Additional content related to Healing
Matthew 9:9-13,18-26
Each of the main characters that interact with Jesus in this story go through a significant transformation that rewrites their future. They share the fact that they are all in need (whether they know it or not). And, they all seem to act with a simple faith that who Jesus is and what he says,…
Luke 17:11-19
From standing at a distance asking for mercy to coming right up to his feet and lying prostrate with praise, our healed leper goes on quite the journey. The other lepers who are healed do too, of course, but they take a different direction upon the revelation that they are healed. I don’t want to…
Luke 8:26-39
This is most definitely one of those texts that sends our modern senses spinning for application. Most of us do not have experience with exorcisms, and are generally uncomfortable with the idea/reality of demons. It may seem odd to say, but we can almost side-step the whole demonic exorcism if we focus our attention on…
James 3:1-12
“Not many of you should presume to be didaskaloi (teachers),” James begins this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson (1). About now, many teachers might agree with him. A few weeks (or days) into the new school year have probably begun to tax even the most dedicated teachers in ways that may leave them considering some kind of…
Luke 17:11-19
As a college German major, I’ve known for a while of a curiosity in that language. In German if you thank someone by saying “Danke,” the person whom you are thanking is likely to respond with “Bitte,” which is the German equivalent of “You’re welcome.” Except that “bitte” is also the word for “please” and…
2 Kings 5:1-14
Nearly everyone needs some kind of healing. It may be from physical or mental illness. Or perhaps it’s from haunted memories or grief. Yet while God’s people know to look to God for that healing, we don’t always get to choose its method. So we may not always particularly like the way God chooses to…
Luke 7:1-10
The deeper you get into this brief story, the better the anonymous (and never-seen) centurion looks. First we hear this Roman higher-up has a sick servant, and just this far into the story you could read that as meaning that this man has a piece of property who is not performing well. To certain upper…
Genesis 27
In his book Simply Christian, N.T. Wright says this about the Bible: “It’s a big book, full of big stories with big characters. They have big ideas (not least about themselves) and make big mistakes. It’s about God and greed and grace; about life, lust, laughter and loneliness. It’s about births, beginnings, and betrayal; about…
Exodus 15:22-27
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Three days is a long time to go without finding water, especially if you have little ones under four. Nursing mothers are beginning to get desperate. When water is sighted, the kids run to it, laughing, whooping, but just a taste leaves them gagging, spluttering, wiping their tongues on…
Exodus 15:22-27
Exodus 15:22-27 is one of numerous stories driven by Israel complaining, grumbling, or murmuring because of the conditions of the exodus. Like God does in the other stories, God provides for the Israelites even though they are rebellious against him. But what stands out in this particular narrative is God’s self-proclaimed title in verse 26:…
Matthew 9:27-34
Comments and Observations I hate it when someone acts one way when we’re with one group of people and then is a completely different person in a different context. Perhaps that explains some of my discomfort with this passage from Matthew 9. These back-to-back healings are, in many ways, nondescript. We are given few details,…
Acts 3:12-19
Similar to what Jesus taught him and the other disciples at the end of Luke 24 (the Gospel lection for this same week in the Year B Lectionary), Peter in Acts 3 suggests that the healing of the crippled beggar—who was even then still hanging on Peter’s pant leg—is less a startling, previously unheard-of event…
Preaching Connection: Healing