Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization

Mathias D. Thelen

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781532636318
  9781532636332
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532636325
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

It's almost undeniable that God is working miracles of healing in evangelization today. For theologians, pastors, and evangelists some questions arise: What is the relationship between physical healing and the message of salvation? Should the church really expect God to do healings in evangelization today? Father Thelen answers these questions by examining the relationship between the preaching of the gospel and physical healing in the New Testament. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not simply a message of fact; it is a message of power that is often expressed through the working of deeds that serve as signs of the reality preached: salvation. As signs of the kingdom, healings that accompany the preaching of the gospel play an indispensable role in bringing people to faith throughout the New Testament. The result of this biblical study is a clarion call for the church to renew its faith in God's desire and power to confirm his word through healing. As healing becomes more accepted and frequent in evangelization, a Catholic biblical and theological approach to healing as it relates to evangelization--an approach that can be different from its Protestant counterpart--is necessary. This modest book fits this need.

Chapter 1

Healing and Evangelization in the Ministry of Jesus

This chapter attempts to define more precisely the role physical healings play in Jesus’ and the disciples’ preaching of the gospel. We will first examine the relationship between Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom of God and healing by considering the nature of the kingdom of God. Then we will consider the role testimony of healing plays in bringing people to faith in Jesus. This leads to our consideration of the healings of Jesus as signs meant to elicit faith in him as the Messiah and the Son of God. Finally, we will examine the relationship between healing and the commissioning of the disciples to preach the gospel. After examining the ministry of Jesus in this way, we will synthesize the relationship between healing and evangelization in the Gospels.

Healing and the Proclamation of the Kingdom

After John’s arrest, Jesus enters into Galilee preaching the gospel of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15, RSVCE). The proclamation of the good news of the kingdom is why Jesus came: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities, for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43). The kingdom of God is not simply a message of good news about God’s reign; it is the making present of that reign in and through the ministry and person of Jesus.10 The inbreaking of the kingdom of God through the ministry of Jesus and the need to enter it through a personal response of repentance and faith is at the heart of Jesus’ earthly ministry. In order for us to understand the relationship between the message about God’s reign in Jesus and the deeds of Jesus (i.e., healing), we need to briefly examine the manner in which the kingdom of God is made present in Jesus’ ministry. In other words, we need to understand how the kingdom of God is “at hand.”

Jesus first preaches the kingdom in the “time of fulfillment.” According to Mary Healy, “the time of fulfillment means that now, in Jesus, God is breaking into history to fulfill his promises and bring his whole plan to completion. It is a decisive moment, a turning point.”11 God is acting in history to set his people free in and through his reign which is mysteriously present in Jesus. According to George Eldon Ladd, the mystery of the kingdom is presented in three stages in the New Testament: (1) There are passages that present the kingdom of God as God’s reign, his rule; (2) other passages describe the kingdom as God’s reign that has broken into time and in which people can experience its blessings in the present; and finally, (3) other passages speak about a future realm in which people will experience the fullness of his reign.12 In putting these three stages together with the biblical texts, Ladd concludes that in Jesus the future realm (heaven) has broken into time and, therefore, the blessings associated with God’s full rule and reign in heaven are manifested in the ministry of Jesus on Earth.13 In other words, the kingdom of God as proclaimed and manifested in Jesus represents an “already but not yet” eschatology in which the kingdom and its blessings are present in a provisional way, for it will not be complete until the future consummation of the kingdom in heaven.14 Since the blessings of the future kingdom of God are made present in Jesus’ ministry, the preaching of that kingdom marks the beginning of the definitive destruction of the works of the devil.15

The Gospels often depict sickness or illness as works of the devil, at least indirectly if not directly.16 While in the Gospel of Mark there is often a clear distinction between healing and deliverance, the lines are blurred in Matthew and Luke to such an extent that one can argue that the evangelists believed that illness is generally caused by Satan or demons. In fact, deliverance from the influence of evil spirits often results in people’s physical healings.17 While we need not conclude that all sickness has demonic origins, we can understand the healings of Jesus as the beginning of the breaking of the devil’s hold on the world.18 David Stanley writes:

For Mark, the cures wrought by Jesus constitute the initial frontal attack upon the “kingdom” of Satan. Jesus has come to inaugurate the establishment of the kingdom of God in history; and he must begin by breaking the hold of evil upon the world, liberating men from the thrall of the “strong man,” Satan.19

That Jesus understands sickness as something that Satan can use to bind people is evident also in his words in the story of the healing of the crippled woman on the Sabbath: “And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16). Jesus’ healing of this woman is understood as the destruction of a work of the devil. Seeing that some sickness is the direct work of the devil leads John Wimber to describe Jesus as a “divine invader” who begins to take back territory from the devil. “When Jesus said that the kingdom of God had come in him, he claimed for himself the position of a divine invader, coming to set everything straight, ‘The reason why the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.’”20

Given the understanding of the “already but not yet” nature of the kingdom of God, we are now in a position to situate more precisely the healings that accompanied Jesus’ proclamation with the proclamation itself. In proclaiming the gospel, Jesus begins to destroy the power of the kingdom of darkness by which man is enslaved to the devil. Ladd explains:

“God is now acting among men to deliver them from bondage to Satan. It is the announcement that God, in the person of Christ, is doing something—if you please, is attacking the very kingdom of Satan himself. The exorcism of demons is proof that the kingdom of God has come among men and is at work among them.”21

If sickness, disease, and death are works of Satan, then the presence of the kingdom of God, even in a provisional way, would see the destruction of these works. Randy Clark puts it this way: “One of the ways Jesus destroyed the works of the devil was to minister healing and deliverance to the sick and afflicted.”22

If Jesus destroys the kingdom of darkness through healing and deliverance, then it is no surprise that as Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God is at hand, his proclamation is accompanied by the demonstration of the presence and power of that kingdom through signs of healing and deliverance from evil spirits. Such proclamation and demonstration by Jesus marks the beginning of God transferring his people from the “dominion of darkness” into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col 1:13).23 It is quite significant then that Peter in the Acts of the Apostles understands Jesus’ healings and deliverances as acts which free people from the oppression of the devil: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Healing and Evangelization in the Ministry of Jesus
• Chapter 2: Healing and Evangelization in the Acts of the Apostles
• Chapter 3: Healing and Evangelization in the Letters of Paul
• Chapter 4: Healing and the New Evangelization
• Bibliography