A Healing Touch

2 Kings 5:1-14

Mark 1:40-45

Psalm 30

What do you think about these stories of physical healings?  Are they hard to accept?  Do you believe that while these physical miracles happened then that they don’t happen now?  What about the idea of the Laying on of Hands that brings about that healing?  Is that weird?  Strange? Incomprehensible?

About one quarter of the gospels are concerned with healings in Jesus’ ministry.  The gospels record 26 individual healing miracles and 14 healings of larger numbers of people.  There is more record of the healing ministry in the gospels than any other topic or experience.  All who came to Jesus for healing were healed.  He made no distinctions, turned no one away, and found no case, we are told, beyond his power to heal.  And John tells us in John 20:30 that the words of Jesus recorded in his gospel recorded only a few of those healings Jesus performed.

We also know that Jesus expected his followers to share in this healing ministry.  Matthew 10:1 says “Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits. To cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”  In Matthew 10:7-8a Jesus commanded his followers to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons.”  In Luke it is said that the disciples “went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere (Luke 9:6).”  And the disciples said to Jesus in Luke 10:17b, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us.”

We are given examples throughout the gospels and even other parts of the Bible on ways in which this healing is to take place.  The first and more common way, though, was through touch.  This touch included breaking a lot of different rules, touching lepers and dead bodies, something that was expressly forbidden by Old Testament law.  Touch was an important part of Jesus’ ministry, but more an important part of his healing. 

In many churches across the nation and across the world now, healing ministries are resurfacing as we recognize that illness and injury are not just physical issues but that they have spiritual components as well.  More and more churches now hold services where prayers for healing are offered, usually accompanied by a laying on of hands for individuals and groups, other churches are developing teams that take on an even bigger approach to healing ministries, some churches even hiring “parish nurses” whose job it is to work towards healing at all levels –physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Still, in the face of all of this, many people remain uneasy when we talk about the idea of praying for healing, and especially of laying on hands for healing. 

When I searched through some of my books for stories about healing, I found almost none.  This was especially true of healing that came from touch.  Even the books that follow the lectionary passages (which therefore cannot avoid scriptures that talk about healing since a quarter of our gospel passages do), would carefully sidestep the issue altogether.  One exception to this was adult Christian Education curriculums focused specifically on healing.  One such curriculum (Ian Price, A Sensual Faith: Experiencing God through our Senses. (Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada: Wood Lake Boosk, 2000)) contained the following story:

It was Friday, the morning I was due to visit the geriatric ward of a large regional hospital where I was a minister.  I was anxious to get it over with as quickly as possible.  I found it difficult to talk with these elderly people.  There was a nurses’ aid at the hospital – a very practical person.  She was middle-aged, overworked, a gruff no-nonsense type of person.  Yet as she plodded around that ward on her tired feet, trembling arms were held out to her, faces turned towards her warm homely face, quavering voices called her by name.  And she, knowing the heart hunger, the loneliness of the old, was lavish with her touch.  She patted a cheek, pushed hair from a forehead, or sensing a really special need gave a hug.  As I watched her, I thought, if it works for her, perhaps it will work for me.  The response shook me to the soul.  Eyes that I thought dull as marbles kindled, wrinkled hands returned my clasp.  As I was leaving, I noticed an old German woman.  Her hand, brown-flecked, dry as a leaf, lay upon the chair.  I touched it.  It was cold.  She looked up in recognition with eyes I’d always thought of as vacant.   And in response to the deepest need in all of us, she said, “I’m lonely.  Hold my hand."

There are certain parts of our call, of our faith, with which we remain uneasy.  Healing can be one of those.  Believing in the healing power of prayer and touch feels superstitious somehow, or scary, or contrary to what we know about science.  But it is part of our call as Christians to reach out to one another, with our prayers, with our hands, with our voices, with our faith.  The stories of Jesus’ healings are not just stories to tell us about who Jesus was.  They are also stories that tell us about who we are called to be as followers of Jesus.  We are called to be people who offer healing to one another.  And we are called to be people who accept healing from each other, who believe in the power of other people to touch us emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.  But also, because we are not divided people, but people whose emotional, spiritual and mental well-being connect deeply with the physical, we are also called to accept that healing prayers and touch can affect us physically as well.

Of course, there is a dangerous side to all of this as well.  And we know this.  We’ve all heard of people who say if you didn’t heal it’s because you didn’t have enough faith.  We’ve all heard of people who say “If you don’t really believe, you won’t be healed.”  “If you have enough faith, you will be made well.”  “Just believe and accept the healing that is there for you.”  These are dangerous ideas. Instead of offering God’s grace and mercy, that thinking adds to the burdens of those in need of our healing prayers. 

I also think that one of the things that stops our acceptance of healing ministry is that we think the healing must be total, miraculous, above and beyond scientific explanation, if it has occurred as all, and I don’t think that is true or accurate.  Sometimes “healing” looks like making peace with where one is.  Sometimes healing looks like enough ease of pain to make living bearable.  Sometimes healing looks like letting go of expectations or hopes.  Sometimes healing is just a bit of comfort from someone who loves us in a time when we need that comfort.  Healing looks different for each person, but we are still called to be part of asking for healing, praying for healing, supporting each other in reaching out for healing at all levels.

It may help us to remember that even Jesus was resurrected with his wounds.  He was “healed” from death, but as the stories of his resurrection tell us, the scars of that experience continued.  And that, too, tells us that healing looks different for each person, at each time and in each place. 

