Full of Grace and Truth: Healing Diseases

There are a lot of things in life that can cause us heartache and pain. Few can compare with the struggle of dealing with declining health. If we live long enough, we’re bound to experience it, either our own health struggles or those of the people we love and care for. Either way, it’s not pleasant and not something anyone looks forward to.

According to the writers of the four Gospels, Jesus encountered plenty of people who were struggling with health issues of their own. We’ve already looked at a couple of them in previous blog posts, like the man who was healed of paralysis and the man who was healed of blindness. But those two are just the beginning. There were many others who sought out Jesus to be healed of the diseases they were battling with.

We find one such example in Mark’s gospel. In the story, Jesus is traveling throughout Galilee preaching and driving demons out of people. Meanwhile, a man with leprosy approached Jesus, fell on his knees, and cried out, “If You are willing, You can make me clean (Mark 1:40).”

Think of the faith this man had. According to the law, people with leprosy were supposed to be isolated from others because they were unclean (Leviticus 13:46). They weren’t even supposed to come close to people. Though he surely knew he was violating the law, which could have gotten him into all sorts of trouble, he boldly went up to Jesus trusting that he would cure him. Would he?

We’ve already seen multiple examples of how Jesus was full of grace. This occasion would be no different. Moved with compassion for the suffering man, Jesus touched him with his hand and said, “I am willing; be cleansed (Mark 1:41).”

Can you imagine how this encounter with Jesus must have made this man feel? Putting myself in his sandals, I can only imagine how uplifting it would have been just to have been touched by him and to hear him say those words. But it got even better than that. As Mark continues, we discover that the man was indeed healed. Not gradually. Not a little bit at a time. Immediately (Mark 1:42)!

While this miraculous healing clearly put vitality back in this man’s body, it really did much more than that. Think of what it would have been like to live a life being ostracized from everyone you knew and loved because of the disease you had. Think of the crushing loneliness you would feel if you could never be with them, talk with them, eat with them, live everyday life with them. Think of how desperate you would feel living apart from the rest of society, shunned because of a possible deadly disease and the law that requires it. Imagine trying to cope with the fear that you could die alone, or at least in the company of others struggling in the same miserable conditions living in a leper colony.

When viewed from this vantage point, you can see why this man risked it all to fall at the feet of Jesus. The desperate circumstances of his life, combined with his faith in Jesus, drove him to it. And the grace of Jesus did more than just heal his body; he restored the fullness of life to this man. If that’s not grace, I don’t know what is.

Just four chapters later, Mark tells another story very similar to this one. In this story, there is a woman who has been suffering from her own disease; she had been subject to bleeding for twelve years! She had spent all her money on doctors but they were unable to help her. In fact, she was getting worse. Out of a similar desperation that the leprous man experienced, this woman sought out the one person she was convinced could heal her – Jesus! Her faith was such that she believed she would be healed if only she could touch his clothes. Finding him in the middle of a large crowd, she was determined to make her way to him. Coming up from behind him, she managed to touch his cloak, and immediately she was healed and her suffering was gone (Mark 5:24-29).

Like the man with leprosy, this poor woman would have been something like a pariah in society. She would have been declared unclean (Leviticus 15:25-27) and not allowed to enter the temple area for religious ceremonies. And anyone she would have touched would been declared unclean too. So to fight her way through the crowd that was pressing around Jesus was a complete no-no. Such was her desperation and desire to be healed.

Although he did not see who it was who touched him, Jesus stopped and demanded to know who it was. He had felt the power of healing flow out of him. Was the woman in trouble? Remember, she was unclean and wasn’t supposed to touch him or anyone else. Was she about to be reprimanded? Or worse?

Trembling with fear, she fell at Jesus’ feet and admitted what she had done. But once again, Jesus exercised grace. Instead of chastising her for touching him with her uncleanness, he instead said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering (Mark 5:34).”

Such tender words from Jesus is enough to melt one’s heart. Her world was completely opened back up to her because of the graciousness of the one who loved her perhaps more than she could have possibly known at that moment. Though we know nothing else about her, it’s not hard to imagine that she was forever changed by this sole encounter with the Son of God. If nothing else, her health was restored to her and she resumed a normal life.

That’s what God’s grace can do. It can bring about healing to those suffering from horrible diseases. Though there’s no guarantee of healing, these two stories clearly reveal that it is His desire to heal. It may not happen in this lifetime, for obviously we will all die of something some day if the Lord doesn’t return before then. But if Jesus was willing to heal so many people of the diseases that afflicted them when he walked upon the earth, then surely he has that same desire now. So even if healing does not come to us now, we still have the hope that we will be healed and made whole in the age to come. And that hope is made possible because Jesus is full of grace and truth.