I, the LORD, am your healer.
(Exodus 15:26)
Jesus, Healer
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Jesus not only came to “set the captives free” but to heal us of the effects of captivity — slavery to sin.
He was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
Thus, the ministry of Jesus began with not only the proclamation to “repent and believe the good news” but involved “curing every disease and illness among the people.”[1]Matthew 4:23 Today, Jesus still heals. The sick are being cured in His name, the eyes of the blind are being opened, the deaf are hearing, the lame walk again, and even the dead are being raised. It’s true! A simple search on the internet reveals the testimonies of countless people who have experienced the healing power of Jesus Christ in our times. I have experienced the physical healing of Jesus![2]cf. St. Raphael’s Little Healing
Yet, there is a healing Jesus came to bring that goes deeper than our temporal flesh. It is a wound so deep, so pervasive, that its effects often overtake people for their whole lives. This wound found its origin in the Garden of Eden after the fall of Adam and Eve:
When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)
The Great Malady of the human race was revealed: the wound of fear. Fear of God… and soon, fear of each other that would express itself in division, hatred, and wars. O, how many ills of the human race can be traced back to this fear! How many relationships collapse because of fear and the judgments it produces; how many nations go to war over fear of neighboring nations; how many ways does fear play out on a daily basis as mistrust seeps into a multitude of interactions. In fact, research tells us that stress and anxiety are at the root of 90% of illnesses![3]eg. here, here, and here And most often our stress is fear that we are losing or have lost control over the situations around us. Is there any wonder then that Jesus said,
Do not worry about your life… Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious… O you of little faith? Seek first the Kingdom of God… Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. (Mat 6:25-34)
Jesus is God; Jesus is our Liberator; and in those words, Jesus wants to be our Healer. He wants to deliver us from the destructive force of fear.
Healing the First Fear
Since we are made in the image of God, and “God is love,”[4]1 John 4:8 it follows that the original sin of Adam and Even broke something in our identity. We wrestle with the fear that we are not loved, or lovable, and as such, fall short in the way we love others. This is the tragic storyline of human history and Jesus wants to deliver us from the pervasive and crippling spirit of fear. He wants to heal our hearts so that we can receive love, and be capable of loving others. It’s what we were created for, and thus, it is the deepest healing Jesus wants to give. But how?
Recall that Jesus’s first words were: “Repent and believe the gospel.” Adam fell from grace because he lost trust in His Creator; so it is precisely faith that begins the restoration of our relationship with Him.[5]“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8 ) But Jesus doesn’t try to restore our relationship with God by fine and convincing theological arguments. Rather, He chose to overwhelm us with the depths of His unconditional love.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)
But Jesus died for us when we weren’t His friends.
For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
So even if you want to hide from God like Adam and Eve did, He is pursuing you because He has already loved you to death — literally. If you say you are lost, then Jesus says He is the Good Shepherd looking for you.
What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?… I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. (Luke 15:4-7)
If you say you are sick, then you are the one He is seeking:
Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. (Mark 2:17)
If you say you are unworthy, then you are the one He wants to dine with:
This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. (Luke 15:2; see also Luke 19:1-10)
There is no where you can run from Jesus, no where you can hide from His love.
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?… I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)
The Healing Place
But wait a minute, you might be saying: “Won’t those who persist in grave sin indeed be separated from God in Hell for all eternity?” Understand: the one who refuses to repent from sin and chooses enmity rather than friendship with God — their free will choice — separates themselves from His sanctifying grace. [6]“To be a lover of the world means enmity with God.” (James 4:4 ) But no, not from His love! As St. Paul said, not even “death” — and sin is the ultimate death of the soul. So not even your sin is a cause to despair and think that God has ceased loving you. But if you reject that love, then you have essentially stopped letting Him save you.
But of the person who is caught in the brambles of sin, Jesus said to St. Faustina:
O soul steeped in darkness, do not despair. All is not yet lost. Come and confide in your God, who is love and mercy… Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet… I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. —Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 1486, 699, 1146
This healing from both sin and our fear of God takes place primarily in the Sacrament of Confession. It is there that we encounter Jesus the Healer in the person of the priest; it is there that we find the unfathomable love and mercy of the Father. In fact Jesus says,
Were a soul like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no [hope of] restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy [in confession]! —Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 1448
Jesus doesn’t want you to be miserable. He no longer wants you to live in fear. If you can accept His unconditional love, it changes everything. Yes,
Even should [your mother] forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have engraved you… (Isaiah 49:15-16)
Jesus has carved your name into His palm — with a nail, the nail of the Cross. He wants to overwhelm you with divine love so that you realize how much He cares for you, for all the details of your life so that you can stop worrying and being so anxious. And even though suffering will continue in this fallen world until the end of time, He is always at your side. So when you feel tired and weary, and the valley of the shadow of death feels too much, He says:
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
When you let Jesus into your life and let Him love you; and when you, in turn, love others the way He loves you… you will begin to see something else happen: fear will begin to dissolve like fog in the heat of the sun. For…
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)
Let Jesus love and form you in the school of perfect love, which is His Sacred Heart… yes, let Jesus heal you.
Related Reading
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