The healing miracles of Jesus kind of feel like a tease
lately.
You read in the Gospels how he opened the eyes of the blind,
how he caused paralyzed people to walk again, how he cured people of issues
ranging from leprosy to uncontrollable menstrual bleeding. You remember how he
raised Lazarus from the dead, and Jairus’s daughter before that, how he
conquered death once and for all on Easter Sunday. You see how his followers,
at least for a time in the Book of Acts, were empowered to continue his healing
ministry as they spread the gospel far and wide.
And yet…COVID. Here we are, almost 2 years into this
pandemic, and not only is it still with us, but more people are infected than
ever before. Vaccines and better treatments have lessened the virus’s severity,
thank God, but certainly haven’t defeated it. What we could use is a good old-fashioned
healing touch from Jesus.
But we’re still waiting. Still proclaiming faithfully that the
Lord is a healer, even as ERs fill up. Still singing about hope and joy on
Sunday, even as depression beckons on Monday. Still believing God is sovereign,
even when the world seems utterly out of control.
The longer we persevere through this pandemic, the more those
gospel healing stories start to feel ironic instead of encouraging. What’s the
point of Jesus being a healer if he’s not going to heal? Why are those stories
even there?
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Imagine for a moment you’re one of Jesus’s contemporaries, a
poor Jew in the first century. You’ve heard since childhood about a better day
that’s coming, a day when God is going to rescue his people. You’ve imagined
what it would be like to have financial security instead of turning over half
your money to oppressive tax collectors. You’ve imagined what it would be like to
have rulers who look and sound like you, instead of having to bend the knee to pagan
foreigners. You’ve imagined what it would be like to be free.
But day to day, life is a struggle. Hope is something you
can ill afford on a daily basis—there’s too much to do, too much to think
about, too much to fear. You have a family to support, and hope doesn’t pay the
bills. Maybe Messiah will come, maybe not. You’ll believe it when you see it.
And then Jesus comes on the scene. He says the kingdom of
God is close at hand, that God is about to set right the world’s wrongs and
show his glory, and that sounds good to you. He describes what it’ll be
like—how the poor in spirit and the mourners and the persecuted will all be
called blessed, how the humble will be exalted and the exalted will be humbled,
how the captives will be set free—and that all sounds good too. But maybe too
good to be true?
But then you start hearing that there are actions to match
the words. That even as Jesus is promising a better world to come, he is also
making one now, person by person. He says that God’s kingdom will be a place
for the downtrodden…and then he heals a leper. He says God’s kingdom will be a
place of joy…and then he gives sight to a blind man. He says God’s kingdom will
be greater than the powers of this world…and then he drives out demons. For
every promise of a better day to come, there is a miracle to show what that
better day looks like. For every word of hope, there is an action to match. You
don’t just have to take what Jesus is saying on faith…you can see it with your
own eyes.
But then, just when things are getting really exciting, it
all comes crashing down. The religious leaders turn him in to the Romans, the
Romans nail him to a cross, and the story comes to an end. Jesus goes the way
every would-be messiah before him did. And you go back to the struggle of your
daily life, with hope shoved back down where it won’t bother anyone.
But then word starts to spread that the cross isn’t the end
of Jesus’ story. That, unlike any who came before him, he didn’t stay dead
after the Romans put him down. That his cross wasn’t an instrument of execution
after all, but of glorification. That by his death and—can it be true,
resurrection?—Jesus has actually ushered in the very salvation he was preaching
about, the very kingdom he was promising.
And you think about all those blind men who now see, all
those paralytics walking around, all those sick people now living healthy
lives. You think about what the prophets promised all those years ago, about a
better day to come, about a world of beauty and peace and grace. And if the Jesus
who helped them really is back, then maybe, just maybe, that world is coming
after all. Maybe God is making all things new.
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Why did Jesus heal people? What are those miracles in the Bible
for? What do they say to us today, in year 2 of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Do they guarantee that Jesus will heal your faithful grandmother
who’s monitoring her oxygen levels? Sadly, no. Do they guarantee help for your
friend who’s debating whether his COVID symptoms warrant a trip to the ER? Sadly,
no. Do they guarantee that this pandemic will come to an end any time soon? Sadly,
no.
But even as COVID proves day in and day out how broken our
world is, those miracle stories remind us that a better world is coming. They
remind us that our suffering, as devastating as it is, is momentary; the glory
to come is eternal. They remind us that, despite our doubts and fears, God has
NOT abandoned this fallen world.
Someday our tears will be wiped away. Someday pain will be a
thing of the past. Someday death will be a distant memory. How do we know? Because
Jesus didn’t just tell us, he showed us. Because in his hands, the kingdom of
God was not just preached but embodied.
Miracles aren’t magic tricks for today, they’re promises for
tomorrow. And in Jesus’s hands, they’re promises you can believe.
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