Jesus Continues to Heal
Jesus Continues to Heal – April 6th, 2025 (Jesus: The Healer)
Today we are starting a new short sermon series called Jesus: The Healer. Before we dive in, let’s watch this encouragement from Jesuit Paul Campbell in his online tool, Ignatian Prayer Adventure.
Throughout this series, Jesus: The Healer, and throughout our lives, we are aiming to keep our focus on Jesus! No matter how long we’ve spent in church, no matter how many years we’ve been following Jesus, no matter how well we think we know Jesus, there is much we need to learn. Let’s consider with fresh ears and eyes and hearts who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and what Jesus continues to do today.
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he spent three years going about a fairly small region of the world between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Matthew 9:35 gives us a very succinct summary of what Jesus did during those three years: “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.” Three Greek words in that verse describe how Jesus spent his time.
Jesus spent his time didaskōn – Jesus taught, Jesus caused to learn, Jesus instructed, Jesus imparted knowledge. Jesus even taught in the synagogues. Yet Jesus was more than just a good teacher.
Jesus also spent his time kēryssōn – Jesus proclaimed, Jesus preached, Jesus heralded. Not only did Jesus proclaim and announce the good news of the kingdom in the synagogues; he proclaimed and announced the good news of the kingdom of God everywhere he went. Even so, Jesus was more than just a herald.
Jesus also spent his time therapeuōn – Jesus healed, Jesus cured, Jesus restored to health. Jesus did much more than just teach and proclaim. Jesus also healed and restored. Jesus healed and restored bodies. Jesus healed and restored lives.
Jesus taught, Jesus proclaimed, Jesus healed. And the amazing thing is that this ministry of Jesus did not end with Jesus’ death, resurrection, or ascension. Jesus’ ministry continues today! Not only did Jesus teach, proclaim, and heal, but Jesus demonstrated, instructed, and empowered his followers to teach, proclaim, and heal as well! We see in Matthew 10 how Jesus sent out the first batch two by two and “gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.” He told them, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” And then after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to his followers. Jesus’ ministry of teaching, announcing, and healing continues today through his body, the body of Christ, the church. That’s us!
When we read the four gospels, the four accounts of the life of Jesus in the Bible – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – we see that Jesus healed. Jesus healed bodies. Jesus healed lives. What might be harder for us to see or experience, for a variety of reasons, is that when Jesus finished his earthly ministry, Jesus’ healing ministry did not come to an end. Jesus’ healing ministry continues, but it changed shape! Jesus continues to heal. Jesus continues to heal bodies. Jesus continues to heal lives. But now Jesus does his healing ministry through his followers, the body of Christ, the church. We might get a bit off-track here, so we need to pay close attention to the pronouns here. It is not our healing ministry. It is Jesus’ healing ministry. God invites us to together participate in Jesus Christ’s ongoing healing ministry. Jesus is the one who heals, and Jesus heals through his body, the church. That’s us!
The very first verse in Acts, Luke’s second book, he emphasizes that in his first book, he “wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” He doesn’t say that he wrote about all that Jesus did and taught, all in the past, as you might expect in an ordinary biography. Luke tells us that he wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. Why? So that we would realize that what Luke writes after that, in other words, the book of Acts, is what the ascended and exalted Christ continued to do and to teach. The difference is that now Jesus is doing and teaching these things by the Holy Spirit in and through his followers, the church. That’s us!
We saw this same idea when we did a deep dive in the gospel of Mark last year. Remember how Mark ends abruptly with an open-ended conclusion? The good news does not end at the end of the book. The good news goes on! Mark keeps the story wide open because the story continues, and there is more to come! We are invited to participate in God’s restoration project. We are invited to become part of the good news. Becoming part of the good news includes saying yes to Jesus’ invitation to us to participate in Jesus’ ongoing ministry of healing!
