The Gentle Healer

Friends,

Peter Kennedy shares this story concerning Brian Birdwell, Republican politician from Granbury, TX. -- On September 11, 2001, Lt. Col. Birdwell stepped into a Pentagon hallway when the fireball from the hijacked plane hit him. After recovering from the initial shock, Birdwell realized he was on fire. "Jesus, I'm coming to see you," he remembers praying. When doctors finally attended to him at the Washington Burn Center, they found second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of Birdwell's body. To save him, they performed several skin graft operations. On September 13, while lying in his bed in the burn center, Laura Bush visited Brian's room and spoke to him for about a minute, all the time as if they were life-long acquaintances. She then turned to Brian's wife, Mel, who had been at the hospital for about two-and-a-half days. She was dirty, grimy, and wore a bloodstained shirt. Despite this, Laura gave her a long hug, as if she were a close family member. Laura then told them that there was "someone" there to see him. The President walked in. Standing by Brian's bedside, the President told Colonel Birdwell that he was very proud of them both and regarded them as heroes. The President then saluted Brian. Brian slowly began to return the salute, taking about 15 to 20 seconds to get his hand up to his head because of his bandaged arms. During all of this, President Bush never moved. He dropped his salute only when Brian was finished with his. Birdwell lives now with renewed purpose. "I'm a walking miracle. Christ got me out of the fire. In him not taking me, that means I have a mission to complete.” He and his wife now operate, Facing the Fire Ministries, an organization that serves to help burn victims, and he is currently serving in the Texas Senate.

What we can learn is that our Lord is a compassionate God, one who is with us in our most hurting times. He is one who knows our pain and one who can deliver us for a purpose. We can thank the Lord for healing, whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual, or eternal. As we come to Matthew 8, it is important to understand that lepers, Gentiles and women were considered outcasts by many Jewish people, especially the Pharisees. Many Pharisees would pray each morning, “I give thanks that I am a man and not a woman, a Jew and not a Gentile, a free-man and not a slave.”  Yeah, nice folks. There are a number of afflictions that the Word of God classifies as leprosy. The dreaded infection forced them to live apart from others and cry, “Unclean, unclean!” when others approached, so they would not be defiled. This would certainly be humiliating.  Jesus recognizes their plight and has mercy on them.  We see a number of stories involving Jesus cleansing lepers in the gospels.

None of the above business concerning how lepers should act, shouting “unclean,” deters one particular leper who, upon seeing Jesus, violates the code as he runs up to Him. This is evidence that this fellow has great faith that Jesus would heal him.  What happens next is nothing short of remarkable in a number of ways – Jesus reaches out and touches him.  He knows how important it would be to him, Who knows how long it had been since that had happened for this person? Nonetheless, the Lord is willing to take on the leper’s defilement, although it would have no effect on Him, and in turn, bring healing back to the man. The leper does not question Jesus’ ability to heal…he only wonders if Jesus will be willing to heal him. But, this act is just a small reflection of the greater reality that Jesus comes to heal and save man from his sins. Jesus commands the man not to tell others, but to go to the priests and declare him restored and able to back into society. It is interesting that the man does not obey Christ, as he tells everyone what the Lord has done. Mark’s account (1:45) reveals that the healed lepers witness forces Jesus to avoid the city…and yet the crowds still come to Him.

Another story of healing takes place concerns a centurion, which once again, is recorded in other gospel accounts.  A centurion is an officer who commands a hundred men in the Roman army.  Every centurion mentioned in the gospels is a man of high character and sense of duty…and this man is no exception. The fact that he is concerned with a lowly servant who has palsy (or is paralyzed) indicates this fact. Much like the leper, it would seem that everything about this man would prevent him from coming to see Jesus – he is a soldier, Jesus is a man of peace…he is a Gentile, while Jesus is a Jew.  But, this man has great faith!  He understands that Jesus is under authority, but that he also has authority.  All Jesus has to do is speak the word and the servant will be healed.  It is recorded only twice in the gospels that Jesus marveled…and this is one of those times.  He finds the great faith of the centurion wondrous!  This appears to be an early indication that the Jews are not going to believe, but that the Gentiles are going to do so.

