SERIES: The Gospel of John
The Great Physician
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: The healing miracles of Jesus fascinate us, but at the same time they frequently frustrate us. The reason can best be stated this way:
Jesus healed all manner of disease and sickness;
Jesus is alive in the Church today;
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever;
Therefore, we ought to see the same kinds of healing miracles today!
But we don’t! Why?
Is it because the church has drifted so far from NT truth, as the “signs and wonders movement” is saying, or is there some other reason? Well, this morning and tonight I want to try to offer some help as we think through this area of divine healing. This morning we will examine the healing ministry of Jesus, particularly as recorded in the Gospel of John. And then tonight we will try to shed some light on the question, “Does God heal today?”
Every sermon should have a purpose and a goal, and right here at the beginning of this one I would like to tell you what I would like to accomplish today. First, I want us to develop a greater faith in the person and power of Jesus Christ, to realize that as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He can cure any physical ailment, solve any emotional problem, and heal any spiritual malady. Secondly, I believe God would be pleased if we gained a more realistic perspective on the relationship between sin and our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. And thirdly, I want us to understand that physical healing is clearly of secondary importance to spiritual healing. Spiritual healing is guaranteed in the atonement, but I do not believe physical healing is.
Let’s start by considering the background and setting of the three healing miracles recorded in the Gospel of John.
Healing of the nobleman’s son (John 4:46‑54)
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The setting of this miracle is the same as that of Jesus’ first miracle—the changing of the water into wine. He is in Cana of Galilee. Twenty miles away on the shores of the Sea of Galilee there is a little town called Capernaum, where an official of Herod’s court lived, whose son was at the point of death due to a high fever. Hearing that Jesus is in the area, the man journeys to Cana and requests, or begs, Jesus to come and heal his son.
Jesus responds in a rather uncharacteristic fashion—He rebukes the man. In fact, He rebukes the Jewish people as a whole for their miracle‑centered faith. They look for the spectacular and are linked to Him only by a love for the sensational. Verse 48 contains an emphatic double negative in the original: “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will not never believe.”
But the nobleman demonstrates that he is not like most of his countrymen. He does not defend himself; nor does he argue with Jesus; he simply urges Him to act before his child dies. In verse 48 he uses a different word for “child” than that used in verses 46 & 47. Here he speaks of “my little boy,” a term of deep affection.
Jesus’ reply is probably totally unexpected. The man has been asking Him to travel to Capernaum, evidently believing that Jesus’ presence is necessary for healing to take place, but Jesus declines to go, giving the man just His bare word that his son has been healed.
But the nobleman rises to the implied demand for faith. He believes what Jesus says and goes his way. On his way home his slaves meet him and tell him that the hour of recovery corresponded to the very hour of Jesus’ spoken words—1:00 of the previous afternoon. Even that notice of time indicates to us something of the level of this man’s faith, for once Jesus declared the boy healed, the father apparently took his time going home, for if he left Jesus at 1:00pm he could easily have reached Capernaum by evening, had he been anxious for the child.
The story ends with the observation that not only the man himself believes, but his whole family as well. In other words, they are converted to faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
The healing of the lame man at Bethesda (John 5:1‑9, 14)
Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath….
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
Chapter 5 finds us back in Jerusalem at a pool called Bethesda, where there are a great number of disabled people, including one particular lame man. His age is not mentioned, but we are told he has been crippled for 38 years. There is some reason to believe that he was not a very lovely character. In the first place, Jesus finds it necessary to rebuke him for his sin. Secondly it seems no one was willing to help him into the water, reflecting the fact that he was not the kind of person who readily drew sympathy from others. Finally, he does not appear particularly grateful for the healing afterward. But thankfully, God’s grace is not limited to lovely characters.
If you are using any version of the Bible other than the KJV, you will notice in John 5 that part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 are missing. The reason is that this portion of the text is not found in any of the oldest manuscripts of the NT, and most scholars feel that an early medieval scribe added it to help explain the lame man’s comment in verse 7, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.” The editorial comment, then, is found in the margin of most Bibles: “They waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.”
While those few lines almost certainly were not in the Bible as originally written, they probably do accurately explain the presence of these people at the pool. In other words, many believed that the periodic bubbling of the water (caused perhaps by an artesian well) was the work of an angel, and that the first one to dive in would find healing. In fact, archeological excavations during the past century have identified the site of this pool, discovering a faded fresco on the wall picturing an angel “troubling” the water. It was, no doubt, a superstition, but superstitions sometimes work, if believed firmly enough.
