Sunday, June 15, 2008

Matthew 9:35 – 10.8 - Healing the Sick

Preached at St Mark's Church, Derby Road, this morning.

Last week, you may recall, we heard Jesus calling his disciples to follow him. This week, however, we hear Jesus sending his disciples out into the towns around Israel. And as he sent them, according to verse one of chapter ten, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, and the authority to cure every disease and every sickness. And this tantalising authority is backed up by the fact that, as we saw in the opening verses of the reading, Jesus himself "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". (Mt 9.35)

Now, I don't know about you, but I find myself really intrigued by this story. I find myself asking "why is it that if Jesus healed the sick, and if he gave his disciples the same authority to heal the sick, why is that my prayers for the sick don't have the same dramatic effect? Why isn't our church packed every Sunday with people who are dancing down the isles, having thrown away their wheelchairs, or their crutches...healed?"

It's a perplexing question isn't it? Let me put the question another way...why does God allow sickness and suffering to take place...especially when Jesus himself seemed to be so concerned about healing it? I know its a question that many of us have pondered...and it is one that is linked to the rather larger question that many people ask...why does God allow people to suffer in earthquakes and typhoons...such as we've seen in places like China and Burma in recent weeks?

So I want, this morning, to try to offer some kind of answer... something that will help us to understand why so many people we know, and indeed so many of us, continue to suffer from all kinds of sicknesses and ailments...as well as beginning to get a handle on the bigger questions of suffering caused by natural disaster. Before I go any further, however, I need to say one thing very clearly...this is a huge subject. Entire books have been devoted to trying to answer this question...so I'm going to have a hard time doing it in the next ten minutes. And frankly, even if I had a whole day to explore this topic with you, I still think we would struggle with the issues it raises. What I hope, however, is that this short sermon will stimulate debate...debate over coffee after the service, or debate on my website throughout the week.

Right...let's get down to it...and let me offer you a picture to contemplate. Imagine, if you will, that an aeroplane is coming in to land. Imagine that just as it is approaching the earth, the fuel lines to the engine suddenly snap...and the plane starts to plummet towards the ground. Imagine then that, out of the blue, a huge hand comes down out the sky...as God decides to save the aeroplane. The hand scoops up the plane...and deposits it gently down on the ground.

Sounds a lovely idea doesn't it. But let's think, for a moment, what the consequences of such an action would be. If God could be relied upon to suspend the laws of physics every time a disaster is about to happen...what would the results for human civilisation be? Well...I think they'd be rather like this...

For a start, aeroplane engineers wouldn't have to worry about doing a good job anymore. Instead of well designed aeroplanes, built to the highest standards of human ingenuity, we could just put people in bits of balsa-wood, with a rubber band, and shove them off cliffs in the general direction that they wanted to go...because God would stop them from crashing into the sea...and would deposit them safely at their destination.

In other words, imagine a world in which the laws of physics are suspended every time someone is about to come to harm. Such a world would be a very different place to the one we know. It would be a world in which there were no consequences to anything we did. It would be world which was so controlled by God, that we would be little more than puppets... Lego characters for God to move around the board of life, as he pleased. And, more importantly, it would be a world in which we would have no opportunities to learn from our mistakes - no opportunity to struggle and grow...to become better than we are...to become more and more like the God in whose image we are made.

But what about sickness? Why doesn't God do something about sickness?

Well, let's think about the world that God has made...instead of the Lego-land version that he could have made. He has made a world in which certain laws and rules apply. One of those laws is that life, in all its forms, is constantly changing and evolving. Its part of the glorious complexity of a world which is designed precisely so that we will have the best possible environment in which to grow and develop to our fullest potential. An ever changing, always dynamic system of life...in which we can become the best we can be. One of the consequences of a dynamic, changing, world is that viruses which we have fought off tend to mutate into new, resistant strains. Tiny changes in our genetic code can produce unexpected results - sometimes good ones, like stronger bodies and better immune systems, sometimes bad ones... producing genetic conditions that are hard to live with. These are essentially random occurrences...the random results of a complex system which is ultimately designed for our benefit. The question for us...the question that God poses the whole human race...is 'what are you going to do about it?'.

Its as if God says to humanity..."I have designed an environment in which you will live, that has certain laws. If you shoot someone with a gun, they will die. But if you apply a bandage to a wound, it will heal. If you build sub-standard housing in an earthquake zone, thousands will die. If you keep on heating up the atmosphere, typhoons and hurricanes will grow stronger… AND IF YOU FAIL TO USE THE INTELLIGENCE I HAVE GIVEN YOU FOR THE COMMON GOOD, THEN PEOPLE WILL KEEP ON DYING FROM DISEASES THAT YOU HAVE THE CAPACITY TO CURE."

I wonder what the world would be like if human beings had lived, for the last 2,000 years, the way that Jesus called us to live. Jesus told us to love one another, not shoot one another. He told us to work together for the common good, not squabble over which one of us could grab the most of the earth's resources for themselves. If, over the last 2,000, we had poured all our intelligence and potential into finding cures for disease, or designing earth-quake proof buildings, instead of devising every more ingenious ways to kill one another, we could have cured cancer centuries ago.

There is lots more I want to say about this...but time is against me. Let me just end by asking one further question that may be on your mind as a result of this morning's reading. I imagine that some of you may be asking, "If all that's true...why did Jesus go around healing people...and why did he give authority to the disciples to do the same?".

