Tag: Healing

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Activated – Matthew 8:14-17

Many of us are impacted by emotional inertia – objects in motion tend to stay in motion, abs objects at rest tend to stay at rest. We have difficulty moving ourselves from one mode to another – getting ourselves going when we have been passive, or giving ourselves needed rest when we keeping ourselves busy.

But those moments of activation, when we step into those activities and work that energize us and bring us to where we were meant to be, are special times. We see that in Jesus’ ministry here, another part of the epilogue to the Sermon on the Mount.

The story takes place at Jesus’ home base – he spent significant time in Capernaum throughout his ministry, and Peter’s family home in particular. (This home eventually appears to have become one of the first ever church buildings, in fact). It was a place of rest and hospitality – and hospitality was taken very seriously in that time and place. Peter’s mother in law would likely have been the driving force for that, prevented from that duty by illness.

So when Jesus heals her, he returns her not just to health but to her role and contribution of hospitality. This is a reminder that Jesus’ healing is more than physical, but a holistic restoration of people and their identities.

We see that Jesus physically touches a woman to bring healing, stepping across taboo and custom to demonstrate love in both a practical and emotional way.

We see that he treats women with dignity in a society that often did not. We see that he heals with authority and power, both purely physical ailments and those with dark spiritual roots. We also see him intimately involved with those sick and outcast. Matthew cites the passage in Isaiah in which the Suffering Servant pays a price for the healing he provides. Salvation, then, goes beyond forgiveness and info healing. The atoning work of Jesus goes beyond justification into sanctification, rebuilding and remaking our very selves into the person we are meant to be.

Finally, Jesus not only heals but activates – we are “renewed by God for the renewal of our neighborhoods.” We are loved by God to let us love our neighbors. Peter’s mother-in-law was healed to enable her to serve, living into her vocation of hospitality.

So when we come to church and are healed even in small ways from our hurts, we should seek to do the same. When we are activated by Christ, how do we step into that and take it forward? Can we see service as an act of power imparted by the the Holy Spirit?

Where do we see people today lying in metaphorical “fever”- isolated, suffering unseen? How can we, like Jesus, extend healing through presence, touch, and word? What does it mean for the Church to fulfill Isaiah’s vision of bearing others’ burdens?

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 24, 2025

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Jesus the Healer – Sight to the Blind: Mark 8:22-26

The biggest question around this passage is “why did Jesus heal the blind man in two parts?” Was Jesus’ power limited in some way? Was the man’s faith lacking (like Mark describes in Nazareth elsewhere)? There is clearly a connection between the faith of people and Jesus’ willingness or ability to heal them. Those is a key theme across the gospels, especially in Mark. But elsewhere Jesus seems like he can and will heal without faith on the other side at all.

So there is some kind of relationship between our faith and God’s healing, but at the same time, God can do what He wants. So in this case, was it about faith. Was Jesus tired? Did he need to retap his Mana? Is there something special about sight? Is there something Jesus wanted to demonstrate?

We may get some clues by looking at the context. Jesus has just fed 4,000 people with a few loaves of bread with 12 baskets left over, then confronted the Pharisees over their lack of faith and demands for a sign. From there they left in the boat – but they forgot the bread. Jesus tries to address the failings of the Pharisees but the disciples are distracted by the bread fiasco. And so Jesus addresses blindness three ways – the blindness of the Pharisees, the blindness of the disciples, and then the physical blindness of this man.

Then the next section is the center-point of Mark, when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ. In the midst of all this blindness, Jesus as Messiah emerges as the light in that darkness, the one with the power and authority to heal.

The blindness Jesus heals here is like our own blindness. The sight the man receives is the sight of people, the precious creations of God that Jesus came for. C. S. Lewis writes “you have never met a mere mortal.” Jesus wants us to see people as He sees them, not merely as “trees walking around.” And even if we are not there yet, we can be confident that Jesus will ultimately heal our sight fully and we will see the world and people the way he does.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, September 15, 2024

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Don’t Cry – Luke 7:11-17

This story is one of only two stories of Jesus raising someone from the dead, the other being Lazarus. This one comes directly after the story is healing the servant of the centurion, which was a story about Jesus’ power. This story brings that power together with compassion.

