Participate to be Healed
It is imperative that we participate in our healing. Without action on our part there will be no healing. In John 9:7 Jesus tells the blind man ‘go, wash in the pool of Siloam’, and again in John 5:8-16 he tells the cripple ‘take up your bed and walk’. In this week’s Gospel the leper took the bold step of going to Jesus, kneeling before him and addressing him. The woman with the incurable hemorrhage approached Jesus in the crowd and touched the hem of his garment.
In these and many other of Jesus’ healings Jesus requests a movement, an action on our part. He loves us so much that he has invited us into the act of healing. In the story of Adam and Eve we read that God created everything and called Creation “good” and never made a thing called “brokenness.” And yet, brokenness crept into Creation after the fall. Separation and division soon followed. We now live in a broken world in need of healing.
In 2 Corinthians 5:18, Paul tells us that God ‘has given us the ministry of healing this brokenness.’ In Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and inviting us to participate in its healing. We are therefore asked to be participants in our own healing.
This insight is awe inspiring. But it is also challenging and demanding. So often we pray for healing, expecting God to do all the work and not accepting that we are called to be participants. Participating is faith and humility in action. The woman with the hemorrhage had gone to doctors for 12 years, had spent all her money, yet she had faith to believe if she just touched the hem of Jesus’ garment she will be healed. She went up in the crowd and took the bold step of faith to touch the garment.
The Canaanite woman, with the demon possessed daughter in need of healing, had the humility to answer Jesus’ challenging words with the retort ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table’.
When we go to Jesus in need of healing we must reflect on the role we are asked to perform. Are we demonstrating faith and humility by our actions? Do we step out in faith, acting in belief that Jesus is with us. Jesus invited Peter to walk on water, and he did, before he doubted. How is he asking me to walk on water? And when I do, do I have the humility to know I am only participating in Jesus’ work.
Jesus, I am weak in faith, help me believe in the healing I am requesting. Give me the courage to act with humility in the belief that the healing is in progress. Give me the faith to accept the way you are healing.