Embrace the Miracles of Healing
Embrace the Miracles of Healing – April 27th, 2025 (Jesus: The Healer)
This past Monday, the day after Easter, marked the passing of Pope Francis. I greatly appreciate his heart for poor and marginalized peoples, his reconciliation work, and his care for creation and all creatures great and small, just like his namesake Francis of Assisi. In 1958, when he was just 21 years old, God healed him of a near-death bout of pneumonia in part of his lung was surgically removed. This encounter with the power and presence of God through receiving Jesus’ healing inspired him to choose to spend the rest of his life devoted to God, committed to visibly living the gospel of God’s mercy. I am encouraged by his testimony. I am challenged and motivated by his words: “Now there are only two kinds of people: those who care for someone who is hurting and those who pass by; those who bend down to help and those who look the other way and hurry off. Here, all our distinctions, labels and masks fall away: it is the moment of truth. Will we bend down to touch and heal the wounds of others? Will we bend down and help another to get up? This is today’s challenge, and we should not be afraid to face it. In moments of crisis, decisions become urgent. It could be said that, here and now, anyone who is neither a robber nor a passer-by is either injured himself or bearing an injured person on his shoulders.” Pope Francis’s words resonate so deeply with what we our Vineyard value that we are all invited to be wounded healers who participate in Jesus’ healing ministry.
A recent poll by the Barna group discovered that about 1/3 of Americans strongly believe that people can be physically healed supernaturally by God. A further third somewhat agree with this, and another third are skeptical. Their report notes that “the topic of physical healing is one of the more contested in the church today. Though scripture is full of accounts of the miraculous, the topic tends to be fairly divisive, and causes tension not only within and between denominations, but also between the church and the scientific community.”
Today we’re going to learn how to better embrace the miracles of healing. A good place to start is to look at Jesus. In order to better understand healing, it is crucial to understand three things about Jesus, because it is Jesus’ healing ministry in which we participate. All things were made through Jesus and for Jesus. All things are sustained by and held together by Jesus. And all things are being made new through Jesus.
The bottom line is that Jesus still heals. Why? Because Jesus still sustains and holds all things together and is making all things new. Jesus is Lord of all, including creation and new creation, time and the future. What do we want? Healing! When do we want it? Now! I want to suggest that often when we say we want healing for ourselves or someone else, what we really mean is that we want instantaneous supernatural healing. Let’s pause for a moment and realize what that kind of desire means. It means we think we know what we need. The reality is that we do not and cannot know all that God wants to do in any given situation in our lives or in the lives of others. It’s so important to remember that we are followers of Jesus. We are not in charge. We don’t know what God’s highest and best is. We have no idea what we need. When it comes to healing, I believe God’s invitation is best summarized as, “Trust me. Do all that you can, together. Persevere. And trust me. I am with you!”
For 2000 years, followers of Jesus have participated in Jesus’ healing ministry in many different ways: through prayer, proclaiming, authority, touch, faith, repentance, forgiveness, medicines, medical interventions, pastoral care, encouragement, visiting the sick, caring for the dying, training medical practitioners, building hospitals, anointing with oil, advocating for health care access, inner healing, spiritual cleansing, cultivating healthy communities, encouraging physical and mental well-being. We can better embrace the miracles of healing by understanding that Jesus’ healing ministry is about caring for the whole person.
The third president of Asbury Theological Seminary, Frank Bateman Stanger, taught that authentic healing relates to the whole person. He said, “Jesus healed persons rather than merely curing diseases. The individual is truly healed in so far as he recovers the possibility of the maturity of his entire person … Healing means wholeness … dependent upon the Holy Spirit’s integration of one’s total being, body, mind, and spirit.” Here at Liberty Vineyard, we often pray as Jesus taught us, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). As we follow Jesus in prayer and practice, we better understand that healing is about the transformation of persons, by the grace of God, within the reality of the kingdom of God, right here, right now. And we get to participate in Jesus’ ongoing healing ministry!
We’re now going to look at what Stanger dubbed the “five miracles of healing” to describe the various ways in which Jesus heals the whole person.
The first way in which Jesus heals is through supernatural touch.
Shortly after Jesus began his public ministry, he read the assigned reading for the day in his hometown synagogue, recorded for us in Luke 4:18-21 – “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ … ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”
A couple of chapters later, in Luke 7:22, Jesus described his ministry like this – “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”
The New Testament gospels tell us about what Jesus began to do. Then Jesus promised his followers in Acts 1:8 – “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’ followers 50 days later, and 2000 years later, Jesus’ ministry of teaching, announcing, and healing continues today through the body of Christ, the church, us!
