Sunday, February 1, 2026

Scripture: Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon Title: Jesus: The Healer

As a kid growing up, most every night when my mom tucked me into bed, I can remember her praying with me “Now I lay be down to sleep…” You all know that one? When we’d get to the end we’d say, “God bless grandma, grandpa, etc.” and go through the list of what felt like every single person we knew. We would finish with the words “And God bless Katie’s special heart.” My “special heart,” that’s what my mom referred to my heart condition.

I have shared with you before, but I was born with a congenital heart defect. The doctors didn’t realize it when I was born. But at about a week old I went into heart failure. The doctors and nurses told my parents that most likely I would not make it through the night. I had my first heart surgery at 10 days old. I had my second heart surgery at 3 years old. At the time my surgery was experimental and my parents were told hopefully this will keep her alive until she is 5 and hopefully technology will have improved by then. Thankfully I have been surgery free since age 3 but will most likely have to have heart valve replacement someday.

Now as a parent, more than ever before I understand my parents worry about me. I understand their worry and fear that I would have to have another heart surgery. I understand the reason behind my mom praying every night for God to bless my “special heart.”

When your children are sick, especially facing a life-threatening illness, you can’t help but reach out to a doctor. You can’t help but cry out to God in prayer.

In our scripture today, Jesus has been teaching and then gets interrupted.

The scripture says, “While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, ‘My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18, NIV)

For those living in Jesus’s time, there was no 911. There weren’t really doctors. But this synagogue leader had heard of this healer traveling through Galilee. And so, he comes and interrupts Jesus in his teaching and asks that Jesus would bring her back to life. What faith this requires. He’s not just praying that his daughter will be healed. He is praying that his daughter will be brought back to life.

And I love something about Jesus here. Jesus doesn’t say, “How dare you interrupt me? I was teaching.” No. Jesus doesn’t say “its too late if she has already died.”

No Jesus simply gets up and goes to the girl.

On the way to heal the girl, Jesus gets interrupted again.

Our scripture is actually the story of not just one, but two healings.

If you’ve ever had a dream within a dream, it kind of feels like that. We have a healing story within a healing story.

A woman who has been bleeding comes up and touches the cloak of Jesus.

Now there is something important to realize about this woman’s condition. This would not have just been a physical ailment. If she had been bleeding for 12 years, she would have been cut off from her community for being unclean. This would have been very lonely and isolating.

So, she is not just in need of physical healing, she is need of healing that will restore her back to her family, back to her community.

So when she comes up to Jesus and touches Jesus’s cloak she says to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” (Matthew 9:21, NIV) Her faith is so great, she doesn’t even think she needs to touch Jesus to be healed. She believes just touching his cloak will heal her.

And something I love about this healing story, is that again Jesus is interrupted. He is on his way somewhere else to heal someone else. And yet, he doesn’t say to the woman, “I’m too busy, I’m in a hurry. I have other business to attend to.”

No, the scripture says, “Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Take heart, daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed at that moment.” (Matthew 9:22, NIV)

Jesus was not too busy for this woman. He turns, he looks at her, and he sees her. Jesus doesn’t just see a woman in need of healing. He sees all of her. I imagine he sees her loneliness, her desperation, her isolation from her community. I imagine he sees her need to be healed not just physically, but restored to community.

And I want you all to hear this as well. No matter what you are going through. No matter what prayer you are praying, you are never an interruption to Jesus. Jesus is never too busy for you. You are never interrupting Jesus.

As I read this scripture, I’m reminded of the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Remember at the time, so little was known about the disease, people were afraid to touch or hug someone with the disease.

Princess Diana famously made news for visiting an HIV/AIDS clinic and hugging and shaking hands with people with the disease. This was almost scandalous for the beautiful Princess of Wales to do. And yet, despite her royal title, she simply saw them as people. Not people with a disease that could infect her. She saw them as human beings.

And that is the image that comes to mind when I see Jesus here. He sees the woman in need of healing. He is not too busy for her. And he sees her fully. He is not worried of becoming unclean because of this unclean woman touching his cloak. He sees her.

Amazingly, Jesus also calls the woman “daughter” and tells her that her faith has healed her. And the woman was healed in that moment.

And then Jesus is on his way and goes and heals the synagogue leader’s daughter. He says she is not dead but asleep and he takes her hand and she gets up.

We’re in a series looking at different characteristics or titles for Jesus. Last week we looked at Jesus: The Teacher. We looked at his most famous teaching, “The Sermon on the Mount.” I encouraged you all to go home and read it. Did anyone do that? Great, I hope you did. And I hope we continue to search out the lessons Jesus has to teach us for how we are called to live as Christ Followers.

