Communion Message
Healing Relationships
May 16, 2004
Pastor Leighton Sheley

The elements that we hold remind us of the Passion Week. The preparation for Calvary, Calvary's cross, the tomb, the empty tomb, resurrection. There are many Old Testament prophecies that foretold how Jesus' life was to begin, continue, and end. One of those is found in the Old Testament and it says "by His stripes we are healed." By His stripes we are healed. Some scholars have wondered if that was limited to physical healing, while other scholars have wondered if it was limited to spiritual healing, but most scholars believe it has to do with any and all forms of healing: spiritual healing, emotional healing, relational healing, all kinds of healing.

There is an event that's recorded for us in John chapter 5: Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

Do you want to get well? Now that may seem like a strange question. A number of years back I have the privilege of going to the holy land and I was struck by the stark contrasts of the very ancient and the very modern woven together in the fabric of the culture.

Kay Arthur was back there as well and she wrote this. She said, as I came out of the old city, Jerusalem, into the noise of the lumbering buses jammed to doors with Arabs and to the honking of irate impassioned cab drivers, and as I felt the bright sunshine which had been shielded by the walled crowded narrow streets of the old city, a man sitting on the ground caught my attention. He was happily conversing with other beggar until a foreign tourist came by. At that point, all conversations ceased and a hand was lifted as dark eyes silently pleaded for alms. The other hand pulled up a pant leg to make sure the already exposed ulcer was not missed.

My nurse's heart brought my feet to a halt. I wanted to bend down and shield the open wound from the dust sent flying by the traffic scurrying through the gate. His leg needed tending. It should be washed and medicated and dressed by someone who cared. Why, unattended it could only be eaten away until it reached his bone and then he could lose his leg.

Arrested by his plight I stopped to gaze at his leg and looked into the darkness of his eyes, until my friend gently took my elbow and propelled made towards our destination. I was a tourist. I didn't know about these kinds of things. She then proceeded to tell me that this man did not wish to be made well. He made his living from his wound.

No need to confront the complexities of responsibility when one could merely sit down in the dust and dirt of Jerusalem and receive pity, along with a few shekels. My wounded beggar could have been healed. The hospital doors were open to him and medicine was available, but he did not wish to get well. - Kay Arthur.

So then perhaps the question, "Do you want to get well," is not so strange after all. You know there is a certain comfort in the status quo. Why if this man were healed he would have to give up a lot. He would have to learn a trade or a marketable skill, he might have to go and get an education, he would have to find and keep a job, he might take a substantial pay cut as the result, and he would have to pay taxes. He would have to take responsibilities, and of course, he would have to change his circle of friends if this man were to be healed.

Now one of the reasons that we take pity on him is because we believe that his situation was not his own fault. We don't believe that he intentionally went out to acquire this ulcer that was so evident upon his leg. And one of the reasons that we don't seek healing is because we have excuses. You know, this situation is not my fault; it's somebody else's responsibility. This circumstance is beyond my control. Some counselors would tell you to blame your mother for how you ended up. Other people say, you know, hey, it's in my nature I'm Irish; what do you expect? Or I'm Italian, or whatever it is...you fill in the blank.

Or the modernized version of the same argument, hey, it's in my genes. Or a variation on the same argument: Hey, I was born a sinner. It's not my fault.

You know God is able, today, to heal you in whatever fashion you need. You might need spiritual healing; in fact, every one of us does because every one of us has sinned and we need to be healed from our sin. You might need emotional healing from the scars that life dishes out from time to time. You might need physical healing. You might need relational healing; there's some kind of a relationship that's been damaged.

And whenever I talk about relational healing there's always this caveat that goes off in my heart and my mind and that is, when I look through the Scriptures I find that God changes a lot of things. He'll stop the sun for a number of hours. He'll change the courses of rivers if He wants to, but one of the things that God very rarely touches is the will or the volition of a person. In fact, it's usually when you're a king that God might affect your heart; remember that the Pharaoh's heart was hardened by God. And so when we pray for relationships many times we'll have a tendency to pray, God, change that person, and it's often times a prayer for a spouse. But God doesn't go in there and just push people's wills around. But God can create circumstances in that person's life that will have them rethink their position and their relationship with you. Or, God may cause something to happen in your life that causes you to rethink your relationship with them. Is it appropriate to ask for healing in relationship? Yes it is.

You might have some decisions that you need to make, maybe business decisions or personal decisions, and say, God, it's not really clear, I need Your guidance on this. God can provide that, and He wants to. I want to invite you, if you are physically able, to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

Lord sometimes we're a little too comfortable with the status quo. We know that You desire to heal us and that's for our good, and yet, sometimes we're a little comfortable with not being healed. We know that You want to heal us spiritually and yet, Lord, sometimes we have a little sin that we're really not so sure we want to be healed of. We're comfortable with it. Or Lord, there might be some relationship that's damaged and we're not so sure we want You to heal that relationship. We're kind of comfortable being distant and bitter.

Lord You want to heal us and what You want is good, and so we can conclude that healing is good. Lord forgive us for being so complacent and content with less than what You would have for us. Each and every one of us sin each and every day Lord. We need healing. We need to be healed of our sin. We need to be healed of our appetite towards sin so that we can fulfill the purpose for which You created us, which is to bring honor and glory to You. Lord this day we ask You to forgive us and cleanse us as we partake of these elements in remembrance of You. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord for Your faithfulness to us when we are so unfaithful to You. Thank you Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.