We might strongly agree that Jesus still gives sight to blind people, enables disabled people to walk, gives hearing to deaf people, or raises the dead. We might somewhat agree that Jesus does these things. We might be skeptical or somewhere in the middle. Jesus meets us right where we are. I find that my own faith is encouraged by testimonies. I can highly recommend renowned New Testament scholar Craig Keener’s book, Miracles Today, which is filled with accounts of Jesus healing people today in all of the ways Jesus described 2000 years ago.
I do want to share a personal testimony with you of Jesus’ supernatural healing of a beloved family member. Michael, our third son, was born seven weeks premature and had some health problems as a result. One test showed that he could not hear properly, so more tests were ordered. By eight months of age, doctors diagnosed Michael with moderate hearing loss: he could hear only vowels, but not consonants. They told me to bring him back a week later for more detailed tests. The day before the appointment, I took Michael with me to a women’s bible study on spiritual warfare. The group prayed over him – they asked Jesus to heal him, they broke generational curses, they prayed everything imaginable. One woman opened her Bible to the book of Ezekiel 37 and prayed it over Michael, prophesying that the breath of God would enter Michael’s ears and bring them to life. I left the prayer time believing that the Lord had healed him. That night, as I was getting into bed, God spoke the word “Cascade” to me audibly. I was startled at the audible voice, and even though I was not pregnant, I thought, “hmm, that would make a nice girl’s name”. The following morning, I buckled Michael into his baby seat so we could make our way to the hospital for his audiology appointment. I turned on the radio as we pulled into our street, and the first thing I heard was a traffic report for Cascade Drive. That got my attention. In the hospital parking lot, a truck pulled in next to me with the words “Cascade Paper Company” emblazoned on its side. Inside the hospital, the audiologist started asking questions. She wrote her answers in a manila folder that had the word “Cascade” imprinted on the back. OK, God really had my attention now. Michael’s hearing test was 2 hours long, and the audiologist said nothing the entire time. At the end, she stated simply, “everything’s normal.” God healed Michael’s hearing completely! We praise God for his incredible mercy and kindness! The first thing I did when I got home was to look up the word, “Cascade” in the dictionary. I knew that it meant “waterfall,” but I discovered that Cascade also means “to rush forth in abundance.” I sensed that God was telling us that he was going to pour out His grace in abundance, not only in our family, but in the body of Christ as well. God does not limit His speaking to words and images. Our very lives are often the prophetic message. Michael is a permanent prophetic reminder to everyone that Jesus still heals through supernatural touch today. By the way, 15 months later, our beautiful Cascade Grace was born, and she is a permanent prophetic reminder to everyone that God’s grace is rushing forth in abundance.
The second way in which Jesus heals is through doctors and medicine.
In the ancient world, pagan priests were also the medical practitioners, which meant that looking to them for help was considered idolatry. And then about 460 years before Christ, along came Hippocrates, who became known as the “father of medicine.” He revolutionized ancient Greek medicine and established it as a discipline distinct from other fields like philosophy and “divine magic.” His work in prognosis, clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, and specialties lead to the widespread acceptance of doctors and medicine as channels through whom God works to bring about healing and miracles. We see these attitudes reflected in the New Testament, with references to doctors, medicines, and medical terminology. Throughout the history of the church, Christians have spread the good news all over the world, accompanied by the development of medical missions, practitioners, and hospitals.
I just learned this week that for the first time in over 40 years in the US, a new Christian MD-granting medical school was established this past year, at Belmont University in Nashville. They are dedicated to cultivating diverse physician leaders of character who embrace a whole-person approach to healing in a community of service-learning, inspired by the love and grace of Christ, with a vision to shape medicine through transformative whole person care.
Just as Jesus heals through supernatural touch, he also heals through doctors and medicine. Whether each individual practitioner and patient knows and believes it or not, Jesus partners with them in his healing ministry. This is why we encourage people to pray for healing, visit doctors, and take their advice seriously. As theology professor and Christian ethicist Allen Verhey said, “Medicine is a good gift of God the creator, a gracious provision of God the provider, and a reflection and servant of God the redeemer.”
The third way in which Jesus heals is through the human body’s healing power.
JR asked us this week on our group WhatsApp chat to share stories about our physical scars. The reason our bodies have scars is precisely because God designed the biological process of wound repair in our skin. Without that, we would all become quickly overcome by microscopic invaders at even the tiniest scratch. As Mariana said, our scars, like our wrinkles, are part of our story, our testimony.
