HEALING!

It was a tremendous delight and privilege to don on my white jacket again this week, as I returned—temporarily—to my vocation as a dermatologist. Not only was it a joy to see the friendly faces of the clinic staff, it was a pleasure to see patients, both familiar and new, and to get back into the absorbing and challenging task of diagnosis and therapeutics, the art and the science of medicine (their “rhetoric” and their “logic”?).

The schedules were full. Lots of patients. Lots of work. All the days I was there. I would love to think that everyone of those folks were successfully treated and relieved of all of their ailments. But the limits of my knowledge and the awareness of my finitude inform me otherwise. That’s why the unparalleled recurrences of those incidents in Matthew’s Gospel were remarkable as I read them this week.

They are striking! Aside of Jesus’ healings (therapeuo in Greek) of specific individuals from their specific afflictions, Matthew sprinkles his record with intimations of the Lord having healed everyone who came to Him (in chapters 4, 8, 12, 14, 15, 19, and 21). Everyone. All were healed. Of all their physical complaints. And several of those texts make an explicit connection between Jesus’ curative campaigns and His compassion (Matthew 14:14, for instance).

Also interesting is that therapeuo does not occur outside of the Gospels and Acts (and twice in Revelation). Whatever that signifies, medical personnel, to this day, continue that noble and divine tradition of attempting to give relief to their patients and fellowmen.

Relief! Comfort! Consolation! Rest! That’s what everyone seeks. For body and mind. No one, most certainly, is going to find that absolute and totality of ultimate relief and comfort this side of heaven. For body or mind.

And not all of us, of course, are licensed to dispense medication or perform surgery to alleviate the tangible indispositions of our fellows.

But one thing we can do—all of us. We can be a “refreshment” to one another in the community of God. Even the apostle Paul sought such relief from Philemon. He exhorts:

Yes, brother,
let me benefit from you
in the Lord.
Refresh my heart in Christ.

A “refreshment” in Christ, to another. What a marvelous picture!
Bringing Christ’s compassion to each other. Being a conduit of His love.
His hand. His heart.

Therapeuo may not occur in the Epistles, but parakaleo certainly does. “To comfort.”

Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and
God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction
so that we will be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which
we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4

A refreshment. A relief. A comfort.
A helping hand. A supporting shoulder. A praying heart.
Compassion. Kindness. Generosity.
Warmth. Smiles. Love.

A refreshment, indeed. May we be so to those around us. For everyone. Always!