[audio http://adamcopeland.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/dr-jesus-matt-9_9-26-1.mp3]

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[A quick word about the context: two weeks ago at a church-wide supper, a guest speaker presented a case for his megachurch's healing ministry.  The 30-minute talk included several stories of miraculous healings in his community, and afterward, those attending the supper shared with me their mixed--but strongly felt--reactions.  So when the lectionary passage this week was about Jesus healing, I thought the opportunity to delve into Jesus' healing and its consequences just couldn't be passed up.  My attempt follows.]

Ayr: St. Columba Church of Scotland
Adam J. Copeland

Dr. Jesus
Matthew 9:9-13 & 18-26

Megan not too long ago, returned from a beautiful week on Iona, staying in the Abbey and participating in the week’s activities arranged by the Iona Community. The various events organized by the leadership were intended to build Christian community, to enliven one’s faith, and to expand one’s understanding of God and neighbor.

One evening, Megan tells me, a group of about 20 gathered in a room in which every wall was plastered with different depictions of Jesus. There was certainly the old favorite portrait of Jesus by Warner Sallman, first drawn in charcoal in 1924. I’m sure you know it. Sallman later put his work in color, and that painting of an angelic-looking Jesus adorns thousands of church halls and living rooms today. In Sallman’s portrait, Jesus looks a bit like, well, a white guy with long hair and a beard. His blue eyes and long eye lashes remind me more of Hollywood than the dark-skinned Palestinian Jew Jesus actually was. But this painting of Christ has captured the eye of many a Western Christian, and that’s only expected, I guess: the portrayal of Jesus looking like the guy next door comforts us in a way.

But in this room at the Abbey, there were dozens of paintings of Jesus–an African Jesus with his disciples. An Irish-looking Jesus with red hair. Jesus in a Native American head dress. A Korean Jesus. Jesus being crucified. Jesus with a horribly angry face. And–well I’m not sure, about this one but I suppose it’s possible: Jesus in a kilt (I wonder which tartan he would wear?)

It’s only natural that Christ’s followers, consider our Lord in images that speak best in our particular culture. The group in the Abbey discussed what images resonated best with them, how each individual viewed God incarnate.

Indeed, depicting Jesus in art form can be a telling activity. Imagine all the different images we’d draw this morning if I passed out crayons and markers and asked you to draw your image of Christ.

Today’s gospel lesson depicts Christ as a healer, a physician, but one unlike any doctor the world has ever known. All over the gospel of Matthew, Jesus heals people. He drives out demons. He gives sight to the blind. He restores dead folk to their families. And he even tells his disciples to go out to all the countryside, healing all in Jesus’ name.

Jesus as a healer. Dr. Jesus. If each of us were to draw Jesus as we imagine him, I wonder how many of us would draw Jesus healing the sick?

Most Sundays, often in a prayer before the sermon, we’ll pray for others in the prayers of intercession. In these prayers we ask God to comfort and heal those in need. Perhaps after a list of all those ill or needy, you’ll hear the phrase, “Heal them in body, mind, or circumstance.”

Body. Mind. Or circumstance. The cynic in me used to think this was an easy way out, a catch-all prayer. But in today’s lesson, that’s exactly what Dr. Jesus is up to. So let’s take a minute to look at each–body, mind, and circumstance.

First, Jesus heals in body, perhaps what we think of first when we consider Jesus’ healing. In today’s passage, Jesus is approached–interrupted at a dinner party, actually–by a leader of the synagogue who pleads with Jesus to heal his daughter.

It’s some request too: “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” The leader says this with absolute confidence.

But when Jesus reaches the house, the funeral home limousine is already there, the crowd of mourners has already gathered, but Jesus exclaims, “Not yet” and runs into the house. Jesus takes the girl by the hand, and, miraculously, she gets up out of bed! Healed. Dr. Jesus, healer of body.

Jesus also heals in mind. In the story right before Jesus heals the girl, he calls Matthew, a tax collector with the simple words, “Follow me.” And Matthew–just like that–got up and followed him.

Later at supper, many tax-collectors dined together with the disciples, Matthew and Jesus among them. Next thing we know, the religious police pull up cruisers, sirens blazing lights flashing, and the cops begin questioning the wisdom of the gathering. The detectives interrogate: Why does Jesus–supposedly upright and moral–dine with tax collectors, the most despised of our community, the corrupt, the rich who pray on the poor?

