Faith healing

There are not many ‘special interest groups’ mentioned by name in the Gospels, but lepers, the blind, the lame, the poor are certainly there along with the well-known Pharisees, scribes, Levites and Zealots. In Jesus’ healing ministry the link between physical healing and spiritual healing (through forgiveness) is very strong. So it is that in Mark 2:1 – 12, when a paralytic is lowered into the room where Jesus is preaching, that Jesus’ first response is to the faith of those who presented him, and secondly to the paralytic himself, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’

It is probable that many Jews saw disability as some kind of divine punishment for one’s sins, or even the sins of one’s forebears. As a consequence, Jesus shocked his audience by forgiving the paralytic’s sins first before healing him. This course of events challenged the Jew’s understandings – Jesus was empowered to forgive sins, and that the Mosaic ordering of healing followed by reconciliation and forgiveness was within the gift of Jesus. Jesus has the authority to do so.

Many of those with illnesses and disabilities were, as a consequence, shunned from the religious and social life of the community – they were literally outcasts. For some, their illness denied them even salvation.

Despite the passage of 2000 years, many in our community still possess attitudes to the disabled that have not advanced. Disabilities are described as being a result of maternal smoking or alcohol intake, genetics, bad driving or plain bad luck. Jesus models the compassion, openness and love in the way we receive and welcome the disabled, but it is not pity, although it may well be anger (at the way they are treated) - in the end Jesus is concerned with the person, and not the disability.

Our church too, needs to look at itself in the way it provides for the disabled in our worship, gaining access to our church buildings, finding suitable places to be seated. If they have been called to a liturgical ministry, how can they serve at the altar or read from the lectern, give communion or provide music?

The invitation for us to be ‘lowered into place’ where the Gospel is being proclaimed and heard is before us everyday, and we too ask that the Lord will open his heart to us saying, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’