Created in God’s Image and Restored by His Divine Hands - Sermon by Canon James Juhari

 Readings for 2 Sunday Before Lent

OT: Proverbs 8: 1, 22-31

NT: Colossians 1:15-20

Gospel: John 1: 1-14

Sermon

In our Collect for this Sunday we pray to God, saying: “Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children…”

Today I want to speak about what it means to be creatures created in the image of God, and how He is still involved in the preservation of our well-being. I specifically want to talk about one important issue that can either draw us closer to God or tear us apart from Him.  It is about health and sickness: not just about physical health and sickness, but issues we struggle with that affect the state of our minds and emotions.   

We are all familiar with healing through conventional medicines provided by clinics or hospitals. There are also alternative cures like acupuncture, cupping. herbal cure, sauna bath and body massage, and homeopathy.  Other forms of healings may involve rituals, sacrifices and incantations as the healer seeks the intervention of some spiritual beings.

As Christians we are interested in a particular form of healing which we find so notable in the ministry of Jesus, that we call divine healing or miracle.  These acts of healing were not only common in the ministry of Jesus, but they continued to be practised in the life of the early Church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.  The Epistles also mention similar healings (e.g. 2 Cor. 12: 12; James 5:16).  Records of divine healing did not end there; the Apostolic Fathers in the Second Century like Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Augustine of Hippo also mentioned cases of people being healed through prayers of the Church.

We believe in the ministry of healing because we believe that God’s intention for us is always good.  The story in Genesis tells us that God made humankind perfect.  Suffering, sickness, sin and death came because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve.  But even then, when they rebelled against God, God still has concern for them.  The Bible tells us that He provided skins to cover their nakedness.  And throughout the Old Testament we see God showing concern for His people.  

It should be mentioned also that salvation, as understood by the Old Testament writers, has nothing specifically ‘spiritual’ about it.  It talks about God who rescues man from death (Psalm 6: 4 & 5), from fear (Psalm 107: 13), from sickness (Isa. 38:20), and from many kinds of trouble (Jer. 30: 7).  God’s redemptive work is also an actual rescue work.  For example, 1 Sam. 14: 23 speaks of God rescuing the Israelites from their enemies.  Sometimes God appointed a person to rescue His people – like Moses, Samson or Gideon.  

The saving work of Jesus that we read about in the Gospel is a continuation of the saving work of God among His chosen people in the Old Testament.  However, it is more personal.  Instead of doing something for the whole Jewish nation, God now works among individuals.  So you see Jesus forgiving the sinners, healing sick individuals, and delivering persons who were possessed by demons.  But the whole purpose of the salvation work remains the same – i.e. to heal and to save.  So the work of healing the sick and deliverance of the demon-possessed persons go hand in hand with the saving of lost souls.   For the Bible writers, the physical and the spiritual are connected.  What happens to the body affects the spirit and vice-versa.  You can see this connection being further enhanced by the requirement of faith.  For example, it was the faith of Bartimaeus that healed him of his blindness (Mark 10: 52).  On the other hand, the paralytic man (Mark 2: 5) was healed and forgiven because of the faith of his friends.   So faith in Jesus is often necessary for healing and forgiveness, even if it is someone else’s faith.   

The Church practises healing ministry because we believe that Jesus wants it to be continued by His followers.  Thus, when He sent out His twelve disciples, “he also gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases” (Luke 9: 1-2).  Then in Luke 10: 9, we read about the sending out of 72 men.  They were sent out two by two to “heal the sick… and say to the people, ‘The kingdom of God has come near you”.   

The early Christians clearly saw this as part of their mandate.   They did not see the Church just as a place to talk about the kingdom of God, but to reveal the Kingdom of God in power.  So you see in Acts how the Apostles and other church leaders exercised not only the preaching of the Gospel but also the healing of the sick, and the deliverance of those in bondage of the devil.  And so it has continued, in the second and third centuries, and up to the present day.   

The question that we want to ask is: Why is it that we so often experience failure when we pray for healing?  Why are our prayers effective at certain times, and for certain people?  Divine healing is a great mystery for us and we do not know why some people are healed through prayers and why some are not.  The disciples themselves also experienced failures, for example, when they tried to drive out the demon from a boy (Matt.17: 14-21).  Paul had successfully prayed for the healing of several people.  He even revived Eutychus who died after he fell from the window of a three-story building (Acts 20: 9).  But when Paul prayed for his own ailment, his request was not granted (2 Cor. 12: 8ff).  In 2 Tim. 4: 20, he mentioned that he had to leave his sick friend, Trophimus, behind in Miletus.

