Healing the Natural Order

from Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortland:

What did Jesus do when he saw the unclean? What was his first impulse when he came across prostitutes and lepers? He moved toward them. Pity flooded his heart, the longing of true compassion. He spent time with them, He touched them. We all can testify to the humanness of touch. A warm hug does something that warm words of greeting cannot. But there is something deeper in Christ’s touch of compassion. He was reversing the Jewish system. When Jesus, the Clean One, touched an unclean sinner, Christ did not become unclean, the sinner became clean.

Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry was one of giving back to undeserving sinners their humanity. We tend to think of the miracles in the Gospels as interruptions to the natural order yet German theologian Jürgen Moltmann points out that miracles are not an interruption of the natural order but they are the restoration of the natural order. We are so used to a fallen world that sickness, disease, pain and death seem natural, but in fact, they are the interruption.

“When Jesus expels demons and heals the sick, He’s driving out of creation the power of destruction and He’s healing and restoring created things who are hurt and sick. The Lordship of God to which the healings witness restores creation to health. Jesus’ healings are not supernatural miracles in a natural world. They are the only truly natural thing in a world that is demonized and wounded.”