Prayer, Healing, and Restoration
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the December 20, 2014
Sabbath School Lesson
Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came
out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
Then the disciples came
to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “Because
you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:18-20, NIV
When we had
been married only five years, my first wife was diagnosed with Multiple
Sclerosis. This is a terrible disease of unknown cause that slowly destroys the
ability of the nerves to conduct electricity. Over the next twenty-five years,
I watched her go from an unsteady gait to using a walker, then a wheelchair,
and eventually to spending much of her time confined to a hospital bed in the
master bedroom of our home, which had been repurposed to be entirely dedicated
to her care. As her body became less functional and was distorted by the
strictures that the muscles form when inadequately exercised by bearing the
weight of walking and standing, we continually asked God for intervention.
Following the biblical admonition,[i]
we brought in the elders of the church and with anointing and prayer asked for
healing as well. The interventions were to no avail as the disease continued to
progress and ravage her body, ultimately ending in her death when the nerves in
her throat and mouth became compromised, and she could no longer control her ability
to swallow her saliva. I had been a medic during the Vietnam War and had seen
my share of gruesome deaths, but witnessing my wife struggling to breathe until
there was no more strength to go on was one of the hardest things I have ever
had to do.
Because of
my experience, I can understand those who doubt when they do not experience
healing as James promised in his short epistle. The implication that if healing
doesn’t take place, the amount of faith was at issue, only adds to the
perplexity of failure. This can be self-defeating because faith exists where
doubt has fled, but with each failed healing, the exact opposite can happen as
doubt begins to replace faith. We cavil on this fact when we pray “if it is
Your will,” as though God might not want the sick to be healed. However, we
should remember that it was not God’s plan that any should be sick in the first
place. He demonstrated His will when He created man in His image and placed him
in an Edenic paradise free from all want and worry. Suffering came not because
of God’s will but because of man’s rebellion.[ii]
The prophet, Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, said that God desires to prosper
us, not harm us, and to give us hope for our futures.[iii]
Would such a God will any of His people to suffer and die? Perhaps an even
better picture of how God views our suffering can be seen in the example of
Jesus when confronted with someone’s suffering and loss. He wept.[iv]
Maybe
praying “if it is your will” then is not a panacea for inadequate faith so much
as it is a feeble effort to shift the blame from ourselves to God. This may be
reminiscent of the attempt by Adam to blame God for creating Eve and therefore ultimately
causing the downfall of humanity at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.[v]
While it was probably not a good idea to blame God for what happened then, it
is probably even less of a good idea today. Who of us would walk up to someone
mourning a loss and say to them, “It is all your fault!” With all the suffering
in the world, there is probably much weeping going on in heaven over the lot of
the inhabitants of planet Earth. Should we add to that sorrow by attempting to
shift the responsibility for it all to God?
Our Earth is
a filthy place. This is not only metaphorically true because of the sin and
immorality that we all contribute to the picture, but it is literally filthy as
well. We constantly shovel, pour and puff trillions of tons of pollutants into
the ground, water and air every year with little regard for the consequences. The
lower animals of creation ingest these pollutants and can even become entrapped
in the larger pieces. Oblivious to their suffering, we do not see the problems
we are causing. We tell ourselves, “It is only one piece of paper,” or “It is
only one can or bottle,” or “It is only a little piece of plastic.” But when we
multiply those tiny little “ones” by the billions of people on the planet, we
find we are putting ourselves adrift in a sea of poisonous pollution. It
becomes even worse when we extrapolate that perspective to the next level, when
not just individuals, but manufacturers start saying, “It is only my one little
factory that is pouring chemicals into the stream. It will be washed out to sea
and be diluted by the great ocean and become harmless.” Here again, when we
consider all of those who might say this, the problem becomes much larger and
much more threatening.
Why is this
important? Could it be that our own lack of responsibility is the primary
causative for much of the disease and suffering in the world? If this is true,
then perhaps faith is not the determinant when righteous and faithful elders come
together to pray for the sick. Maybe we are wishing someone well to their face
while stabbing them in the back, for we are praying for the sick while doing so
little to make our planet a healthy place to live.
Some might
feel this to be a harsh simile, but is it? We are told by Scripture that we are
all sinners, none of us righteous.[vi]
If this is truly the case, and if disease is the result of sin, then surely we
must accept some measure of responsibility for the disease and suffering around
us. God is not sinful. The angels of heaven are not sinful. Yes, Satan and the
fallen angels have rebelled against God and are working to thwart His will, but
God has made each of us with free will. Every moment is an opportunity to
choose to follow God or those fallen beings. Maybe we have become so used to
the suffering that we simply drift with the flotsam and jetsam floating in the
environment. Like a person who does not pick up the litter from their yard,
reasoning that it will soon blow away into someone else’s yard, we fail to
address our responsibility for the suffering around us. Perhaps we feel it is
useless and it is better to simply try to endure it until the winds of evil
blow it somewhere else. But if more and more are doing this, then the suffering
and diseases will continually be blowing into our yard, as one may blow away
simply to be replaced by another.
So where
does faith come into this picture of healing then? If we consider the text in
Matthew at the top of the page and ask ourselves what is Jesus really saying
here, maybe we can find an answer. Is Jesus really admonishing the disciples
for having too little faith, or perhaps for having no faith at all? He uses the
illustration of the mustard seed, one of the smallest objects people knew about
in that time. Maybe he would have referred to an atom, an electron or even a
quark today. But if we are asked what is smaller than the smallest object, we
might be expected to respond, “Nothing.” So there would be no way post on the
road between the mustard seed and nothing. Could it be that Jesus was actually
saying they had no faith, since their faith was less than the size of a mustard
seed? Would it be a surprise to us then to know that Jesus questioned if that would
be the case prior to His return? He asked, “However, when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on the earth?”[vii]
Jesus
compared this world to His vineyard, and His people to the keepers of that
vineyard.[viii]
When He returns, what kind of shape will the vineyard be in? What kind of shape
will the keepers be in? Normally the produce of the vineyard not only provided
a profit for the owner, but it also provided the means to pay the keepers. If
the vineyard is destroyed, not only is there no profit, but the keepers will
suffer, too. Perhaps the suffering we face is a bellwether for the health of
the vineyard.
James tells
us that our works demonstrate our faith, and he uses this phrase in the context
of showing compassion for others by caring for their needs.[ix]
Perhaps working together to provide a healthy planet that each of us might
enjoy a better, healthier life is an obvious expression of that compassionate
attitude toward the needs of others. I do not know if it would have had an
effect in preventing my wife’s suffering and death, but I have faith that it
could make a difference for some. Maybe with God’s help, we can try.
