The Talked About Ministry

It does not take but a few strokes of the pen for Mark to write about a ministry of Jesus which confounds the contemporary church.  One of the struggles of the church is deciding what to do with the healing ministry of Jesus.  Though eager to be His hands and feet on the streets of suffering, and though eager to feed the hungry in soup kitchens, and though ready to be about preaching and teaching in the sanctuary, it shows some confusion about being an instrument of healing in the world.  Of course, the church is more than ready to heal the kind of brokenness which requires acts of of reconciliation, but healing the body of its illnesses and brokenness is mostly handled by putting names of a prayer list.  

In most places the church is hesitant to enter into a visible and intentional ministry of healing.  Mark makes it clear that such a ministry was close to the heart of Jesus.  The first place this ministry is really encountered is in stories found in Mark 1:29-34.  After that synagogue visit where Jesus cast out evil spirits from a man, He went to the home of Peter's mother-in-law.  She was healed of a fever by Jesus and then later in the evening the people brought their sick to the place He was staying and the Word says, "And He cured many who were sick with various diseases..." (Mark 1:34).  There would be many such moments in the ministry of Jesus.  

The church often speaks of itself as the body of Christ, or a community which is expressed as the hands and feet of Jesus.  The ministries of Jesus provide a model for the ministries to be embraced.  It seems strange that there are no evidences of the ministry of healing being taken seriously by the church.  Aside from names being put on prayer list and occasional verbal assurances that God can heal the sick of their illnesses, the healing ministry of Jesus is largely delegated to something that the church holds at a distance.  Unfortunately, it has become a talked about ministry, but not really a practiced one.