The Great Physician

(Sermon preached on Health Care Worker’s Sunday at Christ Church Galleface and Christ Church Galkissa)

 

“They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.” Luke 5:31.

St. Luke the evangelist was also a doctor….a man of science….a man of faith…..A combination we see that is becoming extinct in scientists especially doctors. He takes extra effort to narrate the healing which Jesus did and with his scientific thought has illustrated these miracles and encounters carefully

We see in that that Jesus was questioned by the learned….the Pharisees and Scribes as to why He was associating with sinners. And Jesus answered them….

What a profound statement…. a response with a deep meaning which stirs the heart. Jesus the physician of souls seems to say, “Where should I be but with those who most need My services? I need not come into your company, for you consider yourselves to be whole. But these according to your way of speaking, are sick”

Christ by associating with sinners did not at all approve their sin.
When He proved Himself to be the Friend of sinners, it did not equalise or compromise the characteristics of Sin & Salvation…….but it reduced the gap to reach God’s Perfection from human Error.

He left is throne and kingly crown….came down to man’s fallen state to rescue him…. Touching his disease, He might heal him…. might work His great miracles of mercy!

We portray Jesus as the Great Physician….In our homes we hang pictures of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter or of any other healing miracles.
We as the sick pray for the divine grace and healing which flows from his pierced side. We as Christian doctors try to mould our character in this example.

What is the practise of a physician when treating a patient?
What are the qualities a patient seeks in a doctor?
I would like to meditate on the Character of Great Physician we see in Jesus.

The first thing that happens in the process of healing is the Consultation.

It may be that that the patient is the first who decides to see a doctor…..This Selective Consultation usually happens in the hospital level. It may be also possible that the doctor is the one who tries to reach the sick in the form of a Screening Consultation…..This we see in the community….the field or even as a medical mission…… We see this behaviour clearly in the Gospel. It was the prodigal son who decided on turning back to his father when he was among the swine. In contrast we see that the Good Shepherd went in search of the Lost Sheep when it led itself to perversion.
Some of us might have come to the Lord making our own choice……Others would have seen the power of the Lord working in their lives to make a decision. What is important here is that both results in a radical change to follow him after the initial meeting point…….

Shackled by a heavy burden
Beneath a load of guilt and shame
Then the hand of Jesus touched me
and now I am no longer the same.

Next the doctor will make contact with the patient and ask him what his ailments….his symptoms are. The patient will tell how he feels…..what disturbance the disease has done through alteration of bodily functions…..The patient will tell what disruptions have happened and how it has affected his day to day activities……This is known as the Sick Role…..

Some diseases may heal on its’ own. Some will heal fully…some partially with medical interventions. Some diseases, like fire will burn out until its later stages are reached.

But Sin, unless cured by Sovereign Grace, will destroy both body and soul….. slowly and painfully…….it will lead to complete destruction in Hell. This is the worst of diseases because it just does not affect us in one point…… it affects the entire system—from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot.

If the patient is questioned more and more about the nature of his disease he will tell you that it is inside the body, but that it works its’ way out externally too.
Sin not only lies inside the very soul of a man…..but it manifests shows itself in the character and virtue too.

The sin which Jesus came to heal is not something in the surface, or a matter of custom, or habit.

C S Spurgeon the theologian said ‘The venom of sin is in the very fountain of our being’ It has poisoned our heart. It is in the deep marrow of our bones
Muslims believe that Mohammed was so pure because an angel had taken out his heart by wringing two black drops of evil out of it.
We know that it is far worse than that…..Bishop George Herbert penned

‘What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle
Though every prospect pleases
Man is only vile….

The whole man who is evil—all his heart, all his nature—the venom, the poison everywhere!……Subhashithaya, the great book of proverbs in Sinhala quotes

Kuririru gora sapun ge dalagehi wisaya
Napuru dudanange siyolanghehi visaya.
(Man’s poison is found in every member, although venom is found at the tip of the serpent’s fang)

You can never wash them out unless the precious blood of Jesus is invoked….Malachi 3:2 says. He will be like a refiner’s fire or a fullers/ a launderer’s soap.

The doctor bends down more over the patient and asks him another question—“How did you get this disease?”……Like natural disease, sin has three answers.
Firstly, by inheritance.
Many persons inherit and some are predisposed to certain diseases from their birth…….. and we have all inherited sin from our birth.
David emotionally express this in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” These are the sins that have been committed by our parents, ancestors leading up to Adam and Eve……Truly some physical diseases do run in families …….These are called generational Curses…..It is important that we should ask pardon for such sins so that we will be reconciled and so that we break the link that it transfer to our future generations.

