Healing Ministry

I would not have been surprised back in my Vidalia days if some Bible thumping, tongues speaking, Pentecostal preacher had told me he had healing services in his church; but, when my good friend who was the local Episcopal rector in town told me he provided a moment every Sunday for people to come forward to receive not only prayers for their healing, but also anointing with oil, I had to pay attention.  When I paid attention, I encountered enough conviction that I started offering a monthly Sunday evening service which I called "A Service of Prayers for Healing."  

It was also a moment for reading about the healing ministry of Jesus and the way the church had either embraced it, or ignored it.  As the gospel writer Mark tells the story of the onset of the ministry of Jesus, there is one healing story after another after another.  He healed the man with the unclean spirit, Simon Peter's mother-in-law, the many who heard about it and gathered around the door of her house, a man with leprosy, and a paralytic who was lowered through the roof by four friends. (Mark 1:21-2:12)  

There is simply no way to say that Jesus did not have a healing ministry which raises an important question:  "How can the church which seeks to be an expression of Jesus in the world not offer such a ministry?"  To be honest is to admit we either ignore it, or offer it with half-hearted reservations neither of which would cause Jesus to say, "Well done."