Finally, we see Peter and Andrew letting Jesus know that Peter’s mother-in-law is ill.  She is in bed with a fever, but Jesus heals her with a simple touch.  She then gets up and serves them.  So, we see Jesus heal two people by touching them, and heal one from a distance…there are no obstacles to what Jesus is capable of doing in healing those in need.  This seems like a “minor miracle, but the results are major.  At sundown, the entire city gathers at the door that the Lord might meet their needs.  The change in one woman’s life leads to miracles in the lives of many people.

The movie about the acclaimed book, Heaven is For Real, came out on dvd a few weeks ago.  It is the fascinating story concerning Colton Burpo, who suffers a near-death experience in which he claims to have visited heaven.  When their young son Colton enters the hospital with a life-threatening illness, devastated parents Todd and Sonja Burpo are uncertain whether he will make it out of the operating room alive. But in what Colton's doctors credit as "a miracle," he survives -- and with an incredible story that seems to confirm the existence of heaven. Later, despite Colton's accurate and intimate revelations about people he has never encountered -- including his sister who died in utero and his late grandfather -- skeptics hastily dismiss any possibility that the young boy's fantastic claims could be true. Meanwhile, his astonished parents seek meaning in the alleged miracle that has turned their once-peaceful lives completely upside down.

Regardless of where you fall concerning the story, it is a fascinating read.  And it highlights something very important for everyone to consider.  Jesus is about seeing people come to Him.  This is what His ministry was all about.  He did not go out of His way for anyone…they were His way.  We live and seek to serve as Jesus did, and in this we emulate our Master.  We may not be able to perform the miracles He performed, but we might just have the opportunity to see one sometime. Kent Brantly contracted Ebola as the result of working as a doctor in Liberia.  Thanks be to God that he has been completely healed of the virus.  Yet, as often as there are great stories of healing, there are others who do not experience such healing, at least physically.  And as one person shared with me when they were asked what to pray for when someone is gravely ill, they replied…just pray for healing. Healing takes place…whether it be physical, or eternal.  As difficult as it is, for those who are in Christ, healing is a blessing either way.

Blessings, Don

From Death to Life

Friends,

A story by Sydney Lupkin of ABC News from two months ago -- When 17-year-old Lawrence Yahle learned his father was dead earlier this month at Kettering Medical Center in Ohio, he ran down the hall to see nurses around his father's body. They weren't trying to revive him anymore. Distraught, Lawrence pointed and shouted, "Dad, you're not going to die today." Moments later, Anthony Yahle's heart monitor showed signs of life, Dr. Raja Nazir, his cardiologist at Kettering Medical Center, told ABCNews.com. It wasn't a regular heartbeat, but once or twice a minute, the monitor would pick up tiny electrical movements. "When I looked at the electrical activity, I was surprised," Nazir said. "I thought we'd better make another effort to revive him." Nazir gave one of Yahle's hanging medicine bags a squeeze to restore his blood pressure and the team began working on him again. "Very slowly, the heart rate was picking up," Nazir said. That was more than a week ago, on Aug. 5. Doctors thought Yahle, a 37-year-old diesel mechanic, would need a heart transplant or be in a vegetative state the rest of his life, but he's home resting and seems fine. "I'm calling it a miracle because I've never seen anything like it," Nazir said. Yahle's near-death experience started at 4 a.m. that day, when his wife, Melissa Yahle, woke up and realized his breathing didn't sound right. Melissa, who has been a nurse for seven years, said she tried unsuccessfully to wake him up. Melissa and Lawrence performed CPR until an ambulance could arrive, and first responders found a heartbeat after shocking Yahle several times. At the hospital, doctors expected Yahle's arteries to be clogged, but they were clear. Things were looking positive until later that afternoon, when Yahle's heart stopped. He "coded" for 45 minutes as doctors tried to revive him. "We looked at each other," Nazir said. "We'd given him all the medicine we had in our code cart. At some point, you have to call it off." Nazir said he wasn't sure exactly how long Yahle was "dead," before Lawrence ran down the hall to tell his father he couldn't die that day. "Suddenly that trickle of a thing came back," Nazir said. "We were lucky we saw and reacted to it, and that brought him back." Nazir said it was "mind boggling." Melissa said she, Lawrence and the people from their church who were praying with them witnessed a miracle. Yahle was transferred to Ohio State University, and he returned home to West Carrollton on Aug. 10 with a defibrillator in his chest. He doesn't remember any of the experience after he went to bed on Aug. 4. "He doesn't have one broken rib," Melissa said. "He's not sore. These are things that just clinically don't happen." Yeah…except they do. This is what happens with God. He has a way of doing miracles…in His way and at His discretion, of course. This seems to be a pretty prominent theme in the Bible.  Here, we have the story of a young person who dies and comes back to life by the power of God.