Jesus sees the man, knows he has been there a long time, and takes the initiative by asking the man, “Do you wish to get well?” On the surface, that may seem like a dumb question, but really it is not. There are some people who are physically, emotionally, or spiritually sick who seem to enjoy their victimhood. They like the attention they get and don’t mind others fussing over them. Jesus just wants the man to declare himself. William Barclay writes,
“The first essential towards receiving the power of Jesus is the intense desire for it. Jesus comes to us and says, ‘Do you really want to be changed?’ If in our inmost hearts we are well content to stay as we are, there can be no change for us. The desire for wholeness must be surging in our hearts.” [i]
The lame man’s response to the question is somewhat ambiguous. He says, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” It’s hard to know whether the man is speaking from a martyr’s complex as a hopeless defeated person, or if he is just explaining his plight and hinting that Jesus might help him into the water at the appropriate time. There is no indication that he regards Jesus as a possible healer, which shouldn’t surprise us since the man didn’t even know Jesus. At any rate, Jesus commands the man to rise and walk, and he is cured instantaneously. He picks up his bed and walks.
Before we leave this miracle, allow me to suggest that the people around the pool of Bethesda are a picture of man as a sinner. They are described by the physical ailments they have—unable to see, to walk, to work—all illustrative of the spiritual condition of the lost before God. Isn’t it interesting how many even today take their bodies to the health resorts and to the mineral springs, but they leave their souls by the sewer. Yet Jesus is still seeking the impotent, and there is no need to wait 38 years for deliverance.
Thirdly, let’s consider the third healing miracle of Jesus as found in John 9.
The healing of the man born blind (9:1‑7)
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
In many respects John 9 is my favorite chapter in the NT; the interaction between the formerly blind man and the Pharisees constitutes one of the great testimonials in all of Scripture. But this morning I want us to look just at the miracle itself. This healing too, as the previous one, occurs in Jerusalem. Jesus comes upon this man and apparently shows some interest in him, perhaps by stopping and observing him for a time. The disciples, wishing to display their theological acumen, ask Jesus whose sin is responsible for the man’s blindness. Is it his own sin or the sin of his parents?
Jesus responds that this man’s blindness does not have as its direct cause anyone’s sin. In fact, He gives no cause at all but does state a reason: this man’s blindness has the ultimate purpose of displaying the works of God. Following a brief discourse, which we do not have time to evaluate today, Jesus spits on the ground, makes clay, applies it to the man’s eyes, and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man does so and comes back with his sight healed, another beautiful illustration of the sight Jesus is willing to give to any who are spiritually blind.
This has been a rather quick survey of each of the three major healing miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Now I want us to contrast and compare these miracles with the goal in mind of gaining a better understanding of who, where, when, how, and why Jesus healed. For that purpose, I have provided a chart in your bulletin. Let’s look at it for a moment.
What this analysis shows me is that Jesus’ healing ministry was quite unpredictable. He was not stereotypical as regards His methodology, nor did He limit Himself to one class of needy person. He could heal those in His presence or long-distance. Sometimes He required a response, sometimes not.
But besides these contrasts, there are also some fascinating common features in the healing miracles. As we look at these common features, I want you to consider how very little the healing miracles of Jesus have in common with the healings we see or even hear about in our day—whether by faith healers or Christian Science practitioners or even by medical doctors. First, Jesus’ healing miracles were …
Prompt. In fact, they were instantaneous. When Jesus spoke a word of healing or as soon as the person obeyed Jesus’ command, the healing was done. No incantations had to be repeated; no screaming and hollering was necessary; no seizing of the person’s head or pleading with God; no band of henchmen to catch the person as he falls backwards from the power of the faith healer. The person was just immediately healed.
Complete. Jesus didn’t do a half‑way job. The boy didn’t begin to improve (though 4:52 indicates that’s what the father expected). No, the fever abruptly left him. The lame man didn’t limp away with his bed; those crooked bones and atrophied muscles were completely restored. The blind man didn’t just see shapes; he didn’t receive 20‑40 vision; he didn’t have to wear cataract glasses—his sight was completely restored.
