Christ the Healer

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on January 13, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Hosptial , Huntington, WV, based on
Acts 10:34-38

Imagine for a moment that you are a member of a large church and that an epidemic of illness in your town. You have attended 40 funerals in as many days, and virtually everyone you know is sick unto death – adults, little kids, teens – everybody.

Your faith in God has been severely tested and you feel as though you’re just about ready to give up on faith altogether.

In anguish of heart, you pray for God to show you some sign or message that will help you make sense out of all the suffering. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity, Acts 10:38 comes to mind with great clarity: …”how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him…”

In this moment of clarity, God reveals to you the nature of Satan as the Defiler and Christ as the Healer. Your tears are wiped away and you feel strengthened and encouraged to tell the world about your revelation, firm in the knowledge that the message of Acts 10:38 is relevant for today because Jesus is just the same today as he was back in the time of Acts.

If you were successful in imagining this scenario, you can imagine what it was like for John Alexander Dowie, who experienced just such a thing in 1874 in a suburb of Sydney Australia, during a catastrophic epidemic of illness. Immediately after having had this moment of clarity, Dowie received an urgent summons to pray for a young girl that was dying. He relates the experience this way:

“With just a feeling as a shepherd has who hears that his sheep are being torn from the fold by a cruel wolf, I rushed from my house, ran hatless down the street, and entered the room of the dying [girl]. There she lay groaning, grinding her clenched teeth in the agony of the conflict with the destroyer, the white froth, mingled with her blood, oozing from her pain-distorted mouth. I looked at her and then my anger burned. “Oh,” I thought, “for some sharp sword of heavenly temper keen to slay this cruel foe who is strangling that lovely maiden like an invisible serpent, tightening his deadly coils for a final victory.”

From our vantage point in 2008, it would be easy to look back and say that the later invention of sulpha drugs and antibiotics would certainly have been such a sharp sword, and that in our day, we have largely eradicated such suffering. But that would be overconfident , for all we have to do is think of the health problems that challenge us today and realize that while we have made huge strides in eliminating some diseases, such as smallpox – there are still a host of diseases that are vexing to medical science and that the fundamental issues relating to sickness and faith remain the same.

Picking up our story again, Dowie tells how “the doctor, a good Christian man, was quietly walking up and down the room quietly sharing the mother’s grief. Presently, he stood at my side and said, “Sir, are not God’s ways mysterious?”

“Instantly, “recalls Dowie, “the sword was flashed in my hand – the Spirit’s sword, the Word of God. “God’s way!” I said, pointing to the scene of conflict, “how dare you, Dr. K-, call that God’s way of bringing His children home from earth to Heaven? No, sir, that is the devil’s work, and it is time we called on Him Who came to ‘destroy the work of the devil’ to slay that deadly foul destroyer, and to save the child. Can you pray, Doctor, can you pray the prayer of faith that saves the sick?” At once, offended at my words, my friend was changed and saying, “You are too much excited sir, ‘tis best to say ‘God’s will be done,’ [and] he left the room.

Excited! The word was quite inadequate for I was almost frenzied with Divinely imparted anger and hatred of that foul destroyer, Disease, which was doing Satan’s will. “It is not so,” I exclaimed, ‘no will of God sends such cruelty, and I shall never say “God’s will be done’ to Satan’s works, which God’s own Son came to destroy, and this is one of them.” Oh, how the Word of God was burning in my heart: “Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” And was not God with me? And was not Jesus there and all His promises true? I felt that it was even so, and turning to the mother I inquired, “Why did you send for me?” To which she answered, “Do pray, oh pray for her that God may raise her up.” So we prayed. What did I say? It may be that I cannot recall the words without mistake…I cried:

“Our Father, help! And Holy Spirit teach me how to pray. Plead Thou for us, oh, Jesus, Savior, Healer, Friend, our Advocate with God the Father. Hear and heal, Eternal One! From all disease and death deliver this sweet child of Thine. I rest upon the Word. We claim the promise now. The Word is true, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.’ Then heal her now. The Word is true, “I am the Lord, I change not.’ Unchanging God, then prove Thyself the healer now. The Word is true, ‘These signs shall follow them that believe in My Name, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’ And I believe, and I lay hands in Jesus’ Name on her, and claim this promise now. The word is true, ‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick.’ Trusting in Thee alone, I cry, oh, save her now, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!”

Instantly, reports Dowie, the child relaxed into a deep sleep and the fever broke. She survived and became the breakthrough case that stopped the epidemic in Dowie’s congregation; not another person in his church died after this.

Our Jaded View
Today, our view of healing evangelists is jaded by our experience of high profile ethical and financial lapses by these same individuals. TV distorts our picture of the healing ministry, and our inherent Western rationalism fights against belief in divine healing. We dismiss the possibility of spiritual healing as mere enthusiasm, wish fulfillment or possibly some sort of trickery.

Compassion and the Theological Basis of Healing Ministry

Yet notice in our story, that the basis for Dowie’s healing prayer is deep, gut wrenching anguish over the suffering of his people and the realization that it is not God that inflicts disease upon us but that illness is a tragic result of Sin having entered the world through the defilement of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve.

The theological basis for the prayer of faith is that the world as we see it now is not the world that God originally created. Everything in our world changed dramatically when Sin defiled the first couple. Think of it as the introduction of the first genetic mutation if you will - Mutation that radically altered everything within us and around us.