I he story here is a hard one. The woman is a widow, who has now lost her son, the one who was to provide for her in her husband’s absence. The loss of her son was more than just a wrenching emotional and personal loss, but a disaster economically. She had nowhere else to turn.

Hopefully no one here is in that place, but we know that circumstances can change and those of us comfortable today could see our fortunes change tomorrow, just as this woman had experienced.

Jesus stepping into this story is of a piece with the heart that scripture continually tells us God has for the immigrant, the widow and the orphan.

As a church, this compassion is the greatest witness we have to the world. But when many people interact with the church, they do not see the compassion that we envision Jesus looking at the widow with. They often see barriers, disgust, resentment and other barriers between the suffering and the people who are supposed to be of God.

Jesus tells the woman not to cry – this is not something we are supposed to do! But Jesus is the one who has the power to step in and change circumstances so that there is no need to cry.

Luke is telling the story about a new kingdom coming to pass. Things are changing – and we live in the same changing and emerging kingdom. Whatever our anxieties, economic, political, personal, Jesus looks on us with compassion and is willing to heal us, even today, even in our modern age and circumstances.

After all this happens, the people were in awe. Psychology tells us that the people who are happiest are those who are able to look at the events of our lives through the prism of resurrection and redemption. They don’t use those words, of course, but that is the concept that we can rely on, not only as a psychological method but as the foundation of our reality. This means we can engage with hard things, can engage with suffering and even death with the knowledge that ultimately there is victory.

–Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, September 8, 2024

Images created with Midjourney.

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Jesus is Willing – Matthew 8:1-17

This passage includes multiple stories of Jesus healing. It comes immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus focuses on the upside-down values of the Kingdom of God versus the glorification of strength in the world around. He addresses the spiritual source of sin versus only the outer actions – hatred and lust versus murder and adultery. And finally he takes apart the religious leaders and their hypocrisy. The Sermon blows the minds of those who heard it – “because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

Having established his authority with his words, this passage tells us how he then did so with his actions.

Scripture tells us “You have not because you ask not.” Many of us put ourselves and our needs aside, not wanting to be a bother, not wanting to be a disappointment, but this is not the attitude we are to have with God. We see that in this story – a man who has been suffering and outcast finds it in himself to bring himself to the feet of Jesus and asks. “If you want to, you can heal me.” And Jesus says, “Yes, I want to.”

This healing is more than a physical healing – it touches the man’s spiritual, emotional even social and economic situation. In the same way, Jesus seeks to heal us in those same ways.

Next up, a centurion comes to Jesus. This man is everything the leperous man was not – powerful, foreign, healthy. But he comes to Jesus across a cultural and ethnic boundary to seek healing for a servant. Jesus responds in kind – again, Jesus is willing.

The next healing is closer to home. Peter’s mother-in-law, who would have been known to Jesus and all his disciples. She is sick, but in this case we don’t even see her ask for healing. But Jesus is willing, even when we do not ask.

And Jesus is willing to take on the repercussions of the healing. The stories of him healing go viral (so to speak) and that evening he is swarmed by people begging for healing. And once again, He is willing.

Matthew connects that willingness to Jesus role as Messiah and as the one who gives humanity its ultimate healing. He quotes Isaiah briefly, but the full passage is:

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:4-6

Jesus is willing, even to the cross. We also have the opportunity to be willing – we can cross the boundaries of culture, of socioeconomics, of comfort. When we do so, Jesus is willing and will bring healing in. Jesus is willing. Are we?

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 25, 2024

Images created with Midjourney.

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Bethesda – John 5:1-9

Think of something that you have been struggling with for a long time – maybe a sin or temptation, a pattern of behavior, a bad habit or addiction, a hurt, a painful memory, resentment. Something you wish God would heal but over the years He has not.

