Thinking Like Jesus about Healing, part 2

What did Jesus think about sickness, disease, and healing? How can we think like him? I’m pastor Doug Sewell. Welcome to the Beyond Six Verses podcast. This is part two of a series thinking like Jesus about healing.

Jesus knew that healing was a benefit of the old covenant. Jesus knew his father well. One of the ways God revealed himself to Israel right after he delivered Israel from Egypt was as Jehovah Rapa – I am the God who heals you, or I am the Lord your physician, or I am the healing Lord.

Jesus knew healing was one of the benefits of covenant.

Psalm 103 bless the Lord. Oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless his Holy name. Bless the Lord Oh my soul and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles.

Jesus knew people in covenant with God received blessings, including healing. He also knew that people that rejected the covenant would encounter sickness, poverty, and other unpleasantness as described in Deuteronomy 28.

Jesus knew what peace meant in Hebrew – shalom. If you search out this word in Hebrew and find places it’s used, it’s not only peace in the sense of mental and emotional well-being, but also prosperity, wholeness, well-being, and success. Billy brim pointed out that one of the modern-day textbooks for teaching Hebrew in Israel translated it as nothing missing, nothing broken.

Isaiah prophesied of Jesus as the Prince of peace.

When Jesus came to earth, he demonstrated this belief in healing as a covenant benefit by bringing healing to all the people that came to him.

Do you know what he did at Peter’s house? Look at Matthew eight: When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying on bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her [00:02:00] and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.

This was Jesus applying Isaiah 53 to healing and this life.

The word all, Greek “pas,” appears as “all”, “every”, and other words. For example, in John 3:16, “whosoever” is the same Greek word pas. Same in first Timothy 2:4 where God wants all men to be saved.

Jesus saw all of the Jewish people – covenant people – that came to him as being eligible for healing. It says there were many people that came to him that evening for healing. Mark 1’s telling of this same event says all the city was gathered together at the door.

Jesus also demonstrated this same benefit of covenant when he would preach. Matthew chapter 4: Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases. Those suffering severe pain, that demon possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed, and he healed them.

So he was healing all over Syria and he healed all those that came to him. If we look at what he healed, he healed every sickness and disease. He healed various diseases. He healed severe pain. He healed the demon-possessed. He healed seizures and paralysis.

If we look at Matthew 15 verse 30-31 we can add to this list: he healed the lame. He healed the blind. He healed the crippled. That’s an interesting word there, in the King James it’s the word maimed.

This means missing a hand or a foot, if you look at Matthew 18:8 where it talks about cutting off a hand or off what that offends you. He also healed the mute.

And if you look at other healings throughout the gospels, you can see leprosy, deafness, bleeding, demon-empowered arthritis. Jesus knew the covenant covered every sickness that every person in the covenant had.

So we looked at the old covenant, and Jesus’ ministry. What about the new covenant? What about our covenant?

Jesus didn’t need to be beaten in order to be a ransom or sacrifice for us. It just took shedding his blood. But in his life, death and resurrection, he went after all that came on man and earth because of the fall, not just our sin.

This is why his body was broken as well as his blood shed in the communion meal, reminding us of Isaiah 53 which I mentioned earlier: Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed.

As I shared last episode, Jesus commissioned the disciples to teach what he taught them in Matthew 2,8 and to heal the sick in Mark 16, so he planned for healing as a gospel or “good news” benefit of the new covenant.

Beyond that, Hebrews 8:6 says Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant with better promises. The author of Hebrews writes about a covenant written on our hearts and knowing the Lord, the Lord our healer. I like to think of Hebrews 8:6 this way. If there’s a blessing in the old covenant and our covenant is better, then there’s probably some way that blessing is for us in the body of Christ as well.

Like Jesus. Let’s look at healing as one of our covenant blessings.

Thank you for listening. I have pastor Doug Sewell come back tomorrow for another episode of the Beyond Six Verses podcast.

(Transcript provided by descript.com)