In Matthew 9, a blind man comes to Jesus seeking for healing. Jesus asked him, “do you believe that I am able to heal you?” The blind man said “Yes, Lord I do”. Then Jesus said in verse 29 “According to your faith let it be done to you”. See! it says ‘your faith’ not the faith of Jesus or God.
When it comes about Faith, there are always two sides – God’s ability and Man. It’s like turning on the switch is faith in action – Bulb is man, and the electricity source is God himself which is continuously supplying power, and waiting for someone to receive it, flow through it, by turning on the switch of Faith. Jesus could not heal many people – and the reason was unbelief (lacking of faith) of the people in that town(Matt 13:58). Was there a problem in the power of God? No. The problem was on another side.
However, nobody fully knows why sometimes sick people are not healed. Only God knows about it.
In Luke 7 we read about a Roman officer, and his request to Jesus to heal his slave. Key here is the compassion of the Roman officer. That’s why the bible says about ‘expressing faith through love matters..’ (Galatians 5:6). In this context, not denying the understanding of authority that Roman officers were fully aware of, the driving force was compassion for his slave. He was not seeking Jesus for his own benefits or material gain – but a life for his slave. Even though he said himself not worthy of Jesus, he had full trust in the power of God through Jesus. Later Jesus said – his faith was great. Do we practice this in our life? Or are we taken up to ourselves and our material needs?
We read in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30, a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus pleading for the healing of her daughter. “It’s not good to give bread of Child to dogs,” this was a statement from Jesus. Then the woman replies – even the dog feeds on the things fallen from the table. She was humble enough to receive the word ‘dog’ for herself – only for her daughter’s healing. She was very much sure about the bread from heaven, which was the only way to heal her daughter. Then Jesus said “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.”. Two major things – she was crying for the healing of her daughter(Matt 15:22) – desperate, and compassion.
In both of these events – the common is compassion for someone else.
Let them hear who has ears. Amen!