It is against this background that we look to our Savior Christ as our Healer sent by God to deliver us from the ravages of Sin and sickness. From our texts today, let us consider together some of the rationale and basis for God healing us in Christ.

First, from Isaiah 42: 5, we see God as our Creator:
“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it…” The Lord is the One who gives us life to begin with; He is our architect and manufacturer. His original design is not for us to live in misery, but to walk with Him in harmony.

As Creator, he calls His people into a righteous Covenant with Him.
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people…”

Over and over again, we see God making covenants – with Abraham first, and then subsequently reiterating this covenant with Jacob and Moses and Joshua – and finally through Jesus. God wants to be our God and he wants us to walk with him as His beloved people.

This covenant is to be the basis for blessing the whole world:
“I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (vv. 6,7). Immediately we can hear the words of the song of Simeon: ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people, Israel.”…

The covenant with Israel is to be the basis for the healing of the world, and this healing is to be mediated by God’s chosen servant, Messiah: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”…

Healing here is couched as an issue of justice: God’s chosen servant will come to set things right in the world. (v. 1). He will not rest in his mission until he establishes justice in all the earth (v. 4). Isaiah declares that this is a new thing God is doing in the earth (v.9). ‘before they spring forth I tell you of them”, he says.

Again, Isaiah is speaking of Christ and his God-anointed ministry to us. Jumping ahead to Matthew’s narrative of Christ’s baptism then, we can easily connect the dots and see that this is the new thing Isaiah is talking about.

John’s immersion of Jesus was not for the taking away of sin, but to recognize that Jesus is the Chosen Servant prophecied by Isaiah, and to anoint Jesus for his work. Jesus tells John that he goes down into the water in order to fulfill all righteousness. He is being commissioned into His ministry.

When Jesus comes up out of the water, the Sprit of God descends upon him, and the voice of God affirms, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am will pleased.” In other words, This is the guy Isaiah was talking about. Listen up! This is it!

Again, there is the Old Testament affirmation from Psalm 2: Thou art my Son, Today have I begotten Thee. (V. 7). God ‘births his Son into his ministry, acknowledging and commissioning Him for the Work of Healing the World.

In his sermon #100 on the mystery of the Lord’s Baptism, St. Maximus of Turin expounds thusly:

“The Gospel tells us that the Lord came to the Jordan to be baptized and to be consecrated by heavenly signs. This day too, we may rightly call his birthday, for while on Christmas he was physically born among people, today he is reborn in sacramental mystery. “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” His mother offered him to the wise men to adore; his Father offers him to all the world.”

Christ’s baptism also paves the way for us to follow him into our own Baptism. ‘Christ is baptized first so that Christians may follow his example with confidence’, says Maximus. Not only that, but the very water of baptism is ‘sanctified and purified by him. …For when the water spread over him, all water is cleansed for our baptism, and the source is purified so that it may be a fountain of grace for coming peoples.” (Quoted in Benedictine Daily Prayer, pg 105).

Christ’s healing ministry begins when he is baptized and his first ‘patient’ is the water itself! Jesus purifies the water, so that the water of our baptism may heal us of our sin sickness!

Jesus our Prototype
Now just as Jesus is our divine prototype in Baptism, so too is He in His anointing by the Holy Spirit. Just as The Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus, so too he comes upon us in our salvation and Baptism. This is the reason why people are anointed after being baptized. They are ‘Chrismated” or sealed in the Spirit, to indicate that the Holy Spirit now lives in them and rests upon them.

Returning to Acts 10:38: “ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth… with the Holy Spirit and with power…

God empowered Jesus by anointing Him with the Holy Spirit so that he could go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil. This was to bring about justice in the world by releasing people from the curse and stain of Sin, from the defilement of Satan, and to bring about a progressive restoration of all that was lost in the Fall. As we sing in “Joy to the World,” “ He comes to make His blessings known, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the Curse is found. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan the Defiler.

Now keep in mind that this reading from Acts is part of the Sermon that Peter delivered after the Gentile Cornelius and all his family got saved. This sermon announces the spreading of the Gospel to all Gentile peoples. A little later in the text we learn that the Holy Spirit falls upon Cornelius, his family and all who heard the word proclaimed. They are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in tongues and then they are baptized in water, just as Jesus was. Same water, same Holy Spirit. Same Jesus. Same God the Father. It’s all the same today, just as it was back then.

This then, is the basis for our contemporary practice of the healing ministry. We follow Jesus in baptism, we get the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we become his witnesses, being commissioned to spread the Gospel to all people, to open the eyes of the blind, to heal the sick and to bring justice to the earth by the systematic destruction of Satan’s defilements.

In the next few weeks and months, we are going to learn much more about this ministry of healing, but I really want you to receive from this message that we as Christians are not wild-eyed fanatics, or greasy charlatans when we pray for the healing of the sick. No, we are God’s children, following the ministry of His Son, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil.

After you take communion, come for healing prayer as well. It’s God’s gift to you, just like Salvation, just like the Body and Blood of Jesus. We don’t disparage the healing art of medicine one little bit by saying all this, but Jesus came to set the captives free. Healing is the “Children’s bread. It’s yours by birthright, so come and get it!...Amen?

AMEN.