Permanent. We can’t prove this assertion from the stories we have read this morning, but there is ample evidence in early church tradition that the people Jesus healed stayed healed and when they died, they died of old age or some other ailment entirely. There is, for example, very strong evidence that Lazarus lived for 30 years after Jesus raised him from the dead and died an old man. While we can’t produce specific evidence regarding the permanency of the three healings recorded here, one thing is sure: John could never have pawned these accounts off on the Church if the individuals of whom he speaks had been healed only temporarily, and six weeks later found themselves back in their old predicament.
Public. There was almost always a crowd standing around when Jesus performed His miracles—a crowd by no means friendly toward Him. Their personal familiarity with the one healed precluded any bogus claims or sleight of hand. Their reaction of sheer amazement at what took place—even to the point of fear—shows how deeply impressive and unforgettable the miracles were. You can fool people if you’re doing your healing on a stage in a large auditorium with restricted attendance (as in the alleged healing ministry of Robert Tilton), but you’d be hard pressed to fool anyone with the very public healings Jesus performed.
Verifiable. By this I mean that Jesus didn’t choose as the recipients of His healing miracles psychosomatic cases, or people with undiagnosable problems, or people with empirically unverifiable diseases. He healed cases that were beyond the scope of even the best medical science of that day, and even of ours. Faith healers may heal a person who has had a slight limp for several weeks; but Jesus healed a man who was totally crippled for 38 years! They specialize in arthritis; Jesus did eyes. They like to cure stomach pains; He eliminated a death fever in a moment and the boy didn’t even need recuperation time. They throw away crutches; He threw away graveclothes.
I have often said, “Show me a faith healer who does teeth and I’ll listen to him.” My skepticism is not with God’s power or willingness to heal; it’s with those who are constantly preying on the poor and the ignorant and the immature, convincing them that the power to heal flows through them.
Without gimmickry. Jesus didn’t hide chicken‑livers in His handkerchief as Jim Jones used to do and then profess to have helped a person cough up a tumor. He didn’t hire actors to feign a crippled condition, like A. A. Allen did. He didn’t plant hidden microphones in the crowd to find out who had what ailments so he could call out their names and diagnoses to impress the crowds with His prophetic powers, as has been documented with several well‑known faith healers. He didn’t used amulets or incantations; He didn’t employ any specific method.
On the rare occasion when He used any external means at all for healing, like the clay salve in John 9, chances are that He was using such things as an object lesson for faith, rather than using it as a healing agent. Personally, I believe Christ used the clay to symbolize the fact that He was the Creator and therefore could recreate that man’s eyes. You will recall that when man was first created, it was from the dust of the ground. Here again we see God molding the dust of the ground and producing something of which it could be said, “It is good.”
Finally, I want us to consider …
Three relationships concerning which the healing miracles of Jesus teach us.
Between disease and sin. In the first century (as well as in many cultures to this very day) it was assumed that all suffering and sickness, especially such serious infirmities as blindness, were due to sin. The general principle was laid down by one of the rabbis: “There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity.” The disciples of Jesus clearly accepted this dogma as seen in John 9. But the man born blind presented special difficulties. How could a man have sinned before his birth? Perhaps in his case the blindness was the result of sin in his parents’ lives. Such a suggestion is not in and of itself absurd, for the idea that children inherit the consequences of their parents’ sin is woven throughout OT theology. It must never be forgotten that no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. When a man sins, he sets in motion a train of consequences which has no end.
And so, the disciples pose their question of Jesus. He, however, decidedly rejects both alternatives they offer Him, and He takes the opportunity to teach them the very important truth that sickness is not always traceable to sin. Oh, indirectly it is, for everything evil can be ultimately traced back to the Fall, but not all calamity is traceable to specific sin or to personal sin. On the contrary some sickness, like this case of prenatal blindness has the goal and purpose of displaying the works of God by displaying His awesome power. Of course, it is also possible for a continuing malady to bring glory to God by displaying His all-sufficient grace.
However, it is very important for us to realize that Jesus does not say that sickness is never traceable to personal sin. In fact, it may well have been a factor in the lameness of the man of chapter 5. In verse 14 we read, “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.'” Jesus may be implying that the man’s sin led to his lameness, though it is also possible that the man’s sin was subsequent to his crippled condition. Whichever the case may be, continuing to sin may result in a worse disaster, referring apparently to the eternal consequences of sin. These words refute the claim that one’s life here on earth is the only Hell a person will ever experience. Here is a man who has spent 38 years of torture, but Jesus says that a worse thing may come to him. Hell is infinitely worse than anything a man may experience here.
