Rapha

For the opening week of July each year, my family and some very dear friends attend and volunteer at a Scripture Union summer camp near our home in southeast Scotland. For one week volunteers play host to a bunch of high school age young people, while they learn to surf, go coasteering and paddleboarding, turn their hand to a multitude of creative and artistic craft, play games, eat food (SO much food!!!), and worship, and learn a wee bit about Jesus along the way. It’s always a magical time and one of our favourite weeks of the year.

This year, our teaching theme is ‘Jesus, so what?’, and my session from the SU teaching guide is entitled ‘Jesus, the Healer’. There’s so much to say on the subject I don’t really know where to begin. Jesus - let’s begin with him.

Jesus came to show us exactly what God is like, because the people of God had strayed so far from the path, and their union with and understanding of God. The book of Hebrews tells us, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. In the Hebrew bible we see the Israelites have many names for God. One of them is Jehovah Rapha – The LORD who heals. Jesus gives us a clear picture of God’s character and essence, his love for humanity, and his willingness to do anything for the sake of those he loves and the world he created.

Through the gospel accounts of Jesus life, we see him outwork this mandate of Healer. Physical, miraculous healings are well documented the New Testament. During the story of the wedding at Cana (not a healing as such, but definitely a miracle), John adds the line, he thus revealed his glory. This is an important element of the physical healings too, that the glory of God is revealed through Christ to show his power and authority of the physical and spiritual world. The blind see, the lame walk, the possessed are set free, the sick are made well, he even raised the dead. Jesus’ mastery of all things is on full display in every account, we are watching love in action, and we are witnessing the healing of the world that he loves so much (John 3) slowly unfold.

Jesus went through the whole region, teaching and healing as he went, though his eyes always firmly fixed on Jerusalem. Whilst Jesus is the perfect picture of kindness and compassion in all the ways that he healed and spoke with people he encountered, these healings all point to the greater healing, a foretaste of all that was/is to come. A healing of all people back to God, a restoration of all things, a renewal in ways previously unseen or experienced.

I wonder, do you know him as Healer? How has Jesus Rapha turned up in your own life? You may have seen physical healings or maybe not; you may not have stood up from your wheelchair, your friend may not have been healed of the tumour they carried, but where has faith grown within you to witness the healing of the human soul, heart, mind and spirit? Healing is reconciliation with God, it’s the re-union of God to his people after a severing; it’s the renewing of our minds, the rewiring, and fresh revelation. I truly hope and pray that you have experienced the healer in this way.

And if so, do you find yourself in a posture of gratitude? Out of the ten lepers healed by Jesus, only one return to fall at his feet in thanksgiving and praise (Luke 17).

Where in the wider world are you seeing the Great Healer at work? Truth be told, its hard sometimes. War is ravaging through lands and nations; division and polarisation are becoming more entrenched in our politics and in the church; and intolerance, sometimes even hate, is fuelling our opinions on unity and diversity. It’s easy to simply ask, where are you Jesus?

Maybe he is asking the same question to us, where are you my people? We’re stuck fighting each other, inflicting and receiving ‘friendly fire’, arguing and squabbling.

May this serve as a reminder of your call to a ministry of reconciliation. In 2 Corinthians we’re told that….God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.

As with most things, healing begins on our knees, calling out to Jesus with the mustard seed of faith that we have. Jesus looks into our eyes and we know, we simply know, that our troubles are momentary; that he is indeed making all things new, healing the world one heart at a time. Let’s make sure we’re the one who came back to his feet and perhaps let’s keep coming back to offer praise at the feet of the Great Healer. And then let’s join him to address the fracturing we see all around us; let’s head out into the highways and byways as co-creators, co-healers, co-purveyors of a restored world.

Grace and peace,

Jon 

Jon Timms

Joint CEO, Rural Ministries