Guest Meditations: Healing is a sacrament because its purpose or end is not health as such, the restoration of physical health, but the entrance of [humanity] into the life of the kingdom, into the “joy and peace” of the Holy Spirit. In Christ everything in this world—and this means health and disease, joy and suffering—has become an ascension to, and entrance into, this new life, its expectation and anticipation.
In this world, suffering and disease are indeed “normal,” but their “normalcy” is abnormal. They reveal the ultimate and permanent defeat of [humanity] and of life, a defeat which no partial victories of medicine, however wonderful and truly miraculous, can ultimately overcome. But in Christ, suffering is not “removed”: it is transformed into victory. The defeat itself becomes victory, a way, an entrance into the kingdom, and this is the only true healing.
Alexander Schmemann
That Christians pray for the recovery of their sick and proclaim to them God’s healing will is itself too natural to require justification. The New Testament, moreover, sets sickness and recovery in a specific context. Bodily disaster, as the one unavoidable reminder of death, is understood as a central fact and a betraying signal of creation’s bondage to evil. Mark’s capsule scene of Jesus’ mission, Mark 2:1-12, shows him as Lord over sin and sickness; the difference is that healing is visible and forgiveness is not. Thus Jesus’ healings were very precisely sacraments of the coming kingdom.
Surely what we find, for our situation, in the New Testament is permission to do what we anyway want to do: pray for the recovery of our sick and assure them of the efficacy of such prayer, and do both in the specific context of the church’s mission against creation’s bondage, in which illness is more than misfortune and healing is a sign of the gospel’s future triumph.
To such prayer and assurance the New Testament attaches the promise of healing, in that total sense which encompasses physical recovery as its visible aspect.
Robert W. Jenson
Introduction:
In today’s gospel Jesus cures the sick, proclaims the gospel, and casts out demons. His ministry reveals God’s compassionate heart in which the lowly are lifted up and the brokenhearted are healed. As we gather around Christ present in word and meal, we are given strength to wait for the Lord in the midst of our suffering. Living as the body of Christ, our very lives are signs of God’s gracious intent for humankind.
Ansgar, Bishop of Hamburg, missionary to Denmark and Sweden, died 865
A monk who helped bring Christianity to Scandinavia, Ansgar returned to Germany where he was named bishop of Hamburg. He is remembered for his love for poor people.
Isaiah 40:21-31
The Judeans in exile have a reason to be hopeful: the One who will bring them to freedom is the God who created the world and gives strength to those who are weary.
Please Pass the Psalter: Psalm 147:1-12, 21c
A hymn of praise in three divisions, from around the end of the exile. The hearer is reminded that God is the creator, and therefore deserves praise. The reference to a horse is to the war horse, a military weapon of the wealthy plains. All strength comes from God. God alone deserves praise.
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Paul continues his careful argument about the freedom of God’s people. In Christ we are free, he says, not to injure one another, but to help. Using his own work as an example, Paul argues that we are not so much free from each other as free for each other.
Mark 1:29-39
Everywhere Jesus goes, many people expect Him to set them free from oppression. Everywhere He goes, He heals them, and sets them free. Disease, devils, and death are running for their lives. The forces that diminish human life are rendered powerless by Jesus.