Well, as is so often the case with Scripture, the answer is in the reading itself. Matthew, Chapter 9, verse 36, says, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd". Jesus' acts of healing arose out of his immense compassion for those he saw in pain. It was as though, in Jesus, the love that God has for the world - a love which created a world of magnificent potential because he wanted people to grow - just couldn't take the pain anymore. Being among us, and being both fully God as well as fully human (as church tradition teaches us) Jesus' human compassion gave vent to God's healing love.

But we should note, Jesus didn't cure all the sick of Israel. This morning's reading tells us that Jesus could cure every kind of sickness - but the reading does not say not that he cured every sick person in Israel. Neither do the rest of the Gospels. Take for example, the story of the pool of Bethesda, in chapter 5 of John's Gospel. According to John, "a great number of people used to lie there - the blind, the lame, the paralysed". But Jesus didn't heal them all. In fact, he just singled out one man. When Jesus learned how long the man had been lying there...for 38 years according to John...compassion seemed to get the better of Jesus. He seems to have set aside the normal rule - that human behaviour has consequences - and reached out instead with a more immediate compassion.

But there’s something else to note, coming out of this morning's reading. Jesus didn't just go around the villages and towns healing people. Matthew tells us that he first went around "proclaiming the good news of the kingdom". Jesus proclaimed to everyone who would listen to him that there is another way...that it is possible to live a life that embraces kingdom values. It is possible for us to change society - to be salt and light, to be his hands and feet - and to call the rest of the world to stop embracing the darkness of hate, and greed, and warmongering and to turn to the light of generosity, and community, and co-operation.

It is there that the healing of the sick will begin. Every time one of us reaches out to put a coin in the collecting box of cancer-research, or the Parkinson's society, or any number of other such causes, we bring forward the day when healing will be available to everyone who suffers. Every time one of us visits a sick person in the hospital or at home, we bring some of Christ's overwhelming sense of compassion into their lives. Every time one of us stands up against the assumption that might is right, and argues for peaceful co-existence instead of more war and death, we play a small part in changing hearts and minds to be more like those of God. Every time one of us shares with a neighbour or friend the good news that God has shown us the better way to be human, we do our part in helping to usher in the kingdom...a kingdom in which, as the book of Revelation promises us, "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain...for the old order of things has passed away" (Rev.21.4).

And finally - does this mean that we should stop praying for the sick? Absolutely not. Something the gospels show us very clearly, is that time and time again Jesus was moved, out of compassion, to heal those who were brought to him by their families and neighbours. We have every reason to think that Jesus will still be moved by our love for each other - and by our loving offering of one another to him.

The gospels give us ample room for believing that God always answers our prayers. "Ask and it will be given to you" (Mt 7.6). "Which of you if your child asked for bread would give them a stone...how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask for them". (Mt 7.9). And I believe that God always answers our prayers for healing and wholeness. Sometimes those healings can be dramatic cures - but, when you think about it, all cures are only temporary - because life is a terminal condition! We are all going to die one day. I think frankly, that the healing that is offered is more often healing for the soul, healing of the inner person - the sense of wholeness that comes from God, and from being loved and valued by the church community around the sick person.

There’s a lovely story – of an 18 year old teenager, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, bound to a wheelchair, who was being confirmed by the Bishop of Maidstone – a few years ago. Apparently the Bishop took the young man aside, sympathised with his suffering, and then asked “How can you want to be confirmed? How can you think God is fair when he leaves you like this?”. The young man is said to have replied, “Its ok - God has got the rest of eternity to make it up to me”

So when someone you love or care for is in need, please pray for them - because God will always respond. He may well bring the healing or the answer you long for, but He will always work something that is far deeper, much more wonderful and which will last for eternity. So we cry out because we are desperate and our hope is in God alone; we learn humility as we come to Him with nothing but our need; and we discover faith as we trust God to do what He alone knows is best.

1 comment:

  1. Tom, I SO tried to resist the temptation to comment, as i thought you probably deserved a break from my little interjections... but i just couldn't not add just a teensie weensie morsel of a comment.

    In discussing why God doesn't cure all sickness or why it's even here in the first place, you mentioned
    'One of those laws is that life, in all its forms, is constantly changing and evolving.' The big "E" word crept in there and i just wondered how you generally feel about Evolution. From your discussion, you seem to accept that life is constantly changing and that therefore Creation is ongoing. Would you therefore take this to the next step and say that human beings are therefore not "finished" products? Or perhaps that in every stage of evolution we reflect the perfection of God because he himself is not static? There is a big dilemma there if we think that we are made in His image because God is traditionally seen as unchanging: this is something theologians will have argued centuries over i'm sure and perhaps not something for a blog to take on...

    I like the idea that our own evolution is not just biological, but also spiritual - and I like your idea that God creates a world that is "the best possible environment in which to grow and develop to our fullest potential".

    One thing about sickness and disease is that bacteria and viruses are living organisms and, therefore, just as much a part of God's creation as us human beings. And as such, there can of course be no inherent evil them, despite the devistation they may cause us. What I loved most about your sermon was how you really hit home on the truth about sickness and disease in that it is up to us to "USE THE INTELLIGENCE I HAVE GIVEN YOU FOR THE COMMON GOOD" and put as much energy into developing medical cures etc as we do into creating weapons of war.

    ReplyDelete