Healing and Jesus

If I were to describe the healing that Jesus brings in one word, it would be “resurrection,” new life after death. We experience death of many kinds throughout our lives: death of a career, a way of life; death of a dream; death of loved ones; death of who we thought we were or who we thought others were. In all of these deaths, these seeming dead ends, Jesus’ way is the way of resurrection, of new life after death.

Jesus was a Jewish man from a town called Nazareth, who lived about 2000 years ago. We believe that he was also God, the Creator of all that is, who had decided to become human, to live life among the creation. This is called “the Incarnation,” God becoming human. Jesus lived his life as a carpenter, and then as a preacher, teacher, and healer. Having ran afoul of the religious authorities of the day, he was executed as a heretic. God allowed himself to be killed as a human being. By becoming human, God joined physically with humanity in every aspect of our lives, including death.

Joining with us in every aspect of our lives is salvation, the full connection of God with us. Nothing can separate us from our creator; death only seems to. Three days after Jesus was killed, he was resurrected, raised from the dead into new life, a life which never ends. In Jesus’ resurrection, God shows us that death in not the end, that life is changed in death, not ended. That way of resurrection, of new life after death, is the way of Jesus for all people, both during our physical life, and after our physical lives have ended.

Grace, forgiveness, and love is how God lives with us and how God teaches us to live with each other.

We all mess up in this life. We’re supposed to. It is part of being human. When we do, God gives us grace, forgiveness, and love. Grace says, “I get it; I understand how hard it is to be human, and I get why you messed up.” Forgiveness says, “I understand and I forgive you; I don’t hold it against you.” Love says, “Now walk with me and learn to love for fully and to be loved more fully.”

All together, resurrection, grace, forgiveness, and love are how God heals us. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection; God becoming human and joining with us in every aspect of our lives, assuring us that nothing can separate us from God.