Sozo: God's Power to Heal

Hook - 1991 film - Robin Williams/Peter Banning - career minded corporate lawyer. Living dream with wife/kids/nice house. Forgot who he is. Peter Pan. Bc grew up he lost his awareness of Neverland/lost boys/Tinkerbell/magic. Tragedy - he grew up.

Good description of many Christians. We enter the faith at some point and everything is magical - or to use Bible language - miraculous. Life is full of wonder. We see God in everything. But something happens along the way as we either get older, or at least older in the faith. We grow up. We become more “sophisticated” in our thinking. Sometimes we’re introduced to theology that makes us skeptical of the Bible stories we believed in our youth. We may still believe in miracles in a conceptual way, but we no longer live as if a miracle could happen at any moment.

A few weeks ago the Lord laid a word on my heart. It’s the Greek word sozo, and in the NT it is translated to heal or save or deliver. It’s the good news of how God is restoring the lives of those who have the audacity to refuse to grow old.

One of the biggest contributions John Wimber - Vineyard movement founder - made to the church was in showing the connection between Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God and the demonstration of it. He never only told people the good news of God’s kingdom - he showed them what it looked like through miracles of healing, salvation, and deliverance. Through sozo.

So we are starting a 3-week journey of looking at each of the meanings of sozo. This morning we are going to look at Sozo: God’s Power to Heal.

Pray…

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Read Luke 8:43-48

Luke 8:43–48 (NRSV)

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Might be familiar story. Jesus is on his way to heal a little girl who’s ill. On his way has encounter with woman with hemorrhages. Doesn’t say exactly what her condition is except that she is regularly bleeding. In the series, The Chosen, they depict her as someone who has irregular menstrual flow - which is likely the case. Problem - makes her “unclean” in Jewish society. She can’t live among people because if she comes into contact she will make them unclean, therefore unable to go to synagogue/Temple. She’s spent everything she has on doctors but no one has been able to heal her. Then she hears that Jesus is nearby.

Here Luke adds an interesting detail. She “touched the fringe of his clothes”. In Matthew’s account of this story he includes her thought process. Matthew 9:21 “for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”” Why would she think that?

This isn’t the only time that Jesus’ cloak is mentioned in the NT in connection to healing. Matthew 14:35–36 “After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.”

I know you’re all thinking, “Why is these details recorded? What does it even mean? What’s up with fringes on their garments? Did the Jews just have a certain fashion sense? Had they been watching FashionbyAlly on YouTube to know this was just the accessory they needed to complete their ensemble?”

Does it really matter what Jesus is wearing? The short answer is, yes! This is powerful, but we’re going have to take a short journey in the OT to find out what all the “fringe” wearing business means and what it stills means for us.

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Command to wear comes from Numbers 15:37–39 “The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes.”

They were to put fringe - Hebrew tzitzit - on the corners of their garments as reminder that they were God’s ppl called to live in covenant faithfulness to him. (show on tallit)

Over time and in much of the near east, the corner of a man’s garment represented his identity. It symbolized who he was/what he stood for. The tzitzit the Jews wore identified them as God’s ppl committed to his commandments. This was their identity and the kind of people they were called to be.

We don’t have time to look at passage, but 1 Samuel tells story of David trying to prove to King Saul that he didn’t pose threat by sneaking into Saul’s tent while he was sleeping and cutting off the corner of his garment. Yet, he later felt guilty bc he realized he had defaced the symbol of Saul’s identity and authorized kingship.

Why if you remember beautiful love story of Ruth her mother-in-law told her to go to Boaz after he was asleep and uncover his feet and lie down. When he woke up found Ruth lying there. We read this: Ruth 3:9 “He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”” Ruth is asking for Boaz to apply his identity to her - to take responsibility over her.

When Israel rebelled against God, Ezekiel came with a reminder from God of what he did for them. Using the language of love he said, Ezekiel 16:8 “I passed by you again and looked on you; you were at the age for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you, and covered your nakedness: I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine.” Again, God’s expressed his identity as one who would faithfully care for Israel.

Bottom line: The corner of someone’s garment was essential to their identity. Here’s where this gets really interesting. In Hebrew, the word for “garment” - kanap - is the same word for “wing”. Each of the passages we looked at could be equally translated “to spread a wing” over. Ruth wanted to come under the Boaz wing. God promised to spread his wing over Israel.

The OT closes with this beautiful promise of what God would one day do through the Messiah. After describing what it will mean for the wicked, Malachi says this: Malachi 4:2 “But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” Or, it could say, “with healing in it’s garment”. When God comes, it will be like the sun breaking through the clouds, and there will be healing under his wings - or at the corner of his garment.

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Now back to our passage. Jesus, as a devout Jew, would have wore the tzitzit - tassels - at the corner of his garment. (demonstrate with tallit) And this woman her whole life had heard the stories of Ruth being covered by Boaz wings, of Israel being covered by God’s wings, and of Malachi’s promise that the Messiah would have healing in his wings. She saw something in Jesus no one else did - his identity as Israel’s healer. The Messiah who had come with healing in his wings. In touching the fringe of his garment - the tzitzit - she was asking to come under the shadow of his wing. To come under his healing care.

Instantly, we read she was made well. After Jesus discovers who it was that touched him he replied Luke 8:48 “Daughter, your faith has made you well (sozo); go in peace.” Literally, your faith has healed (sozo) you.

In faith, she took hold of the corner of Jesus’ garment, the tzitzit, symbolically asking to come under the shadow of his wings. And there she found healing.

I love a scene from Lord of the Rings after the final battle where the rightful king, Aragorn, is working in the hospital ministering to the injured. One of the nurses, looking on, quotes from an ancient prophecy that “the hands of the king are the hands of a healer.” This is how they would know who the true king is when he came.

This is also how we know who the true king is. Healing would characterize so much of Jesus’ ministry. Everywhere he went he proclaimed the kingdom of God and then demonstrated it by healing every kind of sickness and disease.

Jesus still spreads out his healing wings over us. We are a church committed to the present ministry of Jesus through the HS. By faith, we can still take hold of the fringe of his garment, asking to be identified with him. The risen Jesus, through the power of the Spirit, can still bring healing to our lives that are broken due to sin and sickness. Do you have the faith of this woman to take hold of his garment today and come under the shadow of his wings?

Why did Jesus sometimes resort to weird things in healing? Sometimes we need the physical to activate faith

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Ministry...

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Communion

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*** Announcement reminders ***

Dismissal prayer

Now as we prepare to take this time of worship into the week ahead, the Lord who loves you reminds you that:

Exodus 15:26 (NRSV)

I am the Lord who heals you.”

GO BE THE CHURCH!!