Jesus responds with a brilliant one liner: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Silly folks: If the world was healthy, Jesus wouldn’t need to be there.

Now Matthew wasn’t physically sick; he was sick in mind. Matthew and those of his profession saw themselves above others in the community, far from equals–despised and destined so to carry on a pernicious profession.

But Jesus heals Matthew in mind, he presents a way forward of loving one’s neighbors and treating them as oneself. And over the course of their time together, Matthew’s mind is healed by Jesus the physician.

Finally, circumstance. The haemorrhaging woman had been bleeding constantly for 12 years. She was seen as unclean. She was not accepted in society. She had no respect, no possibility of family, no prospects of a respectable livelihood. So when she reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak, and he turned to say, “Take heart, daughter, for your faith has made you well.” This unnamed woman could return to society, could live in town again, could marry and have a family, could associate with anyone–she had been healed in circumstance. Dr. Jesus.

A few weeks ago I attended the Church of Scotland National Gathering of the Church Without Walls movement in Ingliston. During one of the sermons, I was surprised to hear my home state of Florida mentioned.

The Scottish preacher described a religious revival occurring in Lakeland, Florida, one I had read a bit about online. Apparently, a few months ago a Pentecostal preacher came to town to lead a week-long revival, and miraculous healings began to occur. So the revival preacher stayed to see what else would happen. News spread, and thousands have now made the pilgrimage to Lakeland to see the revival preacher, Todd Bentley. Some who attend say they are healed from their ailments–from aches and pains to incurable diseases. Folks have traveled to Lakeland from all over the US, even from Canada, Africa, and Europe.

For this Christian, uncomfortable speaking without a sermon manuscript, not to mention speaking in tongues, news of this and similar revivals raises some alarms.

Approached with a healthy dose of skepticism, the Lakeland revival reminds us of preachers later proved to be frauds, of preachers scamming for fame and fortune, of preachers preying on the most desperate–those who need comforted with gospel medicine not led astray by gospel deception.

But, then again, I know people who can explain their restored health in no other way than pointing to God. The doctors said they were dying, that they should make peace with their maker, so they prayed and, somehow, they were healed.

These friends can’t explain it. Some are even embarrassed, almost apologetic. Their healing just doesn’t make sense–not when so many in the world need healing in body, in mind, in circumstance but fail to receive it. Their healing doesn’t make sense: not when they prayed for years and their disease continued. Their healing doesn’t make sense because they are no more deserving than any other, no more loved by God. Their healing doesn’t make sense, BUT, they can’t deny it. They can’t hide it. In fact, quite the opposite, at their best they are caught up in the promise of the gospel, sharing God’s message of healing in every way they can.

We can’t explain why some are healed and not others. Why did Jesus call Matthew, and not some other tax collector? Why did God let the hemorrhaging woman bleed for twelve years before Jesus healed her? Why did Jesus heal the religious leader’s daughter, but not the many others whose funerals must have been held on that same day? Why, God? Why?

We don’t know. We can’t quite say. We are limited in our understanding of God and God’s creation. We use our resources to make healing medicines, but they can’t cure human greed, or violence, or hate. Our bodies, our souls, our selves–created good by God–are yet fragile. So we get sick. We feel strong emotions. We experience the world in all its fullness.

But we do know some things for certain. God’s promise is fully revealed in Christ, whose healing balm is for all the world. And that’s a medicine we can all prescribe.

We can–we must–get caught up in that promise, God’s promise of healing and wholeness for all the world. Matthew tells us Jesus’ healing is not some vague surface-level healing, but real tangible life-changing healing in body, mind, and circumstance.

Getting caught up in the promise is our Christian duty, our task of gospel medicine, our medication of love; we’re called to participate in Jesus’ healing touch to all the world.

If you’re a medical doctor, the healing in body is easy perhaps, but our challenge does not stop there. Following this healing Christ calls for us to participate in healing folk in body, mind, and circumstance, for Jesus’ healing brings a wholeness of health only God can provide.

So get a crayon or marker, and draw yourself a picture of Jesus. Draw one that speaks to you, but also to the whole world. Draw Jesus with you at his side, healing/speaking to a friend who can’t take any more. Draw yourself, inspired by the word made flesh, rubbing the tired feet of the homeless and mopping the brow of a Hospice patient. Draw yourself with Christ at your side, changing the circumstances of the poor, the dispossessed, those who can’t even envision a world of God’s peace and justice. Draw yourself and Dr. Jesus: holistic healer extraordinaire.