A Word about Defeating Disease on the Road to the Cross

Today I want to share a word about defeating disease on the road to Cross as I comment on John 9. Let’s begin with verses 1-7:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

 Introduction:

We all get sick, and in many ways, it is amazing that we aren’t ill more often.  For example:

Little Johnny sat playing in the garden. When his mother came out to collect him, she saw that he was slowly eating a worm. She turned pale.  "No, Johnny! Stop! That's horrible! You can't eat worms!" 

 

Trying to convince him further she noted, "Now the mother worm is looking all over for her nice baby worm."  "No, she isn't," said Johnny. "How do you know she's not?" said the mother. "Because I ate her first!" answered Little Johnny. 

Of course, after we do get sick, we rely on doctors and nurses and other medical professionals to help us get well.  On the other hand, these good folks are only people, too.  Here are some actual sentences found in patients' hospital charts:

 

• Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
• On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.
• The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
• Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful.
• The patient refused autopsy.
• She is numb from her toes down. 
• The skin was moist and dry.
• Occasional, constant, infrequent headaches.
• Patient was alert and unresponsive.
• Skin: somewhat pale but present.
• Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Blank, who felt we should sit on the abdomen, and I agree.
• Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.

 

We do fall ill, and we do know that while doctors treat us, there is only one true source of healing.  That source is the Great Physician, the one who defeated disease on the road to the Cross, who we see today in John 9.

 

The Will to Heal:

 

Many have questioned why illness happens. They ask questions like, “If God is good why does pain exist?” Or “When you get sick is God getting even with you?” And “Why does God allow diseases like cancer to exist?”  Even “Why doesn’t God heal?” This is a serious issue, and it has existed from the beginning.

 

Some would answer these questions in ways that are not true to Scripture, such as, “God doesn’t care, or God is evil.” Others, like those who hold to a theology of Deism, believe that God simply does not engage with the world.

 

We must remember that Jesus did not come to be a doctor. He came to save us from our sins by redeeming a lost and dying world and to defeat death and hell. All through His ministry the Gospel was His focus. In fact, the Scriptures reveal that Jesus would eventually leave those places where the people only wanted Him to do physical miracles, because He had more important work to perform and a much greater blessing to offer people. He wanted to offerr a blessing that wasn’t ephemeral, but eternal.

 

Jesus, however, is God and He loves us, and He wants to bless us. He wants to give us abundant life and give us all good things. Therefore, He was willing to heal, and He did so regularly. He never withheld healing when it was sought.

 

Let’s continue by reading verses 8-12:

 

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

The Ability to Heal:

 

Having the willingness to heal is not the same as having the ability to heal. Many people think that God can’t act. They say He is too weak to prevent death and disease. This means that God is good, but hapless, which would be comparing God to Barney Fife! Jesus is no Barney Fife!  

 

From other passages in the Bible, we know that He resisted temptation and brushed off Satan’s best shot. He stilled the wind and waves, and He delivered the demoniac from his demons. He did many other things that we haven’t considered yet, as John 21:25 tells us, 

 

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

 

Of course, Jesus could heal! He healed this man. He healed the woman with the issue of blood.  He healed the Centurion’s servant. He healed the ear of the High Priest’s servant in Gethsemane.

When you have done it, why do you have to prove you can do it?  

This is like the teacher who was asked why she hadn’t taken a particular standardized test for educators.  Her reply was, “I’m a certified teacher who has been teaching for over a decade. Why do I need to take a test to prove that I can do what I do every day that school is in session?”

 

The fact the Jesus could heal should not surprise us, but neither is the fact that His acts were misunderstood. We can see that in verses 13-17:

 

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.  So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

 

They continued to berate the man in verses 28-34:

 

And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

 

The Misunderstanding of Healing:

 

Some of us have gained the wrong idea about disease, thinking that disease or disaster is always the direct result of sin. I once knew a man who thought God was punishing him for his sin after his child became ill. This is not true to the Biblical record. We are all held accountable for our own sin, not someone else’s sin.

 

And, yes, harmful health habits can lead to disease, but this does not explain all cases, like the young girl I knew who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

 

While we usually cannot trace individual diseases or other such tragedies to personal actions or sins, disease did come into the world via human sin. The world was created perfectly to continue in perfection, without disease or death. After Adam and Eve sinned, the world was changed, and after sin came into the world, so did death and disease. If a building’s foundation is damaged, it will eventually fall, and likewise is the effect of human sin on our lives and health.

 

The subject of divine healing has also generated significant misunderstanding as well. Some think it doesn’t happen ever, while some think that it should always happen. There was a great deal of misunderstanding going on in this event as well so, as we close, let’s see how Jesus viewed healing from verses 35-41,

 

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?  He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

 

The Depth of Healing:

 

Jesus had more important concerns than physical disease. He was more concerned with eternal health than physical health. He was more concerned with spiritual health than physical health.  He also was more concerned with the global root cause of disease than the symptoms experienced by individuals.

 

So often in life we don’t see the forest for the trees. When we are in pain, we naturally focus on the here and now. Jesus was not limited in the way that we are, and He could see the eternal future. In Mark 8:36, He explained,

 

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

 

Though He proved to be willing and capable of physical healing, Jesus came to give us eternal health. The key to this eternal health offered by Jesus is to know and trust the Great Physician. If we believe in the Son of God, He will open our spiritual eyes. He will help us to escape the judgment, and we will be spiritually well forever!

 

CONCLUSION:

 

Jesus defeated disease on the road to the Cross. He can, and He does, heal your body, but more importantly, He can, and He will, heal your soul.  Turn to Him and you will be made well, well for eternity.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt