Time with Jesus: Luke 4:31-44

A Series on the Life of Christ According to Luke

Jesus is the answer to all our spiritual needs and the only one who can heal our spiritual brokenness, but if you stop the Gospel there then you are missing something that was so very important to Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus spends a great deal of time during his ministry healing the sick. Why is that? It’s because he is making all things new. Jesus is the Savior of the World, not just the saver of souls. God wants whole people to live in his presence. If your spiritual walk is focused only on spiritual health for yourself and others then you are missing a really important part of the Gospel.

Jesus came to earth as a human because he wanted to save humanity not only from sin but also from death—not only from spiritual ailments but also from physical ones. When God created man he made him from the stuff of the earth. Everything else before that he speaks into existence but man is made from Creation and made alive and divine by the very breath of God. We are designed to be here, but not as the world is now. Rather we are designed to be here as the world was and will be again.

I often wondered as a child why Jesus healed people. Was he just being nice? Won’t they eventually just get sick again with something else and die? Casting out demons I understood because they are an affront to him but why sickness? Because sickness is also an affront to the Creator who made this world good. Jesus is demonstrating that he intends not only to save people from the spiritual forces of darkness but also to heal the very fabric of Creation—the physical stuff of the world. As I walk with Jesus, I have to remember that it is not only the spiritual needs of others that deserve care but also the physical needs.

Am I as willing to share the Gospel through care for the sick and the poor as I am to talk about the Gospel and pray for sinners? Do I care as well for my own physical stuff—my body and other blessings—as I care for my soul? Do I care for God’s Creation and long to see it flourish? Jesus did. To walk with Jesus means to love not only the souls but also the bodies of his children and the world they live in.

Jesus is making all things new! Amen.