The question, of course, arises, “How can I know whether a sickness or some physical disaster in my own life is due to sin or has some other cause?” The answer may be difficult to find. Job had to endure extensive self‑examination before he was satisfied that personal sin was not the cause of his calamity. May I suggest that the best approach is to examine your life and make certain there is no known unconfessed sin for which God might be disciplining you. If after a careful and honest examination you can find nothing, then I would quit looking for causes and start looking for results. In other words, search for lessons you can learn from the circumstances and for positive spiritual results that can be achieved through it. Joni Eareckson Tada did this in her great book, A Step Further. She writes,
“I sometimes shudder to think where I would be today if I had not broken my neck. I couldn’t see at first why God would possibly allow it, but I sure do now. He has gotten so much more glory through my paralysis than through my health! And believe me, you’ll never know how rich that makes me feel. If God chooses to heal you in answer to your prayers, that’s great. Thank Him for it. But if He chooses not to, thank Him anyway. You can be sure He has His reasons.” [ii]
Secondly, I would like for us to explore for a moment the relationship …
Between healing and faith. It is common for the seriously ill to struggle with guilt over whether they might find healing if they just had enough faith. This may surprise you, but I believe it is accurate to say there is no necessary and intrinsic relation between faith and the healing miracles Jesus performed. This can be seen in the three healings in John. The boy himself apparently played no part in the healing of John 4, and Jesus indicated that even the father’s faith was deficient. The lame man had no faith except in superstition before Jesus healed him. Only the man born blind clearly exercised faith in that he went to the pool of Siloam, but that act could have been as much an act of desperation as of faith.
My point is this: even in the NT, healing did not always, or even usually, depend upon the sick person or his relatives drumming up enough faith to cause Jesus to respond to their need. Jesus is not limited by people as He works the works of God. And I believe this truth needs to be understood today. Whether or not you receive healing from your specific physical problem is not necessarily in proportion to the amount of faith you can muster—rather it is directly contingent upon the will of God for your life. But we’ll talk more about that tonight.
Finally, consider the relationship …
Between healing and salvation. I have several important concepts I want to convey to you here. First, Jesus healed those who were lost spiritually, as well as those who were already believers. Certainly, the lame man was an unbeliever when healed and possibly the other two cases also. So not only is healing not a function of the patient’s great faith; it is also not even a function of his right standing before God. In other words, healing is a sovereign act of God upon whomever He chooses, and it is not an exclusive right of deeply committed Christians.
Second, while salvation is not a prerequisite for healing, it is usually the result of divine healing. In other words, the one healed generally becomes a believer and a disciple because of the healing, if he was not one beforehand. This signifies to me that the healing Jesus did was not an end in itself, but rather a means to bring the diseased and the lame and the blind to faith in Himself.
Conclusion: We said at the beginning of our message today that we had three goals. First, I wanted us to develop a greater faith in the person and power of Jesus Christ. If Jesus could heal people immediately, completely, permanently, publicly, and without gimmick, then He’s great enough to trust with our illnesses and our problems (whether He chooses to take them away or not), and certainly great enough to trust with our souls.
Secondly, I want us to gain a more realistic perspective on the relationship between sin and our health. We need to avoid two extremes, namely (1) that all catastrophes are just bad luck, or (2) that they are all a direct judgment of God for personal sin. Sometimes they are a consequence of sin or foolishness, but sometimes the cause is unrelated to us.
And thirdly, we need to understand that our physical healing is clearly of secondary importance to spiritual healing. There were only a few brief periods of frequent physical healing in biblical times. But God has always been anxious to accomplish spiritual healing, and that is far more important. Listen to one final passage in Matt. 9:1‑6:
“Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’
At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, ‘This fellow is blaspheming!’
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, ‘Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins… ‘ Then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’ And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe, and they praised God.”
He says to you this morning, “Son, daughter, your sins are forgiven.” He died on Calvary’s cross to pay the penalty for your sins. But forgiveness is not automatic. He will not force it on you. He first asks, “Do you want to be healed?” If so, you must say yes to Him.
DATE: December 6, 1992
Tags:
Healing
Sin
Faith
[i] William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1.
[ii] Joni Eareckson & Steve Estes, A Step Further, 155.