No matter your interpretation, Jesus was a healer

I recently traveled back to the Midwest. One of the highlights of the journey was a 24-hour rendezvous with two nephews, sons of my oldest brother. My brother died over 20 years ago and his family has scattered to the four corners of the world.

Our time together was dedicated to figuring out/understanding our families. After lunch, dinner, breakfast, and time in between, we all three thirsted for more understanding. They learned a lot from me, and I had learned a lot from them. Our appetites had not been satisfied. Our curiosity wanted more.

The experience with my nephews was both real and symbolic. It was as real as life can be. I loved it. It was also symbolic of my lifelong desire to make sense out of life and in particular, to understand Jesus from Nazareth. I have spent a lot of time and energy searching and pondering just who Jesus was and is. Why should he have such a dominating power over my life? College and seminary were great aids in my journey, but they gave me more questions than answers. My quest is ongoing.

Good research and critical studies of the Bible have given lots of tools to those who carry on a diligent pursuit of understanding Jesus. I am familiar with the lists made by scholars about what we know for sure about Jesus. On those lists is that he had the reputation of being a healer.

I was reminded of this when I looked at the common lectionary gospel lesson for June 6. It is the story of the raising of the only son of a widow, who lived in Nain. The son had died. Jesus raised him from his casket and presented him to the widow. The story of raising the widow’s son is just one of over a dozen reports of Jesus’ power to heal and make whole. When trying to understand Jesus, his reputation as a healer cannot be set aside.

In Jesus’ day, there were no doctors as we know them today. There were people who gained the reputation of having the power to cast out demons and to heal sick people. Jesus was one of those people. His reputation as a healer spread and, understandably, people came to see and hear him. They hoped to see this man who could make people whole. We will never be able to understand the scientific facts of his healing ministry. We can assert that Jesus was known as a healer and that his two chief tools were touching and speaking.

Is there a message for the 21st century?

At the core of the Bible message is the drive to make life whole. This is the heart of the message of salvation in the New Testament. It is central to the restoration message found throughout the Old Testament. It is worthy of note that when Jesus acted as a healer, restoration and reunion were the typical end result.

When Christians become unduly interested in physical healing, we are apt to take our eyes off of the desired end result. When Jesus raised the widow’s son, he gave him back to his mother.

It is difficult for a 21st century reader to understand the plight of a widow, who had lost her only son to death. The real point of the story is the restoring of a son to a widowed mother.

In my conversation with my two nephews, we became aware of family strengths and achievements. We also became aware of family hurts and broken relationships. The younger of my two nephews is a surgeon. He has repaired many bodies. He has removed many cancers and rebuilt vital organs. That does not mean that he always restored lives and made people whole. Surgery was the tool, but wholeness was the hope.

Another stop on my Midwest journey was graduation exercises at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. A grandson was receiving a degree. The speaker for the occasion was Brian Williams of “NBC Nightly News.” He was a charming speaker with abundant humor about his own Roman Catholic upbringing. He spoke to Catholic Christian graduates from the vantage point of a fellow Catholic Christian. He focused on the damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, that is spewing out incredible amounts of crude oil, despoiling ocean waters and the lives of millions of people. He begged the graduates to become healers.

I keep plugging away at the task of understanding Jesus and his significance to a 21st century world. In the collage that I am building, an image of Jesus as healer needs to be very near the center. If the healer is absent, I have missed a central part of his story and power.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.