Healing & Commitment

September, 2001

Both sayings are, however, present in Luke. The words "he that is not against us is for us" occur at chapter 9 verse 50, and "he that is not with me is against me" at chapter 11, verse 23. Luke’s gospel is twenty-four chapters in length, yet only seventy-six verses separate these two sentences. What has happened to change things? The intervening text contains several passages, two of which we have heard this evening. The reading from Matthew tells us about the commissioning of the twelve, but that of the seventy, related by Luke, is remarkably similar – the disciples are commanded to heal as well as preach the Good News. The parable of the Good Samaritan is preceded by the two great commandments. As we have been reminded by the first two readings (Deut 6: 3-12 & Lev 19:15-18), Jesus did not invent these, but drew them – as he invariably did – from the Old Testament. He did however insist that "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Mat 22:40). There are several other stories in the intervening text: that of Martha and Mary, and Jesus instructing his disciples in the way they were to pray the "Lord’s Prayer". But there is something else. Chapter 9, verse 51, records that Jesus: "steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem". Effective ministry always comes at a cost.

Just over five years ago, I went through what I can only describe as a time of spiritual testing. I became deeply troubled, and my mind gave me no rest at day or night. The experience was manifested in an intense intellectual battle over the nature and - ultimately - the very reality of God. The debate that raged might be summarised as "What kind of God did I believe in - and could such a God make any sense? Could the "coincidences" that are typical of God’s way be in fact just that – coincidences? I was wracked both intellectually an emotionally by this battle – I can remember actually chewing the bedclothes one night through fear that I might be living under an illusion. I found myself wondering in part whether our deep need for a real God might lead us to want to believe so much that we come to fool ourselves. The whole experience lasted less than a fortnight, but it seemed to go on forever. Then, one morning, I found myself in tears of joy as I read my morning prayers. I had a very real sense that I was back in God’s grip.

Four days later, I went to have my six monthly asthma check-up. Much to my surprise – and that of the nurse - my peak flow had risen from 425 to 525, back to where it had been a decade before, and where it has remained ever since. This, I was told, is very unusual: I had had asthma since I was since months old, and there is inevitably some deterioration of the lungs over that period of time. A year before I had been in so bad a state that I had experienced considerable difficulty in climbing the stairs at work, and had been advised – very gently – to go home. Five years on, I can state that I have not had any kind of attack since, and for the past two years have needed no medication whatsoever.

Experiences of this kind are not uncommon, and in themselves they never prove that the works of God are being made manifest. It is not only the spirit of Jesus that is effective in healing people. Indeed, Scripture warns us that some forms of healing may in fact be the work of the Devil. Yet my tears were accompanied by a very clear feeling of being loved, and in the ensuing days and weeks, I found myself extending that love both to God – in thanks and praise - and to those around me, in a way I had not felt able to do before. As the passages we have heard from both the Old and the New Testament remind us, it is the ability to love God and our neighbour – without any partiality - that characterises the indwelling spirit of Jesus Christ.

What then, of our own commitment? Are we for Jesus or against him? Each of his two statements takes place within the context of the casting out of devils. Those who are "not against" him are still calling for deliverance in his name. The disciples are only upset that it is someone other than themselves! Those who are recorded as not being for him are, however, casting out devils by Beezlebub: they are very clearly against him. We may have reservations about the process of deliverance - although there is considerable documentation to support it – but in this, along with other ministries, we do need to acknowledge the centrality of Jesus, whose own work was performed for the greater glorification of God. The theologian Hans Kung has written that it is the person "who truly submits in faith", to the message and thus to God and his Christ who receives the Holy Spirit" (On Being a Christian, p 471). Without the power of the spirit, both effective ministry and effective healing will be impossible.

The way of discipleship includes healing as well as preaching. Yet we do not gain people for Jesus by coercion: we gain them through love. And to love people means to suffer with them. And sometimes to go with them through hostile territory, as the Samaritan did with the wounded man. It often seems too much for us: indeed it is impossible without prayer. A wise nun once said that the only measure of a successful prayer life was one’s increased capacity to bear suffering. And prayer is also self-surrender – the way in which we listen for God, and try to respond to his will for us, wherever that may lead us. In his second letter to the Corinthians, St Paul relates how he asked the Lord three times to remove the "thorn in his flesh", but was told that: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness". Paul responds to this by saying: "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor 12:9-10). It is one of his most important insights, and reminds us yet again of the necessity for an effective focus on Jesus, and commitment to his way in all that we say and do.

None of us know if or when we will be called on to set our faces to go to our own Jerusalem, but it is always a possibility so long as our hearts are open to it. At that stage we shall need to be clear on our priorities and be willing to set aside those things that are likely to get in the way or hinder our journey. That may well include some human relationships, for Jesus tells us – a little later on in Luke - that "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple". Harsh words, but the person speaking them represents absolute love – that which transcends the network of social and family responsibilities. "He that is not with me is against me".

All real healing is going to cost us something. Ultimately, it means nothing less than achieving the re-alignment of a divided humanity with its creator and sustainer; and that includes a divided Church. In the raising of Lazarus, Jesus groans (John 11:33), his agony prefiguring that in Gethsemane and on the cross. Yet his call, with all that it demands of us, can also bring great joy. Christian healing is not some abstract, clinical ritual, but is grounded in the love that derives from the deepest kind of relationship. St John relates how the sisters of Lazarus fully understand this, as they send for Jesus "saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick" (v 3). When Jesus arrives he finds "Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her. (v 33). Then he wept, and the Jews said, "Behold how he loved him!" (v 36). Jesus’s emotions after Lazarus is raised are not recorded by the Evangelist, but they can be guessed at from the account of another, who "ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and said to his servants, bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found". (Lk 15:20-24).

Neil Macdonald