We, in this place, within these walls, also offer some healing ministries.  We have had grief support groups, and I am always open to starting another one.  We have had care-giver support groups of various kinds.  Our women’s support group and even our Friday men’s group and our quilting groups are places of listening, places of healing.  When we hug each other, when we hold hands to pray, that care can provide healing.  When we visit and send cards and listen and love one another, we offer care which can give healing.  But I also know there is a fear here of something more.  In my last two congregations we would have, once a year, a service of healing prayer in which people would come with whatever was bothering them and we would hold their hands and offer individual prayers for each person.  But I know that this feels scary, and I think it’s because that idea of hands-on healing is so threatening. 

So I’d like to ask you if any of you have had the experience of experiencing healing through someone else’s touch?  Again, I’m not talking necessarily about freedom from illness or miraculous cures.  I’m talking about a sense of deep healing from the care and touch of another person. 

There is a There is a Thompson Twin's song called Lay Your Hands On Me.  While most pop songs that mention touch have a sexual connotation to that, I invite you to listen to these words in a very different way, not as sexualized but as truly about healing touch. 

 This old life seemed much too long

With little point in going on

I couldn't think of what to say

Words just vanished in the haze

I was feeling cold and tired

Yeah kinda sad and uninspired

But when it almost seemed too much

I see your face

And sense the grace

And feel the magic in your touch...

 Back and forth across the sea

I have chased so many dreams

But I have never felt the grace

That I have felt in your embrace

Oh I was tired and I was cold

Yeah with a hunger in my soul

When it almost seemed too much

I see your face

And sense the grace

And feel the magic in your touch

Probably the most powerful story we have in our gospels about healing touch is the story of the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark 5:25-34: "A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. For she thought, 'If I just touch his garments, I will get well.' Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.  Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing in on you, and you say, "Who touched me?"' And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.  And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.'"

Perhaps many of us find this story bizarre and unintelligible. For, as the disciples said, others were crowding around. How does a touch move energy in this way?  How is it possible for Jesus (for anyone) to feel a drain of his power from a touch? How can that be healing? I used to be one of those confused by this, although, as I reflect back there have been rare people who've reached out to hug me who have felt like, in doing so, they have literally been a drain on my energy.  I think the reason we are not aware of the power in touch is because we don't spend time being conscious of it or giving it any thought at all.  Most experiences of physical touch, especially platonic hugs in our culture, are very short, which does not allow for any kind of awareness of energy exchanged. In my own experience, most of the time hugs that are longer have also felt like mutual exchanges of affection or energy.  When it comes to hugging one's children, or kissing the wounds of one’s kids, I think there is an unconscious expectation that we are giving more in the hug, more energy, more care, than we are receiving because our children need that from us.  We don't think about it much, therefore. It is normal, natural, unconscious, but still a real exchange of power or energy, that can, at times leave us tired. But we aren't very conscious about power leaving one and going to another through touch. 

Our animals seem more aware of this than we are.  I know many of us have had the experience of being sick and finding our pets snuggled up next to us as if the warmth of their bodies and the healing in their touch could make us well.  They intuitively seem to understand this, much more than we do.

For myself, the only times I had even had even a small sense of this were the rare times when, in hugging someone who was at the bottom of their energy, I have left the exchange feeling drained afterwards; or those times when I've felt that my pets cuddles really were speeding along my recovery from illness.  But I had never before experienced healing touch personally... until I met David.  Again, no, this is not about sex.  But I will tell you, with a deep honesty, that I had never before felt the kind of hug, the kind of touch where my cells felt like they were being healed, nurtured, fed, rejuvenated before I had been held by David. His hugs do that to me.  Not every time.  And I can't tell you why or when they are different.  But there are times when the healing feels so deep, so real, that it moves me to tears.  I don't know if this is a gift he has, or if it is a gift he has for me. He has acknowledged that sometimes he, too, feels the "power drain from him" and it leaves him tired, though it has never stopped him from reaching out.  I wish I were not the occasional source of that drain on him, but at the same time, I am so very grateful that he has given me this healing touch that I obviously deeply needed.  I am grateful for the healing, but I am also grateful for the insight it has given me into the power of touch, the reality of healing touch, the need for that connection that can rejuvenate, rebuild, and restore us. 

I want to acknowledge that of course there is another side to this.  The worst damage that can be done to another involves touch as well: rape, assault, abuse can destroy not only bodies, but souls.  That, too, must be named.  Touch is powerful - for either good or evil, it is powerful.  Therefore we must touch with respect, with permission, with consent, ALWAYS.  Because it is so powerful, we must, must, must be especially aware and careful of how we touch one another.  But I believe this is true of all of our deepest gifts.  They are given to us to use for good.  But the amount of good they can do is only equaled by the amount of damage they can do if used for harm.

The power of touch is immense.  So, I’d like to end this time by inviting you, as you are comfortable, to touch a person near you – take their hand, touch their shoulder, again, as you are comfortable and I’d like us to take a moment to pray together:

“Loving, Healing God, may we be carriers of your healing presence and grace.  Make us channels of the love and wisdom of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.  May we listen with your ears, may your wisdom guide our words and reveal to us that which we need to see.  May we bring your loving presence to all whom we touch, speak to, hear and care for. Right now we especially ask for your healing care for each of the people whom we are near or touching at this moment.  We ask for this healing in Christ’s name and according to your will.  Amen.”