Today we’re looking at another title of Jesus. Jesus: The Healer. Throughout his 3-year ministry, Jesus performed so many healing miracles. He healed both Jews and Gentiles outsiders, people possessed by demons, men or women, it didn’t matter to Jesus. He simply wanted to offer them healing, no matter who they were.

And the truth is, Jesus was not just a healer for those people living during his earthly ministry. Jesus is still in the business of healing people today. My heart surgery is just one example of the amazing healing I have experienced in my life.

Every week our Zoom Prayer group meets, and we pray for healing for various people in the church or friends or family members we’re connected to in some way. Some of you are also on the prayer line and we receive texts about people in need of prayer. And we pray for healing for them as well.

We are certainly most familiar with healing when it comes to physical healing. But I want to remind us all that Jesus isn’t just a healer of physical illnesses. Jesus heals mentally and spiritually as well.

Think back to the bleeding woman we heard about today. Yes, he healed her physically, but he would have also healed her mentally and spiritually by bringing her back into community. No longer isolated. He restored her to community. He called her “daughter.”

If you are in need of physical healing, or have a loved one in need of physical healing, I encourage you to bring that to the Lord and pray for healing. But I also encourage us to think beyond just physical healing.

Are you or is someone in your life in need of healing from depression, loneliness, isolation, grief, addiction? Jesus wants to bring healing to those needs as well.

But I also want us to think of healing beyond just personal situations. But healing for our church, our communities, families, country, nation, and world as well.

The past few weeks we have seen unrest in Minneapolis. We have seen 2 ICE Officer involved shootings of 2 US citizens. This has led to unrest and division not just in the city of Minneapolis, but our entire country as well. This should be leading us to pray for healing in the city of Minneapolis. Pray for healing of division and unrest in our country. We truly need to pray for the healing of our country.

This week I went to a DART National Conference for clergy. For those of you wondering what DART is, it’s basically the parent organization of F.A.I.T.H., our justice ministry here in Volusia County. Clergy of all sorts of denominations were gathered from all over the country. We were spoiled that it was hosted in Orlando, so us Florida Clergy didn’t have far to travel. I loved how ecumenical and interfaith it was. We had Catholic Priests there, a rabbi, pastors from many different denominations, and it was racially diverse as well, with many black pastors as well. To me, it truly was a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

The focus was justice. This idea of helping to work for justice in our communities. The issues that F.A.I.T.H. is focused on here in Volusia County are Affordable Housing, Flooding, and Criminal Justice Reform. I think often we think of this kind of community justice work as separate from the work of the church.

But F.A.I.T.H. reminds us that justice work is the work of the church. Justice work is the work of Jesus.

And so today as we’re thinking of Jesus as our healer, yes, it’s wonderful to think of Jesus as our physical healer. I give Jesus all the praise for the healing in my personal life for my heart condition. I have been able to leave a pretty normal life and been able to be the mom to 2 beautiful girls, something my parents could only have dreamed of when I was 3 years old. That’s amazing.

And I’m guessing many of you have healing stories. If so, praise God for that healing in your life.

But let’s also recognize that Jesus: The Healer is so much greater than just a physical healer. He heals spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. And he doesn’t just heal us personally, he heals marriages, families, churches, communities, nations, and the world. Where are you in need of Jesus’s healing? Where are we in need of Jesus’s healing?

And as people who serve the great healer, we are also called to be healers in our world. We are called to help others experience the healing of Jesus. And yes, that can happen through prayer, one on one personal conversations, yes that can happen over a meal, but it can also happen through community organizing and the work of justice. When we stand up for the marginalized, the people like the bleeding woman who have been cast to the outskirts of society, we’re helping to be healers in our world. We’re helping to be apart of the healing work of Jesus.

So today, I invite us all to bring to Jesus our healing needs. Whether its physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. I invite us to bring our needs of loved ones and friends. But I also invite us to think bigger, and ask the God of healing to bring healing to not just us personally, but bring healing where there is division, bring healing where there is unrest. Let’s ask the Lord to heal our marriages, our families, our congregations, our neighborhoods, our communities, our nation, and our world.

And let’s not simply pray for healing. Let’s be open to how God wants to use us to be the answer to others prayers. Let us be open to how God is calling us to be healers in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our communities, our churches, our nation, and our world.

May we know Jesus: The Healer, and may we be healers in Jesus Name.

Amen