Secondly, like physical disease sin is contagious…….we would have contracted it from our fellow men. Sinful behaviour can be gained through our association with other sinners. Therefore we see the value of early Christian training and the blessedness of being found in the company of the godly. Psalm 1 says…..Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit at the seat of mockers……..Psalm 15 says. Lord who shall dwell in your sanctuary …your holy hill……..Who despises a vile man but honours those who fear him.

Thirdly some diseases result from intemperance ……our attitudes, our habits, our bad lifestyles. We have grown worse than we originally were. Our sin has been fed and more and more till sins are collected.

Next the doctor will ask “Where is this disease which you speak of?” The disease of sin is to be found everywhere!
The eyes of our understanding are darkened so that they cannot see the things of God as God would want us see them…….
Our affections and attachments are perverted that we love that which we should hate, and hate that which we should love…..We do things which we ought not to have done and not done what we ought to have done…..
Our conscience, the candle…….the light of the Lord shining within us, burns very dimly…..defiled and depraved.
As for our free will, my Lord Will-be-Will……Though Frank Sinatra sings his final song beautifully…..we have charged ourselves in the same way by saying …..I did it My Way.
We cannot see sin in ourselves—it has made itself various compromises and external beauty so that we cannot feel its’ pains. Our hearts have lost tenderness that it may have had, naturally, and your conscience is damaged that it cannot warn us of the mischief within, but deceive with smooth things

Then the doctor will ask himself “If this man has the disease, what are the complications?”
The usual effect of all sickness is that the strength of the body wastes away.
We cannot ask a sick man to run a race…..In the same way we cannot ask an unsaved sinner to run the race of godliness…. he can’t be strong enough to wear the Armour of God
Sickness also mars the beauty of the body….. the body becomes pale, wasted, disfigured……there is degeneration. …….some diseases causes permanent marks and scars……It is the same with sin, the very image of God that man was moulded into loveliness at creation is changed into the image of Satan…. Horror… nakedness, impure and ever wasting. And cannot get peace and ease

Sin gives us no permanent comfort……There may be a short lived bliss with every sip of sin we fill our mouths but there is no sustenance of joys. We run behind a mirage….try to find pleasure in sin. It sparkles in the glass and is sweet to the tongue but it will be always bitter in the stomach….it will cause hunger and irritation of the systems of the body.

Yes, sin is a sickness that robs us of comfort……… worst of all, it will end in death—a death that is something more than death—it is the second death, the death that never dies… being the cast out into the Lake of Fire!

This is what sin will lead to unless the Great Physician shall come and heal us.

Having been to see the patient and having said so much concerning his disease, We then say “If this is true, there is great need of a Physician”?
The only right a man has to Christ is his need of Him.
He is here, ready to hear us. Reach out to Him! Look up to Him now and live!

The sick have need of a physician, but those who are ‘healthy’ have no such need. Are there really such “healthy” people?

The WHO definition of health states ‘Health is the Health is not only the absence of infirmity and disease but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being”…..Is everyone having a state of physical mental or social wellbeing……No one is 100% whole….100% healthy……It is the same with Sinlessness……The scriptures say that ‘All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory’ All have need of the Great Physician. All are spiritually sick and God beckons them to come to Jesus who alone can heal them.

We most of the time label ourselves as healthy….spiritually healthy….

We most of the time involuntarily say that we do not need a Saviour,
A fool says in his hear. There is no God. A study bible paraphrases this verse in Psalms 14:1 ‘A fool says in his heart…..NO GOD’
As we say we need no Saviour, where will we go?
We and all our good works will go down to Hell unless we repent of this proud way of talking, for we rebel against God while we speaking.
Our own valuation of self says that we have no need of a physician, so Christ’s coming into the world could not have had any relation to us
if we place our refuge on our own righteousness our refuge is a refuge of lies and our confidence is a deception. It is even so with all the so called holy things we might do externally if the inner meaning of those rituals is not understood. We learn at catechism….before confirmation what a Sacrament is. A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace with divine direction. If all the good things we do not have an inner meaning it is hypocrisy……white washed sepulchres.

There is hymn which goes as

“Not all the outward forms on earth,
Nor rites that God has given,
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
Can raise a soul to Heaven!”