We’ve all likely heard that there are three answers that God gives to prayer – yes, no and wait. But sometimes that knowledge does not help. It seems like we’ve been waiting for so long for something that would be objectively good. Why wouldn’t He do it?

There is no formula to getting our prayers answered – if there were, we’d all be following it. But God is a person, not a vending machine. He asks us to trust him – on good days, on bad days, in crises, in peace.

We have this example in the man in this story, paralyzed for 38 years, seeking healing from this supposedly magic pool. The specifics of the angel coming down are not in the earliest manuscripts, but were likely added to clarify what the man says later.

This is from the Book of John, the one gospel where the city is Jerusalem looms largest throughout the book, rather than only at the end. The indications of different Jewish festivals help the Jewish people across the world place the stories in time and cultural context. The book of John also focuses on Jesus’ interactions with other people, and this one is notable.

We don’t know how long this man has been waiting, but it seems to have been a long time. We can imagine him younger and more hopeful, pushing and jostling to get to the pool first, and failing time after time. Eventually he gives up, and while he stays in the area he has resigned himself to the fact that he will never be first. Proverbs says “a hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and we can see that this man’s heart is sick.

Jesus steps into this story of scarcity and offers abundance. God wants healing broadly not just to those who get somewhere first. But first he asks a piercing question: “do you want to be made well?”

The man does not say “yes”. Instead, he just shares why it’s impossible, why “it is what it is.”

But that’s not what Jesus asked. That’s not where Jesus wants him to direct his gaze. Not at the superstition of the pool, but the face of Jesus. And Jesus is validating the desire that this man has almost forgotten that he has. Our desires find their root in who God made us to be. They may be misplaced or diverted to incorrect or inappropriate things, but God wants to fulfill the core of our desires, just like in this case.

So where are the gathering pills beneath the colonnades in your life? Where are at sitting on our mat, waiting out the hours but having largely given up.

And maybe it’s not even in your life. We are surrounded by needs and unanswered prayers in our own community and in the global community ended moreso. Where do we step in and how do we make those decisions? We can’t have all the answers, but we can trust that God’s power is abundant, sufficient for both the great problems of the world and our small sins and hurts.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 18, 2024

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Healing Unlooked For – Mark 3:1-6

At this point in Jesus’ ministry he is beginning to become well known in the area, and that means he is beginning to gain the attention of the religious authorities. They see him as a threat and so in this story set out to trap him.

Jesus, though, cannot be tripped or trapped. He knows the hearts of everyone involved, and is specifically ready to go address the misuse and abuse of scripture especially around the nature of the sabbath.

This story of Jesus’ healing is very different than the most of them. They typically are very personal situations, but this one is very public and almost political.

One way it is different is that unlike most other people Jesus had healed is that the man with the withered hand never actually asks for healing. He does not appear to be in desperate straits the way most do in these stories. But this story gives no indication that this man, who tradition holds was a stonemason, actually needed healing in the way most people healed by Jesus did.

Instead, it appears that this man was simply going to synagogue like an the others, possibly there specifically to see and learn from Jesus. When he arrives, though, he and his disability are being used by Jesus’ enemies to further their own ends.

But Jesus ends up flipping things around – he calls the man to stand forth, this man who had not asked for any of this, who was just there for synagogue. And the man obeys, despite what was very likely deep discomfort. He stretches out his withered hand, even though it was likely embarrassing and a source of shame in that culture.

And when he obeys, he receives a gift unlocked for, while Jesus challenges the preconceptions, the authority and abusive nature of those who had tried to trap.

So when we come to sit at the feet of Jesus, can we also do so without any expectation? Can we go simply to be taught and live in His presence, whether at church or throughout our daily life? If we do, we may find healing we did not expect or even realize we needed.

— Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, August 11, 2024

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Jesus Heals an Ear – Luke 22:47-53

This is a story of Jesus healing someone that does not get as much attention, primarily because it comes in the story of the Crucifixion with so many other things going on. But it is worth close attention because it tells us a great deal about who Jesus is.

