Faith Healing

A woman suffering from an illness for twelve years simply touches the hem of Jesus' cloak and she is healed. Jesus announces that her "faith has made you well." The woman sought every cure and solution for twelve years. No physician or folk remedy had been able to heal. Faith did the trick. (Matthew 9:18-26)

It is tempting to conclude that if we just have enough faith, all our health problems will miraculously go away. If we don't get well, it is our own fault. We just didn't have enough faith. It is tempting to conclude that faith healing and medical intervention are two separate things. That we rely on doctors because we have too little faith. Though tempting, these would be dangerous conclusions. 

Firstly, faith is a gift. You can't buy it, earn it, store it up, or possess it. God grants faith, according to Luther in his Small Catechism. "I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me..." Secondly, I think we fixate too much on the "how" of the miracles of Jesus instead of the "why" of the event.

We would all love to define faith healing as the miraculous, mystical, manipulation of the laws of the universe to grant our desires. Right now, as I recover from transplant surgery, I would love to find that, in the twinkling of an eye and a really good prayer, I could avoid the lifetime of anti-rejection drugs and slow accumulation of strength to be good as new. That is not how it works. 

The faith healing demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus reveals something  to us about God. With each healing, Jesus reveals that a predisposition for healing, wholeness, and life is baked into the fabric of creating. This stands against the powers of death, destruction, and disease. So, rather than wishing I had experienced "faith healing" instead of transplant surgery, I see that they are one and the same. 

I cannot summarize this conviction of faith more concisely than Herman Stuempfle, a Lutheran preacher, teacher, and poet who called us to sing in his hymn We Come to You for Healing Lord (ELW 617):

You touch us through physicians' skills,
through nurses' gifts of care,
and through the love of faithful friends
who life our lives in prayer.

My own healing has been through skilled and caring surgeons and specialists dedicated to the healing that Jesus revealed. It has been tended by the angelic ministrations of nurses who brought care, humor, wisdom, and skilled care. It has also been stoked by the "love of faithful friends" who have prayed and wished us well in countless cards and messages. 

Faith healing happens all the time. Because of the resurrection, it even comes in death because we know God speaks the final word in our life and our death. My own healing is no less a miracle of life in a world of death than that woman who was healed after twelve years.

Pax Christi
Tim Olson
Lead Pastor


​Picture by Falco via Pixabay