Jesus' Healing Works and Ours

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• Publisher: Wild Goose Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781849521758
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Systematic Theology & Ethics

Ian Cowie sheds new light on what the healing miracles of Jesus were. Re-translating the original Greek of the Gospels, he carefully dissects the actions and words of Jesus and draws conclusions which are often at odds with current interpretations. He concludes that there is no justification for saying that 'miracles' break the laws of nature, but that such events are a natural result of using untapped human and divine resources in a universe that is totally consistent.

SECTION ONE

Healing works in the Gospels

THE CALL

We begin by looking at an incident early in the story of Jesus and his disciples. The scene opens with a summary of what he had been doing in the early part of his ministry, and then we see how he began the business of delegating his work to ordinary humans – and eventually to us.

We see very clearly that Jesus never came to do a solo act, a ‘look at me’ show. He came in order to pass on what he was doing, to delegate his Authority to ordinary people.

This, of course, goes right back to the very first book in the Bible, in which God delegates his care for this planet to human beings (Genesis 1:26).

Delegation is the name of the game,
from the very beginning.
It still is.

THE CALL (Matthew 9:35–10:1)

And Jesus did a tour of the villages and towns, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every illness and disease.

Seeing the crowds he was filled with compassion for them, because they were troubled and crushed, like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to the disciples: ‘What a great harvest, but how few the harvesters! So pray to ‘The Lord of the Harvest’ for more workers to work his Harvest.’

Then calling out the twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to expel them, and to heal every illness and disease.

Notes

Disciple

This word originally meant a trainee, somebody with L-plates. It certainly does not mean somebody extra-holy, who, so to speak, is a better driver than other people. Far from it. As the story unfolds that will become painfully obvious. Thank goodness!

For reasons which will become obvious as we go on through the book, notice that Jesus gave the disciples exousia (authority) to heal and exorcise, not dunamis (power).

Evangel

Evangel is a word which appears here, and I have translated it as good news. It is a word which had a very different meaning for people in those days. If some poor wretch had fallen out of favour with the Emperor he might be banished to some remote place, such as Scotland, or sent to the salt mines. However, if the Emperor relented, then he might send an Evangelion, giving the poor man permission to return home and resume his full citizenship.

It was this word that the Christians took over to summarise the message which they brought to the world. We translate it into English as gospel or evangel.

In modern speech, however, the words ‘evangelistic’ and ‘Gospel’ have taken on a very different meaning. We must get back to using them as they were meant to be used, to say: ‘… free at last!’

The Kingdom of Heaven/of God

The three first Gospels all sum up Jesus’ mission as being to proclaim the arrival of the long-awaited Kingdom of God.

The term ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ does not mean what we normally mean by ‘heaven’. Jesus speaks of it as being here, right now, on earth. So we look more carefully at this term.

The word translated as kingdom means rule. The Greek word does not mean a place, but sovereignty.We could express Jesus’ message in graffiti-like style as: ‘God rules OK.’

Kingdom?

Think of the situation in these islands about five hundred years ago. There was Queen Elizabeth I of England. There was Mary Queen of Scots. The English saw a kingdom as being an area. The Scots saw a kingdom as being people. Those are very different ideas about sovereignty, and it is the Scots one which comes nearest to the Biblical view, so the Kingdom of Heaven is not ‘a place’ but a people.

Of heaven?

Mark, Luke and John all refer to ‘the Kingdom of God’, while Matthew refers to ‘the Kingdom of the skies’. We usually re-phrase that as ‘the Kingdom of Heaven’. Why is Matthew different? Because Jews hold the Name of God in such awe that they avoid using it, even in worship, and Matthew’s approach is very Jewish. So the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven both refer to the same thing, and neither is what we usually mean when we say ‘heaven’. Jesus’ parables try to explain what he meant by these terms. They enable us to see what Jesus means when he refers to healing as being a sign that the Kingdom is present in him, here and now.