Just before this story, Jesus took the disciples from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. This is a place he took them often, it says, but this time is different. With the Crucifixion looming, Jesus felt intense anxiety – so much so that he sweat blood. This is a reminder that Jesus was human, that he experienced all the emotions of Inside Out 2 and more. But we also read in the passage that Jesus was ministered to by angels when he prayed.

Meanwhile, the disciples had fallen asleep during this intense time of prayer. Jesus warns them to be alert (which is good advice for us, as well). And then shortly after that, his friend Judas arrives to betray him with a kiss. Jesus has every reason at this point to break down, and most of us would have.

Just before this, Jesus had instructed his disciples that a time of change was coming. “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” The disciples eagerly show him that they already have two swords, but Jesus response implies he was (as often happens) being metaphorical.

So then we see Peter use one of those swords violently – apparently ready to go down in a blaze of glory because he has absolutely no skills here, as indicated by the fact that he cut an ear rather than anything vital. But Jesus has every reason so be angry, every reason to lash out in the same way, but with infinitely more effectiveness. But even more within the bounds of his mission, he still has every reason to leave his enemy writhing there on the ground.

Instead, he kneels down and heals the man who came there to arrest him. This is a picture of how we are called to be, even in the midst of enemies who seek our destruction. Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies, and now he shows them exactly what it looks like. We are called to the same.

We don’t know exactly what happened to Malchus next, but the fact that he is named implies that he may have become a Christian, known to the early church who Luke wrote this account for. Likewise, we never know if our loving actions towards our enemies will bear direct fruit or not, but our call is to create those opportunities by following the lead of our savior.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 3, 2024

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Healing Shame

When we feel hurt we often run from the church, which is traffic because that is the one place where we should feel safe. One reason we often do not is because of shame.

The word shame itself has its roots in the ancient word for “to cover” and is deeply rooted in notions of privacy. There are physical aspects to shame – humans are the only animals who blush. But beyond these intellectual understandings of shame, we want to understand what God has to say about our shame.

The past has a way of bubbling up like hives. Shame that is hidden well reemerge. We hide in at least two ways.

First, we hide from God. That is silly of course, because we cannot actually hide from God. It’s an ancient story, though – we see Adam and Eve going from feeling no shame to hiding their bodies from God and from each other. But more than its impossibility, it is also unnecessary. God forgives – Jesus himself forgave the crowd and the soldiers and the politicians who murdered him, and he will forgive you for anything you may have done.

There are two basic forms of shame. Genuine Shame is that shame we feel after having done something truly outside of morality. It begins as guilt and evolves into shame – moving from feeling bad about what we have done to feeling bad about who we are. This is where confession and repentance comes in.

There is also False Shame – shame put on us by our surroundings, shame put on us by others even when we have not done anything wrong. This is the shame felt by the abused, put on by abusers, or the shame of family expectations unmet – shame that does not stem from wrongdoing but mismatched expectations or manipulation. This shame, too, must be brought to Christ.

Going back to Genuine Shame, though, scripture gives clear direction. Psalm 32 says:

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Psalm 32:3-5

There will be times, though, where we do not know whether we are feeling genuine shame or false shame. Is this real sin, or shame brought on by society or those around us? In those times, we can fall back on the Holy Spirit. John writes:

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, remain in him.

1 John 2:27

We feel shame about sex, we feel shame about money, we feel shame about how we treat our children, we feel shame about lies we tell, we feel shame about drugs & alcohol, we feel shame about having been abused. If you feel shame about any of these things, know that you are not alone. Many of us have either struggled with the same sins or felt the same false shame for many of the same reasons.

In all these cases we need community, we need to share our burdens with others. You may be burned by this at some point but true healing happens in community.

If you have shame buried deep – and nearly all of us do – bring it to God and bring it to your brothers and sisters. We are the beloved of God and He wants us to bring healing to each other of all our shame, false, genuine and that which could be either.

— Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, July 7, 2024

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Unhealed: Origins

To paraphrase M. Scott Peck, life is difficult, and once we accept that, we can transcend it. Much of this difficulty stems from the dysfunction we all have in our family of origin. There are generational messages transmitted, both purposefully and otherwise, that impact our lives.

