A Christian View Of Healing

Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with references to the healing of disease. Healing is an important metaphor for understanding the nature and significance of God's love for us and of salvation in Christ. This article describes healing from a biblical point-of-view and lays the foundation for imaging the role that liturgy has as a vehicle of pastoral care. Healing is no stranger to the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the Hebrew Scripture, God affirms,"I am the Lord, your physician" (Exod. 15:26). A central description for God's work in creation is that of healing. Healing is one expression of God's special care for people: "I am the Lord, your healer" (Exod. 15:26b). God orders people with power and destroys enemies and deceivers. God's will for the people, a will that is not without condition, is imaged through that of God as healer. Both disease and health originate with God: "I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand" (De…