DAILY BYTE
Almost every healing story in the Bible, and there are a lot of them, makes it clear that Jesus is not as interested in healing bodies as he is in healing souls.
For what really hampers and holds us back is a soul paralysed with pain. I know of people who don’t enjoy full use of their limbs but are far freer than many of us – they soar because their souls are free to do so.
Moltmann once wrote: “Our society arbitrarily defines health as the capacity for work and the capacity for enjoyment, but true health is something quite different. True health is the strength to live, the strength to suffer and the strength to die. Health is not a condition of my body, it is the power of the soul to cope with the varying condition of that body.”
This is why Jesus is most interested in healing the pain within – the place from where our tears and potential paralysis comes from.
The encounter between this man and Jesus in John 5 tells us a lot about ourselves that we may not like to hear. It reminds us that to ignore the reality of our pain or to use it as a crutch can be devastating to the point of robbing us of life and love and feeling.
It warns us against going to all the wrong places for our healing because it is a long and difficult journey that can only be undertaken one step at a time, and that we desperately need others – professionals and friends – to help bring us through to the other side.
As much as we learn uncomfortable lessons about ourselves from this story, it also teaches us something about God and ultimately that is its most important message. We learn that Jesus heals this man not because of who the man was, but because of who Jesus is.
This story is like a parable of God’s grace – the undeserved and unmerited love of God reaching out to an old man grown bitter and paralysed within his soul.
Tony Campolo tells the story of being on a flight with a little 3 year old girl, who was going to visit her father and was tremendously excited. She kept jumping up and down and exclaiming: “I’m going to see Daddy! I’m going to see Daddy!”
Unfortunately, on the flight she overindulged on coke and cookies. As a result she threw up everywhere just as the plane landed, all over her dress and in her hair. Coke and cookies smells fine before it goes into a person but not so great when it comes out in a rush like that, so Campolo tells how everyone was giving her a wide berth.
Except for Campolo himself, he decided to walk closely behind her as she was escorted off the plane because he wanted to see how her father reacted to her. The little girl’s dad was waiting eagerly for her, and when he saw her all covered in puke and tears, there was not a moment’s hesitation. He swept her up into his arms and hugged and kissed her.
We see something of that in this story. God loves and heals us certainly not because of who we are – we who so often sit paralysed by our tears, and we who can indulge in selfishness and misery until we throw it up everywhere.
No, God gathers us in his arms because of who he is. All I can say in response is: Thank God for that.
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of Grace, we thank you for holding us in your arms and covering us in your love. We thank you that our healing is not dependant on us but rather on your loving nature. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