Theologian, minister, and author John Stott goes as far as to say that this seemingly insignificant phrase, “all that Jesus began to do and teach,” is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions. Other founders of religions, like Muhammed, Buddha, and Confucius, were all considered to have completed their ministries in their lifetime. But in his lifetime, Jesus’ ministry had only just begun. At his ascension, Jesus assured 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.” Jesus both instructed and empowered us to continue his ministry. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ victory over all enemies including sin and death, we can be confident that Jesus is alive and present, in all times and places, with his actual power and presence! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fill and empower his followers, the body of Christ, the church, to be able to continue Jesus’ ministry. That’s us!
Jesus continues to heal. And we are invited to follow Jesus: The Healer and to join him in his ongoing ministry of healing. In this ministry of healing, we do not pray that Jesus would help us to heal bodies and lives. We pray that Jesus would heal bodies and lives, and we join Jesus as he continues his ministry of healing through us.
In churches and ministries we’ve been a part of or visited or noticed from afar, we may have experienced various styles, models, and flavors under the general umbrella of “healing ministry.” We may have heard descriptors like physical healing, emotional healing, inner healing, spiritual healing, or trauma healing. Christian history professor Ronald Kydd describes six historical and often-overlapping models of healing practiced throughout church history: confrontational, intercessory, reliquarial, incubational, revelational, and soteriological. Wherever we’re at in terms of experience or inexperience, whether we’ve had positive, negative, helpful, or harmful interactions, the main thing is that the Christian ministry of healing is Jesus Christ’s ministry of healing. There are no wooden formulas to apply that will guarantee results when it comes to healing. Ultimately, we need to remember that healing is a mystery rooted in the grace of God.
Stephen Seamands, who served for almost 40 years as the Professor of Basic Christian Doctrine at Asbury Seminary (where Michael studies), points us to four practical implications that flow from the foundational truth that this is Jesus’ healing ministry. From these I have developed four important lessons to learn as we follow Jesus the healer.
1. Prayer
The first important lesson to learn as we follow Jesus the healer has to do with how it shapes the way that we pray. Instead of praying, “Lord, help me as I pray for and with others,” we can pray, “Lord, here I am. How do you want me to join you in what you are doing? Help me to not get in the way!”
TIME Magazine did an interview with Mother Teresa in December 1989 that includes these beautiful snippets of conversation that remind us of the most important things:
Q. What do you do after prayer?
A. We try to pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us put our whole heart and soul into doing it. The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved — they are Jesus in disguise.
Q. Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world.
A. But it is his work. I think God wants to show his greatness by using nothingness.
Q. You feel you have no special qualities?
A. I don’t think so. I don’t claim anything of the work. It is his work. I am like a little pencil in his hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used.
Q. People who work with you say you are unstoppable. You always get what you want.
A. That’s right. All for Jesus.
Lesson one is to pray through our work by doing all that we do with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus.
2. Burdens
The second important lesson to learn as we follow Jesus the healer has to do with burden bearing. Accepting that it is Jesus’ healing ministry relieves us of the burden of ministry. It is not our burden to carry. It is Jesus’ healing ministry. I remember years ago it was fairly common for people to say things like, “I’m a burden bearer.” I think that phrase is one of those things that sounds better than it is. It sounds sort of humble, but I think it’s an unhealthy and unsustainable approach to ministry. It’s my opinion that people who tend to say that kind of thing have a high level of empathy for others and want to genuinely come alongside them in their suffering. That’s a good thing. Where it can get off track is when we start to believe that we are somehow responsible for the healing of others, with our prayers being driven more by guilt and obligation than by love and freedom. That’s too heavy a burden for any of us to bear!
Jesus invites us in Matthew 11:28-30 to “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
We do not have to (and, in fact, we cannot) make healing happen! Our job is to follow Jesus, to let Jesus do what Jesus does, and to participate with Jesus. If we think we are responsible for making it happen, we end up saddling ourselves with an unbearable burden, one that we are not meant to carry. God invites us to follow Jesus and to participate with Jesus as he continues to heal bodies and lives today. We do this by following and by letting the Holy Spirit work in and through us. We are not the leaders; we’re the followers. We are not the experts; we’re the disciples. We do participate, yes, but we need to remember that we are here to follow the one who is both leader and healer, Jesus.
