What is healing anyway?

I have read some pretty bad books and heard some pretty bad sermons on illness and healing. There have been exceptions of course, but generally what I have read and heard has frustrated me.

As someone who is living with a long-term, life-threatening painful disease it can really ruin your day to have someone tell you that you obviously need to confess all your sins (what are you hiding) or put your house in order (what does that mean anyway), and then you will be made well. When I look at my friends who are suffering and dying from Motor Neurone
Disease it makes me angry when I hear people tell them and their families that it is God’s way of testing them.

Illness was something that Jesus came into contact with a lot. This isn’t surprising given the level of medical care at the time.

Jesus did not have one position on illness; he took each situation on its merits. Sometimes Jesus says there is a link between a person’s spiritual life (in the case of Mark 2:1-12 it is the forgiveness of sins) and their illness. At other times Jesus simply cures a person and there doesn’t seem to be a link to their spiritual life (Mark 5:35-43). Sometimes it has to do with the level of faith (“daughter your faith has made you well” Matthew 9:22), and at other times faith is not mentioned at all.

At times Jesus heals because of his compassion for the person or their family (Luke 7:11-17), and this gives me great hope. At other times the message about healing and faith is mixed — in Luke 17:11-19 he heals ten lepers, and only one returns (when he returns to say thank you, Jesus tells him that his faith has made him well, yet the other lepers were healed at the same time, despite their lack of faith).

Sometimes sin seems to be a factor in healing and cure — in John 5:1-16 Jesus says, “See you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” Yet later, in John 9:1-12, Jesus is very specific that no sin caused the man’s blindness.

Sickness, healing and sinfulness for Jesus seem to be important and linked at times — and not at others. If Jesus’ practice of healing is so eclectic, it is little wonder that we struggle to find a “theology of illness and healing”.

What is healing anyway? I have experienced healing in my life — it has been an acceptance of my illness. I believe that my grandmother was healed through her death; that is, she was no longer in pain, was no longer confused, and was with all the people that she loved.
Both of these are not traditional, miracle type healings, but they are still healings to me.

We all need healing and wholeness in our lives — in the physical, spiritual, and emotional parts of our lives. Yes, sometimes something in one area is making another area sick, but this is not always the case. It is a very individual thing, something between you and God, at that time.

I would encourage people to think about what needs healing in their own lives before they spout off about healing to people who are chronically ill and ruin their lunch.

If I believed all that people tell me (often in the name of God) about what I need to do in order to be well (be it “confess the sin I have hidden”, or “put my house in order” or “use a certain herb”) I would go mad, because even though most of the people tell me that they have a word from God for me, they all seem to be contradictory.

I have learnt to respectfully listen to what they say, but put aside their message and focus on the love that they are trying to give me.

These people genuinely want me to be well because they love me and don’t want to see me in pain anymore — that is a truly beautiful thing. If I focus on that, I can see the love of God coming through to me from my friends and family, and it makes living with pain much, much easier.

The Rev. Nikki Coleman is a member of Kippax Uniting Church in Canberra.