Thought for the Day-Encountering Jesus the Healer

Jesus Heals the Sick, Markey Robinson

A Thought for the Day given during the celebration of the Eucharist at St Mary-le-Bow on Wednesday 4th September 2024 based on the text of Luke 4.38-end and beginning with an imagined Whatsapp exchange between Simon Peter and his wife.

·         Simon! Simon Peter! 

·         Yes! What?! I’m on my way home. Why are you messaging me on the family group?

·         Because you have ignored all my other messages and calls!

·         Sorry, I’ve been busy at work. We were struggling to find anything on the lake tonight. What’s the matter? It’s still early. I’ll be back in a minute.

·         It’s Mum. She’s getting worse. I’m really worried. Her temperature won’t go down but she’s been shivering all night. 

·         Try not to worry - you are doing your best. Have you managed to get her to eat anything this morning? She needs to keep her strength up. 

·         She won’t eat the broiled fish but managed some broth earlier - not as much as yesterday. There’s not much else I can do. I’ve been up all night crying. I think this is it. This is the end. Listen to me. You need to find that man. The one everyone is talking about. The carpenters son. From Nazareth. The one who drove the demons out of that sick man in Capernaum. Have you found out where he is yet? 

·         No, I haven’t had a chance. 

·         Please Simon, this is important. Please go and find him and bring him here. He can heal Mum. I know he can. Please find him. 

 

An imaginary WhatsApp exchange between Simon Peter and his wife - whose existence is disputed, especially by those for whom the idea of the first Pope being married is particularly problematic. 

 

In Luke’s gospel, the passage we heard today precedes the call of the disciples. That dramatic moment when Jesus commandeers Simon Peter’s fishing boat, which had returned empty after an unsuccessful all-nighter on the lake. Jesus persuades Simon to go out again and cast the net over the other side of the boat, whereupon he lands the biggest catch of his career and pledges his life to Jesus as a disciple.

 

Whether Peter had a wife, whether she was alive at the time and whether it is the result of her request, his own initiative or some sort of editorial decision when compiling the text, there can be no dispute that as we read Luke’s gospel today, Simon Peter’s first encounter with Jesus is through an appeal to cure his sick mother in law.  

 

In Luke’s account, Peter - the rock on which the church is built - first encounters Jesus through a need to be healed. 

 

So many people have told me they came to know Christ in the same way. Not by some great wondrous act, like a miraculous catch of fish, but in an intimate and personal appeal for healing. At a time in their own lives or the life of someone they know when they were physically or mentally broken. In pain. Feeling hopeless. Shattered. Fractured. Disconnected from their relationship with the outside world and with one another - and from all that made them feel themselves. 

 

For many, it is at times like these, when we are in the pit, in the darkness of despair, that we call out to Jesus. It is times like these when his healing touch first becomes real.

 

Because he has been there himself. On the cross. When he entered into our suffering and carried the weight of it all on his shoulders. When his body was broken and offered to God so that we might be at one with him. So that every part of us and the whole of creation might be healed. 

 

We remember that world changing moment each time we break bread at the Lord’s Table. 

 

Through sharing in that brokenness we are invited to enter into Holy Communion with Him. The ultimate act of healing. We are called to respond to that invitation by presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to God and to one another. Saying:

 

This is my body. Broken. And given for you. 

Image : Jesus heals the sick, Markey Robinson