Healing in the New Testament
The evangelist St. Matthew records in his gospel: “and when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.” (Matt. 8:16-17 ASV).
Jesus “healed all that were sick” and “cast out the evil sprits with a word”. When St. Matthew had recorded this he points to a messianic prophesy from Isaiah 53:4. Isaiah writes in chapters 52 and 53 about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and he writes that healing is one of his characteristics; it is something that is part of his messianic mission.
Today we have a thought that has slipped in to the Christian conception by Hellenistic philosophy, particularly Platonism. The philosophy of Platonism made a distinction between the spirit and body of the person (also called dualism). This was later inherited by the early Gnostics, which the Early Church had a really hard battle to fight in the first centuries. The Gnostics, like the Platonists, made a distinction between the body and the soul and said that the soul was trapped in the body, like a prisoner and it needed to be released from its chains.
Why do I write about these things? Well it has affected our thought of healing and our vision of the body (which is God’s creation and the temple of the Holy Spirit – Genesis 1:31; 1 Cor. 6:19) and today we almost see sickness and disease as something normal and perhaps something that God wants. “It’s Gods will” some people say. We believe that the body and soul are two opposites instead of a harmony (like God created it).
Let’s examine this thought with the light of the Holy Bible and the ministry of Jesus.
As we have seen in the beginning St. Matthew quoted a Messianic prophesy from Isaiah that links the healing ministry to the very person and work of Jesus Christ.
It is enlightening to see that in the Gospel Jesus meets many sick people and people in deep needs, but not once does he say: “You have received a blessing from God, carry your cross with pride”. No, Jesus always treats disease and misery as an enemy and even something that is from the evil one (Satan) himself (see for example Luke 12:10-17).
The question of healing automatically drives us to the question of misery and suffering. Where does it come from? If God is good and merciful, why does he allow suffering, why do people get sick, why do young people die? This is a problem called “the Theodice” problem. Perhaps it is necessary to write another essay just about this problem, but I will try to answer this question from the light of the Bible and the theology of St Afrem.
We need to recall something first:
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God created everything out of His love and mercy and God’s creation was very good (Genesis 1:31) and in paradise there was no suffering (including sickness etc.), nor death! It was not part of God’s plan of creation.
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But God endowed all his creatures with freedom (which St Afrem says is God’s greatest gift to humanity), including his angels, and some of them made an uproar against God and their leader is called Lucifer, better known as Satan. Satan then tricked Eve and Adam (the human race) into eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge (Genesis 3) and broke God’s commandment. It is here that death and suffering enters into God’s creation and in the life of humans. We can therefore say that suffering and death is not God’s work, but the work of God’s opponent, Satan, and the work of disobedience to God’s Word.
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The Messiah came to heal and to restore God’s creation (in the article of healing in the theology of St Afrem we saw this very clearly) and that includes suffering (sickness) and death.
Suffering, disease and death is not something that God wanted in His creation but it “slipped” in by the door of disobedience. This fall of the human race is the reason for Jesus coming in the flesh – to heal us. And the book of Revelation makes this very clear: “And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4 ASV). God will eventually take away death and sickness and He himself will wipe away our tears from our cheeks!
Jesus also refuted the view that God punishes sin with sickness, as he showed us when he met the man born blind: “And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. When I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”(John 9:1-5 ASV)
Jesus healed the people of the New Testament and when we read the Acts of the Apostles we see that the apostles continued Jesus’ healing ministry (See for example Acts 3:1-9). Many of our Church fathers performed many miracles, including healing the sick. And Jesus is still prepared and willing to heal the sick because: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).
In conclusion of this introduction I will just mention the different types of healing that Jesus showed us in the Gospel. All of these will be separate articles in the future – God willing.
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Healing of Physical deceases
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Healing of Demonic possession and sickness related to Demonic invention
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Healing/forgiveness of Sins
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Inner healing – that is healing of emotions, thoughts and memories.
By the Grace of the great Healer, Jesus Christ, we will enter deeper into the mystery of faith and healing in the forthcoming articles.
“I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”John 10:10
By: Johan Andersson, The Writing group
Sources:
The Holy Bible – American Standard Version (ASV)
Francis and Judith McNutt – Christian Healing Ministries – lectures about healing (see also www.christianhealingministries.org)
source: http://www.melthodhaye.com/default.asp?itemID=187&itemTitle=Healing
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