Healing

Healing involves a process of bringing or restoring wholeness and sound functioning to every aspect of human life, which includes bodily integrity, emotional balance, mental well-being and spiritual aliveness. The English word health literally means “wholeness,” and so to heal means “to make whole.” This broad-based definition sometimes includes what is popularly known as “inner healing,” where the focus is more specifically on psychological and emotional wounds and their repair. For some, the metaphor of healing has been extended to include the process of reconciliation of broken interpersonal relationships at the level of the community, society, races and nations, a process that includes the development of a just and benevolent social and political order, as well as a responsible policy on ecology, which reflects stewardship of the earth. Here, we are primarily concerned with the healing of individual human lives in all its various dimensions.

Healing as Curing and Caring

Unfortunately, healing in modern Western culture has been restricted to scientifically accurate diagnosis and treatment and tends to focus on the sick person’s disease, not illness (where “disease” and “illness” are, respectively, the objective and subjective aspects of one’s sickness). Admittedly, the sophistication and success of Western medical technology have contributed much to establish this model of healing. But in the last two decades a number of writers have seen that healing encompasses a broader domain and have challenged the narrower assumptions of the healing profession. For example, Edmund Pellegrino insists that healing requires not only competence in curing disease but also compassion in sharing in the suffering of the patient, the latter requiring vulnerability on the healer’s part. Eric Cassell notes the importance of the healer’s role in caring for, not just curing, the sick. This involves communicating scientific knowledge that will help patients to “own” and to “work on” the illness, as well as connecting the feelings between healer and patient. Prior to both of these the Christian doctor and psychologist Paul Tournier initiated a movement and wrote consistently about a medicine for the whole person. Curing and caring, communicating and connecting are integral parts of the healing function.

Unless the healing profession exercises this dual function, the sick may be cured of the disease but remain unhealed. Conversely, when patients’ feeling and suffering are shared by their healers in facing the sickness, thereby freeing them from their isolation and alienation from self and community due to the disease, they may experience a real sense of being healed, even though the disease may remained uncured. As Howard Brody notes, to be compassionate in sharing the patient’s suffering is itself a powerful form of healing that scientific curative skills do not provide. Therefore, compassion as a virtue for the healing profession must be cultivated, and this can be achieved only if the healer’s character is formed and nurtured by a compassionate community. At the present state of affairs, the medical profession does not live up to this expectation and requirement. Thus the healing profession is in great need of cultivating virtuous characters in addition to providing technical skills in order for it to claim to be a true healing profession.

Biblical Perspectives on Healing

In the Bible health is first and foremost a divine gift. When sickness occurs, the sick turn to God, the Physician of his people, for healing. God and God alone is the ultimate source of all healing. “I am the Lord, who heals you” (Exodus 15:26), says the Lord to Israel. In the New Testament we see that healing is a crucial and integral part of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It is estimated that one-fifth to one-third of the Gospel record is related to healings. As Matthew says, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). And because the biblical view of health is holistic, biblical healing includes the entire person. Thus in Jesus’ healing ministry, he was concerned not only with restoration of physical health but also, indeed primarily, with restoration of relationships with God and others. Because Jesus also believed that sickness and disease may result from an evil agency or demon possession, his healing through exorcism indicates the presence and the power of the kingdom of God (see Principalities and Powers; Spiritual Conflict). In this new order people are set free from the power and bondage of evil in all its forms and restored to personal wholeness in all its dimensions—physical, mental, relational. Thus, biblical concepts of healing and salvation are integrally related.

Healing Through Medicine

To acknowledge that God is the ultimate healer does not mean that healings are exclusively spiritual. The art of medicine was employed in both Old and New Testaments for healing purposes (Genesis 50:2; 2 Chron. 16:12; Job 13:4; Jeremiah 8:22). Isaiah’s prescription of a fig poultice to heal King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:21) shows that God heals through medical means, utilizing materials that are part of the creation. Christ considered it normal for people to consult physicians (Matthew 9:12). Oil as a medicine was frequently employed by Jesus’ disciples (Mark 6:13; Luke 10:34). James, the brother of Jesus, specifically mentions the use of oil as part of his recommended healing process. The oil specified was apparently olive oil, which in first-century Palestine was the treatment of choice for many acute and chronic illnesses. The directive to “anoint” (or to “apply)” with oil (James 5:14) suggests that the oil is meant to be used medicinally rather than ritually or sacramentally. These examples show that the Bible is not opposed to the use of medicines and medical arts for our healing. God works through medicine as well as direct intervention, and our faith is not so much in medicine per se as in the Creator of medicine.

Faith and Healing

In the New Testament, and especially in the healing ministry of Christ, faith is a dominant human factor. In many instances the faith of the sick or someone else’s faith on his behalf appears to be almost a prerequisite for healing (for example, Matthew 8:13; Matthew 9:2, 22, 29; Matthew 15:28). There is also indication either that Jesus cannot heal or that his healing is delayed due to people’s lack of faith (Matthew 13:58; Matthew 17:20; Mark 6:5-6). Not surprisingly some people today are very preoccupied with the role of faith in healing.

