“Preach To Teach And Heal!”

“Preach To Teach And Heal!”(Mt.4:23-25).
“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”
In this passage the threefold ministry of Jesus is highlighted: teaching, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing.
One of my homiletics teacher stressed that sound preaching should teach and heal. This is not to undermine the teaching and healing ministries.
The missionary enterprise laid emphasis on this threefold ministry by planting churches, opening schools and building hospitals.
It is a hyperbole to say Jesus healed every disease and sickness among the people. Jesus is abundantly able, but not everyone within the places named in the text knew when he was around. However, all who were brought to him were healed.
When we see people crisscrossing the globe to meet teleevangelists here and there, they are in search of the miraculous.
The miraculous is not the reason why Jesus came to this world. “The Good News is that God has provided salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ” This good news has to be preached as if we are teaching so as to open up the people’s understanding and effect holistic healing.
The text says “large crowds” from many cities followed him.
This does not become a guarantee for us to capitalise on “strength in numbers.” From the unfolding of events in Jesus’ ministry it is obvious that the crowd was overcrowded with people having other motives. Life teaches that quality has preference over quantity.
Jesus heals all diseases, thereby revealing his glory. But the fullness of this revelation is the good news of the kingdom of God through the preaching that teaches and heals.
Dear friend, make yourself available for the Lord Jesus Christ so that he can attend to you at your point of need.
Weekend prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, teach us and heal us through the message of the good news of the kingdom of God. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
31/01/2025.