Apologies for the lateness of the Bible Study this week (I seem to say that a lot, maybe I should just move the day *smile*) I have been rather distracted by the storm kicked up around a previous post. Anyway, it’s Marks Gospel that we are here to talk about so on we go.

I could preach 101 sermons on this passage. Instead I have a basic question; well it seems basic but it is one that has plagued the Christian Church for many years (it’s even been on threedays before courtesy of Gaz) and one that many people seem afraid to answer. Why is the healing power of Jesus Christ not evident in the Church today?

Please forgive me if at your particular local fellowship people are coming in there droves to receive healing. I do not wish to belittle such out pouring of Christ’s love, mercy and power. I wouldn’t say it’s happening every week but there is a steady stream of physical and emotional healing taking place at the church to which I belong. So I do of course believe that it can and does happen.

I myself, on occasion have been the vessel which God has chosen to bring such healing. Much more often I have witnessed it, sometimes in spectacular ways. But, alas, the general trend seems to be that healing is not happening and there is no expectancy of that to change. I ask the question; why?

We see in this passage a collection of accounts of healing that Jesus delivered. The man possessed by an evil spirit, Simon’s mother-in-law who had a fever, the man with leprosy, and probably most famous of all, the paralytic who was lower by his friends to Jesus threw the roof of a house.

As I read these passages I confess that I’m looking for clues as to what ‘made it work’ for Jesus. Why was Jesus, and later his disciples and apostles, so prolific with this amazing gift?

Something that was pointed out to me a while ago, which I think might be helpful to share at this point is that Jesus (and of course, later His disciples and apostles) did not heal everyone that they come into contact with. We have accounts of those who were healed, and I’m sure that there were many healed that we don’t know about, but we are not told about those that were not healed. The writers felt that cataloging every person that was in contact with Jesus was clearly not worth while. Understandable. But that understanding does shed some light on our question.

Firstly, Jesus seemed to know who was ready to be healed. He obviously had a very close relationship with the father; and we know he could only do what he already saw the father doing. Jesus had a discernment of what was going on in the spiritual that came from this intimate relationship. (Check out 1:35 for a clue as to why I think such a relationship was sustained; we have looked at this before.)

Secondly, it appears from my reading of the Bible that there was a level of faith involved. This is not popular, and I do not think it is the whole story by any means. I do not want to go down the line of people don’t get healed because they don’t have enough faith. There are a number of occasions in the Bible where people did not have a clue who Jesus was, let alone have any kind of faith in Him as the Son of God or even His ability to work miracles. However, faith clearly, I think, has a part to play.

He often used phrases like “your faith has made you well” (although not, to our knowledge, on these occasions). Here we do have good examples though of the three kinds of faith which I am coming to believe play a part.

Firstly, the faith of the healer. When Jesus cast out the evil spirit there was no question as to who was in charge. It was not a request. Jesus knew he had the authority to command the spirit and so He used it. Worth noting here that this authority has been given to us.

Secondly, the faith of the one in need of the healing. The man with leprosy clearly had faith. He knew that if Jesus chooses to, He could heal him. And healing was received.

Thirdly, the faith of friends. The paralytic being lowered through the roof (again something touched on before). What a wonderful example of people basically bringing somebody they know to the feet of Jesus and asking Him to take pity on them. They would have look really stupid if Jesus did not heal the man. But they clearly had faith that was not something they need worry about.

I do not believe that there is a ‘method’. Jesus seemed to approach each situation individually. Although, we are told to lay hands on the sick. When I have been involved in healing the laying on of hands has been an important part but I do not pretend to understand why. Perhaps some of the more learned among you could shed some light on thet one.

So that’s just a few thoughts that I have picked up from those passages on healing. I realize that this is a huge subject and one that has had much debate. So why do you think we do not see such a prolific outpouring of the gift of healing as what was experienced by Jesus and later, the early church?