I love listening to the Bible. Often, I will wake up in the early morning, and when I do, I will listen to the Bible. Yes, I am grateful for the Bible on audio, which is freely available on my phone. Recently, I have focused my attention on the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And what I have come to realize as I have listened to the Gospels is, Jesus healed more than I thought He did. Healing wasn’t a side item in Jesus’s ministry; it was one of the main things He did. Jesus healed the sick…always and without exception. In fact, there’s only one place where He couldn’t heal the sick — Nazareth.
Why was Jesus unable to heal the sick in His hometown of Nazareth? In Mark 6:5, Amplified Bible, we discover the answer to that question: “He could not do a miracle there at all [because of their unbelief] except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Jesus couldn’t heal those who were sick not He wouldn’t heal those who were sick. There’s a BIG difference between those two things, isn’t there. He couldn’t not He wouldn’t. And therein lay the answer to why healing is so rare in the Church today — unbelief.
Like Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth, the Church is too familiar with Jesus. We think we know Jesus. My question: Do we? Do we recognize the healer in our midst? Or do we dismiss Him? Do we really see what Jesus did? If we see what Jesus did, are we doing what He did? I think not. Much of the Church does not recognize the Savior when He is working. Jesus was, is, and always will be a healer. The Apostle Peter appropriately summed up Jesus’s ministry in Acts 10:38, ISV: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, he went around doing good and healing everyone who was oppressed by the devil.”
God demonstrated He was with Jesus by healing everyone who was sick…always. And as I have said, there was only one exception to that rule — in His hometown of Nazareth. Rather than focusing on Nazareth, the exception to the rule, I want to focus on what was normative in Jesus’s ministry — the healing of the sick. That’s what Jesus became famous for doing. My question: Why aren’t we promoting the fame of Him in, by, and through healing the sick? Didn’t Jesus tell His Apostles (and us) to “[h]eal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils”? Yes. Not only did He tell His Apostles to heal the sick, but He “gave them [and us] authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” Matthew 10:1, NIV.
The message of healing was vital to the ministry of Jesus. Jesus taught His Apostles to heal the sick. He gave them power to heal the sick. And He expected them to heal the sick, even raising those who were dead or dying from sickness and disease. Reading scripture plainly we can come to no other, or lesser or greater truth, than Jesus Christ healed the sick, continued His healing ministry through His Apostles, and wants to continue His healing work within, by, and through His Church. Healing is a vital part of Christ’s work. Healing is the dinner bell of salvation. Healing draws men and women to Christ.
Rather than downplaying Jesus healing ministry, shouldn’t we promote it? Shouldn’t healing be the number one thing the Church does? With all of the works done by believers in Christ’s name, why so little emphasis on Jesus’s healing ministry? If bringing healing to the sick was important to Jesus when He physically walked the earth, isn’t it still important to Him today? Yes, yes, yes! Healing is important to Jesus today. And it should be just as important to His Church today. That begs the question: Why isn’t healing the Church’s focus?
The Church hasn’t focused on healing the sick because of our own unbelief. Yes, our unbelief, caused by our familiarity with the Jesus we know, has robbed us of the Jesus we don’t know — the healing Jesus. No where in the Bible do we Jesus make anyone sick in His ministry. No where in the Bible did Jesus refuse to heal anyone. Even the Syrophoenician woman, whose daughter was possessed by a demon, saw Jesus heal her daughter. She wouldn’t let herself or her own daughter be part of the exception to the rule. No! She submitted to the rule (of Christ) and her own daughter was healed.
Sadly, the Church’s focus has been on our own unbelief. We’ve focused on the exceptions to the rule. And in the process, we’ve missed Christ, the healer. I believe it’s time we rediscover this healing Jesus. I believe it’s time we rediscover God’s healing power. And I believe it’s time we bring this message of healing, the true Gospel, to the world. What’s more. They’re ready, willing, and waiting. Yes, the harvest fields are white; they’re ready to be reaped; they’re ready for the Gospel of healing that Jesus preached and demonstrated in His earthly ministry.
My question: Are we ready to take His healing power to our generation? Let us lay aside our unbelief and rediscover the Christ we claim to know — the One who said to John the Baptist: “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed [by healing] and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Matthew 11:5, 6, Amplified Bible.
Let us no longer be offended by the healing ministry of Jesus. Rather, let us take His message of healing to the nations, for they are ready for it, and His healing power is available to all.
Let us pray!
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