Living in the South, I ran into people who believed in faith healing.  Faith healers are folks who claim that Jesus wants to heal you of your sickness and pain, but you have to have strong enough faith for him to do so.  The reason you aren’t healed then is not Jesus’ fault; it’s yours. Jesus would love to heal you, but your weak faith prevents him. I don’t know about you, but that’s not the kind of Savior I want to believe in, nor is it the kind of Savior we need.  

We all need healing, though.  Jesus is in the business of healing.  In Matthew 4, the Bible explains how Jesus went about like a country doctor, visiting the sick and suffering and healing them of their various diseases. Jesus healed those sick with physical disease. He healed those suffering mentally and spiritually.  He even cast out demons.   

Jesus is still healing today.  That may not seem obvious as we have watched the world seem like it is drowning under a tsunami of panic as the covid-19 virus sweeps across the continents.  Every morning the infected rate rises as well as the death toll.  

Jesus is still healing, though.  He heals us through the medical field and professionals he has given to us.  Jesus heals through the doctors he provides. He heals us through the immune system which he created.  Jesus has been healing you ever since you were born. When you were little and scraped your knee, mom may have cleaned it, put a bandage on it, and even kissed it. Behind all of that was Jesus, healing you.  That scrape eventually turned to a scab, dried up, and disappeared. All that might remain now is a tiny scar as a reminder of a time you were scared, panicked, and in need of healing. Jesus healed and left a mark as a reminder.  

The picture you see was created by a Christian artist named Chris Powers.  In it, he depicts how Jesus bore the fullness of sin and its effect for all who hope in him. He didn’t just bear your sins and mine. He endured the anguish of the sin of all people and he endured power of hell for all of us.  

That means he bears the entirety of sin’s fallout … the brokenness, the sickness, sorrow and fear.  Every fracture of sin in humanity is borne in the experience of the one who is true God and man, our Savior Jesus.  He bore all sin and infirmity on the cross. This includes, of course, the present pandemic. As the human race reels under the assault of COVID 19, a truth we can cling to is that our Lord and God—hanging as our representative on the cross—reeled under all affliction, and bore it willingly in love for all who will ever be grafted into him by faith. Our Savior God has not only known about and allowed this pandemic from all eternity, but—from all eternity—he himself has borne its agonies, and all suffering, in his own body and overcome them through  his death and resurrection.

So, for any and all who will ever cling to the slain and risen Jesus by faith, we know where COVID 19 (and all the associated societal pressures) ends…it ends—as with ALL agonies—in the wounds of the Risen Christ…the wounds that proclaim not just sorrow overcome, but sorrow transfigured, and forever transformed, to joy….not just thorns burnt down, but thorns transformed and changed into flowering myrtles. (Is.55:13 – Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow ).

In a sense, we do not know how this pandemic will play out. But in another sense, we know where it ends. If the crucifixion is the embodiment of sin and its effects, then the resurrection reveals to us the sure outcome of sin and its effects—including the effect called “COVID 19”  All of human history will end in the beauty of God on display to the disbelieving joy of his fearful and, yet, hopeful children.

Remember that first Easter morning?  Mary stood at the empty tomb of our Savior weeping.  Jesus appeared to her. He revealed himself to her. At that moment Mary turned from the tomb toward her risen Savior and Lord and found that her weeping had turned to laughter. In that moment, Mary embodied the experience that awaits each of us at the end of every conceivable suffering for those whose hope is in Christ.  And the end of it all, we will find a Savior who heals and we will laugh with joy. 

Jesus continues to heal just as he has healed.  Remember that nagging cough you had, it disappeared. Your body healed itself quietly as if almost overnight.  The surgeon repaired your body and it healed and recovered over time. Behind it all is a healing Savior. Your sins have been forgiven. The curse of separation has been removed. The blood of Jesus is your transfusion of salvation. Jesus healed. And he heals still. And perhaps that virus isn’t eradicated from your system or the cancer remains incurable.  Either way, Jesus still heals. The Lord promises to bring you to his eternal healing in the paradise of heaven. Just like Mary on Easter morning at the empty tomb, our suffering will turn to laughter. We may close our eyes in death, but we will open them in eternal life and see the great physician of body and soul, our risen Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who took up all our infirmities and bore our disease. We will see him alive.  And we will be with him; never to die again! Jesus is our healer, now and forever.

Amen.