Faith Healing

My heart grieves for the people who have been victimized by so-called faith healers. It's been reported many times in the 70s, 80s, and even today, that many purported faith healers had been basically stealing money from the sick enriching themselves. We hear of story after story of fake healers like Peter Popoff in the late 80s. Popoff tricked sick people into thinking he had God-given telepathic powers to know who they were in the audience and where they lived and other details. He gave such an impressive performance that enough people and advertisers believed in him and he generated millions for himself. This was later exposed as a fraud after learning that the "revelations" were sent by radio through an earpiece in his ear by his wife who relayed previously taken information from pre-interviews with the audience made prior to the faith healing extravaganza.
Sadly, this is not a unique case though. These fraudulent faith healings are present everywhere. You only have to turn on the TV and watch the late-night TV programs and infomercials and you'll see these people spreading their bait-and-hook modus operandi. It's amazing that innocent people still get victimized by these blatantly devious folks. If there's one thing to be learned about this is that it shows me that the world doesn't really know who Jesus is. I'm angry at these heartless fake healers who blaspheme Jesus and use his name to corrupt not just the world but the body of Christ - the church.

Quack, Quack

I am using the above observation as a prelude to what I want to share regarding my thoughts on faith healing. In all the synoptic gospels, meaning, Mark, Luke, and Matthew, there is the faith healing account of the woman who had a bleeding problem.
In Mark 5:25-34 NKJV, it says,

25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”
32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

In Luke 8:43-49 NKJV,

43 Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, 44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.
45 And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”
When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”
46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” 47 Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
48 And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

The gospel of Matthew has the shortest record of the event in Matthew 9:20-22 NKJV,

20 And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. 21 For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” 22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

My favorite is in Mark's account because it gives more dimension to the story. Let's analyze.
In verses 25-26, it describes the woman's condition. It is a bleeding disorder that's afflicted her for twelve years. If you've read Leviticus 15, you'll find out that this kind of condition during those ancient times, made her unclean - both from the stance of religion and basic hygiene. So, anyone she touched while having this condition also became unclean. So, it's not a stretch to imagine this woman had been shunned by family and friends. If she were married, her condition would've been grounds for divorce. It's also interesting to find out that the physicians during those times were not really the medical doctors we now know but rather they were "law" physicians. Meaning, they were rabbis who tried to heal her from medicines recorded in the Talmud. It's not hard to imagine that many of these law physicians were probably like Popoff who ripped her off of her money with a promise of healing. Why else did she not get healed? And for twelve years this woman who most likely had financial means went from one con artist to another only to spend all that she had and still did not get cured. So her affliction made her very poor and her attempt to seek cure from the "law" made her even more sick.

Faith Comes By Hearing

The succeeding verses 27-28, talks about her faith. My questions are, how did she develop her faith? And was her faith the same kind of faith we have now? The answer to the first is she must have been bombarded with information about the new rabbi in town. That the new rabbi, Jesus, healed many people. There's a song lyric that goes "grace like rain falls down on me". Similar to that analogy, the faith of the woman came like rain on her. Romans 10:17 talks about how "faith comes by hearing." I think this woman developed her faith after being told time and time again of Jesus' healing powers. And she believed this with all her heart. So, this woman must have just heard enough stories about Jesus (like rain falling on her) that her faith developed to the point that she must have drowned on that knowledge and became mentally and heartily convinced that even if she were to just touch Jesus' clothes she would be healed. This woman needed a healer and Jesus certainly healed her.
On the second question, personally, I didn't think there was anything wrong with the self-serving faith the woman had especially because the object of her faith was still Jesus Christ himself. After all I'm supposing the woman wasn't concerned about the kingdom of God that Jesus preached she just wanted to be healed. Also her faith action was quite different. What stood out for me was the simple fact that this woman got healed without Jesus first commanding her to be healed. Normally, the way Jesus exercised His healing power was by speaking commands. In this instance, because of the authenticity of the woman's faith she was able to actively pursue her healing without the benefit of Jesus' commands. She only touched Jesus' garment and she was healed. Perhaps this passage and the healing of the multitudes by touching Jesus' garment in Mark 6:56 gave reason for many denominations who believe that touching religious artifacts brought healing to them.
Also on the second question, remember that the power of the cross and his resurrection have not yet come to fruition. In context, faith in Jesus during the time he was living with the people involved only in believing that he has the power to heal and restore people to wholeness. Granted, Jesus also forgave sins and then healed people of their sicknesses but he also in the case of the multitudes just simply healed them on the basis of faith in his healing power not faith in the atoning of sins. Faith activated the healing grace that Jesus freely gave to everyone who asked for it. The faith we have now includes the cross and Jesus' atonement for our sins.

