Editorial June 5, 1926 Issue

The Healing Christ

Duncan Sinclair

One of the most arresting incidents recorded in the New Testament is that of the instantaneous healing of a woman of a hemorrhage by Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all make mention of it in their respective Gospels. Jesus was on his way to the house of the ruler whose daughter had just died, and whom he afterwards restored to life, when "a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years," as Matthew says, "came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole." Jesus was aware of the act and of the thought which had induced it, and turning round "he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour."

She but "touched the hem of his garment"! What wonderful faith was hers; what wonderful power was his! It is easy to picture the woman, sore oppressed and weary, but full of faith, approaching the one whose fame had been spread abroad, that she too might receive healing. And it is as easy for those who know something of Christian Science and, consequently, of how Christ Jesus healed the sick, to understand the quick response her effort met with. It was not the mere touching of his garment that healed the woman. While the act showed her faith in the Master, it was the truth he understood—the truth about the perfection of God and man—that found a lodgment in her receptive consciousness and performed the miracle. Jesus himself acknowledged the woman's faith; and given faith and receptivity to the truth, and his unrivaled spiritual understanding, the deed of healing was bound to follow.

What a mentality was that of our Lord, to be able to draw the sufferer to him, and then to heal her! What was the nature of this healing mentality? Its intense spirituality. Jesus reflected divine Truth and Love wherever he was. His goodness, purity, gentleness, truthfulness, humility,—his spirituality,—were recognized as the most tangible of things, whether in the crowd or in the home. Everywhere he went he demonstrated his sonship with God. He could say, thinking of the Christ, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. We do not think of the bodily presence of the Master when we contemplate the healings he performed, but of his spiritualized consciousness, that consciousness which drew suffering humanity to him and gave him the power to heal them of their diseases and of their sins.

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