Healing is a gift of God. Healing is not something we can develop from nothing. Some people are particularly gifted in healing; others seek that gift when perhaps they should be developing another gift God has given them. But those with the gift of healing can develop and hone that gift further if they are willing and have the time to do so.
Jesus came into the world as a human baby, nurtured by a human mother and father, learning at the feet of the rabbis of the time, reading the scriptures scrupulously and thoroughly to find the truth his Father in heaven sought him to find. And his studies took some twenty or more years, part of which he was a devoted carpenter in his earthly fathers business in Nazareth. The amazing thing is that this carpenter suddenly becomes a healer, a teacher, an evangelist, and a savior. That was a miraculous transformation that none of the gospels seem to explore. Surely Jesus had within himself at his youngest age all these abilities, but he only came out at about age thirty, was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and then began proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. I find that seemingly sudden change of the course of his life something very astonishing. Jesus seems to burst on the scene, ready to begin a local explosion of healings, teaching that God intended for all humanity to become Sons of God, and willing to sacrifice his own life for the purpose of saving all who would believe in him and his message. The story is absolutely incredible when seen from a dispassionate level. How could God have arranged such a transformation in Gods Son that was so dramatic and seemingly so sudden. The answer to that question remains a mystery not told by any Biblical writer. But the Gospel according to Mark tries to paint the picture for us of what explosive power Jesus exhibits in otherwise unremarkable circumstances, beginning with his healing in a relatively unknown small village with perhaps a maximum population at its peak of about a thousand people, the town of Capernaum.
In the scene from Marks gospel that we read for today, Jesus comes to Peter and Andrews home, is brought into the room where Peters mother-in-law was laid up with a fever, lays hands on her, and lifts her up to begin to serve him and his disciples. The disciples have already seen Jesus in action in the synagogue where he drove out an unclean spirit from a man who was there in the worship hall. His fame as a healer had sprung into full public glory.
H. King Oemig, who writes for the Episcopal publication called Synthesis published by some scholars at Sewanee Episcopal Seminary in southern Tennessee, notes three points about Jesus healing ministry: first, the faith of the person doesnt seem to be a necessary function of the healing in many instances--he notes that surely it was not the faith of the four day dead Lazarus that raised Lazarus to life--it was simply an action of the power of God. Secondly, King Oemig notes that Jesus healings are usually done so that the healed ones can become witnesses of Gods power and can serve the Lord with gratitude. And thirdly, Jesus healings seem to stem from Jesus intimate connection and guidance from his Heavenly Father, whom he seeks counsel with from time to time often out in deserted places. Jesus seems to hear the still small voice of his Father somewhat like what happened to Elijah in the wilderness. The mother of a voice propelled Elijah back into the world, and it also seems to propel Jesus back into the world to continue his ministry in other places so that the gospel could be spread widely in the limited time Jesus had until his crucifixion.
- I was befuddled when one of my patients at St. Vincents Hospital in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, began to die in front of my very eyes. She was in good spirits, or so it seemed, when I left her bedside on September 14, an emaciated woman, but alive on that Friday, but on Monday, September 17, when I next came into her room I saw an even further emaciated, gray looking person, with very sunken eyes, barely able to talk, and clearly dying right before my eyes. I was so taken aback that I couldnt imagine what had happened. I knew she had been one of only twelve people who survived above the 86th Floor of Building Two before it collapsedshe worked on the 103rd Floor. She was in the top elevator lobby on the 78th Floor of the World Trade building when the second 767 jet made a direct hit into that floor, immediately killing or severely disabling all but a dozen people who were standing there waiting to take the elevators down to the ground. After the horrendous plane crash and fireball, she dimly saw her boss lying helplessly paralyzed on the floor and many of her colleagues there dead or dying. Still in the dark and with a broken wrist she was able to feel around the perimeter of the wall and find her lost but slightly burned purple shoe. She put the shoe on, walked around the tangled bodies and broken glass, and exited to the one remaining intact escape stairwell of the building she walked down to the 44th floor as the building was swaying its final death sway, trying to assure herself that she was only dancing her way down so she wouldnt focus on how precariously the teetering and burning building was twisting. When she finally got to the 44th Floor elevator lobby she encountered fire fighters coming up to try to rescue those in the floors above her; she got into a debate with them over how she was to escape the building as quickly as possible. It was probably less than ten minutes later that the building collapsed. In those minutes the fire fighters convinced her quickly to take the one functioning elevator down to the second floor lobby, where she was able to walk outside and nearly collapse on one of the stone ledges of the building plaza. Her picture was featured on the front page of the New York Times that day, covered with blood, and cradling her face in her hands. Her trauma had been intense, but she had survived and would survive, thanks be to God.
But I was presented on Monday, September 17, with a young woman who was dying after escaping against all odds.
I felt so helpless. I knew she was a non-practicing Jew and recalled my very bright allergy doctor, also a non-practicing Jew, and thought to myself that he may know some way to save her. So I called him, explained the situation, how I had observed some heated discussion she had had with a dietician, and we concluded she was refusing to eat the hospital food and was starving to death. Her trauma had made her strict adherence to some sort of unique personal diet even more rigid, denying herself sustenance. The wise doctor said, Find out what she will eat, and feed her. What a simple solution, but it took a call to an allergist, of all people, to awaken in me the obvious solution. The long and short of the story was that I found out she lived on essentially a bread only diet and loved bagels, which I was able to supply her with from my local gourmet Egyptian Muslim bagel factory. That doctor had the still small voice inside him that was able to direct my action. And my patient lives yet today.
I was then able to turn my pastoral resources to the other patients then. Some had burns over 90 percent of their body and were bandaged from head to foot--the burning jet fuel had spilled down the elevator shaft and burned people when the elevator doors opened in front of them. Another had a crushed knee and leg from being in a free falling elevator. Another, a fire fighter, had been blown dozens of yards away from the collapsing building as he guarded the buildings entrance and the shaft of air blew out the front door violently like an accordion as the floors above pancaked together. Another had nearly suffocated on the plaster dust at ground level, and so on.
Finally all 405 injured people who had come to that hospital from the two buildings survived. It was indeed a miracle for them.
Flight 1459 a few weeks ago landed in the Hudson River. Its pilot was a glider instructor and was an expert in landing unpowered aircraft. Its crew were the most experienced of that airline. The river wasnt frozen over as it is today. The ferries were running at rush hour. And all 156 people and crew escaped alive. It was another healing miracle only a few hundred yards from where the World Trade Towers had stood. We live in quite a sacred area, I think. Lives around us were spared against all odds. The huge apartment complex at Route 1 and 9 and Flora Street burned completely to the ground last year, and every one escaped alive. The healing presence of the Lord was with us and with all of those survivors.
Healing and miraculous deliverance nowadays often comes to more than one at a time. We live in a far more crowded place than probably any at Jesus time experienced. The potential for disaster is greater, the likelihood of death and injury is greatly increased, and the need for skilled rescuers becomes even more necessary. It is a far more complex world we live in. Everything moves faster, and the distinction between death and life is honed to a razors edge.
In a word, only God can save us.
I am a believer that the unclean spirits are still with us. It is a sort of mass hysteria that has gripped the entire financial world. Houses are not worthless. Property is not worthless. Jobs are still needed. And people still need to work. But somehow we have lost our way. Confidence is at an all time low. Every rally on Wall Street is a bear rally, ready to collapse in a few days on really little to no news. Investment accounts are a third to a half what they were a few months ago. Peoples life savings have been cut dramatically. And many of us dont expect ever to be able to retire.
The Baby Boomer crisis predicted for Social Security has arrived much sooner than almost anyone expected, and it wasnt Social Security that was the ultimate cause.
One of my insightful friends notes that sooner or later people will wake up to the fact that people have to live somewhere, that housing has some real value, and when property reaches that real value, the financial markets will end their freefall. Getting to that real value point, however, will be traumatic, and turmoil will reign for quite some time before we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So if you are stressed out by the disappearance of your pension savings, bear up, they will return in time. If you feel ill or depressed by all the negative news, just turn off the telly--their reports are all they have to able to save their jobs by keeping you in suspense over things that neither they nor you understand nor can do anything about.
Take some time away; go to a deserted place to hear what God wants you to do for Gods kingdom. Focus on that still small voice that will advise you. And go out everywhere to proclaim the message of Christ: repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen.
(Comments to Joe at JoeParrish@compuserve.com.)