Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Jesus' Temporary Miracles

While preparing for Beth's funeral, I was looking at some miracle stories, some accounts of some wild, crazy healings that Jesus did. I thought about Lazarus -- "if you'd been here, he wouldn't have died!" I thought about lepers and blind men and lameoids. I thought about Beth's favorite miracle account, the hemorrhaging woman who had the audacious faith to touch the hem of Jesus' garment, knowing that she would be healed.

What I came up with was this. Either those miracles were temporary, or their fullness wasn't in the restoration of health, or both. I vote for all of the above (thanks, RudeYak). Think about it. Lazarus... dead. The blind man... dead. The lame guy from the pool... dead. The lepers (both the one who thanked Jesus and the ones who didn't)... dead. The woman with the bleeding issue... dead.

So why would Jesus heal them, just to let them die later? It might have been because the physical healing was secondary. I don't have the time to go into all of the stories, but the hemorrhaging woman (I'll call her Mary. Get it? Bloody Mary? OK, so that was baaaad. Sorry about that. But I'm going to call her Mary anyway) was a powerful story about breaking cultural rules. and about faith. And about a loving God who loves even the outcast so much that He would do something audacious in response to remarkable faith -- he'd even do something that wouldn't last (physical healing) in order to do something that will last (restoration to community, rewarding faith, giving a message to untold millions...).

This is what I keep coming back to: the truth is, this world isn’t all we’re meant for. We are meant for so much more than this. God created us to be free from sin, pain, suffering, but in this fallen world, we see all too much of that. God created us to be in perfect relationship with Him, and that doesn’t come close to happening here. The temporary fixes we see here – healing, reconciliation, kindness, even love – these are merely an appetizer for what we will taste in Heaven.

1 Corinthians 2:9 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him."

4 comments:

Jon Knapp said...

So true . . . Just a taste of the goodness of God of earth, makes me long for the day when it is no longer temporary. Thank you for renewing perspective.

'neice said...

I'll comment on the post later...but yes...it was one rat, it has been taken care of and it proved to all what we ahve been saying...we need to put $$ into the Nursery and that will happening! :) We also closed down that changing room in favor of the other one we have.

Brian Eberly said...

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
-Philippians 1:21

I'm looking forward to the gain, but enjoying the life now!

Anonymous said...

Agreed wholeheartedly!! But sometimes it is so easy to forget and get frustrated with God when He doesn't answer like our little minds think He should. Kind of reminds me of the grandboys who get upset when we say NO to the electrical outlets (for example). Thanks for the reminder!!