THERE was no question about it in His day. Tho men denied the source of power, they did not deny the miracles which He wrought. When the blind was made to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the palsied to leap and shout; when men saw the demons cast out, the leper cleansed, the bowed and crippled made straight and whole, the dead raised, they could no longer doubt. Jesus the mighty Healer was among them.
Jesus Healing the Sick.
Or such an occasion of healing the evangelist speaks: "And when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them," "and cast out the spirits with His word, . . . that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases." There were no medicaments, no drug-taking, no mysterious formulae of occult mouthings, no general or specific progressive treatment, no sitting in the silences and becoming en rapport with one's "inner divinity" or with some pretender at a distance. "He spake," as "in the beginning," "and it was done." "He commanded, and it stood fast." The power of God was within Him and upon Him, and the soul open to receive it realized the benefit of His life-giving power.
THERE were prescriptions in the work of the Master, but only that faith might live and grow, never that power might be aided or supplemented. One he anointed with clay made from the dust and spittle; another was sent to wash in a certain pool; to a deaf man He put His fingers in his ears; another He touched; and others still, whether present or distant, He healed with a word. And in the word dwelt all the potency of the power of God.
WHY did He work these miracles? Why are they told to us? Not to advertise Himself, not merely to benefit humanity physically; but to reveal to that generation, with all its spirituality and conception of a godly life, dead and sunken in rites and ceremonies of Pharisaic formalism, that the God of Israel still existed, still was willing to dwell in mortal flesh, still was potent to overcome sin. And thus declares John the Beloved: "Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name." John 20: 30, 31.
THESE miracles of physical healing were not His chief work nor main object. We have more record of His teaching than of His healing. The mighty miracles followed His teaching rather than preceded it, unless the circumstances were such as to demand the miracle, as, for instance, the bringing to life of the son of the widow of Nain. The record of healing in the second of these notes came after a Sabbath of teaching. He did not advertise Himself as the Healer. Not once in all His ministry did He say, "Come unto Me and be healed of your diseases." Nowhere is it recorded that He told any of His disciples to herald Him as the one who healed the body. One, indeed, He sent back to tell his friends how great things God had done for him, but that one was especially delivered from soul bondage. Lepers were told to show themselves to the priest, that they might comply with the law, and that the priests might know that there was power in God. But many times He expressly forbade the telling to any one of His mighty healings.
COMPARE the Master's work with that of the so-called divine-healers and faith-healers of to-day. Not the work of all would we contrast with His; there are noble exceptions, but these are not bruiting abroad their deeds. We believe in the healing power of God. We have seen those who were sick unto death healed by the power of God. We have seen those who have suffered many things from many physicians and were not the better, but rather the worse, healed at once in answer to the prayer of faith and the laying on of hands. But more than these is the healing of the soul from sin and sinning; and when the church of Jesus Christ will long for and appreciate this greatest of all miracles, the mighty power of God in the regeneration of the human soul and character, the lesser miracles will follow. But he who ignores the standard and requirements of God's word and law, and seeks for outward signs, will be deceived by "the spirits of demons working miracles" in order to deceive the world. Blessed is he who counts the righteousness of God first. He shall not be deceived.
"God will entrust to us higher responsibilities only as we faithfully perform those already waiting at our door, however little they may seem to us."
