SEATTLE MENNONITE CHURCH
February 23, 2003
Sermon: Weldon D. Nisly
TITLE: Healer of our every ill
THEME: Epiphany: healing and forgiveness and as subversive activity
TEXTS: Isaiah 43: 18-25
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12 Jesus forgives/heals the paralytic let down through the roof.
As the politics of warfare ratchet tighter on the national and global scene, the biblical scene
of these Sundays confront us with God’s desire to do a new thing and offer true healing for
our every ill.
In the prophet Isaiah’s time, Israel is in exile in Babylon. They have been severed from their
dreams of homeland security. They are in great need of healing.
In their communal suffering and pain of exile, God speaks through the mouth of a prophet.
Isaiah boldly speaks for God, (43:19-21):
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make
a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the
jackals and ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give
drink to my people, whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise….”
Yeah, right, God! We’re hopelessly in exile and you’re going to pave a highway through the
wilderness so that we can go home! And you’re going to make rivers flow in the barren desert
and heal us with refreshing water!
God speaks through Isaiah adding, I know “you did not call upon me and that you have wearied
of me, O Israel!” But I am going to do it anyway. You are in need of forgiveness from sin and
every kind of healing. I tell you what I’ll do. “I am God who will blot out your transgressions
and I will not remember your sin.” I will bring you home and heal you.
In Isaiah we see God healing the political landscape of a people.
In the New Testament reading of the Apostle Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, it is the
church that is in need of healing. Yes, even the earliest church had conflict and was greatly in
need of healing.
Paul had planned to come and visit the church at Corinth but later changed his mind. His
change of plans was due to a conflict in the Corinthian church and his realization that his
presence would likely escalate rather than heal the conflict.
Paul uses this conflict as a teachable moment in writing this letter. He teaches that Jesus
embodies a ministry of reconciliation and healing at every level of life. Paul emphasizes
that his change of mind and their conflict takes nothing away from the message and
meaning of Jesus for their lives, for the church, and for he world.
Jesus is the healer of our every ill – Mark
2:1-12
In the early days of Jesus’ ministry, he is wandered around the Galilean countryside
calling disciples, teaching the people, and being a “healer of every ill.” Mark’s Gospel tells
us that one time:
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it was reported that he was at home
So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them,
not even in front of the door;
and Jesus was speaking the word to them.
Then some people came, bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man,
carried by four of them.
And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd,
they removed the roof overhead;
and after having dug through it,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
"Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy!
Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions
among themselves; and he said to them,
"Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Stand up and take your mat and walk'?
But so that you may know that the Human One
has authority on earth to forgive sins"
--he said to the paralytic—
"I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home."
And the man stood up, and immediately took the mat
and went out before all of them;
so that they were all amazed and glorified God,
saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
This is the Gospel pf Jesus Christ who forgives and heals.
----------------------------
As soon as Jesus began his ministry of calling disciples and teaching that God’s reign
has already begun, he became a healer of every ill and forgiver of sin. This healing power
of Jesus appears so straightforward and evident. Yet it wasn’t easy for Jesus.
In today’s gospel story of healing and forgiving, Jesus quickly gets embroiled in a controversy
with the scribes over whether or not he has the authority to forgive sin.
In Jesus’ time there was a presumed connection between sin and illness as punishment.
Lest we think that is an ancient unenlightened view, it is not unlike the cruel things being
said today about HIV and AIDS as God’s punishment on some people.
Jesus does a new thing on God’s behalf in this healing story. Jesus knows that the scribes
link sin and illness. Here Jesus challenges their way of seeing illness and sin as he offers
both forgiveness from sin and healing from illness to those with new eyes of faith.
(Aelrod R. Rosser,
Workbook for Lectors and Gospel Readers, Liturgy Training Pub., Year B –
2003, p. 61.)
As always, there is much more to be wrestled with in this story and with Jesus as healer.
That is a good and ongoing task for us in the church. Yet we do well to receive and
rejoice in the healing power of Jesus without having resolved all our questions. We also
do well to embody Jesus’ healing ministry with and for each other. We can be a prayerful
healing presence with each other.
We also do well to remember that “healing” is not the same
thing as “curing” and
that healing prayer is not a substitute for good health
care in all its many forms.
John Rempel and others who prepared the Mennonite Minister’s Manual a few years ago,
included a faithful reminder of the healing ministry of Jesus and of the church. A couple of
sentences from the introduction to healing prayer and anointing with oil, tells us that:
An important part of the spiritual renewal of the twentieth
century is the recovery
of the healing ministry to the normal life of the church.
Healing not only involves
the mending of the body but also brings the whole person
into harmony with the
life-giving Spirit of God.
Jesus announced the good news of the [Reign of God] in
three ways—preaching,
teaching, and healing. Jesus passed this threefold ministry
on to the disciples and
their followers…..The church’s ministry of personal healing
is woven from the
same cloth as its work for peace, justice, and healing of
corporate brokenness.
(“Anointing with Oil,” Minister’s Manual, 1998, pp.
205-209).
Our greatest “role” in healing is to be God’s instruments
and servants in giving and receiving
love and prayer with and for one another. In our worship this morning, we offer an
opportunity
for healing prayer with the symbols of Christ’s healing
presence in the candle and anointing oil.
We are instruments of God’s healing power. We are servants of Jesus’ healing and reconciling
ministry. We are instruments and servants of healing because we are also in need of healing.
We are wounded healers, to use Henri Nouwen’s term for ministry. We are wounded healers
participating in God’s healing of our lives and world through Jesus Christ. Amen.