Scripture: Matthew 8:16-17; 9:1-13

Title: Sin sickness -- its causes and treatment

In chapters 8 & 9 of Matthew Jesus heals a person with leprosy, cures two paralyzed men, cures one woman who has a high fever and another who is hemmorhaging, gives life to a dead girl, restores sight to two blind men, and cures a man unable to speak. Wonderful for them, but what does it have to do with us?

Jesus' purpose in healing is not to make everyone physically healthy and happy -- that would be just be treating the symptoms -- but to call attention to the root of our problems:

1. The condition

2. The cure

3. The cost
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Intro -- home sickness

I discovered some things about myself this last week. Carol was cleaning out files and she pulled out these old medical forms.

What on earth was my mother thinking. Homesick for nine years! Why that was from second grade right through my junior year of highschool. I am probably the only person in the country whose only major childhood illness is listed as homesickness. It's a good thing Carol didn't read it before we were married. It's kind of embarrassing.

But then it turned into useful reflection -- as so many things do when you've got a sermon to prepare -- and I started to think about how little I have really suffered in my life. And I realized why I have never had to think much about Jesus as a healer. What need could someone whose major illnesses were carsickness and homesickness need with a healer?

The passage we come to today has changed my viewpoint -- it has given me a fresh view of Jesus ministry as a healer. We're in Matthew chapters 8 & 9.

Context:

Before we read let's review the context: So far in this Gospel Matthew has been systematically establishing Jesus authority -- proving to us why we should listen to him, and why we should give up everything to follow him. In chapters 5-7 Matthew presented Jesus as a teacher of unrivalled authority -- A new and greater Moses. Just as Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the law of the Old covenant, so Jesus ascended a mountain to proclaim a new law for God's new covenant people. Just as Moses led the people of Israel into the promised land, so Jesus teaches his followers how to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now in chapters 8 & 9 he moves from talk to action -- from words, to power. In chapters 5-7 he talked about the Kingdom of Heaven -- now we see what happens when the Kingdom of Heaven invades people's lives. We see the power of God unleashed through Jesus. But it is unleashed in a surprising way. When I think of power I think of large scale forces -- I think of hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes. Or in human terms I think of rulers and generals and armies and tanks and aircraft carriers and bombs. These represent power.

But Jesus doesn't demonstrate God's power in any of these ways -- he shows us the power of God in a much quieter, gentler way -- by healing. He heals a man with leprosy, he heals the paralyzed servant of a Roman centurion, he cures Peter's mother-in-law from a fever, he heals a woman who was bleeding, he raises a dead girl to life, he restores sight to two blind men, he casts out demons, he cures a man unable to speak.

And this is all wonderful, especially for the people who were cured. They all came away full of joy -- their lives were changed. But amidst all of these stories is one that is a little bit different than the rest, and that's the one I'd like to read:

Read 9:1-13 (p. 963)

I'd like to make a few very simple observations about this story -- things that are so obvious they are hard to miss:

1. Jesus cares about forgiveness more than about physical healing.

Now this seems very strange: Imagine being carried into the emergency room after an accident -- strapped to a stretcher, unable to move, and the first words you hear from the doctor are "Take heart! Your sins are forgiven."

You see physical healing was NOT the real purpose of Jesus healing ministry.

He did not heal just to help people to live fuller, happier, more comfortable lives and to die at a ripe old age. If that was his purpose, then quite a number of 20th century doctors have done much better than he did -- and the number of people he helped was miniscule. There were hundreds of quadraplegics and blind people and people suffering leprosy and parents who lost their daughters in Palestine who Jesus never touched, who never even had a chance to be healed. And there have been millions since.

The real purpose of Jesus healing ministry was to reveal spiritual disease -- sin-sickness -- and our need for spiritual healing.

His power to heal physically was meant to prove his power to heal spiritually. He treated physical disease as a symptom of a deeper spiritual disease -- and he is willing to treat the symptoms, but he was much more interested in getting to the root of the matter.

