NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE GREAT PHYSICIAN
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 4:16-30
NOVEMBER 23, 1997
I heard some time ago the story of four men who were in the waiting room at the hospital as their wives were in delivery, about to give birth. The nurse came into the waiting room and said to the first man, “Congratulations! Your wife has just given birth to twins!” He said, “How amazing. I work for the Minnesota Twins baseball team.” A few minutes later, the nurse came back into the waiting room and said to the second man, “Congratulations! Your wife has just given birth to triplets!” He said, “Well, that’s an amazing coincidence. I work for the 3M Company.” A couple of minutes later, the nurse came back into the waiting room again and said to the third man, “Congratulations! Your wife has just given birth to quadruplets!” He said, “Well, that’s a further coincidence. I work for Four Seasons Hotels.” Well, about that time, the fourth man in the waiting room just passed out! When they revived him, the nurse said to him, “What happened?” He said, “What happened! I work for 7-up!”
Now, it would be a very scary thought, the thought of giving birth to septuplets but, of course, that’s exactly what happened this last Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa, as a woman named Bobbi McCaughey gave birth to septuplets, to four boys and to three girls. That would not have been possible without modern day medicine. It would not have been possible without reproductive enhancement and fertility drugs. It would not have been possible without a skilled Cesarean section, and those seven children would not have survived without medical assistance that was not available to prior generations. We are blessed to live in a time such as this, blessed to live in a time when medicine is so skilled and so helpful.
Perhaps some of you have heard of Dr. Benjamin Rush. Dr. Benjamin Rush was a medical doctor in colonial America. He was the most famous physician in the United States at that time. He graduated from Princeton at the age of 15 and then he received his medical doctorate at Edinburgh in Scotland. He was a member of the Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence. It was Dr. Benjamin Rush who founded the first anti-slavery society in America, and he was a skilled physician. In the year 1790, Dr. Benjamin Rush conducted a statistical analysis of longevity in the city of Philadelphia. He discovered that for every 100 people born, 34 would die before reaching the age of 6 and less than 25 would live beyond age 26. Such was the state of health in the city of Philadelphia in 1790.
Philadelphia was not unusual when George Washington became the first President of this nation in 1789. Government statistics show that the average life expectancy for a male was 34.5 years and for a female 36.5 years. There was not a great deal of medical help in those times. Of course, today there are many who feel like colonial America was the good old days when families were multi-generational and worked together on household and farm chores. That simply isn’t true. Very few parents lived to see their children grown and fewer still lived to see their grandchildren.
You see, the truth is that these days are the good old days right now. This generation that lives on the brink of a new millennium is the generation of all generations most blessed. We are medically certainly most blessed.
In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. We have lived with all the benefits of antibiotics. I know that sometimes antibiotics are excessively prescribed but countless lives have been saved through antibiotics and the average lifespan has been tremendously increased through antibiotics. We, today, have fine hospitals and we have wonderful medical doctors who are highly trained and skilled. We live in a wonderful time.
Now, some trace modern medicine back to Hippocrates who lived four hundred years before Christ and was called the Father of Medicine. Others trace modern medicine all the way back to Imhotep, the Egyptian physician who lived 2,600 years before Christ. But the truth is that in the ancient world, medicine was extremely primitive and not very scientific, and this was true in biblical times as well.
If you’ve looked at the symbol of the American Medical Association, you’ve probably noticed that that symbol is a caduceus. It’s a serpentine staff. Sometimes the symbol of the American Medical Association portrayed as the caduceus of Hermes or Mercury who was for the Greeks and Romans the messenger god, a winged staff with two snakes entwined about the staff. But more often the symbol of the American Medical Association today is the caduceus of Asclepios who was the Greek and Roman god of healing. This was a wingless staff with a single snake wrapped around or entwined about the staff.
In western Turkey today there is a town called Bergama, known for its fine carpets and rugs. That town in the biblical world, in the Greek and Roman world, was called Pergamum and it was not known for rugs and carpets, but it was known for healing because it was the headquarters of the cult of Asclepios. People would come from all over the ancient world to this center of healing to the temple of Asclepios to the Asklepion, the great structure that was built in Pergamum. Men and women would come from far away throughout the Greek and Roman world. They would come, bringing their sick, bringing their children, carrying them in their arms. People would come desperate.
As they arrived at the Asklepion in Pergamum seeking healing, they would begin by giving an offering. It was normally monetary. It was given to the god, Asclepios, but of course it went to the temple priest. Historians tell us that the priests of the cult of Asclepios were very, very rich. Then those desiring to be healed would go into the temple into the Asklepion and go into a chamber. They were expected to spend the night in the chamber if they wanted to be healed. They would lie on the marble floor. There would be no light. They would be there all night long in the darkness and snakes would be released into the chamber because the snake was the symbol of Asclepios. These snakes were non-venomous, sometimes de-venomized and the snakes were allowed to crawl all over the sick person all night long, believing that the healing power of Asclepios was somehow released through those snakes crawling over those bodies. You couldn’t wait for morning to come.