Honey, We Won the Lottery

Verse 29 describes her healing as immediate. The following verse tells us that Jesus felt power had left him and wanted to know who touched him. I love the sarcastic retort from the disciples asking Jesus, Really!?!? you want to know who touched you? Do you realize you are walking with a really large crowd? But Jesus really wanted to find out because he stopped and looked around. Of course, it is not to embarrass the woman but to bring glory to the Father.
In verse 33, the woman was fearful and trembling. In Luke's account, "she came trembling". In Mark, however, the phrasing is different and more telling, that it leads me to think that the woman wasn't afraid of what Jesus might do to her perhaps to scold at her for taking power from him. But it's the "fear and trembling" that you might experience after realizing that after twelve years of suffering you had just been cured. The closest I can imagine to this is that it's probably the same kind of frantic exuberance and tingling sensation that you might feel after learning you won the $50 million lottery and blurting out to your spouse that "Honey, we won the lottery!!!!!! Ahhhhhhyyyyyyaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!" falling to the ground squirming with extreme joy.

Continued Healing Required

The last verse in 34, Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” Wait a minute. She was already healed, wasn't she? Why would Jesus follow up with a command of "be healed of your affliction"? The words "be healed" is in the present active signifying the healing goes on. I suppose after seeing her squirm frantically with joy on the ground Jesus must have thought she was a little cuckoo in the head. Kidding aside, I do think that the physical healing immediately came. But true healing was continuously happening to the woman. Her affliction was her bleeding condition which was cured but that affliction must have caused her to suffer shame and humiliation which we know needs time to heal. Imagine being ostracized by family and society and then bilked by opportunists. So maybe she did suffer some form of mental anguish and thus required more healing from Jesus. I just wonder if this woman after her physical healing then started to follow Jesus and witnessed the cross and the resurrection. How wonderful  that would have been that she had been totally liberated from her anguish.

The Scandal of Grace

Was there ever an account in the gospels where a self-righteous person ever received healing? I don't think so. The truth of Jesus' saving grace was never on the side of the Law. "Lawful" thinking is believing wrongly both in the subject and the object of your belief. The refrain from a song by Hillsong called Scandal of Grace goes like this,

"Oh to be like You
Give all I have just to know You
Jesus, there's no one besides You
Forever the hope in my heart"

This best captures who your object of faith should be - Jesus Christ only. Indeed, the grace of Jesus is scandalous. Because as a Christian, you might be thinking that your performance is earning you favours from God. Or you might be thinking that you have to achieve holiness on your own so healing can be given.
The grace of Jesus Christ that Paul exposed so much in his ministry brought him accusations that he was giving people license to sin. On the contrary, he believed that law consciousness brought about more sin but where that happened grace exceeded much more. Come to think of it, that alone would have been easily perverted by some. That's why I also believe in the Holy Spirit's role as a helper to those who have received grace so they can truly understand this amazing gift.
The book of Romans summarizes Paul's rationale for teaching the scandal of grace that is, salvation from grace alone without an ounce of work through faith in Jesus and his finished work on the cross - the subject of our faith. Christian bible teachers who demand the law from the people while preaching grace is nullifying grace all together for the people. Paul explains that if obeying the law is all it takes to obtain the promise of eternal life then faith is voided (Romans 4).
Healing comes by grace through faith as much as salvation does. Faith turns into action much easily when you receive it with ears to hear. What I'm saying is, faith without works does not happen when grace is operating in your life. Works is a byproduct not the main ingredient of righteousness.

The Way I See Faith Healing

Let's not be the generation who seeks signs and miraculous wonders to anchor our faith in. Jesus sighs deeply when we do, just as he did in Mark 8:12 when the Pharisees insisted on seeking proof. Instead let's rest in the peace that Jesus can only give, and instead of seeking signs let's wait patiently for the Lord with the kind of hope in Psalm 40:1 AMP "I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry."
And when the time of healing comes then we are more than ready to give glory to Him only, so that many who has ears let them hear and come to Christ. And if healing doesn't come at least in this world, then we can have the same peace that the woman in the story received from Jesus. And that's more important because if we can face the prospect of dying in the same manner that Jesus faced his death then we can truly say that we've been transformed. Of course, I hope you understand that you don't get to this point by your own sheer will power but by the power of the grace that you embraced through faith.
Again, as a true follower of Christ, we obey the basic truth that our faith is based on God's love for us not the other way around. When you put yourself under the Law, you cannot experience Grace.

My Prayer

Lord, I have friends and family who just received news they have cancer, who is experiencing extreme depression, who had sudden kidney failure and is waiting for a new kidney, and who is struggling with mobility. I myself still have the cough for three weeks now. We all have faith in you and your power to heal. Moreover, we live the faith that you died for our sins so that we can stand in front of a just God, righteous and blameless. You are the perfect lamb, the perfect sin offering. You received our sickness and ailments on the cross and we in return receive your health. Just as you are in heaven, so are we in this world. We thank you for your unceasing love for us. Abba, our Father, I pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus your son. Amen.