{"id":129,"date":"2012-01-29T22:30:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-29T21:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=129"},"modified":"2012-01-29T22:30:21","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T21:30:21","slug":"jesus-brings-healing-mark-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=129","title":{"rendered":"Jesus brings healing – Mark 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMiracles don\u2019t happen\u201d Have you ever heard somebody say that? \u201cMiracles can\u2019t happen!\u201d some people say. \u201cScience has disproved miracles\u201d some people say \u2013 which only shows they don\u2019t really understand the limitations of science.
\nI believe miracles do happen. I believe that the Bible accounts of Jesus\u2019s miraces are true exactly as they are written. They really happened, just that way. Mark\u2019s Gospel takes ten chapters to cover Jesus\u2019s ministry for the three years up to the beginning of his last week in Jerusalem. And in those 10 chapters nearly half of the verses are concerned with Jesus\u2019s miracles. Anybody who takes the accounts of miracles out of the Gospels and not only are they accusing the Gospel writers of being liars but they are left with more problems than they solve.
\nI have no problems at all with the idea of Jesus working miracles. George MacDonald said, \u201cThe miracles of Jesus were the ordinary works of His Father. Wrought small and swift so that we may take them in.\u201d God working on a small enough scale for us to see. The God of the Bible is Creator of Heaven and Earth, and Jesus came to proclaim that \u201cthe Kingdom of God is on hand\u201d, that God\u2019s rule as King was beginning. So we would be very surprised if Jesus Christ the Son of God did NOT work miracles! Of course he did! This week let\u2019s look at three such events in the first chapter of Mark.
\nSimon Peter\u2019s Mother in Law
\nSo many parts of Mark\u2019s gospel show signs of eyewitness testimony. Early church tradition tells us that the source for so much of what Mark wrote down was none other than Simon Peter himself. That is why this story is so vivid.
\nV 30 Simon\u2019s mother in law was in bed with a fever. You won\u2019t hear me telling mother-in-law jokes. But let\u2019s notice that Simon Peter had left his fishing nets immediately Jesus called him to follow, even though he had a wife (who interestingly gets a mention by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9) and consequently a mother in law as well. When he came to recall miracle stories, Simon Peter\u2019s mind went straight away to the day Jesus healed his mother in law.
\nThey told Jesus about her. This was Jesus\u2019s first miracle. The disciples hadn\u2019t seen any miracles of healing before \u2013 only Jesus\u2019s authority in casting out evil spirits. But still they instinctively knew that Jesus would be able to help \u2013 and they were right. So they asked \u2013 and those who bring their problems to Jesus are never disappointed.
\nSo he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. There were no elaborate rituals, no magical potions or spells. That is not how God\u2019s miracles work. Just a simple practical action which released the love and healing power of God into that woman\u2019s body. There\u2019s no \u201cformula\u201d to healing miracles, just the love and the power of God.
\nThe fever left her. Here was a miracle! We don\u2019t know how serious that illness was. It could just have been a high temperature and a headache \u2013 but people in Jesus\u2019s time and in tropical countries today are used to battling on with symptoms like that for much of the time. The fever could well have been life-threatening. But no matter how major or minor the illness, God cares for us. When God made the world there was no disease, in heaven there will be no sickness, and Jesus had come to bring God\u2019s healing and wholeness to all who asked him.
\nAnd she began to wait on them. Here was the woman\u2019s natural response in gratitude for what God had done for her. But don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking that Jesus only healed the woman so that she COULD wait on them. God doesn\u2019t heal and bless and save us in order that we will do anything for him. God heals and blesses and saves because he loves us and He hates to see anybody suffering. It\u2019s all about God\u2019s love and God\u2019s grace!
\nAll the sick and demon-possessed
\nThe day had begun with Jesus teaching in the synagogue. That led on to Jesus bringing deliverance to a man who was possessed by a demon. We\u2019ll come back to the problem of demons and the ministry of deliverance another day. And then Jesus brought healing to Simon Peter\u2019s mother in law. It\u2019s not surprising that news of Jesus\u2019s miracles got round very quickly. So just as the day was drawing to a close and the disciples were putting their feet up for a well-deserved rest, they were interrupted.
\nv.32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. There were too many to mention each by name. Simon and Andrew probably knew all their names, and to Jesus each one was an individual, a person with a need, not just a statistic. God cares for each and every one of us as individuals, not just as part of the crowd. But there were too many for Mark to record by name, because as we read
\nv.33 The whole town gathered at the door. It\u2019s estimated that Capernaum was half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. There were probably several hundred people gathered around that small hut.
\nv\/34 And Jesus healed many who had various diseases. Many \u2013 every sick person who was brought to Jesus was healed \u2013 all who came, and they were many. They were healed of various diseases, too many different illnesses to record separately. No sickness is beyond the healing power of God the Creator.
