Made whole
by Pastor Jim Strelan
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Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them (Matthew 15:30).
Can you imagine the scene? Perhaps Jesus sitting on a rock on the mountainside and the crowds bringing to him ‘the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others’. Expectations. Anticipation. And Jesus heals them. Lives changed forever. Imagine the wonder as things happened that they never thought would happen. Imagine the joy, both for those who were healed and for those who had brought them to Jesus. Amazing.
We’ve seen in the past few days of devotional readings how Jesus brought sight to the blind. Today’s reading shows us that he healed many others. That’s what God promised the Messiah would do and what Jesus was doing. God’s ultimate desire, acted out in Jesus, is that this broken world be made whole. That you are made whole – in your body, spirit and relationships. Not just you but all of creation – made whole as God originally intended it to be.
Some of that ‘making whole’ God does directly. He still heals miraculously in ways we can’t explain. God still mends us when we are riddled with guilt and shame, and God turns our eyes to the cross. He still allows nature to take its course as he intended – for example, by returning life after devastating bushfires. Doctors, surgeons, scientists and amazing people like Fred Hollows, who brought sight to so many blind people, all do God’s work of making whole. And we wait in anticipation for that time when all things will be made new, complete and whole (Revelation 21:1–5).
Don’t let Jesus just be someone captured in the pages of a book that describes long-ago events. He is with us always, for all time. And he still wants to make you whole. Place yourself at his feet, as did those who brought their sick to Jesus on that mountainside.
Lord Jesus, make everything in me that is broken whole, and equip me to be an agent of healing to those around me. Amen.
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