We simply do not have what it takes to heal others’ bodies or lives. We could offer training classes, we could have the best anointing oil on hand, we could prepare welcoming prayer spaces. These are all well and good things to do. And yet, as wonderful as all of these are, they do not compare with a single drop of healing from the hand of God. We need God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s help.
Lesson two is to release burdens to Jesus and live in his rest.
3. Presence
The third important lesson to learn as we follow Jesus the healer has to do with his presence. As we practice participating with Jesus in his ministry of healing, God will increase our confidence in God and our boldness that God is with us. The more we believe Jesus’ words to us in Matthew 28:20, “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age,” the more at rest we will be in every situation that wherever we are, the risen and exalted Jesus is there with us. The reality is that there is no place we can arrive before Jesus! Jesus is already there and waiting for us to join him. Just as the angel told the first people who realized Jesus had risen from the dead, the women at the tomb, Jesus goes ahead of us. As we practice participating with Jesus in healing ministry, we learn to acknowledge the presence of the healer, Jesus, who is already there. We seek to listen well to the Holy Spirit and to those who are present. We seek to see what God is doing. We seek to love the other as fiercely as God loves us. And little by little, we learn to collaborate with God and to trust Jesus who is present with us. We learn to make ourselves available. We learn to become more open to God and to others. No situation, no person, is beyond the reach of God’s healing and grace. We don’t need to be overwhelmed by the enormity of someone’s need. Let us instead become overwhelmed by the greatness and goodness of God.
Lesson three is to practice the presence of our triune God – Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit.
4. Abiding
The fourth and final important lesson to learn as we follow Jesus the healer has to do with abiding. Jesus himself tells us in John 15:1-8 that our primary calling is to abide in Christ – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” Jesus tells us to abide in him as he abides in us. When we fail to abide in Christ, we remove ourselves from the flow of life and healing that God desires to pour in and through us to others. It is as we abide in the true vine, Christ, that Jesus accomplishes his healing ministry through us. Sometimes God might give us a prayer strategy or a prophetic word or other specific instruction. But even if we hear nothing, abiding in Christ remains the most important thing. Jesus invites us to abide in him, period. We are enfolded in the eternal embrace, the trinitarian dance of love and joy and peace and rest.
Paul describes Christ-in-us as the great mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to us, the church. Colossians 1:24-27 – “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
There are many spiritual practices and disciplines that help us to abide in Christ. Prayer, worship, Communion, Scripture, spending time in creation, silence, stillness, solitude, celebration, rest, fasting, service, confession, simplicity, stewardship, fellowship, evangelism, study, gratitude, generosity, guidance, discipleship, mutual submission.
Lesson four is to abide in Christ.
Let’s remember these four lessons on prayer, burdens, presence, and abiding as Jesus continues to heal bodies and lives through us, his followers, the body of Christ, the church.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, we ask that you would pour out your healing today. We have bodies and lives in need of healing. There are people all around us and all around the world who have bodies and lives in need of healing. Here we are, here I am. How do you want us to join you in what you are doing right here, right now? Help us to not get in the way! We want to do all that we do all that we do with you, Jesus, for you, Jesus, and to you, Jesus. We all came here today carrying the weight of really difficult situations in our own lives and in the lives of those we love and in the lives of others around us and across the world. We came here carrying burdens of broken bodies and broken lives. We lay all of these burdens at your feet, Jesus. Help us to release these completely to you and to live in your rest, Jesus. Thank you that you are present to heal, Jesus. Thank you that no situation and no person is beyond the reach of your healing and grace. Forgive us for allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed by the enormity of our needs and the needs of others. Help us to keep our focus and attention on you, to be overwhelmed by your greatness and goodness. Help us to practice the presence of God with every breath – breathing in, Lord Jesus Christ, and breathing out, have mercy on me. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on them. And thank you, Jesus, that you abide in us. Help us to abide in you, for it is as we abide in you that we will bear much fruit and become your disciples. May we live in the reality that we are enfolded in your eternal embrace, the trinitarian dance of love and joy and peace and rest. We pray all these things in your name and for your glory! Amen.
