Jesus Healed Them
As Jesus laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them. (Luke 4:40b)
That sentence bowled me over this morning.
Has that ever happened to you while reading the Bible? You’re just humming along, minding your own business — and “Wham!” — you get smacked right between the eyes by just a sentence, or phrase; shoot, sometimes by just a word.
This sentence that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck today is part of a larger story Luke is telling about our Savior and King, Jesus, in his biography of God’s Son:
38 After [Jesus] left the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. 39 So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them.
40 When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him. As he laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them. 41 Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.
42 When it was day, he went out and made his way to a deserted place. But the crowds were searching for him. They came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said to them, “It is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
(Luke 4:38—44, Christian Standard Bible)
I am so grateful when the Holy Spirit arrests my attention this way. Even so, I kept reading along in chapter four. But then I felt the Spirit’s nudge, heard him in my head —
“Whoa there, big fella. Slow down. Actually, stop for a moment. I know you wanted to try and read a few chapters this morning, but I want you to go back, back to that sentence in verse 40, back to what I inspired Luke to write there. You see, I didn’t want you to miss this, didn’t want humanity to miss this. Maybe it seems like a small thing to you, but did you notice that Jesus laid his hands on each one of them?
This is the remarkable thing about the Son of God. He takes note of each one of you, so personally, and so intimately. He could have just looked at the large crowd of nameless people in front of him, and with a word, healed them all. Goodness, he could have just thought it, and they would have been restored to the fullness they were always intended to have before humanity’s Fall into sin.
But there’s something about a personal, human touch, isn’t there? Especially when the going has been rough, when you’ve been depleted by sickness and pain and grief. When you feel like there’s never going to be an end to the sickness, the dis-ease, the discomfort. You just don’t see an end in sight, and you feel outside of all of those whose lives are good, whose health is strong.
You feel alone.
And Jesus knows that. Because, Jesus. And so he doesn’t just think, healing. He doesn’t just say, healing. He laid his hands on every single person in that kind of need and loneliness, and he healed them.
Can you imagine all the moments that unfolded over however long that took? Can you imagine the little conversations that happened? Can you imagine what it was like for each of them, as Jesus looked into their eyes, and they looked into his — and found there deep wells of love and compassion, as if he was looking into their very souls, understanding everything about their story in just a moment?
And then, as he laid his hands on their sick and dis-eased bodies, can you imagine the rush of power that they felt move from his hands to their body? And that they knew in that moment, they were whole!?
I could imagine all of that this morning, but only because the Holy Spirit made it so.
Dear reader, I’m so grateful for the Bible, and the work of the Spirit as we read it.
He showed me something beautiful this morning about the Savior and King that I love, and reminded me that the healing of Jesus is still available for each one of us today, in so many ways.
And all of that has caused me to love Jesus so much more.
