Article July 30, 1984 Issue

Healing—spontaneous and natural

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

As a young woman I decided to read the New Testament straight through, from beginning to end. I had never done this before. I wanted to know what Christ Jesus' life was like from day to day; what kind of conversations he had with people; the context of his words and works. In that poor land, occupied by a foreign army, how did his teachings relate practically to people with concrete needs and problems?

As I read the gospel narratives in their entirety, I realized that when Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand,"^{Matt. 10:7.} the divine state of being he was referring to was clearly at hand, because people were being healed of stubborn and even incurable diseases. Leprosy, palsy, blindness, deafness, crippling handicaps, were instantaneously healed.

The function of religion isn't merely to reconcile people to their difficulties, to just buoy them up so they can try to cope with ugly, painful misfortunes. Christ Jesus wasn't teaching people to resign themselves to suffering with a vague promise of a reward at some far-off time. He showed the people God's great presence and power to heal them and feed them, to care for all their own and their children's needs. This healing was central to his ministry.

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