Lenten Devotional - Week Five

Music and Art

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Jesus is Healer. When considering the painting of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus and listening to The Hope of Jesus, what hope do we as believers have?

Scripture

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

John 11:1-11 (NIV)

Poetry

Oh Holy Spirit, Giver of light and life
impart to us thoughts higher than our own thoughts
and prayers better than our own prayers
and powers beyond our own powers
that we may spend and be spent in ways of love and goodness
after the perfect image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Eric Milner-White and G.W. Briggs (Prayers for Today, Day 175)

Devotional

By Russ Brasher

Looking back through the Gospel accounts, we come to know Jesus as healer. He heals sickness (John 4:43-54), diseases (Luke 5:12-14), blindness (Matthew 9:27-31), deafness (Mark 7:31-37), paralysis (Luke 5:17-26), and casts out demons (Mark 1:29-31). Jesus once even took the time to heal the severed ear of an officer coming to arrest him (Luke 22:50-51). Death was not even something that extended beyond the reach of Christ’s healing power as demonstrated by today’s reading of raising Lazarus from the dead.   

But Jesus’ ultimate display of healing power takes place toward the end of the Gospel accounts. As we reflect during this Lenten season, allow us to remember it is only by Jesus’ death on the cross that our sin is forgiven. It is only by Christ’s resurrection that we can know that death will not have reign over us forever. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us that, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”   

Once during a dinner party, Jesus was quoted saying, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17). Jesus has come to bring healing to all who come to believe in him.   

This is good news! Praise God that he sent his son Jesus Christ to bring healing to a broken and sinful world. There is no greater joy than coming to know that your sin and my sin is forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. That anyone who chooses to believe in his name will find such healing, both in this life and in the next.

Reflect

1. What thoughts and emotions do you experience when you think of Jesus as healer?

2. What areas of your heart/life do you need to invite Jesus in for healing?

3. How does knowing Jesus as healer impact the way you live your life today?