If you were really sick, I mean if it was life-threatening, you were sent into a special chamber where you would spend the night in the dark and venomous snakes were released. If you weren’t near death before, you would be near death after that night. If you were bitten by a snake, you would die right there in the Asklepion. But it was believed that if somehow you were not bitten and you survived the night, there was great power from this Greek and Roman deity released in your body.
Such was the state of healing. Such was the condition of medicine for the masses in the Greek and Roman world and in biblical times. Into that world came the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. He had real power. One of my favorite chapters is the gospel of Luke, chapter 8. It describes a day in the life of Jesus. The chapter begins with Jesus saying to His disciples, “Let’s go across the lake to the other side.” So that morning they got into the boat and began to go across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus fell asleep on the boat. There was a great storm and water began to fill the boat. The disciples shook Christ awake and said, “Master, do you not care that we perish?” Jesus stood and He rebuked the wind, and he calmed the sea. The disciples, of course, said, “Who is this that even the wind and sea obey Him?”
Late in the morning they came to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and they walked into the region of Gerasene. There was a man there that no one wanted to be near, a crazy man. He went around nude in the daytime and at nighttime he slept in the empty tombs of the local cemetery. They tried to chain him and bind him, but he seemingly had supernatural strength and he could break his chains. He was demon¬ possessed. Jesus Christ confronted this man and in an incredible moment, Jesus healed him, because He is the Great Physician.
The disciples marveled as they were about to get into the boat and go across to the western shore. This man was sitting there in his right mind, fully clothed. This man who had been demon-possessed said to Jesus, “Lord, can I go with you?” Jesus said, “No but go back to your village and tell everybody the wonderful things that God has done for you.”
The disciples got back in the boat, and it was midday. They moved across the Sea of Galilee back to the western shore to the city of Capernaum. There they were met by a great crowd which included the ruler of the synagogue of Capernaum, a man named Jairus. He said, “Lord, Master, help. My daughter is dying, and she is on the brink of death. Won’t you help?” Jesus said, “Show Me the way.” Jesus and the disciples began to follow this ruler of the synagogue.
Crowds gathered in greater number as they walked through the streets of Capernaum. There was a woman there and she was desperate. She was in the crowd. She had been bleeding, had an issue of blood for twelve years. She had spent all of her money on doctors, and it had availed nothing. She was desperate. This was not only a tremendous physical problem but a social problem as well. She was regarded as unclean and was not allowed to worship. In her desperation, she thought, “If I can just grab hold of the hem of His garment.” She grabbed ahold. In the midst of the crowd, she grabbed ahold of the hem of the garment of Christ.
Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” The crowds laughed because everybody was so crowded together. Everybody was touching everybody, but Jesus said, “I felt power go forth from Me.” This woman stood forth and she said that it was her. She was healed and the bleeding stopped, and Jesus blessed her. I’m sure that all the time Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue whose little girl was dying, I’m sure that he was desperate and very impatient. This was taking too much time. They moved further and they came toward the house of Jairus. All the crowds were there. People came out of the house, and they came to this ruler of the synagogue. They said “Don’t bother the teacher any longer. Your daughter has died.”
Jesus turned to Jairus and said, “Do not lose heart. Believe.” Jesus took the mom and dad into the house along with Peter, James and John. Jesus stood over the body, the dead body of this 12-year-old girl and Jesus said, “Talitha cu me,” “little girl arise,” and she rose by the power of the Son of God who is the Great Physician.
The Bible says in Malachi, chapter 4, that the Messiah will come, the Son of Righteousness, with healing on His wings. And so, He came with healing on His wings, and He heals yet today. God wants you to know that. Jesus Christ is still the Great Physician, and He heals today.
This last week Barb and I got a letter from Jim and Joan Ross who are missionaries for Far East Broadcasting. Joan and Barb were good friends back in high school and they’ve corresponded with us through the years. Jim Ross has cancer, brain cancer, inoperable they discovered. Back in July, they told him that the cancer was invasive and too large, and the malignancy was inoperable. There was nothing they could do. They gave him six to eight weeks to live.
On August 8, they began radical chemotherapy, a desperate massive dose effort to shrink the tumor. But it failed, and the tumor continued to grow. They gave him less than a month to live. On August 29, Joan took Jim home to the house. I think people expected Jim to die there. As he went home, half of his body was paralyzed, and he soon slipped into a coma. People, of course, so many were praying, and Jim was under hospice care. Everyone marveled when, on September 13, Jim began to speak. On September 13, he began to speak again. That night as Joan sat on his bed and she began to share devotions with him as she did every night on his bedside, Jim began to pray with her as she prayed. The next morning, Sunday morning, September 14, Jim said clearly, “I want to go to church.” Amazingly she took him to church in a wheelchair. Everyone marveled to see him. They all thought that he was surely dead.