It's like this: I have a friend -- a doctor -- who worked for some time in Emergency at Mass General. Because of his specialization, alot of the patients he saw had AIDS. When someone contracts AIDS they might have a wide variety of symptoms -- pneumonia is a big danger, infections that their body would normally fight off can be a major threat. And doctors are getting better and better at dealing with the symptoms. In fact the number of people dying with AIDS is way down because of powerful drugs that deal with the EFFECTS -- the symptoms -- of AIDS. But no matter how successful scientists are at finding therapies to help people with AIDS live better and longer lives, until a true cure is found, the root problem will still be there.

Jesus could heal all the physical ailments in the world -- and it would just be treating symptoms. Our real problem -- the cancer that is killing us -- would still be with us. Jesus wants us, first of all, to recognize that our deepest needs are not physical but spiritual.

Application for mission: We should, like Jesus, seek to meet physical needs -- to alleviate suffering. But we must recognize that this is just treating the symptoms. You may

Application for prayer: Have you noticed how quickly and easily we gravitate toward prayer for physical health?

And that takes us to another observation:

2. The paralyzed man is -- well -- paralyzed. He can't move. He's helpless.

Almost embarrassingly obvious -- but important because in his helplessness he is a perfect model of our spiritual condition. Our spiritual condition is completely hopeless and helpless. We are completely unable on our own to reach God, to do what is right? Anyone who has every struggled -- really struggled to overcome sin knows this.

But the irony is, that when we accept our helplessness we are near salvation. You know how drowning victims tend to panic -- thrashing about so they become a danger to the rescuers? Only you give up trying to save yourself can you be saved.

That's the point of what Jesus says in 9:12: It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.

People who think they're healthy don't go to a doctor; People who think they are able to make it spiritually won't turn to Jesus. Only the poor in spirit -- those who have given up on themselves and recognized that they are spiritually helpless can enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Application 1 -- recognize your own spiritual helplessness and cling to the only source of life and strength you have.

Application 2 -- recognize the spiritual helplessness of those around you. You are surrounded by paralyzed people who are completely unable to come to God on their own. Like those who brought the paralytic to Jesus, become a spiritual paramedic, bringing spiritually helpless people to Jesus for healing.

Which leads to the next observation:

3. The ONLY requirement for spiritual healing is to come to Jesus in faith.

Notice that there are no words exchanged at all here -- neither the paralytic nor his helpers say anything. They recite no creeds, they sign no statements, they pray no prayers, they have no dramatic experiences. Is this really a valid conversion? I'm not sure it would pass in our church.

Yet just looking at them Jesus sees their faith. So what is this faith that they have? It was nothing more than the simple trust which they showed by bringing their problems to Jesus. Faith had nothing to do with a set of beliefs or doctrines -- it had to do with trusting in a person.

Application 1 -- We very often place unnecessary barriers in the way of faith. Sometimes for ourselves, sometimes for others. I had a friend in College -- her name was Lisa -- an Anthro major. She ended up with alot of Christian friends -- and alot of arguments. Anthropologists are a hard sell on Christianity. They hate missionaries. They despise people who believe that God created this universe. She had not sorted out all of her intellectual questions -- probably still hasn't -- but she met Jesus one night in a dream. And after that it didn't matter that she hadn't sorted everything out -- or that she didn't yet believe all the "right" things -- because she had met a person who she trusted -- a person who she wanted to follow.

Application 2: A more personal application: The way this kind of faith will show most in our lives is in prayer. You show trust in God by taking things to God in prayer and handing them over to him.


4. My final observation comes not from the story but from the context: Healing has a cost.

Sounds strange when I've just said that all you have to do is come to Jesus. Isn't salvation a free gift?

Yes, but there is one thing that Jesus asks of everyone who comes to him for spiritual healing -- It's what he said to Matthew the tax collector in 9:9 -- Follow me.

You see, you can't come to Jesus for healing and then leave. Jesus is your source of life -- you are healed by being close to him. And that means following him. And following him is not always comfortable. But we are not cured in order to live antiseptic, comfortable lives; we are cured in order to follow him. And it is worth it!

There is another greater cost as well -- we see it hidden in 8:17 "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."