by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin
The commonality between many of the passages in this chapter is that of physical healing. First, Jesus heals a leper, then he heals the paralyzed servant of a centurion. Later that day he heals Peter’s mother-in-law who is sick with a fever, and then that night he heals all who are sick and oppressed by demons. In v.17, Matthew tells us that he did all these things “to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” If you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you must believe that he performed all these healings as well. The question is: does he still heal in the same way today? Does he still take away all our diseases? Even more pressing upon our minds today is the important question: If I were to get the Corona Virus, would God miraculously heal me and restore me to full health?
Under normal circumstances, many charismatically-minded ministers insist that God does and will indeed heal all those who have faith in Jesus Christ. But is that really the case? Will he heal all true Christians who contract the virus? I don’t think so. I may have shared with you before that when I led a pastor’s conference in Indonesia, a number of local pastors asked me about the supposed faith-healer Benny Hinn. When he came to their country, a number of the pastors there took their sick members to be healed by him, but after the services were over, everyone who came in a wheelchair left in a wheelchair, those who came in on stretcher, left on a stretcher. But that was not the case when Jesus came to town. One of the things that stood out to the people who witnessed these things was that Jesus had an authority they had never seen before. He had authority when he preached the Word. He had authority to forgive sins, and he had authority to cast out demons and heal the sick. Obviously this authority came from the Father above.
Early on in his ministry, the Lord Jesus gave this same authority to the apostles to heal the sick and to cast out demons in Matthew 10:1 and wherever they went they were able to do these things in Jesus name. But not everyone was given this authority. I certainly have not been given that authority. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 Paul shares that the signs of a true apostle were performed among them and those signs included wonders and mighty works such as miraculous healings. These are the same type of signs that Jesus performed during his ministry in order to manifest his glory that his disciples might believe in him. The purpose of the divine healings was always to bring attention to the Word that was being preached among them to show forth the power and glory of Christ. Now that we have the complete revelation of God’s Word, we do not need any new apostles nor apostolic signs.
So, what does that mean for us today? First, we should not expect that all Christians will remain healthy throughout this pandemic, nor should we expect them all to be healed if they do contract the virus. Second, we should not put the Lord God to the test and purposely put our self in harm’s way. If you remember, Satan tempted Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple assuring him that God’s angels would protect him from harm. Jesus responded to the devil by saying those exact words from Deuteronomy 6:16 “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Thus, we should take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves from this virus and from potentially giving it to others. Third, if we think that we are sick we ought to see the doctor, for Jesus said in Mark 2:1, it is “not those who are well who need to see a physician, but the sick.” Here, Jesus is not assuming that everyone will be healed miraculously, but that the ordinary treatment for diseases is provided by a doctor.
Most importantly, we ought to pray that the Lord would be merciful and bring healing and restoration to our bodies and to this land. We ought to pray for the research scientists who are seeking a cure for this virus. We ought to pray for all the medical staff who seek to minister to those who are sick. We ought to pray for our leaders in all levels of government as they seek to make decisions to protect us as a people. And we ought to pray that we would be wise, loving and patient as we wait upon the Lord to bring an end to this pestilence that He has brought upon this earth for reasons that are beyond our understanding. We know that He is able to end it, but we pray as the leper did, “Lord, If you will, you can bring an end to this suffering, you can make me clean, you can cleanse our land of this virus.”
If you remember from the devotional the other day, we are praying for his name to be hallowed, his kingdom to come, and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, as we are taught in the Lord’s Prayer. It is hard to imagine that this virus would be the Lord’s will, but it must be, for now. Otherwise, it would not have happened. But let us pray even this day, that the Lord would bring about his will through this virus, drawing all men to himself, turning, as it says in Malachi 4:6 “the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest he come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” The virus is bad, indeed, but it could be much, much worse. Even though the Lord has ordered this pestilence, He has not yet ordered our destruction. In Scripture, we are taught that God sends momentary aspects of judgment to bring repentance and restoration to a people who are far from God. Thus, even a deadly pestilence is meant not to utterly destroy a people but to wake them up to their sin and need for a savior.
If you remember, God unleashed a deadly pestilence upon Israel during David’s reign, because of David’s sin as well as the sin of the people. When given the opportunity to be attacked by foreign invaders or to come under the sword of the Lord, David believed in 1 Chronicles 21:13 that it was better “to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great,” but he did not want to fall into the hands of man. Later that day the Angel of the Lord released a pestilence that killed 70,000 men in Israel. After the pestilence had accomplished all that it was set to do, the Lord said to the angel, “It is enough, now stay your hand.” Perhaps our prayer should be, “O Lord may your will be done in this, but please, O Lord, stay your hand, be merciful to us and relieve us of this plague that we may give thanks to your name and once again walk in the light of your glory and grace.” Or, as the centurion plead with Jesus, “only say the word, and my servant will be healed,” we ought to pray to the Lord, “Just say the Word, and our land will be healed…just say the Word, Lord.’ But why should he? When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law what was her response? When the fever left her, she immediately rose and began to serve Jesus. Again, perhaps we should be praying, “O Lord, heal us of this disease that we might rise up and serve you as we should.” Then maybe, as we pray according to God’s will, he will heal all who are sick, and bring an end to this terrible ordeal. Just as the Lord Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea and there was great calm, so He can rebuke this pandemic and hysteria and there will be calm once again, for even these diseases obey the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.
But what if the Lord were to heal our neighbors at the cost of our economy and our livelihood? That is the issue the Gadarenes faced when Jesus cast the demons out of the men in that region. When Jesus healed one man by casting the demons into a herd of pigs, the people there begged him to leave their region. In other words, they were more concerned about their idol of money than they were about true healing for those men or for themselves. Perhaps we should ask ourselves what we are more concerned about. Do we want genuine healing and restoration from the Lord, or do we just want things to return to normal where God was placed on the back burner in this country. This too should be seriously considered when we go to the Lord in prayer.