Diagnosis or Cure?

A few weeks ago I had the auspicious pleasure of hearing my doctor inform me that I had an ear infection. Do adults even get those?! I remember holding my son in my arms as a toddler after the surgeon had put tubes in his ears for the countless ear infections he had had, but I always thought that was an affliction one outgrew.

Apparently not.

Thankfully, I left the doctor's office with new knowledge and a prescription for Z-Pak, my new favorite antibiotic cocktail. Ear pain gone; life back to normal. Diagnosis and cure in one fell swoop.

In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, God outlines the priestly duties for Aaron and his sons, who are not only designated as intermediaries for God's people in the department of sin atonement, but are also instructed to carry out butcher duties for the sacrificial animals and to provide extensive diagnosis of diseases, like a community doctor. Priest, butcher and doctor are not what I would consider complementary professions, but there you have it in Scripture. Take a look at just a few examples of the medical knowledge necessary for Aaron and his sons to perform their God-given duties:

The priest is to examine him, and if the rash has spread in the skin, he shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious disease.

⁹ “When anyone has an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to the priest. ¹⁰ The priest is to examine him, and if there is a white swelling in the skin that has turned the hair white and if there is raw flesh in the swelling, ¹¹ it is a chronic skin disease and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He is not to put him in isolation, because he is already unclean. (Leviticus 13:8-11)

¹⁸ “When someone has a boil on his skin and it heals, ¹⁹and in the place where the boil was, a white swelling or reddish-white spot appears, he must present himself to the priest. ²⁰ The priest is to examine it, and if it appears to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is an infectious skin disease that has broken out where the boil was. (Leviticus 13:18-20)

²⁴ “When someone has a burn on his skin and a reddish-white or white spot appears in the raw flesh of the burn, ²⁵the priest is to examine the spot, and if the hair in it has turned white, and it appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious disease that has broken out in the burn. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious skin disease. (Leviticus 13:24-25)

The priest shall pronounce him unclean. Yep. You're sick alright. Now get outta town. That was the pronouncement. Then come back in a week and we'll see if you're better or worse. Would any of us keep going to a doctor like that?!

A few chapters later we see that the priests have a formula for pronouncing the formerly diseased person clean. Like with animal food choices earlier in the book, God has carefully outlined preemptive regulations to keep His children healthy. He has designated some animals clean and some animals unclean. Certain animals are pronounced "unclean" because of how they digest food or where they live. Kosher guidelines, like all other parts of God's law, were designed to protect God's people. In the same way, after a skin disease has gone away, the priests have guidelines for pronouncing that person clean - able to rejoin society and come back into God's presence.

But there's no cure.

God outlines a formula to prevent disease. He gives extensive information to the priests for diagnosing disease. But He alone is the Healer.

Enter Jesus.

Those with skin diseases, fevers, blood disorders, evil spirits, blindness, paralysis, shriveled limbs, and dropsy (Dr. Luke liked to make sure we knew the details of the disease.) came to Jesus for healing. Sometimes He went to them instead. Either way, He looked at the "unclean" affliction that had been pronounced and reached out in compassion, with healing. Other biblical characters had brought people back to life occasionally. And in the book of Acts we see the disciples performing all kinds of inexplicable events. Miracles aren't unique to the gospels. But Jesus was different because He completely obliterated the line between clean and unclean by bringing absolute healing in body, mind and spirit.

The law forbidding an unclean person the human contact we all need didn't apply to Jesus because as God Himself, His absolute holiness couldn't be compromised. So Jesus could touch those who were isolated when He healed them, thereby giving them acceptance as well as health.

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

These words of the prophet Isaiah refer to Jesus, our Healer. Look at what the apostle Peter wrote about Jesus hundreds of years later:

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:23-25)

We have been healed by Jesus once and for all! The implications of this piece of history and theology are astounding!

We are no longer slaves to sin.

We are freed from the penalty of our sinful nature because of Christ's sacrifice.

We are forgiven.

We are redeemed - we have been bought from darkness and brought into light.

Our eternal destiny is secure in Heaven.

We belong to God.

Thanks be to God! Whether we have been physically healed of some disease or affliction, or we've been freed from emotional brokenness or addiction, God is the ultimate Healer. Even those of us who are still suffering from the very things we beg God to take away can find solace in the fact that we don't have to live under the weight of the suffering. Our healing - in the most profound sense of the word - has already taken place when we put our trust in Jesus' death and resurrection. And that perspective can be liberating if we let it sink in.

The Holy Spirit's power is limitless and sovereign in its application. When we submit ourselves to His guidance and ask God to reveal His perspective on our lives, we can see beyond physical or emotional limitations to the boundless glory of the freedom of our souls.

⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed... (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

Yes, we may suffer, but we have already been healed.

If sin is the incurable disease whose diagnosis was made at Adam and Eve's first bite of fruit, then we can rejoice in the cure: Jesus' perfect life and sacrifice to raise us up with Him in glorious resurrection.

By His wounds we have been healed. Amen.