Jesus Came For a Reason
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a perspective on healing from Jesus.
You see, in the early years of my paralysis, I traveled to so many faith-healing services. I very much wanted to get up and out of my wheelchair; I wanted back the use of my hands. But despite following every scriptural injunction – you know confessing sin, praying in faith, being anointed with oil (many times), my fingers and feet never seemed to get the message. After one healing service, I went home and I decided to dig deeper into the Bible because I wanted to learn more about healing. And I was led to the first chapter of the gospel of Mark. That’s the chapter where, in one day, Jesus healed all the sick people in Capernaum and beyond.
The sunset, night time fell, and everyone went home. But early the next morning, crowds of disabled and sick people came back to Capernaum to find Jesus. They were looking to be healed, but He wasn’t there. Where had Jesus gone? Well, we find out in Mark Chapter one, verse 35; now listen to it this is what it says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’ but listen to His answer, because Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else — to the nearby villages — so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.'”
Did you get that? When the disciples found him, Jesus refused to meet with the crowd; he simply said, “Let’s go somewhere else. Let’s go to other villages so I can preach in those places for this is why I have come.” It’s not that Jesus didn’t care about the cancer-ridden or the blind or the disabled people who had gathered at the bottom of the hill; it’s just that their illnesses weren’t His focus. The gospel was. His message was: God is holy and you are not… He is just, and your soul is in risk of hell, but the Father sent Me to show His love… now believe in Me and you will be saved. I tell you what, whenever people missed this — whenever they started coming to Jesus just to get their pains and problems removed — the Savior would back away.
I cannot begin to tell you how that story helped me find peace in the midst of my paralysis. Mark chapter one showed me that Jesus is always more interested in the spiritual healing of a person – and not just that person’s salvation, but His sanctification and through illnesses God can cultivate character, people can learn trust and patience, they can become a person who endures and perseveres, and finally, that person can reset priorities off the passing things of this earth, and onto eternal things above. These things make up the deeper healing, because these things will last for all of eternity…certainly not your body. The Good News, the Gospel was and remains the focus of our Savior.
On a scale of one to ten, how often do you ask God to remove a painful situation? Now on the same scale, how quick are you to tell people about the gospel, the real focus of Jesus’ coming? Remember, God saved you to tell others His good news. And like I have learned these many decades in my wheelchair, your painful situation may be His best platform to showcase the Gospel. Oh, friend, may those of us who long to be healed… may we have the same sense of urgency about the kingdom message as our Lord does! As it says in Second Corinthians 4, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Jesus (right there) is interested in the deeper healing.
© Joni and Friends
