Reflections on Healing in the New Testament
What is healing? Why do we do a “healing” liturgy on the 5 th Sunday of the month? Are we offering “cure?” No, God has given us the gift of medical science to help us find cures. So then what is the “healing” that our liturgy offers us from God through Christ? It is easy to mix up those two words – healing and cure. Our culture tends to understand “healing” as “cure,” and “cure” as “healing.” Cure and healing are interchangeable in our society. We go to the doctor for a cure in hopes that we will be healed of whatever ails us. We come to church and experience a liturgy of healing in hopes that this will aid in providing a cure. But are they the same thing? No, in the Bible they are not the same thing at all. They may be related, but they are two separate things. Here then is a statement that sums up the biblical view of healing and cure: First, One can be cured without experiencing healing and 2 nd , One can be healed without being cured! The view of illness i