I do not believe that our failure to secure healing is not because God is indifferent to the sickness of our bodies, or because divine healing has ceased.   I believe that the first major obstacle to divine healing is that we do not ask seriously enough.  There are church leaders who do not believe that God heals today.  How then can we expect people to be healed by our prayers when priests and pastors do not believe in it?   

The second major obstacle is Satan who is involved in sickness.  Luke 13: 16 tells of a hunchback woman that Satan had bowed down for 18 years.  When Jesus freed her from the grip of Satan she immediately straightened herself up.  Sometimes a person can get sick without knowing why, and even medical doctors have no explanation and cure for it.   Not all unexplained illnesses can be attributed to demon possession, but we know that given the opportunity, Satan will try to use any misfortune in our lives for his own advantage.  That is why we must pray for the sick: it not just for their physical healing, but that they are protected against the deception of the devil, and that they don’t give up on God.  

The third major obstacle to divine healing is the fact that we are not divine.  We may be given the gift of healing, but our humanity, our sinfulness and lack of understanding may contribute to our failures to work the divine miracles.   That knowledge should keep us humble. They remind us that, as far as Christians are concerned, divine healings are only possible because of Jesus.  We are only instruments to be used by Him whenever He chooses.  

But, how are we to understand divine healing then?  First, we must understand that God is the supreme source of healing and He wants His children to be whole.  But while we are still alive on earth we shall only experience part of it.  Furthermore, we should not just think of deliverance and healing in terms of the physical only.  Our ultimate goal is heaven, and not physical health and freedom from problems.  Furthermore, a lot of sickness is not physical in origin or nature.  Much is related to conflict between body and mind, the conscious and the unconscious, home and work, individuals and society; conflict within the family, conflict between our ambitions and our achievements.  When we can no longer tolerate tensions in any of these areas, we get sick and need healing.  Jesus expects His body, the Church, to be one of the agencies in human healing, so that not just one person is healed  physically but he and his community experience the blessing of God.        

Second, God is the Healer (Ex. 15: 26). Sometimes God heals through the natural recuperative powers of the body, sometimes through medicine and surgery, and sometimes without any of these.  God can use whatever means He chooses to heal us.  He can also withhold healing if He sees it to be our best ultimate interests.  So as Christians, the most important thing to do when we get sick is to turn to the Lord, and surrender the whole problem into His hands, while we open ourselves to the best medical treatment available.

Third, we need to search our hearts before God when problems and sickness strike our lives.  There may be something that God wants to teach us through the experience.  Maybe God has some purpose for us which we don’t know yet.  God is sovereign and when we surrender our predicament to Him, He knows what to do with it.  People have experienced transformation because of bad things that happened to their loved ones or to themselves.  Remember that when we pray about our problems and sickness, our intention is not to force God to give us what we want.  Rather our prayers should be prayers of submission, an expression of faith and trust in God who loves us.     

Now speaking of trust, perhaps the most common reason why it is difficult for us to trust God is because of our tendency to focus on the trials, the problems and difficulties of life.  Remember in Matthew 14, when Peter walked on the water with Jesus: he was doing well until he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the waves.  Likewise, when we pay too much attention on our problems we may lose our focus on Christ.  

Christians are not called just to have a general belief in God: we are must believe in God who can get us through the most impossible situations.  In John 14:1, Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God, trust also in me”.  Jesus was calling the disciples to trust God even when they did not understand because God was still at work.  Proverbs 3: 5-6 says this: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight”.

These are facts: disasters strike and tragedies happen in our lives. When life is hard and uncertain, we have to deal with our negative emotions and answer tough questions. While they are often beyond our understanding and control, nothing that we go through in life is beyond God.  That is why we must put our complete trust in Him.  Psalm 9: 9-10 says: “The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”  When we put our complete trust in God, He will help us through.  

Now, what happens if you do not have trust in God?  The answer is: you will have no access to His power, His mercy or His love.  Without trust in God there is no real comfort, no lasting peace, and no strength and relief that we need.   

But what happen when we put our trust in God?  The Bible tells us that God has promised us that He would never forsake those who seek Him.  When we trust God we are holding on to the treasure that He has set aside for us.  And the treasure includes love, grace, peace, security, protection, provision and eternal life from God who sent His own Son to the cross for our sake.   

There is one other thing: your trust in God will bring Him glory. Your trust in God can become a powerful testimony and a declaration of how dependable this God is!   When people see how much you trust the Lord, in good and bad times, they will want to know this God you believe in.      

So God is asking only one question this morning: “Do you trust Me?”  Do you trust God even when it seems so bleak, and everything is falling apart?  Do you trust Him even though the answer takes so long to get?  Do you trust Him even when life is so confusing, and you don’t understand what is happening?

 

~Can. James Juhari~