Diseases afflict not only the body but also the spirit. The science and practice of medicine has seen such tremendous progress that people today are living longer and better than ever. Yet, even as the physical health of people has improved, many have seen their spirits broken and battered. In the face of better health, there have also been epidemics of depression, sadness and quiet desperation.
Food has never been as plentiful as they world sees today. If we were just to match the entire food production with all the mouths there are to feed, there would be more than enough for everybody. Yet, people still die of hunger in many places. And there is a deeper hunger in souls of people that cannot be satisfied with physical food. There is widespread spiritual hunger that is begging to be satisfied.
The world has never created as much wealth as we see today: gleaming cities, luxurious homes, a seemingly inexhaustible cornucopia of precious goods and beautiful things. Yet, poverty remains the number one problem of the world. How can just 85 individuals amass as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the world’s population? People feel so poor they feel they have nothing or no more to give others. Selfishness reigns.
Christ came to bring not only physical healing but more importantly spiritual wholeness and health. He came to deliver us from our sins, from the diseases that keep us from being hale and whole, from the deep hunger in our hearts that only He can satisfy and from the poverty of spirit that keeps us tied to the ground.
“Lord, touch my heart and my life to make me whole and holy.”
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
Mark 3:7-12