The Healing Hands of Christ

Rev. Alex Sloter Mark 1:29-39 The Healing Hands of Christ Epiphany 5B (2/7/2021) Christ’s Healing Hands Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. We pick up our gospel lesson this morning right where last week’s left off. Jesus is in Capernaum, teaching in the synagogue. The crowds are amazed, “What is this? A new teaching, with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” The man who had been freed from the power of the demon leapt to his feet and went to share the good news with his family and friends. The day is off to a good start. The kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus teaches until lunchtime, and then Simon, who was also called Peter, invites Jesus to his home for dinner. When they arrive, Peter tells Jesus that his mother-in-law is sick with a fever. Now Peter had never seen Jesus heal anyone before. So he was probably just making a polite excuse for her absence, as though he had said, “My wife’s mother won’t be joining us today. She has a fever and is trying to sleep upstairs.” But as soon as Jesus hears the news, he does the unexpected. He leaves his place at the table and climbs the stairs to the sick room, never saying a word. He finds the poor woman in a restless sleep, with the blankets only half-covering her. Her skin is wet with sweat. Her forehead is burning up. But Jesus ignores all this. He disregards sound medical advice which would tell him to let her rest. Instead, he takes her by the hand and pours his life into her tired body. And just as the demon fled before his powerful word, the fever flees before his perfect life. The woman wakes with a start and stands up. She is strong and ablebodied once more. Walking downstairs with Jesus, she helps prepare the meal, joyfully serving the man who had so willingly served her. But Peter’s wife, the daughter of this woman, slips out the back door to tell all of her family and friends, “Jesus healed my mother.” Where Is Our Healing? Wouldn’t that be great if Jesus just showed up at your house and healed you? We could really use that right now, not just because of the Covid, but because of all the other illnesses and diseases we have to deal with. Cancer, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, infection, there is just no end to the things we can catch. The worst by far is othaa. I first heard of othaa in 2019 while I was on vicarage in North Carolina. An elderly woman told me that she was dying of othaa. Being only 26 at the time, I assumed this was an old person’s disease that I hadn’t run into yet. So I put on my most compassionate look and politely said, “I’m so sorry to hear that. What’s othaa?” “You know, othaa, one thing after another! If it’s not my knees, it’s my hands. If it’s not my hands, it’s my stomach. If it’s not my stomach, it’s my heart. I’m dying of othaa, one thing after another.” You chuckle because you know it’s true. Othaa is the worst thing about getting older. How can you tell if you have othaa? Well, if a person calls to schedule something with you, and you grab your calendar to work around doctor’s appointments, you have othaa. If you’ve ever taken more medicine than food following a meal, you have othaa. If you’ve ever thought about running a pharmacy from your medicine cabinet for some extra income, you have othaa. But othaa isn’t just for the old and elderly. Everyone contracts othaa at a young age, as soon as they are born. Children and teenagers, how can you know if you have othaa? If you wear glasses, you have othaa. If you’ve ever had a cavity, you have othaa. If you’ve ever been told, “You look just like your mom and dad,” you definitely have othaa. Just look at how they turned out. That’ll be you in a few years! Unfortunately, othaa is currently incurable. Unlike Covid, which has a very low mortality rate, othaa is perfect. The fatality rate is 100%. If one thing doesn’t get you, the other will. It’s just one thing after another, othaa. So all of us, whether we are young or old, need Jesus to come and heal us. Not just from cancer or Covid or whatever specific thing might be wrong with us. We need Jesus to come and give us perfect healing, healing from othaa, and everything that comes with it. But Jesus hasn’t come to my house. He hasn’t taken my hand and poured his life into me. I too have health problems, even at 28, and I expect them to get worse over time, not better. That’s why I call myself the old guy. And as I observe this congregation, I see the same story. A whole bunch of people with othaa. People who haven’t been healed by Christ just yet. What should we do, when we read about the healing ministry of Christ in the gospels, but haven’t experienced his healing ourselves? Come to Peter’s House Well, we should probably do the same thing as everyone else in our gospel lesson. The daughter of the healed woman has left Peter’s house to tell others that Jesus healed her mother. It’s a miracle. And we all know what happens to news in a small town, it gets around. Before too long, the daughter told her sister, her sister told her friend, her friend told her cousin, and her cousin told… you get the picture. Point is, the word got out. Jesus can heal. The whole town waits until sundown, which marks the end of the Jewish sabbath, and then all the sick, all the lame, all the diseased and demon-possessed, gather at Jesus’ door. And one by one, he heals them all. He frees them. He shares his life with them. Whereas every day in human history has been marked by disease, the day Jesus visited Capernaum was marked by life. What a day. Have you ever wondered why the whole town came to Jesus? He had only healed a single person, Peter’s mother-in-law. But that single healing became a sign to every person that Jesus could help them. That Jesus would heal them too. It was faith that drew them to the door of the house. It was faith that kept them there as they waited their turn. Faith that what happened to one person would happen to them all. They believed that the kingdom of God was at hand in the healing hands of Christ. We too have gathered at the door of Peter’s house because of the example of one healing. Not the healing of a mere fever, though that is remarkable in itself. But because of the one example in all history of perfect healing. The only time othaa was truly and forever cured—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His body died from one thing after another, one blow, one hardship, one nail after another. But it didn’t stay dead. God extended his hand of perfect healing and poured life into the body of his Son, and he rose. This is the ultimate healing, new life after death. Breath after breath has ceased. Jesus’ resurrection was the goal of every miraculous healing. When Jesus raised Peter’s mother-in-law, it was a promise of healing for all who would come to him. But the resurrection revealed the kind of healing that Christ offers. Not healing from a single disease, but healing from othaa. Perfect life poured into our dead bodies through the healing hands of Christ. So we gather at the door and wait for Christ to come and heal us. Faith has brought us here. Faith will hold us here until Christ appears and raises the dead, raises us to new and perfect life. We are here because we believe that the kingdom of God is at hand in the healing hands of Christ. Our Promised Healing We have already waited a long time at the door, but our wait is not a hopeless wait, like someone waiting for the doctor to tell them they are going to die. Ours is a hopeful wait because our good physician has already told us what lies ahead for each of us. Here is what he says. From Psalm 36, “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Man and beast you save. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” The steadfast love of God is for us. The sheltering wings of God are for us. The fountain of life is for us. Healing is on the way. The kingdom of God is at hand. From John 11, “Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ Jesus replied, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet will he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ” Yes Lord! We believe. That is why we are here. The kingdom of God is at hand in your healing hands, and it is for us. From Revelation 21, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, no crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also, he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” The kingdom of God is at hand. The healing hands of Christ are stretched over you. Repent and believe the Gospel. Amen.