1. Encounters Along the Way
Christ’s Encounter with Illness
Mark 1:29-34, 40-42

2. Mark 1:29-34 “As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.”

3. The story of Jesus happens within a context of real life and it is within this messy web of human relationships that Jesus ministered.
If Jesus came to simply die for our sin and provide us one day with a rosy utopian future, why did He spend any time interacting with the sick and infirm?
Jesus is credited with 31 individual acts of healing throughout the gospels and nearly 20% of the text relates specifically to the healing of illness.
If Christ came to solely provide spiritual healing for us, then why are there so many examples of Christ’s physical healing of illness and disease in the gospel accounts?

4. Christ’s ministry of healing was a prophesied part of the ministry of the Messiah. For centuries pre-dating Christ, the rabbis of Judaism had expected the Messiah to do away with the sickness and disease of the world.
“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matthew 8:17)
“… he took up our pain and bore our suffering …”. (Isaiah 53:4)
Can you see the difference between these verses?
Did Jesus come to eradicate our disease and illnesses or did He come to eradicate spiritual pain and suffering?

5. The word translated “pain” or “griefs” in Isaiah, and “infirmities” in Matthew, means “diseases of the body” in both the Hebrew and Greek.
The word translated as “suffering” in Isaiah, and “infirmities” in Matthew, means “pain, grief, or anguish of mind”.
Key to the ministry of the Messiah is an active focus on the healing of sickness and disease. Christ spends so much time healing the sick and the infirm because this is part of what His overall ministry entailed.

6. Christ’s death on the cross provides ultimate victory over certain things, including ultimate victory over sickness and infirmity.
Illness is a precursor to death, a part of the curse of the human sin. When we experience sickness, it is a foretaste of death.
But, in Christ, we have ultimate victory over death.
Christ didn’t just defeat illness and death on the cross; He was defeating death all along the way throughout His ministry.

7. If Christ was able to defeat illness 2,000 years ago, He is equally able to defeat them today.
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up”. (James 5:14-15 )
Healing is available to us today in Jesus Christ … but this doesn’t always occur, does it?
We cannot pretend to understand the mystery of God’s sovereignty.
The follower of Jesus ought to hold his or her faith in God’s healing power and his or her faith in His perfect sovereignty in a tenuous balance of trust in God’s goodness.

8. “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1:40-42)
 When Jesus encountered this man, disfigured and afflicted by a horrific disease, He ached internally and responded with compassion.
Jesus shares in the leper’s pain; He somehow enters into the leper’s pain.

9. The ancient understanding was that sickness, illnesses and the like occurred in response to sin and to preserve one’s purity before God, one must never enter into a sinner’s pain.
Christ’s response reveals a very different reality, revealing that illness is not always the result of human sin, but “so that the works of God might be displayed” (John 9:3).
Rather than seeing illness as an indicator of one’s sin, might it be possible that illness is an opportunity to see God somehow glorified?

10. I am convinced that Christ allowed Himself to experience illness, so that He could better identify with our human condition.
“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin". (Hebrews 4:15)
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain”. (Isaiah 53:3)
The word translated as pain means “diseases of the body” in Hebrew.
Jesus is not unfamiliar with the pain and hopelessness that often accompanies a significant illness; He experientially understands your experience.

11. Because He uniquely understands the effects of such things, Jesus aches to take away illness and disease in our world, even though God’s sovereign plan might call for such realities to remain.
When we face suffering, we can be confident that God is present with us.
Are you suffering sickness today? Know that God is present with you, that healing is possible and that God can be glorified through your circumstances.

12. If this is the reality of God’s approach to illness, then how ought we respond to the ill we come across in life?
When our hearts break for the sick and we find ways to minister to them in their illness, we prove our place in God’s Kingdom. When we find ways to be present with the sick, responding to their need, we perform a service as though for Christ Himself. When we serve the sick, we serve Jesus!
The Example of the Ancient Church
Because they knew that Jesus was willing to enter into the pain of the sick, providing healing and comfort, they too were willing to mercifully enter into the pain of the sick and dying ... and the church grew!

13. Today, though not many of us might be called to minister a gift of miraculous healing, let us become a people who are readily available to respond in compassion and with our presence to those affected by illness and disease. Might we become a people commended of God for our approach to the sick. Might we become more Christ-like in this regard each given day and may the good news of Jesus be evidenced through our actions as His people!