Healing – before the New Testament was written.

There is a wonderful story of healing recorded in Luke 5: 12-15. It offers a great insight into the work of Jesus, showing the link between his healing, teaching and saving work.

The setting: an ill person came to Jesus requesting cleansing, as opposed to requesting healing. The mans obvious scaly, leprous skin made him spiritually unclean. Luke tells us the man saw Jesus with eyes of faith (“Lord…you can make me clean”) and that he understood his illness in spiritual terms ( being spiritually unclean he was a social outcast, unable to connect to the social or spiritual life of God’s people). He saw Jesus healing ability as a primarily spiritual remedy (cleans me please Lord!)

This connection between the spiritual and natural experiences of God’s people is written about in Deuteronomy 28 where obedience (a spiritual dynamic) and disobedience (another spiritual dynamic) are contrasted in terms of naturalistic blessings and curses. In other words, Israel is as spiritually responsible as Adam and Eve were in Eden for spiritual choices and outcomes.

With Jesus ministry directed to freeing people in distressed states, (“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to set prisoners free”, Luke 4.18,19) this man is presented by Luke as a person set free from spiritual (and natural)uncleanness. Whether his uncleanness has its origin in a national or corporate condition of spiritual uncleanness, or a personal one is not made clear by Luke.

For a New Testament view of personal responsibility in spiritual uncleanness see 1 Corinthians 11: 27-32 where Paul talks of physical illnesses amongst the Corinthian Christians being connected to a lack of personal spiritual discernment in relation to sin and the subsequent attendance at the Lord’s Supper in a spiritually unhealthy (unclean) state.

At any rate, Luke shows us his and Jesus warfare worldview in relation to, sickness, captives, and being bound in distressing conditions at Acts 10.38, “ God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, an he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil”. For the writers of the New Testament there was a direct connection in human lives between the dynamics of the invisible and visible worlds. This healing event shows Jesus spirituality is superior: his frees and brings joy, the other brings bondage and despair. This means we can be confident our spirituality in Jesus will bring similar results for we are sent by him for similar purposes.