A careful analysis shows that out of the twenty-six healing accounts in the Gospels, faith is mentioned in only twelve. In a number of cases the sick person was not even present when Jesus was asked to heal him or her. Rather than say Jesus heals where there is faith, we should say that his healing ministry provides an opportunity for human faith to express itself as an indication of the sufferer’s desire to be healed. This is different from saying that Jesus’ healing power requires the cooperation of human faith or is subjected to human manipulation through faith or the lack of it. God heals primarily out of mercy (Matthew 14:14; Matthew 20:34; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13), out of compassion in response to a cry for help (Matthew 15:22; Matthew 17:15; Mark 9:22, 27; Luke 17:13), as a manifestation of divine glory (John 4:54; John 9:2; John 11:4) and on a few occasions as a fulfillment of Scripture (Matthew 8:16-17; Matthew 11:2-6; Matthew 12:15-21; Luke 7:18-23). It would be a grave mistake to ask ourselves whether or not we have enough faith for a certain healing to take place. This is to base healing on our faith and not on God. One’s faith is not in a healing taking place but in God’s faithfulness, goodness, power and mercy. Our task as healers is to commend the sick to the Lord, trusting in his loving goodness; our task is not to predict what the Lord will specifically do.

Miraculous Healing

Miraculous healing is a special case of divine providence when the natural order of things is set aside for a particular purpose. In this regard, Christian attitudes are much divided. There are those who believe that miraculous healings belong exclusively to the apostolic age and cannot be expected to take place today. If there are miracles to be worked, it is human beings who must work them. At the other extreme are those who believe that healing, including miraculous healing, will always take place if there is faith. In this view Christ has already won these blessings for us through the cross, and all we have to do is to apply the fruits of the redemption to our lives (Matthew 8:16-17; 1 Peter 2:24; compare Isaiah 53:4-5). Christ’s atonement is effective in overcoming both sin and sickness, and healing is therefore a birthright of all Christians. The healing ministries of Jesus and his apostles are extendable to our present time through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church. In this most extreme form of triumphalism, the relationship between prayer and healing is absolutely unqualified, with human faith as the only limiting factor.

In between these two poles are those who take the middle of the road, acknowledging the loving goodness and sovereignty of God in healing. This position does not see miracles as impossible—God can and will perform miracles when he sees fit to do so. But there is doubt as to God’s desire and intention to perform such healing as a matter of course. The kingdom of God has come and is yet to be consummated, but we have been assured of the final victory over all our diseases and sickness in the final bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:50-57). At times God heals dramatically, as in the case of Lazarus, but at other times God does not heal at all, as in the case of Paul’s thorn of the flesh. The general will of God is that humankind should be made whole. But this wholeness may include the shaping of character and spiritual advancement though the occasion of sickness and suffering.

Healing and Redemption

Especially in the New Testament, physical healing is not considered to be a complete restoration of human well-being. Complete healing must take place on the basis of redemption, which brings forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God and renewal of relationships with others. Jesus undertook his healing ministry in the context of his preaching and teaching because he did not come primarily to heal physically, but to redeem people wholly. This observation is further reinforced by the fact that in the early church there are four recorded cases in which the sick were not healed: Paul (2 Cor. 12:7), Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-30), Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23) and Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20). These incidences also suggest that healing concerns the whole person, body and soul. Physical healing is not always the only answer to illness.

We may also gain some insights into the biblical holistic approach to healing through word usage. The word iaomai, which means exclusively “physical healing,” is not the most common word to represent healing. Therapeuō, from which we get our words therapy and therapeutic, is the most frequently used word in the New Testament for “healing.” It carries a special emphasis on the personal relationship between the healer and the healed and denotes the completeness of personal restoration. Another word, sōsō, is perhaps the most significant word for understanding the New Testament concept of healing. Originally the word carried a strong connotation of deliverance from danger. In the New Testament, where it is used twenty times, it suggests deliverance from danger, disease and death of the whole person, both physical and spiritual In the healings of Jesus sōsō refers not to a part of the body but to the whole person. It is the word sōsō that unites the biblical notion of healing and salvation.

The most interesting case studies of the comprehensive concept of healing in the Gospels is the healing of the woman with the flow of blood (Matthew 9:21-22; Mark 5:26-34; Luke 8:43-48). While Mark uses the word iaomai and Luke uses therapeuō to describe the failure of the medical treatment provided by physicians, all three writers—Matthew, Mark and Luke—use sōsō to describe Jesus’ healing, which restores the woman to a state of “peace” (eirēnē), which is equivalent to the Hebrew word shalom, meaning “wholeness.” Only when she has peace does Jesus pronounce that the woman is freed or delivered from the bondage of her sufferings. In a similar manner James uses the word sōsō in his epistle (James 5:15) to indicate that in response to the prayer of faith, the sick person will be made well. This is accompanied by the promise that he or she will be raised by the Lord and will be forgiven of the sins he or she may have committed. To be raised up means a full restoration to one’s former state of vitality and strength, and to have one’s sin forgiven—clearly the spiritual realm of the sick person—completes the healing of the whole person. This then is the holistic concept of healing in the Bible.

» See also: Body

» See also: Health

» See also: Sickness

» See also: Spiritual Gifts

» See also: Waiting

References and Resources

H. Brody, The Healer’s Power (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992); E. J. Cassell, The Healer’s Art: A New Approach to the Doctor-Patient Relationship (New York: Penguin, 1976); F. MacNutt, Healing (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria, 1974); B. Palmer, ed., Medicine and the Bible, (Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster Press, 1986); E. D. Pellegrino, “Being Ill and Being Healed: Some Reflections on the Grounding of Medical Morality,” in The Humanity of the Ill: Phenomenological Perspectives, ed. V. Kestenbaum (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982) 157-66; P. Tournier, The Healing of Persons (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983); B. B. Warfield, Miracles: Yesterday and Today, True and False (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965); J. Wilkinson, Health and Healing (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1980).

—Edwin Hui