Our plea with Christ must be our wounds. Jesus’ plea with His Father in his redemptive love was—His wounds! And that must be our plea with Him—not our goodness, nor our resolves to be better but our sins, our needs, our disappointments and our unrighteousness! We must bring before the Lord our sins!

But Now Who is this Great PHYSICIAN……When someone who is sick wants to see a doctor, he chooses someone who falls to his requirements and considerations

If anyone asks, “What are Jesus’ qualifications?” Did he have an MBBS….Did he have a MD MRCP……
Jesus himself quoted his qualifications in Luke 4:17-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted.”
Others did witness or even act as referees in attesting his qualifications like in a CV
Simeon said ‘A light of revelation to the gentiles and for the glory of Israel’
St John the Baptist said ‘The lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’

His heavenly purpose was to heal sin-sick souls.

Where did He study? He studied in the great hospital of human disease….Humanity itself….He knew his neighbour…..He was in the carpenters’ workshop….he saw the housewife grinding the wheat…..He played with the children in the field…..We sing at Christmas ‘For he is our Childhoods pattern…Day by day like us he grew’…..For 33 years, “He went about doing good…..grew in wisdom and stature in favour of God and man.” He also had discourse with the learned…..At 12 years of age Jesus sat among the doctors…the teachers at the temple. A medical doctor usually gets the desire to be a doctor from childhood…..Jesus affirmed to become the Great Physician from this tender age ‘Didn’t you know that I should be in my father’s house’

What practice…..what experience did Jesus have as a doctor?

He has had the most extensive practice that a physician could have. Millions of happy lives healed by Him, even today he continues to heal us—and all gladly speak of His praises!

He was a physician….he cured the paralysed……the man with dropsy (heart failure)……the lepers……he looked at the patient as a whole …..body and soul when he made the paralysed walk by saying ‘Your sins are forgiven’.

He was a surgeon……he repaired the torn ear of the soldier……he gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf……Ezekiel 36:26 God talks about a heart transplant….”A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh”.

He was a paediatrician…..he cured the Syrophoenician woman’s son…..raised Jairuses’ daughter…..he said…Suffer the children to come unto me.

He was a Gynaecologist……he healed the woman with an issue of blood…..heavy periods.

He was a psychiatrist…….cured the demon possessed…..counselled, empathised and sympathised the depressed and outcast

He too was a forensic physician……He did the greatest exhumation recorded in the history….He opened the tomb and called unto Lazarus, even going beyond to raise him from the dead. Jesus appearing before a socially accepted court ……spoke on behalf of the sinful woman at a socially established court of law.

You may ask what his medicine is…..

Firstly the bible says—“He sent His word and healed them”—His word of promise, His word of invitation, His word of command. We sing again….You sent your word and healed my disease….you are the God my Healer

He also had powerful medicine …… His own Body and blood….It is his blood that cleanses us from sin…..In a little while we say the prayer of humble access……..Grant us gracious Lord to eat the flesh of your dear son and to drink his blood that are sinful bodies may be made cleaned by his body and our souls washed through his precious blood……In the old practice of medicine physicians gave bitter potions to their patients, but the great Physician drank the bitter gall…..the bitter medicine on the Cross Himself….He suffered the bitter shame on the cross!

One will ask, “What is His fee…..? He gives healing “without money and without price.”

‘Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings,
Mildly He lays His glory by.
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth.
Born to give them second birth’

To every person who trusts Him, Christ presents a free and complete cure.
“What are His hours? Any hour, and every hour, by night or by day. The scripture says in Psalms 121 ‘He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed he who watches over Israel never slumber nor sleep’….A certain mobile company is promoting a 24 hr. doctor on call hotline. Jeremiah 33:3 can be considered as the Hotline to God …..Call unto me and I will answer….I will teach you great things which you do not know.
Finally “Where is His dispensary? Where can I find Him,”
Wherever you are you will find him but in a breath of prayer
“God be merciful to me a sinner. Lord I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But say the word and I will be healed”……These are words of those who experienced physical as well as holistic healing from the physical presence of Jesus.

A Facebook Thought
Jesus is like a Computer…..He enters your life….Scans your problems…Edits your tension…..downloads Solutions…..Deletes your worries and Saves you.

If we trust Him with our souls then the honour of this great Physician is engaged to make a sure and certain cure of us.
If we just reach out to him to just touch the hem of his garment……that conviction too will save us.

The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain.
We touch Him in life’s throng and press
And we are whole again!

Prayer
Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; rise to all eternity.
(Wesley)