Winter is not my favorite time of year. I look out over the frozen landscape, and I feel cold. Like a bear, I want to hibernate. I long for the sweet days of summer when all the colors and smells of the foliage and flowers remind me that life is abundant. So , this morning as I sit at my computer looking out over the icy expanse, I am comforted by the fact that I am looking past my thriving indoor plants. They give me hope that a season of growth, warmth and light will soon be here.

As I reordered this morning’s scripture reading, all week, I wondered why Jesus would come into Israel, call his disciples and begin healing folks. Of all the activities this God-man could have done, why did he spend so much time curing folks of illness? We know from history that Jesus was born at a time of great political unrest and oppression for the Israelites and many others as well. We know that poverty existed. There were humanitarian needs such as the wide spread victimization of children and women. Slavery was prevalent. The world was certainly full of problems and Jesus could have decided to focus on any one of these issues in his ministry. And although, his life and teaching may have touched on all of these areas, much of his focus seemed to have been on healing folks of their disease. Why?

I guess I do not have the answer but I do know that there is nothing that can bring a person to his or her knees like serious illness. We humans are made of hardy stuff. We can usually figure out how to live within our political realities. We often find our way through poverty. We learn how to deal with relationship problems and can traverse the landscape of most existential trials. We find coping strategies and find a way to navigate through our places of discontent but personal serious illness, stops us in our tracks.

When we become seriously ill, all other problems in our life, take a back seat. Issues that were of prime importance before our illness begin to pale. When we are looking at how to take the next breath, how to survive our physical and psychological pain, or wondering how long our bodies will stay in this world, all else diminishes. Even loving relationships that have sustained us through out our lives begin a transformation. No matter how much folks love us, we face our bodies’ frailties and our inevitable ending alone. No one can experience this with us. We must face this battle on our own.

Times of serious illness are special opportunities in our lives when we find ourselves face to face with the essential issues. We must look at what we believe and who we believe in. We must decide during these critical times where to place our allegiance; where to place our hope. Perhaps this is why Jesus spent so much time with folks as they experienced disease and their own mortality. Perhaps when they experienced their healing, they could begin to see glimpses of God’s kingdom here on earth as I see summer through the dim green curtain of my house plants.

When we begin a discussion of faith healing, many diverse thoughts and questions begin to surface. There are those who do not believe that Jesus heals folks. They believe that healing is not spiritual as much as a matter of biology. There are folks who believe that while Jesus may have healed during his three year ministry, he does not heal folks any more- There are folks who wonder why some seem to get healed and others do not. And some question why some receive immediate miraculous healing while others take time and medical attention. I do not have all of those answers. God is a mystery and I do not think any of us will understand these mysteries this side of heaven. Yet I believe that the scriptures do not lie and the Bible tells us in many, many places that Jesus wants us to be healthy. Jesus came so that we could have life and have it abundantly. Jesus is a healer. I know, with all that I am, that a touch from Jesus, brings transformation, growth and health.

The subject of healing could take us weeks to discuss. There is so much to ponder but for today I would like to focus on just one of the factors that came to the fore for me this week as I prayed about healing. In John 5: 1-15, we read the story of a lame man who sits by a healing pool of water for 38 years. When Jesus sees him, Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” Now we might think, “of course he wanted to be healed”. Anyone who is ill wants to be healthy. And yet the man said to Jesus, “I can’t. I have no one to help me get into the pool. Jesus tells him, “Pick up your mat and go”. In many ways this healing story is similar to all the others. Jesus healed folks in miraculous ways but the healing had to accompanied by an action on the part of the person who was ill. It seems that Jesus healed folks not so that they could return to their pre-illness way of life, Jesus healed them so that they could be transformed inside and out; physically and spiritually. This transformation, this acceptance of a new life, could not be accomplished without a willingness on the part of the person who was ill to change.

We are all familiar with folks who have serious illnesses but continue to have habits that are destroying their bodies. Smoking, drinking, eating the wrong foods, lack of sleep or exercise. We are so smart in understanding how our bodies work and we know what helps our good health and what takes it away and yet it is not always easy for us to have the self discipline to do the right things. We want that chocolate cake or that cigarette or that glass of beer. We are too tired to go for that walk and we are too busy to get enough rest. We rationalize and we make excuses. The bottom line is that it is hard to change. And if we think it is hard to change our physical habits, think of how difficult it is to change our spiritual habits.

When Jesus asked the lame man if he wanted to be healed, he was asking the man if he was willing to change. Was he willing to get up and walk; on his own; trusting only in Jesus? This man had spent 38 years being attended to by others or going without. He did not think he could help himself. Jesus asked him to give all of that up. At other times, sin was involved and Jesus asked those he healed to give up their life of sin and be healed. Other folks needed to go and be evangelists as Jesus told them to go and tell their families of how they were healed. All the circumstances were a bit different but they all involved a willing transformation from the person to be healed.

In my ministry efforts, I speak to many people. Some are doing great. They have a good and faithful walk with God. They are close to God and they are doing great things in his name. Other times, I see folks who are a bit lost. They are experiencing some crisis in their life or perhaps have never known God at all. And I believe that Jesus is there, waiting patiently for them to choose. Jesus is there asking, “Do you want to be healed?” Do you want to give up whatever it is that you are holding on to so desperately so that Jesus can get into your circumstances and do his transforming work? Not only are you ready to begin that diet or to give up those cigarettes but are you ready to give up your autonomy, your way of thinking, your idols. Are you ready to give up what ever is getting in the way of your relationship with God?

Now I hope that I am not being misunderstood. I do not believe that all illness is as a result of our choices or our sinful decisions. I do not believe that illness is God’s way of punishing us. For so many, illness sneaks up on us when we have done everything right. It is just an unfortunate occurrence in our lives. And I know that there are some folks who are great prayer warriors and remain ill just the same. I do not know why these things happen. What I do know is that many times, we are holding back from our healing. We hold back because we are scared. We hold back because we do not want to give control to God. We hold back because we do not want to change.

Today, Jesus asks each one of us, “Do you want to be healed?” And he may ask us that at a time when our bodies are running perfectly. It may not be our body that needs to be healed today. Perhaps, Jesus is asking, Do you want to be healed from emotional scars? Do you want to be healed from spiriutal dis-ease? Do you want to be healed from broken relationships? Do you want to be healed from a life without God? And Jesus waits patiently for us to say, “Yes, Lord- I want to live a life with you are the helm. I want to be healthy inside and out“. Now some of us have waited to be ready just like that man who sat by the pool for 38 years. We may have been sitting next to Jesus for a long, long time. We may have been trying to do it our way all of our lives. And Jesus asks us, if we are ready to give it to him. Are we ready to change? We know that results will be good health; good spiritual health, good emotional health and good physical health, God willing. We know that a touch from Jesus will transform us. We will be changed. When we give ourselves and all of our ill health to God, our lives will be healed. So I ask you in Jesus’ name, Are you ready to be healed? Amen.