Jesus Healing Us

Intro.

Human tendency to be drawn - and when one person gets drawn, its like dominoes - everyone else falls.

Why are we so desperate for a Jesus that heals? Because it reveals there is something in our hearts that we cannot fill.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 52:15

This Servant, whom many have not considered important at all, will actually provide the most important thing for nations and their kings, namely, cleansing from sin (cf. John 1:29; Heb. 10:14).

Who would have thought that a Lamb could rescue the souls of men?

The Servant’s Way of Healing is Ironic.

This seems straightforward and strange, but we can’t overlook it. Isaiah 53 is sometimes referred to as the Gospel of the Old Testament. There is a birth narrative, there is a section on life and teaching, and there is a section on the servant’s death. Verses 4-6 are particularly powerful, but maybe one of the most ironic verses in all of Scripture is Isaiah 53:5

Isaiah 53:5 HCSB

But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.

Everything in verses 4-6 is built on pairs using two words - He and our.

He bore, he carried, he was pierced, etc.

Our sickness, our pains, our transgressions.

He is good and was treated as bad, so that we who are bad would be treated as good.

When this suffering servant, who we believe is Jesus, was crucified, Israel thought His hardships were deserved for His supposedly having blasphemed God.

When in fact He was bearing the judgment that their sin, your sin, my sin, required. The ultimate healing, soul healing, spiritual healing, that Isaiah is talking about is found through the wounds of Jesus.

And then in verse 6 he uses another picture - sheep - to explain the same principle. The sheep (us) who have sinned by going our own way (sin) are saved by the One servant.

The Ironic Message of Jesus’ Healing is Powerful

I want to offer you a challenge at the beginning of this sermon, as well as at the end.

The theme this week is Jesus healing us and I want to emphasize the continuing nature of Jesus’ healing in the lives of His people. Using the text from Isaiah 53 and Mark 2 side by side challenged me. It has been challenging me since I started reading them and preparing this message.

How do we hold two seemingly divergent truths together in reality? This is the challenge for us now, before we go any further in this message. Here’s an example:

Mark 2:1 HCSB

When He entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that He was at home.

Mark 2:2 (HCSB)

So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and He was speaking the message to them.

Mark 2 - Mark 3:6 is all about authority over sin and the law and the religious leaders’ problem with Jesus’ message and claims.

Anyone can draw a crowd! Wrestlers, celebrities, musicians and preachers can all draw crowds. It’s what you do with that crowd that makes the difference.

The people came to see the Lord work some more miracles. They came to see Him do the extraordinary. Imagine their surprise and disappointment when Jesus began to preach to them!

What was the message He spoke to them - well, it’s likely that it was the exact message of Isaiah 53:4-6 - by the wounds of the suffering servant you will be healed. How powerful was the message? Mark 2:3-4 tell us that a group of men carried their paralytic friend up the back stairs, tore open the roof and lowered the man down because there wasn’t another way.

It’s clear that these men had absolute confidence in Jesus and in His message considering the barriers they saw and experienced and that is why

Nothing should ever be allowed to crowd out the message of Jesus’ healing.

Isn’t it ironic that the very thing that kept the men out of the house - the crowd - is the very same thing that kept the homeowner, Peter, in the house to witness this miracle!

Jesus’ Healing Gives Us a New Perspective

The paralytic was lowered through the roof, which is where he meets Jesus. And it’s kind of a strange interaction

Mark 2:5 HCSB

Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Think of the new, immediate connection Jesus makes in this short phrase. For the people there was a connection between their physical condition and sin. He doesn’t dismiss the idea, as sin is the reason that any and all evil or sickness exists. He clarifies and demonstrates that there is a SOLUTION, a course of HEALING, for BOTH. Jesus begins a new family tree for the paralytic- God, the sinless One becomes this man’s father and His nature is imparted to the man by faith, but not in the manner we’d expect. The paralytic’s faith? Try again.

The determined effort of the friends is visible evidence of their faith in Jesus to heal their friend.

A quick word about the friends:

They dared to do what was difficult, unusual, and costly. It was not easy to carry that man up on the roof. They had to think unusually, we’d say out side the box, and they may have to pay Peter for the damage. Check your friend list, friends.

If we consider the length that these friends went to for their friends’ healing, do we consider the length Jesus went on our behalf for our healing?

In this story, we’re the paralytic on the mat and Jesus is the one who bears our sin, who does the difficult, the unusual, and the costly. So that we might become sons and daughters.

In verses 6-11, there is a very theological conversation between Jesus and the teachers.

Jesus did which only God can do and they said you can’t do that. Then Jesus says I have the same authority as God now watch this: GET UP, TAKE UP YOUR MAT AND GO HOME.

Jesus told the man to walk out the door. Not a command to the friends to lift him back out, or for those around the table to guide him. All the more, consider the final verse in this portion Mark 2:12

Mark 2:12 HCSB

Immediately he got up, picked up the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Spiritual healing leads us on a journey with and led by God to a new life characterized with amazement and praise.

Consider the closing words of Isaiah 53:12

Isaiah 53:12 (HCSB)

Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

In the New Testament, we find the same message

Romans 5:8 HCSB

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Beloved,

My challenge to you this morning is straightforward.

Are you living a life in amazement and praise for the healing Jesus has brought in your life?

Is His blood still doing the wonder working power that it once did? Are you daily hearing Jesus say - pick up that mat and walk out the door! Don’t go back through the roof - go and praise the One who healed you!

Maybe you are the friend who knows that someone who needs to be lowered through the roof. Are you going to do what is difficult, unusual, and costly to bring them to the Healer?

Maybe the healing hasn’t come, and it’s hard speak in amazement of Him or to praise Him. If your heart is hungry for peace and healing, He is still who He said He was. He is still the Counselor, Comforter, Keeper, and Friend your heart is hungering for. Come and be in His presence at this place and prayer with confidence in His faithfulness.

Do you know this healer, the One who’s wounds offer you healing for your sin and a new life? If you don’t know Him, we want to pray with you that you would know Him as Lord and Savior.