So no family is perfect – and when we look to scripture we see this emphasized. The families in Genesis paint a clear picture of dysfunction and generational trauma. From Cain & Abel to the Jacob/Rachel/Leah love triangle, we get many, many stories of people chosen by God but still hurting within themselves and hurting others. But out of that chaos comes the legendary 12 Tribes of Israel, the People of the Covenant the line of Christ and the mechanism by which God saved the world.

We can take some comfort in this, that we are not alone – there is nothing we have ensured or are enduring that God has not seen before, that God has not used for the good of His people and the glory of His name.

The dynamics in our families of origin still impact us. They help determine how we interact with people we love, what we value, and how we respond to both hurt and success.

Scripture tells us that the sin of parents impact their children and their children’s children (Exodus 34:7). But it also tells us that His grace is even more pervasive.

We get a picture of this grace and healing in a family, also in Genesis. Joseph came out of this same dysfunctional brood, with favoritism, pride and jealousy all coming together to leave him considered dead by his family and enslaved in a foreign land. But Joseph turns his focus to following God even in his circumstance, so that when he is brought face to face with the brothers who wronged him, he (eventually) finds a way to forgive and find healing. First, though, he is overcome and finds a private room in which to weep. What are your private rooms, where you go to when triggered by a reminder of past hurt?

When Joseph finally confronts his brothers, he does so with mercy and forgiveness that is nearly unfathomable. The story of Joseph is the story of the Gospel, turning trauma and tragedy into salvation.

In the same way, our misery becomes our ministry. When God takes us through healing, He gives us the words and the ability to reach others with that same message of healing. Sometimes that trauma itself will even push us to God and to that healing.

Joseph’s brothers deserved to be cursed and to have revenge taken on them. Instead, God made their sin the mechanism of material salvation for their family, and even of healing for the relational trauma of the family.

What are the traumatic events of your past that have wounded you? God is big enough. There is nothing too bad or too overwhelming such that He cannot bring healing and redemption.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 2, 2024

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Healing and Forgiveness – Mark 2:1-12

In the words of the immortal Marshawn Lynch, the story of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is “all about that action, boss.” He went on a “healing tour” of the region, and despite urging everyone to keep things quiet, he drew so much attention that he was forced into the outskirts and lonely places – yet the people still kept coming.

And so in chapter 2 we see Jesus back in Capernaum, so mobbed by people that he was unaccessible to the a paralytic man who wanted healing. But this man had such close friends that they hoisted him up to the roof of the house and dug through that roof to lower him down to be healed.

And what Jesus did was not quite what anyone expected. He forgives them man of His sins. This causes grumbling, though, from legal experts who note that only God can forgive sins. So to underscore his authority, Jesus heals him at all.

This story is in part about the relationship between sin and suffering. Jesus came to do away with both, and while sin is clearly his priority, the man came to him without being forgiven, without having dealt with the sin he is forgiven of. He had to come to Jesus first.

We also see here some of why Jesus was trying to limit the crowds. When the crowd becomes a mob, there for what they can get, the person of Jesus can be lost, and those in true need are kept to the outskirts.

Jesus is addressing a couple of systemic issues here. First, by treating sin and suffering as separate issues, he is addressing the “purity culture” of the time, the concept that suffering itself was caused by sin and that misfortune is in fact punishment for having done something wrong. Second, surrounded by the crowds of the common people, many of them trapped in cycles of debt and taxes, and also being watched by the priests with the authority to forgive debts, he pointedly heals and forgives freely, drawing a contrast between his heavenly kingdom and their earthly one.

Jesus came to give forgiveness freely, to knock down the obstacles people put in between people and God. He came to undermine the authority of religious leaders who put themselves in the place as gatekeeper, doing out forgiveness in tiny drips. Jesus wants it to flow like waterfalls.

We can take comfort in this also, whatever we are struggling with. If we come to Him, no obstacles of roof or religion or authority can keep us from His love and goodness and forgiveness.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church Lynnwood, WA, October 8, 2023