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HEALING FOR THIS SINNER
God has been gracious to me (again). He brought me safely through hip replacement surgery on March 21. He is enabling me to get up and down with little pain, and I am walking around without the aid of crutches, most of the time. On this snowy Wednesday when I write this, I even plan to go to HyVee with Sarah and get in some steps. Healing for this undeserving sinner (and yes, I know, His beloved child) is taking place. I am grateful to God my Keeper and to you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, for your prayerful concern.
My healing is loaded with spiritual application. A couple of Lenten devotions written for this particular day in Lent, Wednesday of Lent IV, are cases in point. Dr. Kari Vo is the writer of the devotions, “Suffering Servant,” for The Lutheran Hour. Her text today is Luke 22:49-51, which brings us the account of Jesus healing the ear of the servant of the high priest, after Peter struck him with his sword.
Isn’t it amazing that, on His way to the cross, Jesus takes time to heal an enemy? Dr. Vo makes the point that more than one man’s ear was going to be healed that night: “Jesus was beginning His Passion, knowing full well that His suffering, death, and resurrection would bring healing to all His enemies—every man, woman, or child who would trust in Him by the Holy Spirit’s help. Jesus came to heal His enemies and to give them everlasting life—no longer as enemies, but now as beloved children of God.”
My healing is reminding me that I, a former enemy of my Lord, have received His balm of forgiveness and His gift of everlasting life. Indeed, “with His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5d).
My healing is also reminding me that any degree of physical or emotional healing I receive in this mortal body is a sign of the new and glorious body I will have at the resurrection on the Last Day. I’ve had dozens of wounds over the years, of which there is no sign today. So have you. I have a new hip. The incision is healing. All of this is a sign that your body and mine will be raised from the grave and completely “healed,” restored. Never to get sick again, injured again, die again!
Dr. Reed Lessing’s devotion in CPH’s “Witnesses to Christ” devotional for today (again, Wednesday, March 30, as I write this) makes much the same point. His devotion is based on the great I Am the resurrection and the life passage from John 11:25. “Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live,” promises Jesus.
Dr. Lessing writes: “We can trust Jesus. He is risen to redeem us from sin and to resurrect our bodies. On Easter, the women and the disciples didn’t see a phantom or a ghost. They saw Jesus in the flesh—with a body!”
“Do you know what I tell my family when we go by a Dollar General store? Get my coffin there as cheap as possible. Why? I won’t be in it long. I believe in the resurrection of the body!”
Thank you, Lord, for these lessons because of Your gift of healing. They point to life fully-restored, life eternal! Amen!
--Rev. Scott Sailer
President
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