That being so, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ is not a pious hope for the future, but an invitation to God to come on in and reign in us now. The sign that God rules is that we do what he wants us to do. ‘Thy will be done’ = ‘Do what you want with us now, on earth.’ If we really meant what we said, we might see ‘more signs of the Kingdom’!

Repent

As the result of this good news people were asked to repent. In some English versions it is expressed as ‘repent of their sins’. The Greek word is metanoia which means to change your mind, to rethink. Most of Jesus’ parables begin with the phrase ‘The Kingdom of God is like…’ That is because he was trying to get them to drop their idea of a nationalistic Empire, to be achieved through conquest, and see another picture altogether. He was not the sort of Christ who would bring in the sort of kingdom they were expecting and praying for. They were going to have to do a lot of rethinking.

All good news makes you rethink. If you win the lottery you have to do a lot of rethinking; in fact your whole life changes. If someone says, ‘I love you,’ or if a new baby comes along, you have to rethink. Rethinking in the light of such good news is a wonderful thing, very different from the usual idea of repentance. Equally, if you get the Good News that Jesus brought you will have to rethink your whole life. It is not a matter of delving into the past to dig up all the sordid details. That often becomes most unhealthy. Of course for some people discovering the Good News makes them realise how shabby their past lives have been. Yet for others, who have always assumed that they were nobodies and worthless failures, it means the very opposite.

Most of us have things in the past of which we are ashamed, things we regret. We can only face them truly when we know that God forgives and can redeem the situation and turn it to the good. Many preachers seem to think that you must ‘repent’ first and then hear the Good News. That is putting the cart before the horse. The Good News comes first. Then you can rethink what your life is about. Then you can work it out in practice.

Twelve

Now that we have gone into what some of the words actually mean, we can move on to the story itself. It seems that Jesus at one point gathered twelve of his followers and formed them into a special core group, which we know as ‘the Twelve’. This was really the start of the Church.

He started the Church, then, because the needs of suffering humanity were too great even for him to cope with single-handed. What is more, it is clear that the whole healing ministry of Jesus springs from his compassion for the poor and the suffering. He passes on his Authority to the Twelve, and through them to all who will respond to his Word: us.

Authority

We have to be very clear that Jesus called the Church into being to meet the needs of the suffering masses, not to dominate them or to make money out of them. We have authority to heal, deliver and bless people, to spread the good news, not to boss them. (Sadly the Church has often forgotten that, becoming a power-seeking organisation. When she does so, she ceases to have Jesus’ Authority to heal.)

Only those who are ruled by Christ’s compassion can truly share his healing ministry. The moment we become power-seeking we have fallen.

The men with L-plates

He called people whose experience had come through sharing the life of the poor, through hard, dangerous work, like fishing, and through struggling with the problems of the market place. He did not choose people with academic qualifications, and his training of the Twelve from this point on was not academic. (See The Twelve Together, Ralph Morton, published by the Iona Community but now out of print.)

St John tells us in the first chapter of his Gospel that Jesus gathered the first four ‘learners’ at John the Baptiser’s revival meetings in the south. Andrew and John seem to have been with John the Baptiser, and to have brought their brothers to meet Jesus. John and James were cousins of Jesus, their mother being his mother’s sister (John19:25). Two more joined him on the long walk back to Galilee. They then returned to their jobs. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that some time later Jesus came back and called the first four from their boats to come with him on a tour of Galilee, picking up Matthew Levi at about the same time. The others seem to have gathered slowly. We know very little about them, although St John gives us one or two glimpses of Philip and Thomas.

The story we have just read tells of how Jesus took these ‘followers’ a step further, welding them into an actual team of ‘disciples’ sharing his work. It was, then, an important step which would have been a turning point, for the very fact of making a selection of twelve would tell any Jew who knew his Bible that Jesus meant business.

Motives

As we think of the call of those first ‘learners’ we naturally think about what we are being ca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Section One: Healing works in the four Gospels
• Section Two: Healing works in Acts
• Section Three: Looking back on it all
• Epilogue
• Analysis: Healing in the Gospels
• Analysis: Healing in Acts