Today, Jim is walking normally. Jim is talking normally. He is thinking about going back to work and the doctors do not understand. Joan said she doesn’t know what God has in store for Jim, but she knows this. Jesus Christ is the Great Physician. That’s what she wrote in our letter this last week. Jesus Christ is the Great Physician. And so, He is.
Yesterday, Barb’s mom called the house. She called Barb. She was crying. Barb’s dad who had a stroke many years before, is paralyzed in half of his body. He fell the day before yesterday. They don’t know the extent of the injury but his shoulder and elbow… It looks perhaps like a dislocation or a break. This is very serious for such a handicapped man who is 81 years old.
Barb’s mother was crying not only because of that but because she had just been to the doctor the day before and the doctor told her that after 40 years of rheumatoid arthritis, her bones in her neck are so degenerated that her neck is about to snap. Her neck is about to break. It could happen at any time and there is nothing they can do about it, that she’s fortunate that she’s lived to age 70. They’ve told her that she can’t have surgery on her neck but if the neck snaps, they could do emergency surgery to try to save her life, but the statistics were poor.
You feel like you’re just living with a time bomb when you get news like that and yet I know that Barb’s mom and dad live in peace loving Christ, trusting the Great Physician, trusting the Great Physician who has seen them through incredible years. Barb’s mother has had three different kinds of cancer over a 30-year., miraculously healed because of the Great Physician. They both know where they’re going. They know they have eternity in heaven with Christ.
I don’t know how people in this world can live without Jesus. I don’t know how they can face death without Christ. You know, this last Tuesday. our staff met as we always do on Tuesday mornings. The pastoral care department shared with the whole staff. John and Ron and Roxanne, we have an awesome pastoral care department. They love you. I mean they love you. When you’re sick or in the hospital, they’re the ones who are there to visit with you and pray over you. John was sharing this Tuesday morning that so often as we are in the midst of prayer at that very moment, they see a turn in a person’s health for the better. Sometimes even on Sunday morning as we as a congregation are in the midst of prayer, that’s the very moment that healing begins in someone we’re praying for.
Isn’t that exciting, because, you see, Jesus Christ is the Great Physician. Right now, there are over 60 people in our congregation who are either in the hospital or just come out of the hospital that our pastoral staff is seeking to minister to. You know and I know that Jesus Christ does not always heal. He does not always heal us physically and we all know that.
In our passage of scripture for today, we’re told how Jesus came to Nazareth where He had grown up and how He stood in the synagogue and He read from Isaiah and how He said to the people doubtless, “You will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal Thyself.’” I think this proverb, as used by our Lord Jesus Christ in the city of Nazareth, has oftentimes been misunderstood. What the people in Nazareth were thinking was, “You’ve healed people in Capernaum. You’ve healed people in other cities. Now, heal your own city. You’re the man of Nazareth. Heal Nazareth. Heal Yourself. Heal your own hometown.”
There were many people doubtless who were sick in Nazareth, but Jesus did not heal them. He did not heal them, and they were enraged. We’re told in Mark’s gospel that part of the reason was that there was so much unbelief in Nazareth but there’s a mystery to healing and there’s a mystery to the withholding of healing, but I know this morning, as we come to this table, Christ wants us to keep the faith and He wants us to understand that His healing is primarily of the soul rather than the soma, the soul rather than the body.
He is the Great Physician and above all else, He wants to heal our soul. I think you know in Matthew’s gospel in the 9th chapter, and in Mark, chapter 2, in Luke, chapter 5, we’re told how Jesus was criticized because He hung out with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but only those who are sick. Even so, I came, not to call the righteous but to call sinners to repentance.” And so, He is the Great Physician, but His primary concern is sin and the soul.
You know, there is a statement in the Bible, in Isaiah 53 and in 1 Peter, chapter 2, a statement oftentimes quoted. The statement is, “By His stripes we are healed.” From Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 2, “By His stripes we are healed.” I’ve heard that quoted so often through the years in Pentecostal churches as I was growing up and today, and it’s always used in the sense of physical healing, but if you look at it in its context, it refers to spiritual healing. In 1 Peter, chapter 2, the Apostle Peter writes, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on a tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” “By His stripes, we are healed. We were wandering like sheep, but we have returned to the Shepherd and guardian of our souls.” You see, it’s our soul that He is most concerned with. Even if you look at Isaiah 53, verse 5, the Bible says, “He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our inequities. Upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole. By His stripes, we are healed.”
You see, it is primarily a reference to the healing of the soul. As we come to this communion table this morning and partake of the bread and the cup, we come with grateful hearts because He is the Great Physician, and He has cleansed our souls and He has forgiven our sins and we are bound for heaven. He is the Great Physician, and He has power over the body. One day He will give us resurrection life. But as we come to this table, above all else we thank Him because He has forgiven our sin.
You know, communion is sometimes called the Eucharist. The word Eucharist comes from the Greek Eucharisto, which means “the thanksgiving.” Hopefully today, as you take the bread and cup, you have much to thank the Lord for. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.