Our Lord’s Ministry
Jesus spent much of his Ministry in doing two things – teaching, and healing sick people. And, just as huge crowds used to follow him in order to listen to his teaching, so wherever he went there were almost always sick people waiting for him as they lay on mattresses by the roadside, or else trying to catch him up in the crowds.
The healing Ministry of Jesus
Jesus cured people in different ways. Sometimes he just spoke to them and they were at once made better. When Bartimaeus, the blind beggar at the gate of Jericho, was brought to him Jesus said, “Receive your sight…”. And, as St Luke tells us, “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God…” (NRSV, Luke 18:42,43).
Another time a man with the disease of leprosy came to him and, kneeling down, said, “If you choose, you can make me clean”. This time “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean” (NRSV, Mark 1:41,42). In fact, Jesus cured so many people by laying his hands on them that men and women used to bring their sick relations and friends to him and beg him just to lay his hands on them (Mark 7:32; Luke 4:40).
On one occasion he did something quite different and used a material substance. This was when he came across a man in Jerusalem who had been born blind. Jesus first smeared some clay on the man’s eyes, and then told him to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash it off. He went away, therefore, and washed in the Pool and came back able to see (John 9:6,7).
Healing power given to the Apostles
Jesus not only healed people himself, but he also gave his own power and authority to his Apostles to do the same. During his Ministry in Palestine he used to send them out into the various towns and villages, and there they healed people in the same kind of way as he did (Luke 9:1-6). No doubt they did this by means of the laying on of hands which Jesus mentioned at the time of his Ascension: “…they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (NRSV, Mark 16:18). St Mark tells us that they also used a material substance, this time olive oil. “They…anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (NRSV, 6:13).
Spiritual blessings
Now just as Jesus gave the blessing of health to people’s bodies by a word or an action, so he gave spiritual blessings to their souls in the same kind of way. One day, a man who was paralysed was carried on a mattress to the house where Jesus was, but as the crowd was so thick round the door his friends took him up the outside stone staircase onto the flat roof, and there they pulled away some of the tiles and let him down through the hole into the room below where Jesus was. And Jesus not only cured him of his paralysis, but also gave his soul the forgiveness of sins. He did this just by speaking to him. “Son, your sins are forgiven” (NRSV, Mark 2:3-5). On another occasion Jesus gave his blessing to some little children by means of an action. “…he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them” (NRSV, Mark 10:16).
At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had come to the Apostles, the grace and life of God was then given in the same kind of way to the members of the Church through the action of the Apostles. As Jesus had given health of soul as well as health of body by outward means, such as the laying on of hands, so he commanded his Apostles to do the same on his behalf by means of the Sacraments of the Church. And this continues to this day.
The Sacraments of the Church
So, by the pouring of water in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and by the laying on of hands in the Sacrament of Confirmation, we are given the Holy Spirit of God and are made full members of the Church. By the words of absolution spoken by the priest in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Sacrament of Penance or Confession) Jesus gives us the forgiveness of our sins and grace to fight against temptation. By the anointing of sick people with oil, God’s healing and comforting power is given to them.
But the greatest of all his gifts is given in the Eucharist which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper on the night before his Crucifixion. For in the Eucharist the forms of bread and wine on the altar and Our Lord’s Risen and Ascended Body and Blood in Heaven become one in the Blessed Sacrament in accordance with his own word when he took bread and said “…this is my body” and took the cup of wine and said” This is my blood…” (NRSV, Mark 14:22-24).
Outward and inward parts
There are seven Sacraments altogether, and each has two parts, the part you can see and the part you cannot see. It is by means of the part you can see that you receive the part you cannot see, so that when you have received the outward part you know that you have received the inward part also. For example, in the Sacrament of Confirmation it is by means of the laying on of hands by the bishop that you receive the Holy Spirit of God; so that when you have received the laying on of hands, then you know you have received the Holy Spirit also.
The Prayer Book Catechism (1) puts this in the form of these questions and answers:
Question. What meanest thou by this word Sacrament?
Answer. I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.
Question. How many parts are there in a Sacrament?
Answer. Two: the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace.
SUMMARY
1. Jesus gave the blessing of health to people’s bodies, and spiritual blessings to their souls, by saying something to them or by touching them.
2. Jesus told his Apostles to pass on his gifts of health of body and soul in the same kind of way – through the Seven Sacraments of the Church. So God’s Holy Spirit was given by the water of Baptism and by the laying on of hands in Confirmation, and Our Lord’s own Presence under the form of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist.
3. We receive these same gifts today from Our Lord at the hands of bishops and priests.
Reference
1. Church of England (1662) The Book of Common Prayer. A Catechism. Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/bcp/texts/catechism.html (Accessed 23 August 2010) (Internet).