Luke 8:1-3

Luke 8:1-3 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Acts 14:8-10 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

Can the Lord heal our lameness? Can He deliver us from evil spirits and diseases? Yes! But that does not mean we will receive the "good news" completely. Do we have faith to be healed, but not enough faith to follow Jesus? Do we want the Jesus of the fishes and the loaves but not the Jesus of the cross and sacrifice? The women in the Luke passage had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. They believed so much in Jesus that they supported his ministry throughout Israel. They supported his ministry financially out of their own means as well as with their presence. They were dedicated followers who also followed him to the cross. It must have been confusing to them as they observed Jesus on the cross, the one they loved, the one for whom they sacrificed their all. They had been healed supernaturally, yet this man died a natural death on the cross. He could heal others, but He could not heal himself.

Healings sometimes lead you to the cross. If the women had not been healed, they probably would not have been at the cross. If Jesus had not walked into their lives and touched them, they would probably have been doing the mundane things of life that day Jesus was on the cross. The "good news" and the cross that follows leads you to a death, a dying to self. God leads you to the realization that this world is not your own. You realize this world actually holds nothing for you; its oxygen will not support you. You are breathing now the breath of God. His life, and his alone, is the only one that pleases you. Nothing else holds you here, for you long for Jesus face-to-face.

I know some of you want to be healed. Praise God, you should be healed, but healing will lead you to the cross, not to a new and better life but a life devoted to the Lord. We don't want to hear that many times; we want to hear be healed so we can have the successful life that we so desired. Yet in the above passage we see these healed women following Jesus to the cross. We see them putting all their energy into the spreading of the "good news." We see them away from their families, isolated from their own communities, devoted to serving God. We see them immersed in the idea of getting the "good news" to the world. Is that our desire when we seek Jesus to heal us form our diseases and our infirmities? Are we looking for a better life or for Christ's life? WE SHOULD BE HEALED IN OUR SPIRITS, healed in our innermost beings, so we might take up the cross and follow him.