Healing 101

For example, in Matthew 8 and 9, you've got, in those two chapters, you've got ten distinct miracles that Jesus performed. And when you look at those two chapters, you find that the way he performed the miracles were quite different. For instance, a man came to him who was a leper, and Jesus reached out his hand, it says, and touched the man, and said, be clean, and immediately he was clean.

Interesting, Jesus, by the way, always touched lepers, because nobody ever touched lepers. They have this contagious disease. Don't come close, you'll always touch lepers, you know this.

But then a centurion came and said, I've got a servant who's sick at home. And Jesus said, I will come and see him. No, I don't deserve to have him come into my house or under my roof.

Just say the word and my servant will be healed. And he says, Jesus marveled at his face. But when the man got home, his servant had been healed that very moment.

This time he didn't touch the man, he didn't even see the man, just spoke the word. The man was healed. And then a man was brought to Jesus, a paralytic, and Jesus spoke to him.

He didn't touch him, he just said, your sins have forgiven, get up and walk. And the man jumped up and began to walk. And then he was going to a house where a girl had died, and somebody pushed with a crab, touched his thumb, he turned around and said, who touched me? And there was an embarrassed looking woman who said, I did, but I've been bleeding for 15 years.

And he just stopped. He didn't touch her, he didn't speak to her, she touched him. Now we read these, we don't think twice about these, because it's in the New Testament, because that's the way it is.

But if they were like we tend to be today, it may be that when Jesus had left the area and these local people got together, they said, you know when Jesus was here and he healed me, and somebody else says, well, that's amazing, he healed me as well. And the first person says, you know, when he touched me, laid his hands on me, it's as though I felt the power of God coming down his arm through his fingers into my body. Did you feel that when he touched you? And the second man says, what do you mean when he touched me? Did he say he healed you? Well, sure he did.

Well, you know, when he touched you, when he healed you. Well, he didn't touch me. What do you mean he didn't touch you? That's how he heals people, he touches people.

No, he does not. He just speaks the word, you know. He said to me, get up, I haven't walked for years.

He said, get up, and there was such authority in his voice, I jumped up. Didn't you hear that authority when he spoke to you? He said, but he didn't speak to me, he just touched me. I don't think you were really healed, I think it was a psychosomatic, because he touched you, can you imagine? So if they're like we are, they probably form two different churches.

One forms the taxi church over here, and they meet every Sunday and sing their favourite songs, you know, he touched me, and go get a touch from the Lord. And down here they form the Church of the Word, and they meet every Sunday and they sing their favourite hymns, speak Lord in the stillness, and please make sure it's still, while we wait on thee. And they form two separate groups on the basis of their experience of Christ.

And then Sunday afternoons in the area, we've also been healed by Jesus, and they both hear about it, so they go to visit his house, to invite him to come to their church. And knock on the door, and the man from the taxi church says, I understand you've been healed by Jesus, well that's fine. That's marvellous, you know, we have a church here in this town, and we'd love you to come on Sunday night and share your testimony about how Jesus touched you.

Well thank you very much, I'd love to come. Did you say about how he touched me? Yeah, when he healed you. No, he didn't touch me.

And the second man says, excuse me, we have a free church in this town as well, and we'd love you to come and share your testimony with us on Sunday night, about when he spoke to you, the authority you heard in his voice, well thanks, I'd love to come. Did he say when he spoke to me, or yes? Well, he didn't actually speak to me, that doesn't know how he healed me. The first man says, he didn't touch you? That doesn't know how he healed me, no.

The second man says, he didn't speak to you? That doesn't know how he healed me. Well, what did he do? Well, he did what he always does as far as I know. What did he do? He just spat in my eye, he didn't spit in your eye.

Actually, there's an interesting story, it's in Mark chapter 8, I'm sidetracking here, but let me just read to you. Mark 18 2. It's what it says, they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. Notice, they did not ask Jesus to heal him.

They begged Jesus to touch him. Because his friends actually were from the tattoo church. That's what they asked Jesus to do, touch him.

If you just touch him, just bring your finger to him, just touch him and he'll be healed. And the moment you try to lock Jesus into a pattern, or lock God into a pattern, he'll break out of it. I love this story, because it says that he led the blind man, they were outside the village, and I imagine the crowd said, oh, we're going to see a miracle.

And the crowd probably gathered around. As Jesus stood in front of the blind man, the crowd went quiet. We're going to see a miracle.

This man had been blind from birth, we've known him all his life. We're going to see a miracle. And suddenly in the silence they heard, Oh! And he spun his eyes.

And he probably formed a church called the Church of the Holy Spittle. And he probably sang every Sunday, Spittle of the Living God, pour a fresh on me. And the next time they met a blind man, John chapter 9, again, as the crowd around went quiet, they heard, Oh, this is where he met the blind man.

And he sat and missed, landed on the floor, leant down, mixed in the clay, made a bit of clay, went whoop into the sand, whoop into that island. And said, go and wash in the pool of Siloam. If you've ever been to Jerusalem, you've probably visited the pool of Siloam.

It's not the place to send the blind man. He stands in a very rickety step. So just in case you think we've got the pattern, we've got the program, quit spitting in people's eyes, they'll see.

Well, if Jesus would just spit in his eye, just spit. You see, the issue was never how any of these folks were healed. The only issue was who was doing it.