotent and compassionate, he will respond to prayer for healing. Because he is good and incapable of evil, I know that His response will always be for good. Yet we must accept that because none of us has an understanding of his grand plan for each of us and for the world is, we cannot determine what that response will look like. As we turn to him in prayer, healing may well occur in the way we hope for. On the other hand our prayers may be answered in a different way. It may be that some unexpected good results from the disease or sickness in question. God does not heal every time we ask him to. Even in the bible we learn that Paul was not healed of the thorn in his flesh, Timothy was not healed from the recurring stomach troubles he had and Trophimus was not healed from his illness either and became so sick that Paul had to leave him behind (2Tim. 4:20) . Thinking about it we notice for example that Jesus only cured one person at the pool of Bethesda. What about the others? Many times we may well pray for a dying person and find that they die any way. I think that we must all accept that there comes a time for a person to die and only God determines when that time might be. When we pray for a dying person we should also pray for wisdom to know whether we ought to pray that God will take the sickness away or whether we ought to pray for a happy death. All this having been said, I still believe that it should be normative for Christians to pray for the removal of disease rather than to be merely accepting of it. God invites us to pray in faith for healing for those who are unwell and Jesus models that in his own ministry. We must then wait in faith upon god for the outworking of his goodness and mercy. 2. How does God’s healing work? When we call on God for healing, God responds with compassion and mercy. All healing comes from God, and God uses people, doctors, drugs , circumstances; miracles etc to bring about healing. In the passage today Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick”. He does not say that the sick do not need a doctor. Clearly, there are a variety of ways through which God’s healing works. As one doctor put it, “I dress the wounds, but God heals.” We need to remain open to God’s using both natural and supernatural processes to bring about healing. 3. Why are some people healed and others are not? The short answer is we do not know. Ultimately this is a mystery. The Bible hints at a number of possibilities: · In the reading for today Jesus declares to the woman “Your faith has healed you”. Sometimes people are not healed because there is a lack of faith. · Sometimes sin is involved in the disease. Some Corinthian Christians were ill because of sinful attitudes and actions. Resentment, bitterness, failure to forgive can cause sickness. Often illness comes not from ‘ what you eat but from what eats you’. · Ignoring other means to health, like medical help, exercise, correct diet sleep. · Perhaps healing does not occur because now is not the time. God may respond to our prayers by healing immediately or later or gradually. · Healing may not occur because simply put, it may not be God’s will, for whatever reason to heal someone this side of paradise. In this case our faith teaches us to trust that God knows best. 4. How should we as Christ’s Church respond when we come across people who are struggling with physical or emotional pain and suffering? I believe that it is the church’s vocation or calling to reach out and to intercede for those who are unwell. Perhaps it is time for James 5: 13 – 16 to be re-emphasised amongst us. If you want special prayer, come to the elders or pastors and they’ll ray for you- privately or perhaps sometimes deliberately in services of worship. In early Christianity healing was considered as God’s ordinary will. Today’s Christians often consider sickness to be God’s ordinary will for them . We as a community must not hesitate to exercise our faith for the bible tells us, though it be small as mustard seed God will use it to bring healing to the broken and glory to his name. So just as Jesus was called upon to bring healing and restoration, so we his church are called to be conduits of His Holy Spirit. We must respond in faith and through our faithful response trust that God will bring healing, restoration, wholeness and salvation through each of us and to each of us, to those who need his grace and healing today. |
