“He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” And so he had. Whereas the first healing story in our Gospel reading took place in relative private, between a Gentile woman and Jesus, there were far more people around to witness him healing a deaf man. And their reaction? Oh that’s good, but it’s what we were expecting him to do? NO! Mark says they were ‘astounded beyond measure’. That may be an accurate translation but it doesn’t quite cut it. The Message says ‘they were besides themselves with excitement.’ i.e. they were gobsmacked! Their ghast was completely flabbered! I am told that in Yorkshire you might say: ‘'Ah wer feear capped!' Why does this matter? Some today have explained the healing miracles by saying that Jesus’ contemporaries were more susceptible to taking them at face value, because of their weaker understanding of science and nature. But something happened which clearly bowled them over - they may have experienced wonderworkers before, but this was something different, something which utterly astonished them. All they could say was “He has done everything well”. Does that remind you of anything? It’s all good – God saw all he had made and it was very good – yes, creation. And in some sense healing is re-creation – putting things in order again, as they were intended to be. Jesus, the Word who was in the beginning and through whom all things came into being, is here and now, by his word of authority mending creation. And this time, as the Word made flesh, he looked for faith from those were suffering in the flesh. Later in this service, after receiving communion, some will come forward to receive prayer for healing from members of the healing prayer team. Faith will be present – it has to be for prayer to be offered at all. It will be present in the person asking for prayer (otherwise why come forward?) and in those praying. The trouble is that most of us are more conscious of our doubt than our faith. So I want to look at these 2 incidents from Mark 7 and see what they might say to us and say about the healing ministry of the church. We can’t escape the truth that the church, Christ’s Body, has been entrusted with the task of ministering healing in His name. As James says in his epistle we are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. In fact, Jesus had already started involving his followers in this work. In the previous chapter in Mark, we’re told that he sent out his disciples to do this work and they did. They called people to repent, they cast out demons and cured the sick. Now it’s our turn.

Let’s first look at the context of these two stories…

Jesus was a long way from home. Tyre and Sidon were on the NW coast about 60 miles (more than 3 days journey) from Capernaum. So, to compare, from Bradford, think Morecambe. Yes, he had moved from God’s own county to the Lancashire coast – this was indeed Gentile territory. By this stage in his ministry Jesus he was well known - wherever  he went a crowd gathered, even here in Phoenicia, part of Syria, away from Palestine. Why did Jesus go there? 1 clue is in vs. 24 – he came to retreat from the pressures on him, but ‘he could not escape notice’. But Mark suggests another purpose. Those of you have been studying this gospel on Monday afternoons will know that there are different layers of meaning in Mark. Just before this incident Jesus had offered a new way of thinking about what is clean and unclean. Now here he is, being asked by a Gentile – unclean to Jews – and a Gentile woman of all things, to help her daughter with an unclean spirit. A good Jew would have walked away and avoided being defiled. Instead Jesus has a coded exchange with her. His time is limited. As Messiah he has come to liberate the Jewish people, to free them from bondage to dead traditions and narrow vision so that through them the whole Gentile world is liberated too. And here he is, trying to lie low, to gather new strength for that mission and he does not want to be distracted. The woman doesn’t argue but presses home her request. ‘Yes, I know that nourishment comes from the children of Israel, but surely it is food for those outside Israel too?’ ‘For saying that, for your faith in me as the One anointed to bring salvation/wholeness, your daughter is freed from her bondage.’ And she was. Jesus did not go to that area to heal as many people as possible, he went for rest. But he responded to the need before him. He does everything well, but that is not the same thing as he heals everyone around him. There were those in Tyre who remained sick and imprisoned by evil spirits. Jesus did what he could. And so must we. We do what we can, not what we can’t.

Healing is often serendipitous, often unexpected. We quite often get people walking into the cathedral seeking help; broken people needing wholeness, troubled people needing to unburden. It’s important that there is someone on hand to respond to any request that comes and to pray with them.  But it’s not always the case - there is not always someone free to see them. It would be so good if we could extend that availability. To be listened to is the first step to healing. We would love to be able to train more listeners and to revive the listening service that was once offered here. That role is held by the Healing Prayer team. Can I say that if you are curious about this ministry and would like to know more about it, there are two opportunities coming up (both on the newssheet). One is a day conference at St Lukestide – on Saturday 17th October when we welcome back the Acorn Healing Trust. The other is ‘Growing the Healing church’ led by Alex McLelland; it runs on Sunday mornings, for 45 minutes only and starts next week. It would be v helpful to know how many to expect, so please speak to me or Alex after the service if you’re thinking of coming. That’s the end of the adverts, now back to the story.

This Gentile woman gives us a picture of how to approach Jesus. She comes with humility: she bowed down at his feet. She comes with honesty and admits that as a Gentile she is in need and is breaking normal protocol. And she comes with faith and determination. So strong is her desire to see her daughter helped that she risks rejection, she risks humiliation and failure, but comes with a belief that Jesus can help her if he wills to. That is a good way to approach Jesus for help today, with humility, honesty and a determined belief.

Those same qualities are present too in the next encounter.
This must be 3 or 4 days later and Jesus is back amongst his own people, near the Sea of Galilee. They brought a deaf man with a speech impediment. They beg him to lay his hand on him. They come with determination and belief that Jesus can help him. Jesus opens his ears and cures his speech. Those who saw it were amazed; maybe they recognised the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy (in Ch 35) that ‘the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped and the tongues of the speechless sing for joy.’ And amusingly, having released this man to speak Jesus immediately tries to silence him – and those who witnessed it. He knew it was not yet time to go public about his Messiahship. But they could not help telling others that ‘this man has done everything well.’

Just as the Gentile woman’s daughter was not able to seek help herself, this man was not able to ask for help himself. Sometimes, we seek healing on behalf of someone else, and that may happen later in this service. Whichever it it is let’s remember this phrase ‘He has done everything well.’ He has. Not us. Healing is best approached with humility, honesty (about our weaknesses and needs) and with faith; not faith in our faith, but faith in Jesus. This is how members of the healing prayer team approach the ministry. We are not specialists in healing or prayer, but flawed men and women who come to Christ believing in His power to save. Healing is not an added extra to the mission of the church, it is integral to it. We are made whole through the ministry of the Word, through Scripture (and we may need to have our ears opened to hear); and we are made whole through the Sacrament, through receiving communion, and through wholesome relationships, through being in right communion with one another. All this is about God’s love breaking in to heal us in body, mind and spirit, to re-create us. And all that is required of us is faith (maybe as small as a mustard seed), faith in the One who does everything well. To Him be all might, majesty, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen.