The Kingdom and Healing

So this morning I am continuing to read from Matthew's Gospel. I came across an interesting set of verses, which demonstrate a significant reality about the Kingdom of God, namely that healing exists and occurs in the Kingdom of God, even without prayer, or the laying on of hands. Here are the verses -

Matthew 14:34-36 NIV:

[34] "When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. [35] And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him [36] and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed."

I find these verses interesting because people were figuring out the reality of what the Kingdom of God brought to them. Proclaiming the Kingdom of God present, was one of Jesus' most significant messages and the demonstration of that included healing, miracles and the like. The idea being that if the Kingdom of God was present, then the authority of God was present, and His will would be accomplished. Jesus regularly demonstrated healing, and the people were grasping the idea that this healing was available to them in the Kingdom, as represented by Jesus, even without His direct involvement, simply touching His cloak was enough. At some point, likely after the woman touched his cloak and was healed as described in Matt 9:20-21, this became a widespread understanding as evidenced by the passages above. All the people had to do was touch His cloak, "and all who touched it were healed!" I find that simply amazing! Jesus doesnt pray for them or lay hands on them, or likely even look at them directly, yet they are healed.

As I was thinking about this a couple of interesting questions came to mind. First, did Jesus have to start wearing longer more flowing cloaks so that more people could touch his cloak? Did touching His cloak bring healing, even if He wasn't wearing it? Did Jesus have to speak about the Kingdom or proclaim it prior to the cloak touching? Its funny how quickly we can get caught up in the 'what if' scenarios, and suddenly find we have created some religious rules about this Kingdom reality. I could see a whole cloak touching ministry team, a rating system for effectiveness related to where on the cloak you touch, or what color the cloak was and how that relates to the effectiveness of the healing. We could get so caught up in this that we lose sight of the actual thing that Jesus and His Father were communicating, namely that in the Kingdom of God, healing is available to all, and it doesn't take some special intervention by God to occur.

In the early church, they would demonstrate this reality even further, and expand their understanding to include the sending of handkerchiefs and aprons - Acts 19:11-12 NIV: "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them." They even came to realize that this Kingdom reality didn't even require physical touch, as at some point the people realized that it only took the shadow crossing over someone for them to experience healing - Acts 5:12, 15-16 NIV: "The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people... [15] As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. [16] Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed."

For most of us this would probably really stretch our idea of how things are supposed to work. If we believe healing can occur, then it generally occurs when you bring the elders, have them anoint the sick person with oil and pray for them (James 5:14-15) and then maybe they receive healing. This whole shadow passing over someone or hankies and aprons being sent to a sick person would be seen as highly questionable and a bit "out-there" and practiced only by weird Christians. We don't really want to think about the fact this it was Peter and Paul who were practicing this stuff. We also might believe that it was only Peter or Paul that could do this type of stuff. Both perspectives are incorrect, for it wasn't Peter or Paul who had healing in them, but rather the reality of the Kingdom of God as proclaimed and demonstrated by them. This is the same Kingdom of God that is present today, and the reality of the Kingdom that was true back then is still true today, for clearly God has not changed nor has He lost any power or authority.

So, the question is why we don't see this demonstrated more widely in the Body of Christ? I can think of several reasons, but think the primary reason is lack of faith and proclamation of the Kingdom of God. I am not pointing fingers, only calling for a revisiting of our thinking and understanding of the Kingdom of God, and what that really means. We need to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God and believe that the demonstration of that reality will occur, and continuing pressing into that reality as described and demonstrated by Jesus and later by the Apostles, disciples and fellow Christians. We need to proclaim that Healing is one of the demonstrations of the Kingdom of God and it is available to all and does not require special interaction with God, it is freely available. Amen.