The Problem of Sickness and the Power of Healing (Fr. Caleb)

And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long
years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
​
Jesus heals sick people throughout the New Testament -- it’s one of his most recorded
acts of ministry. Today, it’s a woman who has suffered from a crippled back for
eighteen years, but wherever Jesus goes, he is often to be found healing the sick, making
the lame to walk, restoring sight to the blind, and casting out demons. It is a central part
of his mission on earth, and the fact that Jesus spends so much of his time and effort
healing the sick reveals to us the kind of problem that sickness represents. And as
Christians, it is therefore our task to understand sickness as Scripture understands it, as
Jesus understood it; to identify it as the right kind of problem. Only then will we
understand the kind of solution that Jesus’ power of healing is.

This is easier said than done, though, because modern Christians are faced with a
significant cultural barrier. The Gospel lesson today states plainly, as if it’s just reporting
the facts, that “just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for
eighteen years.” Why is there a spirit involved? Already, I can hear one of those History
Channel biblical scholars ditching the spirit stuff and speculating on what the exact
medical diagnosis of this poor woman really was. “Ah yes, new archaeological evidence
indicates the presence of back problems among certain segments of the population.”
Because we know better now. It’s the modern pretense that we, and we alone, can at last
look at things as they really are. And having cataloged and categorized all manner of
disease and pain, we can finally eradicate them with all manner of prescriptions and
procedures. No spirits involved. So my guess is that many would find it difficult to
believe that this healing even happened the way Luke says it happened, if it happened at
all. But here’s the thing: even if you do believe that Jesus healed this woman with
nothing but his words and the touch of his hands -- and you should -- the very nature of
the ailment as Luke describes it remains foreign to us. “And just then there appeared a
woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.”

Remember that human beings are all formed by the cultures in which we live in all sorts
of ways, including the ways that we are formed to deal with sickness and health. That’s
true whether we’re formed by a modern culture like ours or a traditional culture like the
one in which the New Testament was written. And compared to the world of the New
Testament, the shift to our modern culture’s way of understanding sickness has
completely transformed the kind of problem that sickness is, and with it, the kind of
solution that it demands. No need to rehearse the litany of medical advances achieved
already and that continue to be achieved. We should certainly give thanks to God for
them. In any case, modern culture generally forms people to think of sickness as “a
problem that can be managed… out of existence” and pain as something to be
annihilated(1) . And we have done so accordingly. In short, modern people tend to think
of sickness as a purely physical problem, experienced by an individual patient who is
usually treated in isolation from any wider context or “system of meaning”(2) he or she
inhabits -- whether that of the family, the community, the political realm, the spiritual
realm, or even the whole cosmic order itself.

 But Scripture never considers sickness in such isolation. It is always reflective of all those
contexts at once -- from the individual all the way to the cosmos. But in the New
Testament especially, as one commentator points out, “sickness is invariably
represented as an enemy, something to be defeated.”(3) But it’s not an enemy of a strictly
medical idea of “health,” but rather as something that has to do with the enemy. As
Jesus himself says, it was the devil who had bound this poor woman to her affliction for
18 years. The Bible teaches us that sickness is just one of many battles in “the conflict
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.”(4)  Sickness  is a kind of
infirmity, something that works to degrade human life, and since “Satan’s power is
devoted to the degradation of [human life],” sickness “is a sign of the power of Satan.”(5)
       
This is the kind of problem that sickness represents for the Christian. The woman with
a spirit that had crippled her teaches us that the affliction of our bodies is its own kind
of spiritual reality, which is that the power of degradation wielded by the devil has not
yet been utterly vanquished by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Note how despite the
fact that the woman was afflicted by a spirit, Jesus does not target the spirit directly with
an exorcism; while he casts out many demons during his ministry, he doesn’t do that
here. Instead, he heals her body directly: “Woman, you are set free from your ailment,”
Jesus says, and “when he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and
began praising God.” The healing words and touch of Jesus restores this woman body
and soul, which is why she stands up straight and praises God in what is almost a single
act. This reminds us that for Jesus, as well as for Scripture as a whole, there is no binary,
no neat and tidy division, between the spiritual and the physical. Jesus doesn’t reserve
his ministry for purely “spiritual” problems alone -- like we would think of with the
forgiveness of sins or something -- because there is actually no such thing as a purely
spiritual problem. Just as there is no such thing as a purely physical problem. So
whether Jesus is casting out a demon or healing a crippled back, it is “the same sort of
activity” either way because “both [are] defeats for Satan.”(6) Jesus comes  into the world
in order to overthrow its illegitimate prince, the devil, and upon the vindication of his
glorious resurrection and ascension, takes his seat at the right hand of the Father as he
waits for all things to be put in subjection under him.
​
But as is perfectly clear if you look around, not everything is in subjection under Christ
yet, which is why sickness and affliction still persist. Our bodies are still susceptible to
degradation, which is the power of the devil that is still operative in the world. “In the
meantime,” says Herbert McCabe...

...it is part of the Christian mission to wage war against [the devil’s] power on
earth; the Christian ministry of healing is a part of this war. The victory of Christ
has not meant the sudden and total abolition either of sin or of sickness and
human misery; he has left his Church to carry on his work.(7)

The way that the Church carries on Christ’s work of healing is chiefly found in the
sacrament of holy unction, otherwise known as the anointing of the sick and the laying
on of hands. We believe that this is the sacrament of Christ’s healing, a real means of
grace whereby the Holy Spirit effectually works in our lives. Like all sacraments, it is a
sign of things to come, which is why holy unction does not automatically bestow upon
the recipient the bodily perfection to be received at the resurrection and why it does not
function as a substitute for medical treatment. Nevertheless, to return to McCabe
again, the anointing of the sick in the Church shows how “our present bodily health”
can be a “sacramental sign” of the “bodily glory which is to come.”(8) Christians bring
their afflicted bodies to be anointed in hope of the resurrection of the body and in hope
of the final victory of Christ over all the powers that presently degrade us.

So let’s do this thing! As the clergy were talking about this passage last week, Mother
Beth mentioned how fitting it would be to offer anointing and the laying on of hands
for any who would desire it this morning. We’ve already gathered to celebrate one
sacrament of the kingdom of God, why not another? So if you are are way afflicted in
mind or body, and feel within yourself a desire to offer up your suffering in hope of
Christ’s healing power, first come to the altar to receive the Eucharist and then
immediately proceed over there to the Lady Chapel and wait in the pews until one of
the clergy makes it over there.

And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long
years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?

Yes, Jesus, she ought to be set free. Please set us free from our bondage as well. Amen.

(1) Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health , Ivan Illich.
(2) Ibid.
(3) The New Creation , Herbert McCabe.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Ibid.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.