What can desperation bring us to do? Our recent ancestors cured coughs with the slimy essence of snails. Icepicks were inserted through eye sockets into people’s brains, hoping to calm the confused mind. People voluntarily ingested tapeworms, or used ground-up mummies as medicine.
Are we smarter today? Listen to television ads for modern medicines. The side effects often sound worse than the cures. Suddenly, our ancestors’ desperate grasp at those odd medicines doesn’t seem so crazy after all.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus brought us the wildest cure of all, and despite the world’s disbelief, it worked. Why should we be amazed that it still works today?
Let’s see how it was done in the earliest days of the Church.
Our first example is found in Matthew 8:16. In the beginning words of the verse, the scene as it might have been is laid out. The sun lay low over the horizon, with brick-red clouds layered against the fading light. The mid-day hours had been hot, and only now had the air begun to cool.
No doubt the day was exhausting, and Jesus was tired. Yet, that was the very time when the people brought the devil-possessed and sick to him. The thought must have crossed his mind, “Not again!” Yet, the Word only records his willingness to help those in need.
The final section of Matthew 8:16 tells us how he cast out evil spirits with his words, and he healed everyone who was sick.
Our second example takes us to Acts 10:38, where we read of Jesus’ healing power. Luke tells us how God anointed Jesus, filling him with the Holy Spirit, so that he had power to heal those who suffered and were in need.
Our final example comes from 1 Peter 2:24, where Jesus’ healing power is linked to the stripes he received. We are told that our Lord not only took our sores and illnesses as he hung on the cross, he also took our sins in his own body, so that we might be free from iniquity.
So now the time has come to compare: Snails, tapeworms, and ground-up mummies? Modern medicines with side-effects longer than our arms?
Or Jesus, bringing healing to the infirm, and salvation to the sinner?
When the clutches of desperation bring us to our knees, we need to turn to Jesus. When all others fail, there is no other name under the heavens or on the earth in which we can trust.
When we turn to Jesus, he touches us in both body and soul, for he is our healer and our redeemer.
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