The Healer

I've decided a church is like a hospital. A university hospital. Like Oregon Health Sciences University, or Texas Tech University Hospital, or UC Davis closer to our home. And I think the members and regular attenders of the church are like employees or staff in that hospital

Now, one of the worst interpretations of scripture ever foisted on a gullible public is the one from Isaiah about the Christ where it says "by his stripes we are healed." This scripture obviously refers to spiritual healing of the sin-rift between God and Man through the suffering death of Jesus as He paid our debt. By His sacrificial death (stripes) we are offered new life (healed). Metaphors are wonderful ways to communicate powerful truths, but foolish doctrines have been built on goofy literalistic interpretations of simple metaphors. So when I say that a church is like a hospital, try not to think about TV preachers with big hair who want you to send them your money by faith!

So we say, "Yay! We're saved from death! Now, what was I doing?" That's right, I was "reading" Playboy (or doing "research" on the internet), watching ESPN when home and recording everything for later when not home, ignoring my wife (or fighting with her), devoting extra hours at work to please my boss, kicking the little annoying rugrats out of my way when they try to get my attention, and drinking "moderately" on the weekends and after work with my friends. And, oh yeah, I go to church on Sunday.

So what should happen when a man like this who imagines he is "saved from death" goes to church? The healing should begin through the careful operations of the hospital. When this man arrives in the emergency room after skidding on a Budweiser oil slick in his 5 liter Chick Magnet, rolling off into Sharp Rock Canyon, he is rescued by a paramedic, but his life is still in danger. The paramedic could be a good Christian friend willing to speak up with his Jaws of Life! And even if he makes it through to "stable" from "critical" he has a long way to go to be "healed." And unlike a real hospital where patients get well enough to be discharged back to their former lives, our healing as people is not complete until we are well enough to enter training in this hospital called the church with the intent to go on staff!

It is easy to understand that hospitals would run poorly if they had no janitors, builders, maintenance workers, instructors, nurses, and doctors. Administrators and accountants help hospitals run smoothly. Warehouse operators make sure that supplies are there when needed. Doctors look deeply into the ailments of the patient and make recommendations that in themselves cause great pain. Others tend to the immediate physical needs of the patients... emptying bedpans or helping them to the toilet, cleaning up the accidents, tenderly and professionally washing the stains of injury.

In Christianity, we are the hands and feet of The Healer. When we are healed, we enter training to serve at the call of The Healer. We get out of the bed. We stop expecting hospital food to be delivered to us on time after creating our order from a menu. We take our funny gown off where our behind is always in danger of embarrassing exposure, and we put our work clothes on (Ephesians 6:10).  We stop thinking about ourselves and our own comfort and needs. Romans 12 sums up what is required, especially the first verse where we are encouraged to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices." Lace up your sensible shoes and make yourself available to a merciful God.

Anyone who has read the gospels has noticed a strong pattern of distaste in the mouth of Christ for the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and temple priests. Why? Because they did not offer their bodies as living sacrifices to God. They enjoyed their leisure. They enjoyed their power and position. They enjoyed the beauty of their buildings in the place of the purpose of those buildings. Jesus gave them a job to do, the job of bringing healing to the people. But they ate their fancy food, drank their expensive wine, accepted the respect of the populace, and then wrote law until their fingers cramped up to justify their own existence. They were distracted from their true purpose.

Jesus tried several versions of the parable where people are given a job to do and the master leaves them to do it. The point is always the same. Do what you are supposed to do. Don't be distracted by procedure, tradition,  pleasure, or even pain.

Imagine a hospital where the healed become the healers. It should look like our church.