Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ 52Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10:51-52
Every time I read this story I wince a little. “Your faith has made you well.” It’s a powerful statement of the connection between faith and well-being. It’s also a dangerous statement, especially if we assume the converse is also true. If faith can make you well, do we then conclude that if you are sick, it is because you don’t have enough faith? I know too many people with deep faith who struggle with painful illness to believe that is true. I also know that, all too often, scripture passages like this one have been used to accuse those who are sick of lack of faith.
Given how passages like this one have been misused, it’s tempting to ignore or reject them. But then we miss out on the profound truth Jesus proclaims, and also on the profound questions his words raise. What is healing anyway? Is it the same thing as a cure? Can we be “well” or “whole” even as we live with pain or illness or limitation? What is the relationship between our spiritual well-being and our physical well-being? These are profound questions whose value is in the pondering.
As we enter into this season of Lent, we invite you to ponder–these questions and whatever other questions you have about healing. We invite you to reflect on your own experience of healing as you hear and read about the experiences of others. We invite you to trust in God’s healing power as we try, together, to understand what it means. –Debbie Clark
God of healing, we pray for faith, whatever that means. We pray that we may be made well, whatever that means. We pray for curiosity and courage and wisdom, as we seek to understand. Amen.