THE HEALING WORD | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 6, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 10.

THE HEALING WORD.

THE recorded miracles of Jesus are not told to entertain us, or to give so many evidences of His supernatural power. He wrought many more miracles than are recorded, to relate which would merely satisfy curiosity or repeat instances of the same kind. Of those recorded, they have in the aggregate their grand lesson, and each separate one has its special lesson beyond the miracle itself.

THE great lesson of all the miracles is stated in John 20:31: "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." The aggregate of His miracles and signs covers every phase of human need, and reveals an all-sufficient Saviour. Each separate miracle manifests in a striking way some special excellence of the all-embracing Gospel.

AN instance of this is given in Matthew's record of the healing of the centurion's servant. The centurion was a Roman, having command of a hundred men in the Roman army. He was wealthy, benevolent, and religious; and if not a proselyte to the Jewish religion, was, at least, favorably disposed toward it. The Jewish elders declared: "He loveth our nation, and himself built us our synagog." Luke 7:5. He doubtless sent the elders of the Jews, according to Luke, believing they would have more influence with the Jewish Master. Matthew records it as tho he himself went to Jesus, under the principle that what a person does thru others he is counted as doing himself. We therefore follow Matt. 8:5-13.

THE centurion met Jesus as He entered into Capernaum. He besought Him, saying, "Lord, my servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." Jesus replied, "I will come and heal him." Then the great faith and the broad grasp of right government in the centurion are manifest: "Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." And Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."

THUS must the centurion have reasoned: He was an officer of the Roman government. That government had its imperial head, its chief officers, its sub-officers, all the way down. When sending a man on a mission,

that government equipped him so far as was in its power in men and means to do the work. The emperor needed only to speak the word; his servants made it effective. This the centurion knew. He knew that thus it must be in the spiritual world, God's great empire. Jesus also was under authority. He was the Sent of God. As God's Messenger He was commissioned to do a mighty work for God. The Ruler of the universe, who commissioned Him, had given Him adequate power and servants to do His work. Therefore He need not come to the centurion's house; let Him speak the word only, send the word by the hand of invisible messengers, and the work would be done, the servant would be healed. It was not the messenger who was potent; it was the word he bore.

THE faith of the centurion grasped the word, and his servant was healed in that hour. Yet in all Israel there were none whose faith reached so far. They must see Christ; He must touch the blind eye, put His own finger in the deaf ear, touch the stammering tongue, take the hand of the sick, lay hand upon the bowed and palsied. Even dearly-loved, intimate friends thought His personal presence was necessary to heal their brother. "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." They did not know the old scripture, which had been sung for hundreds of years, "He sent His word, and healed them." Ps. 107:20. It was necessary because of their limited faith that Christ should go away, or the Comforter would not come. John 16:7. While the literal, personal presence of Christ was before them, they could not grasp the omnipresence of His Spirit, nor the invisible operations of His Spirit-sent angels. But the centurion grasped the great scheme of God's power and wisdom. And many others shall grasp it outside of the visible church.

THERE is power in God's word to save. He spoke its cleansing power thousands of years ago by Isaiah and others. It has lost neither quality nor power in the lapse of ages. "Tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow," is as potent now as the day it was uttered, if we will comply with God's easy conditions. "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases," is as true now as when first sung by the poet of God and the choirs of Israel. We may not see God's burning glory; we may not look into His loving eyes; we may not feel His soothing touch; we may not hear His wondrous voice; but we may take His mighty word, and be forgiven and healed. Unworthy that He should enter our house, yet we may ask that His all-potent word be sent; and we may by faith claim its healing. Christ is no respecter of persons: "ask, and ye shall receive." Feed upon His word; appropriate its life. He is Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day, yea and forever."