\nHe also drove out many demons.
\nThe distinction between sickness and demon possession is usually clear and obvious. What we would call today mental illness is NOT demon possession, although sometimes the symptoms are similar. The fact is that if the problem is demonic then neither doctors nor psychiatrists can do anything at all to help. Only the authority of Jesus Christ can drive out demons and set people free \u2013 only God can help!
\nBut he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Some people have this mistaken idea that Jesus healed people and drove out demons to prove to people that he was indeed the Son of God, the Messiah. That is NOT correct. The demons did have supernatural knowledge that Jesus was Son of God and Messiah, but Jesus did not want that to be revealed too soon. Jesus was not bringing healing and deliverance to prove anything to anybody. Those miracles were the Kingly Rule of God breaking into the world, the Good News in action, putting right the hurting in the world dues to sin and driving out the devil and his demons. Miracles were expressions of God\u2019s love and power. And God is still a God of love and power and so we should expect still to see miracles of healing and deliverance in the world today. We should pray for healing and expect to see God healing people! His touch has still its ancient power.
\nSo Jesus moved on the bring healing and deliverance to other villages too, which brings us to another story.
\nA many with leprosy.
\nv.40 A man with leprosy came to him. This was some kind of skin disease, not necessarily what we would diagnose as leprosy today. But this skin disease carried the same stigma. It set the sufferers apart from the rest of society, made them outcasts. They couldn\u2019t enter houses, and had to shout, \u201cunclean, unclean\u201d to keep other people from coming close to them. So here was a man who was desperate.
\nAnd begged him on his knees, \u201cIf you are willing, you can make me clean.\u201d
\nLook at this man\u2019s faith! He knew Jesus had the POWER to heal him, the only question in the man\u2019s mind was whether Jesus would be WILLING to heal even a leper like him. The man was unclean in a Jewish ritual sense, condemned and set apart by the Jewish Law. Did God\u2019s Kingly Rule and God\u2019s healing extend so far as to reach even a leper?
\nv.41 Jesus was Filled with Compassion. Everything that Jesus did was out of LOVE for people who were suffering. He wasn\u2019t aloof to suffering \u2013 Jesus cares!!
\nJesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Although touching a leper would make him ritually unclean too, Jesus showed God\u2019s love in that simple act of touch.
\nI am willing, He said, be clean. Jesus WAS willing! God\u2019s love extends to every kind of person. To the outcasts even more than to the respectable folk. Sometimes we pray, \u201cLord, if it is your will, heal this person.\u201d God so often says, \u201cI AM willing.\u201d Too often the problem is that we are too afraid to ask!
\nv.42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
\nThe miracle came instantaneously. In almost all of Jesus\u2019s miracles, the effects were immediate. We don\u2019t always see that today, sometimes healing comes gradually as a process. The healing is still from God, even if surgeons or doctors or nurses or psychiatrists or therapists or medicines have a part to play. The healing is still an answer to believing prayer.
\nIn one sense, this story now has a sad ending. Mark 1:43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 \u201cSee that you don\u2019t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.\u201d 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
\nThe man didn\u2019t follow Jesus\u2019s instructions, and the publicity which resulted actually hindered Jesus\u2019s teaching and preaching. But still this reminds us that Jesus did not perform miracles to draw attention to himself or to prove he was the Son of God. That attention was the opposite of what Jesus wanted. And it also reminds us that God\u2019s healing isn\u2019t dependent on our obedience, either before or after the healing. I suspect that Jesus knew exactly what the man was going to do, but still healed him anyway. We don\u2019t earn healing by doing good deeds and we don\u2019t lose that healing by disobedience. It is all about grace!
\nJesus brings healing! Simon Peter\u2019s mother in law. All the sick and demon possessed in the whole village of Capernaum. And along the road, an outcast suffering from leprosy. Those healings were not to prove who Jesus was or to prove that his message was true. People were responding to Jesus\u2019s preaching before he had healed anybody.
\n17 \u201cCome, follow me,\u201d Jesus said, \u201cand I will make you fishers of men.\u201d 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
\n21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. <\/p>\n

People were already leaving their nets and following Jesus. People were already amazed at Jesus\u2019s teaching and his authority. The miracles weren\u2019t to prove Jesus\u2019s teaching was true. All Jesus\u2019s miracles were expressions of God\u2019s love and power, the Good News in action, evidence of the transforming power of God. Miracles happened then and miracles will still happen today \u2013 because His touch has still its ancient power!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMiracles don\u2019t happen\u201d Have you ever heard somebody say that? \u201cMiracles can\u2019t happen!\u201d some people say. \u201cScience has disproved miracles\u201d some people say \u2013…<\/span><\/p>\n

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