This is the first recorded instance in the Word of God of a person being raised from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24). It is evident that the young man in the story is dead, as it not only indicates that he stopped breathing, but that his spirit has left his body (vv.21-22). His mother is grieving, as well. It is interesting to note that the mother’s response is to feel guilty because of past sins. She believes that her son’s death is God’s way of punishing her for misdeeds. It is not uncommon for people to feel guilt in connection with bereavement, but is curious that she points her finger at her guest. She recognizes Elijah as a man of God. Perhaps, she believes that his presence should have protected her and her son, and should have prevented her son’s death.

Elijah’s response is to carry the boy to the upstairs room and to cry out to the Lord for the life of the child. He can’t believe that the Lord would miraculously provide food for the three of them and then allow the son to die. There has to be something else at work. Elijah doesn’t stretch himself out on the boy’s dead body in hope that he could somehow transfer his life to the lad, because he knows that only God can impart life. It is after Elijah stretches himself out on the boy for the third time that he comes back to life. Is this a coincidence…given that our Lord arose on the third day after His death? I would say -- probably not. There seems to be a looking ahead or foreshadowing to Jesus’ experience in most, if not all, of “the raising from the dead” stories. In a similar manner, Paul raises the boy Eutychus in Acts 20, as it says, “Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. ‘Don't be alarmed,’ he said. ‘He's alive!’” (v.20)

The result of the miracle is the woman’s confession of her faith in the God of Israel. She now understands that Elijah is a true servant of God, and not just some religious teacher looking for support. This is all interesting since God has already provided food for the widow through Elijah, as we go back to the previous message. So, the God of the universe is not only able to sustain life, He also grants life. Like the man with the five talents, Elijah has proven himself to be faithful…all while in enemy territory. During these three years on the run, Elijah has learned a great deal about the Lord, about himself and about the needs of people…which is good, because he is about to face his greatest challenge.

One final thought…Jesus uses this story Himself (Luke 4:25-26) to emphasize the grace of God on people. This is an important message, not only in the New Covenant, but in the Old, as well.

One might ask -- what is the purpose in the raising of one from death to life? We will consider this thought in Paul’s relationship to Jesus. What can we see from Paul’s life in regards to the impact of the resurrected Christ? One commentator notes: “The truth and power of the resurrected Christ brought three great changes in Paul. First, was a deep recognition of sin. For the first time he realized how far his external religious life was from being internally godly. He saw himself as he really was…an enemy of God and a persecutor of His church. Second, he experienced a revolution of character. From a persecutor of the church he became her greatest defender. His life was transformed from one characterized by self–righteous hatred to one characterized by self–giving love. He changed from oppressor to servant, from imprisoner to deliverer, from judge to friend, from a taker of life to a giver of life. Third, he experienced a dramatic redirection of energy. As zealously as he had once opposed God’s redeemed he now served them”. (MacArthur, J. F. (1984). First Corinthians. MacArthur New Testament commentary (395). Chicago: Moody Press.)

And what does this story mean for us? Once again, we see the providence of God at work. The God who protects Elijah for three years, who protects the widow and her son, can also protect us. Not only this, I believe that the story is not only a foreshadowing of Jesus’ resurrection, but it is also a foreshadowing of ours. It we believe that Jesus is raised from the dead and that He is coming again for us to take us home to be with Him…then, as we have studies in 1 Thessalonians 4, etc., we will likewise be raised from the dead! The miracle that takes place for Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, also takes place for all who have trusted in Him for salvation, just as Martha indicates to Jesus, "I know he (Lazarus) will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies…” (John 11:24-25, NIV) This is our hope!

Blessings, Don