I must confess, I have been a bit obsessed with this question recently: “Why are some people prompted to seek healing and others are not?”
It may have started with a conversation I had earlier this year with the ladies from Morning Glory Podcast. We had an incredible conversation about the difference between grief coaching and grief counseling! And SO MUCH MORE!
Last week, I immersed myself in the story of Jesus healing the paralytic in John 5. This is the story where Jesus asks the paralytic: “Do you want to be healed?” As I read on, I found the stories in Luke include some incredible insights about this question. Here are a couple of them:
And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.” Luke 5:12-14
“Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. – Luke 17:11-14
I noticed three things in the full collection of these stories about what happens when people are healed by Jesus:
First, they reach the end of themselves.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets uncomfortable when I hear the phrase “die to self.” The command seems impossible, especially in this day and age. We seem to live in a time when we are so focused on getting things right: a career, spouse, home, and neighborhood. And yet, I keep telling myself, “If I just try harder—if I just work more—then I will achieve.” There are people pained by this way of thinking in every neighborhood in every city in the world—people who are in broken marriages or people suffering intense losses.
Coming to the end of yourself sounds like this: “Jesus, I don’t have the answer, but I know you do.” We make this concept of relinquishment so hard that it becomes impossible, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s where we are looking for the answers to our heart’s desire. Will we find them in ourselves? I don’t think I ever have.
Second, they have an encounter with Jesus.
Whenever I read these stories, I have one image in my head, and it’s not the obvious one. It’s the image of people who may have been just a few feet away from Jesus, but rather than encountering him, they were in their homes—they never came outside. Maybe they had far worse infirmaries than those that were being healed, but they chose to stay where they were. Perhaps, they were struggling with a crumbling marriage or a severe loss, and everything was turning to ash around them, but they decided to stay inside and not look in the face of Christ. Maybe part of it is shame. Another could be fear. Or, it could even be a loss of hope.
What I saw over and over again in Luke was that the ways people encountered Jesus varied. Some people were seeking him out, others were trying to take him away violently, and some were just walking down the road. Regardless of action, all were in Jesus’s path.
Third, they have hope that Jesus is the answer.
A phrase that people repeat in Luke is, “Jesus have mercy on me.” It’s like they are saying, “Please notice me. Please look at me. Please have concern for me.” There is hope in this phrase.
As I wrote this, I saw what loss is at the core: a means/mechanism to get closer to God.
Here are a couple of questions to get you started this weekend:
- What would your life look like without fear?
- What are steps you can take to get to the end of yourself?
- Do you want to be healed?