Jesus the Great Physician

 
Jesus came to this world to perform a ministry of healing. This was an essential element of his ministry and vocation.
We mentioned in the last issue that New Testament believers did not necessarily live disease-free lives ­ for example Paul (2 Cor 12:7), Timothy (1 Tim 5:23), Trophimus (2 Tim 4:20) and Epaphroditus (Phil 2:27).
At all times our lives are in God's hands, and He may allow ill-health in order that, like Paul, we may say: "Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor 12:9). This has been the experience of countless Christians in all ages.
 
Samuel Rutherford, a saintly Scottish mystic of the 17th century, wrote from his prison cell: "Lord cut, Lord carve, Lord mould, Lord do anything that may perfect thy Father's image in us, and make us meet for glory".
George Matheson, the blind Church of Scotland minister, wrote: "Oh love that will not let me go," a hymn that has been a rich blessing to multitudes.
Milton, totally blind at the age of 44, wrote of his "Soul more bent to serve therewith my Maker."
Beethoven, a devout believer, stricken with deafness, went on to write music of unsurpassed genius.
Rembrandt, broken in health went on to paint glorious themes from the Bible, as a testimony to his living faith.
Amy Carmichael, that saintly missionary to India, had to endure 20 years of pain, yet from her bed wrote books full of delight in her Saviour and Lord.
 
Great physician
Although these illustrations may seem to contradict it, Christ is still our great physician. Let me explain:
When we become a Christian we are born again from above (Jn 3:5), we become a new kind of person. As Peter says: "we become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4). And as Paul says: "If any man is in Christ he becomes a new person altogether; the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new" (2 Cor 5:17 Phillips). This newness has reference to both body and mind, as well as to the soul. We must and do enter into a new realm of health-giving powers.
Concerning the body we have become the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16). Therefore, we have a new reverence and respect for the body. We are careful to obey the laws of hygiene, and the laws regarding diet. We do not abuse our body, or poison it with drugs. We exercise our body, and place it entirely at our Lord's disposal. And we live in harmony with other people, and with nature. All this brings a rich inflow of health and happiness.
Concerning the mind, conversion means entering new heavenly dimensions (Col 1:13). Whereas previously life was meaningless now we see God's hand in everything (Rom 8:28). We know He loves us, and cares for us (Mt 6:32), and that our future is safe in His hands (Mt 6:34).
We know the joy of sins forgiven (Eph 1:7), and of a place reserved in heaven for us (Jn 14:3). All this illuminates the mind as the rising sun illuminates the darkness of the earth. It gives wholeness, and health.
"For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim 1:7).
 
Christian practice
And the Christian life and practice brings health.
Take worship. Sitting in church, with heart and mind open to the Word of God, and to the inflow of the Holy Spirit, we experience healing. Healing for the wounded conscience. Healing for the bruised spirit, and breaking heart. Healing for domestic disharmony, and for fractured family relationships.
Then, take prayer. What could be more health-giving than the practice of prayer? And what can we say about Christian fellowship? Here we draw deep from "the wells of salvation" (Is 12:3). Sharing our faith with others also brings deep joy and release in the spirit. In all these ways we prove the promise of Scripture. "I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Ex 15:26).
In the light
As I "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 Jn 1:7) I receive boundless stores of health from God. My life urge, my vitality, my delight in nature, my joy in living, all come from Him, the author of "every perfect gift" (Jas 1:17).
Every day I prove His promise, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall walk and not faint" (Is 40:31).
And there is also healing for us in our suffering. When this comes it is still our faith that heals us, and prevents us from falling into bitterness and despair.
"Blessed are those", cries the Psalmist, "who going through the vale of weeping make it a place of springs" (Ps 86:5-6).
Instead of dwelling miserably on his sufferings, the man who loves God turns the vale of weeping into a vale of praise. And so he is healed (Hab 3:17-18).
 
 
Tuesday - LUKE 4:16; 21
 
In reading these words from Isaiah (Is 61:1) our Saviour set out the scope of his mission to the world.
It is a spiritual mission designed to liberate those who have been taken captive by Satan, to recover the sight of those blinded by sin, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed by fear. But we cannot deny the social implications of his mission.
He headed no social revolution but his life, teaching and death would send men crusading against social injustice everywhere. Through changed men Jesus has brought freedom and liberty to an enslaved world. And we cannot deny that his mission included meeting the physical needs of men.
He gave physical sight to the physically blind (Mk 10:52).
 
Wednesday - Matthew 3:18-25
 
There was an amazing range and variety to the multitudes of sick folk healed by Jesus.
There is no evidence that he ever turned anyone away. He never said, "I am sorry, but I cannot do anything for you, because God wants you to suffer".
His approach to suffering was that this is an alien thing which has intruded into this world, and which should be banished. He was never indifferent to the agony and despair of those poor people.
As Christians we are called upon to have the same compassion as he had (Mt 14:14).
 
Thursday - MARK 10:35-45
 
In asking Jesus to favour them by appointing them his favourites in heaven, James and John revealed their pride and their desire for pre-eminence.
Pride is the worst of the seven deadly sins. It is a disease of the spirit just as deadly as any disease of the body.
Jesus not only taught them that humility is the essential badge of the Christian ­ "whoever would be first among you must be slave of all" (v44). He also said that this is the way he himself must take.
"The Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (v45).
 
Friday - JOHN 9:1-11, 35-38
 
To be cast out of the synagogue was the ultimate calamity (v34).
If the ex-communication was for life the person was publicly anathematised. He was cursed in the presence of the congregation, and cut off from God and man.
Even ex-communication for a short period of time was greatly to be feared. Undoubtedly this courageous young man, who stood up so bravely to the Pharisees, would be in a state of shock and depression. So it was that Jesus sought him out.
He who had given him sight now came to heal his bruised spirit, and to give him confidence for the future.
 
Saturday = JOHN 8:3-11
 
Jesus' ministry of healing always included the mind and spirit as well as the body.
This woman was exposed to public shame and odium. She must have felt humiliated to the lowest degree. Jesus spoke to her so lovingly, and treated her with such respect and dignity, that she must have caught a vision of the kind of woman God meant her to be.
His words, "Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more" (v11), did not condone her sin, rather it gave her hope and determination, that with God's help, she would not sin this way again.
 
Sunday - GALATIANS 6:1-8
 
"Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (v7).
This is the inescapable law of nature. "Those who plough iniquity and sow trouble reap the same" (Job 4:8).
"They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7).
If we sow to the flesh we reap corruption (v8). That is, if we live in wickedness, the result will be a life that is as barren, sterile, and unfulfilled as the "far country" of the prodigal son (Lk 15:14-16).
But if we sow to the Spirit the result will be a life of health and happiness in the Father's house (Lk 15:32).
 
Monday - MARK 2:1-12
 
Jesus did not teach that suffering is always the result of sin.
Compare Job 4:7-8 with Luke 13:1-5, But he did teach that in many cases sin leads to suffering. This paralysed man needed to have his sins forgiven (v5) before he could be cured.
It has been truly said that many in our hospitals would be cured of their physical ailments if someone pointed them to the Saviour, "whose blood can wash the foulest clean".

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