what healing means

Welcome to the Bible readings for January 10. CLICK HERE for the OT reading, and CLICK HERE for the NT reading. CLICK HERE to hear someone else read them.

Today we read about Jesus healing people. He heals people who aren't even in the same town where He is. He heals people by touching them. He heals ALL of the people who come to Him.

But why?

That's an important question for us to ponder. See, the people who Jesus healed... and even the people He raised from the dead ... then went on to become sick and die again. So what was the point? Why heal people who are going to die anyway?

There are many reasons, and we'll discuss two of them. One was that He was proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. What does that mean? Well, Jesus came to tell us that EVERYTHING was about to change. Everything. The Church that He was creating was going to transform the entire world. And the work that He was doing, by defeating sin and death, was going to bring eternal life back to humankind. That's some pretty gigantic news, right? That everything they knew was about to change forever?

So people had a reason to be a little skeptical. How do we KNOW that this amazing thing You're telling us is true? How do we know that You're not lying or deceived Yourself, Jesus?

Well, this is how He convinced them. Through the signs and wonders. The miracles that He performed were, more than anything, to convince people that He really knew what He was talking about - so that they would follow Him into eternal life. That was reason number one for the healing that Jesus did in His ministry.

But reason number two is also important. Jesus did, in His lifetime, the things that God is doing all of the time. Jesus just did them faster, in an instant. For example, God takes water, every year, and changes it into wine. He does this by making grapes, which ferment, and turn into wine. Jesus just bypassed the usual process and turned water directly into wine.

Same with healing. God heals us every day, right? I get a cut on my finger, and it doesn't just get worse and worse until my finger falls off. Instead, over the course of the next few days, my finger heals. That's God healing my finger. Not in a miraculous way, just like water entering grapes and then fermenting into wine isn't a miracle. Just in the ordinary way that God made things. Still His work - just not His miraculous work.

That's the second reason Jesus healed us - to show us what God does. To point to the process that God has made, to heal us and fix the things that are wrong with us. And why is it important to see that God does this?

Because it shows us who God is. It shows us what's important to Him. He is a God of healing. A God who cares that His children are sick, or hurting, or needing health. He isn't a God who leaves us to wallow in it. He isn't a God who strikes everyone down and then leaves them to suffer. He is a God who is close to those who are hurting. If you're hurting right now - He's close to you. He's closer than your breath. He cares about you, and He WILL heal you.

Now, we know that He doesn't always heal us from our sickness or pain every time. Eventually, our bodies DO wear out. But that brings us to the point of it all. That brings together both reason number one AND reason number two. He is a God who heals us - forever and permanently - in the Kingdom that He was proclaiming during His lifetime.

He heals us in our little pains now, so that we will understand that He will heal us forever in the glorified bodies we will live in, with Him in His Kingdom for all of eternity.

God, we pray the words that the Centurion said to you in today's reading: we are not worthy that You should come under our roof - but only say the word, and we will be healed.