Psalm 139:13-14 – “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.”
The vast majority of treatments in modern medicine are designed to facilitate or enhance our bodies’ God-given healing power. Jesus’ healing ministry includes empowering our bodies’ self-healing capabilities. We participate with Jesus by making essential lifestyle choices involving good diet, regular exercise, and adequate sleep. We can practice forgiveness, gratitude, and self-care. We can refuse to let unforgiveness, bitterness, or self-hatred get even a toehold in our hearts and minds. Often when we practice positive rhythms and remove negative barriers, then our bodies and minds are set free to do their healing work. All of these choices contribute to physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and relational healing.
The fourth way in which Jesus heals is through suffering with patience through God’s sufficient grace.
This is a hard one, because we don’t want to suffer, let alone suffer with patience. But the reality is that sometimes Jesus does not remove the source of our suffering or pain. We may not understand it. But sometimes Jesus’ healing comes in the form of God’s sufficient grace given to us so that we have the strength to bear our afflictions.
2 Corinthians 12:7a-10 – “a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
Jesus tells us quite plainly here that his grace is sufficient for us, for God’s power is teleitai (perfected) in our weakness. The Greek word teleitai indicates the fulfilling and accomplishing of a divine purpose. The Apostle Paul understood this, which is what enabled him to live in holy contentment. It is in our weaknesses that we discover our limitations, which define the borders of where we are to live out God’s will. At the Rivers Alive banquet that Tamera, Pam, and I attended this week, the keynote speaker described how water allows the molecules and atoms it contains to move, to form connections, and to create new life. Rivers and streams become more alive and free-flowing and powerful when they have clean and clear edges to define them. Without those borders, they would become murky swamps filled with death and decay. So it is with our lives. We are more alive and free-flowing and powerful in Christ when we live in the reality of the borders we are given in which to live out God’s will. As we lean into God’s grace, we can learn to not simply be resigned to, but to embrace our life’s limitations, for the sake of Christ. In love, Jesus heals us by giving us sufficient grace so that we can suffer with patience.
The fifth and final way in which Jesus heals is through victorious dying.
I’m pretty sure that Lazarus, at some point after Jesus raised him from the dead, eventually died again. I’m pretty sure that every person who has ever lived and is not currently breathing air on planet earth has died (except Jesus who is risen indeed!). Actually, it’s a 1:1 certainty that unless we’re still alive at the 1 Corinthians 15 last trumpet, we will all experience physical death. With those kinds of odds, it’s a good idea for us to learn to embrace victorious dying. Revelation 21:3-4 tells us that a voice from the throne of God says, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” This is the hope of the resurrection. Death has been conquered as an enemy, but we still have to pass through it until Jesus comes again. Christians, just like everyone else, need to confront the dark reality of death, mourning, crying, and pain, until Jesus comes again.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14,17-18 – “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died … Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.”
By dying and rising again, Jesus defeated death and transformed it to become a means of healing. My favorite living philosopher, Peter Kreeft, put it this way in his book Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing – “Christ has made Death into life’s golden chariot, sent to fetch his Cinderella bride out of the cinders of this fireplace of a world, through a far midnight ride, to his very own castle and bedchamber, where Glory will beget glory upon us forever.” There is so much that we long for that will never be satisfied in this life, but which will be fully satisfied in the next. Jesus has transformed death into a doorway into the ultimate healing that comes only when we breathe our last breath on earth. Pastor and ethical theologian Charles Christian said, “In response to this cultural denial of death, the Church’s hope of resurrection and community support for the dying and the grieving can be good news indeed.” We are not limited to praying only for physical cures, even as we pray for healing, because victorious dying is one of the ways in which Jesus heals! Dying victoriously through Jesus’ conquering of death is a visible proclamation of the good news!
Let’s reflect for a few moments on each of these five miracles of healing, paying attention to whatever the Lord shows us:
- How can I become more open to participate with Jesus in healing people through supernatural touch?
- How can I become more open to participate with Jesus in healing people through doctors and medicine?
- How can I become more open to participate with Jesus in healing people through the human body’s healing power?
- How can I become more open to participate with Jesus in healing people through suffering with patience through God’s sufficient grace?
- How can I become more open to participate with Jesus in healing people through victorious dying?
We are going to close by having a time of praying for healing for one another. Before we gather around those who want to receive prayer today for Jesus’ healing in your life, let’s wait on the Holy Spirit. If you sense that the Lord is giving you something to share with the whole room, please come up here or indicate on Zoom.
