In this episode, Dr. Lamar Hardwick will be examining the role of the healing narratives in the gospels and will try to understand how to ask better questions about God’s role in disability, suffering, and human limitation.
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"This is Lamar Hardwick, and you are listening to Key Ministry: The Podcast! This is episode 8, “Having The Hard Conversation About Healing” In this episode, we will be examining the role of the healing narratives in the gospels and we will try to understand how to ask better questions about God’s role in disability, suffering, and human limitation. If you’ve enjoyed our podcast so far, click subscribe in your podcast app so you never miss an episode from me or my fellow co-hosts, Beth Golik, Sandra Peoples, Catherine Boyle, and Dr. Steve Grcevich.
A few years ago the Barna Research Group conducted a study. In the study, they asked a variety of people what one question they would ask God if they knew that God had to answer their question. The top response was a question that related to the issue of human suffering. “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” While I am not attempting to equate disability with suffering, the vast majority of people hold a perspective of disability (or illness) as a life of suffering either for the individual with a disability or the family or caregivers of those persons. Dr. Peter John Kreft makes an insightful observation about our often limited perspective of suffering. He writes:
..most objections to the existence of God from the problem of suffering come from the outside observers who are quite comfortable, whereas those who actually suffer are, as often as not, made into stronger believers by their suffering.”
Here’s a question that I have been forced to wrestle with over the last few years.
If my understanding of a person’s, difference, or disability comes from a limited understanding of their experience, how much more is my understanding of God’s view and role in human suffering even more limited?
In the story of the four men who brought a lame man to Jesus, Jesus’ first response to the faith they placed in him was to offer the man entrance to the great community of faith through the forgiveness of his sins. It was only after those present questioned his authority to forgive sins did Jesus heal the man to “prove that he had the authority to forgive sins.”
Luke 5:17-26
17 One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 19 but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” 21 But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 23 Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? 24 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 25 And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”
While Jesus definitely had the authority to heal this incident suggests that Jesus had a much different perspective.
Since being diagnosed with autism I have had a large number of people ask me questions about God’s role in the life of the disabled particularly as it relates to divine healing.
Perhaps what complicates our connection to the ministry of healing is our human assumptions about suffering, God’s role in suffering, and our rights as it pertains to suffering. I believe that we have four basic assumptions that complicate our understanding of suffering.
Good people live and get good things.
Bad people live and get bad things.
Good and bad cannot co-exist.
If God exists and God is good, then bad should not exist if God exists in us.
I believe that God is capable of anything that the biblical text describes as an attribute of God. Yet, Jesus did not heal everyone.
One of my favorite expressions of the Christian faith is found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
If our chief aim in life is to glorify God, then physical healing has to be evaluated as but only one tool that God uses to expose the world to his glory.
In fact, a study of the ministry of Jesus will show that the majority of his miracles, particularly the healing of the disabled, occurred in the early stages of his ministry. Often times the primary goal was to establish a means for those persons to re-enter the community that had isolated them because of their disability.
The Apostle Paul is one of the most well-known examples of God’s decision not to heal for the expressed purpose of allowing Paul’s “weakness” to serve as the platform for God’s strength.
Jesus once told a story about God’s kingdom and God’s view of the unrelenting role of struggle and suffering in the life of his creation.
Matthew 13:24-30
24 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. 26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. 27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. 29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, burn them, and put the wheat in the barn.’”
Jesus shares that God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted a good seed in his field. An enemy sneaks in at night and plants weeds. When the farmer’s employees discovered the weeds among the wheat they panicked and rushed to the farmer asking if they should tear the weeds up.
The response of the field owner suggests something about God’s view of the when and the why of fixing something that frustrates us. He tells them to allow the wheat and weeds to grow together because uprooting the weeds would damage the harvest.
Jesus says that in his wisdom the field owner (God) knew that the wheat had a harvest within it even with the weeds entangled at the roots far beneath the surface.
Often times when I become frustrated with how my sensory processing issues, social anxiety, or executive functioning challenges I am reminded that much like the wheat and the weeds, my autism is a tangled-up system of roots that join together what makes me struggle and what makes me special.
What I am learning is that while God is capable of healing, my chief end is to glorify God, and perhaps God knows that healing me will only hurt the harvest He intends to get out of me.
What if Jesus didn’t just come to bring healing to earth? What if He came to bring heaven to earth? What if we didn’t assume that disability disqualifies us from God’s glory being seen in us? What if some will never be healed but through his resurrection and we can always be his?
What is the chief end of man? To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
Whether we ever have the opportunity to enjoy healing, we always have the opportunity to enjoy Him and that means that even though we may not be healed we are still His.
Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode of Key Ministry: The Podcast as we talked through handling the hard questions about physical healing. You can find a transcript of this episode and all the show notes at keyministry.org/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a minute to give it a 5 star rating and leave a review! That will help other people know if it's the right show for them!" And be sure to share this podcast with a friend. Join us next week for another episode of Key Ministry: The Podcast.
