Guest Editorial November 7, 2016 Issue

Alert to opportunities to heal

Sarah Hyatt

Spiritual alertness and intuitiveness were qualities Christ Jesus stressed for his disciples and for all those who followed him: “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:37). His disciples, and the crowds who followed him, often struggled to live up to the example he set for them. And we can learn from what Jesus patiently and tenderly taught them about being alert to opportunities for healing.

Consider, for instance, the disciples’ and the crowd’s frequent response to those who came to Jesus for healing. They had various reasons for suggesting that some of those individuals should be sent away. When blind Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, the group following Jesus told Bartimaeus to quiet down (see Mark 10:46–52). Perhaps the crowd was seeing only a beggar pleading for money. When Jesus was ready to go with Jairus, whose daughter was gravely ill, word came that the daughter was dead. Some told Jairus, “Trouble not the Master” (Luke 8:49). The situation in their eyes was beyond healing. When a woman from another culture sought out Jesus to cure her sick daughter, the disciples said, “Send her away; for she crieth after us” (Matthew 15:23). Perhaps in thinking that Jesus was sent only to one nation of people, they thought this woman was a nuisance and not worth the Master’s time. It would appear that only Jesus saw the healing potential in each of those cases.

Jesus saw these interruptions as opportunities to teach and to heal. And in each scenario mentioned above, healing came as Jesus looked beyond the evidence presented by the physical senses to the more inspired view he had from his spiritual senses. He discerned the true need of each individual and met it from a spiritual standpoint of inspiration and understanding. Sight was restored to Bartimaeus; Jairus’ daughter was raised from her deathbed; and the Canaanite woman’s daughter was healed.

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