![John 4:46-54 [5:1-18], Healing Stories](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/f2ea08dd-b008-43a9-8534-9aea93716fd0/22.02.06+NL+Image+Program+2.jpg)
Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, February 6, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Jesus restored more than people’s bodies; he restored all aspects of wellness.
Healing stories are becoming increasingly challenging to preach. Those in the deaf community, for example, do not view themselves as deficient, therefore they don’t need healing. Stories of Jesus healing the deaf, then, will not sit well with hearers in the deaf community. Consider other healing stories of Jesus healing people with disabilities. If people with disabilities are not ill, they may not need healing. Add the notion that, in Jesus’ day, common understanding suggested illnesses and disabilities were caused by sin (theirs or their parents’), and you have a challenge ahead preaching on these.
Consider, then, what it might mean that Jesus healed people. Perhaps the healing was more than simply the fixing of physical problems. The sick and disabled were marginalized people. They were considered unclean and couldn’t work, and were therefore unable to participate fully in the life of the community. When Jesus healed them, he gave them the ability to participate more fully in the community, restoring their social and emotional health. He gave them the ability to work for more financial security. He gave kids the opportunity to learn, restoring intellectual/educational health. Consider the impact their healing may have made on the culture, the arts, and environment.
In today’s story, Jesus also used the healing experiences as opportunities for people to express their faith. Resist the temptation to make the healings into quid pro quo experiences. (Jesus didn’t withhold healings until people could prove their faith!) But often these experiences did help people grow in faith and communities come together through their faith.
By focusing on the bigger picture of what healing afforded those that Jesus healed, you might have a more powerful word to preach than to imply those with disabilities are “less-than,” or that people had to believe to be healed. You can put the focus back on Jesus, and how his healing stories enhanced more than just physical wellness.
As followers of Jesus, we have been called to do what Jesus did. Many of our social systems and norms have changed, so people with disabilities are no longer as marginalized as they once were. We have already begun the process of effecting change so that people are being restored to all areas of wellness despite their physical conditions.