Healing—for Heart and Soul

Easter Message (3-23-08) by Pastor Rich Doebler

How many holidays does it take to heal a family? How many holidays does it take to heal a dysfunctional home? A broken heart? A wounded spirit?

One of the great misconceptions about faith is a private affair and that it shouldn't affect your everyday life: politicians should not let their personal faith affect the way they conduct public policy; scientists can privately believe in God—until they go into the classroom.

People think faith is personal and private and primarily about how to get to heaven—"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" is translated to mean have faith in the Lord and he will get you to heaven.

But faith is so much more than that!

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ offers us hope for eternal life. But it also offers us hope for the life we live here and now—in this world. It offers hope for change.

The Resurrection is a promise: it's a promise that says anything dead or dying can be given new life! Anything!

God can resurrect a dead soul or a dead marriage or a dead relationship. God can give new life to a dream that has died. God can heal a broken family or a broken heart. God can heal a wounded spirit. God can soothe painful, hurtful memories.

The Resurrection gives promise of life for anything that is dead or dying! The Resurrection gives new hope to the hopeless.

"...In his great mercy [God] has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

Let's consider a few of the ways that the resurrection of Jesus Christ promises right now, while we're still here on planet earth.

1. The Resurrection brings life to your soul.

A dead soul, suffocated by sin, can be born again—resurrected to a new life in Jesus Christ. We don't have to struggle with continual defeat, in bondage to the power of sin.

A lot of people are walking around, busy doing things, going to work, pushing a cart through the grocery store, watching the kids, cleaning out the garage. A lot of people are walking around like they're alive, but on the inside they're dead. They need a resurrection!

Not long ago I read about a guy fishing from the shore when a snapping turtle swallowed his hook. He decided the simplest solution to the situation was to take out his knife and cut the turtle's head off. He threw the turtle's body into the bushes behind him and went back to fishing. A few minutes later, however, he heard this rustling in the bushes—and out comes the headless turtle, making its way toward the water.

What good will it do if the headless turtle gets to the water? It's still dead! And what good is it for people who move through this life if their souls are dead? They may be moving, but there's no purpose. They may be talking, but what's the point? They may be doing things, but a dead soul leaves them dissatisfied, disappointed, frustrated.

A dead soul is caused by sin. We are born in sin; we are predisposed by nature to sin. We cannot help ourselves! And as along as we carry sin within us, we will be empty, hollow, and dead at the core of our being. We might go through the motions of being alive, but on the inside, we're dead. We will be constantly frustrated, continually defeated—slaves to sin.

But the Resurrection promises that something that is dead can be made alive! The Resurrection promises hope to dead souls.

"...if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you" (Romans 8:11).

2. The Resurrection breathes life into our dreams.

A dead dream, crushed by failure and disappointment, can be revitalized—refashioned in the shape of God's plan. Our worldly ambitions, so often devastated by the ruthless, dog-eat-dog competition of the world, can be reshaped by God's purpose for us.

Some of you have experienced some bitter blows in life. You've had to deal with major disappointments. You think you're about to succeed; everything has finally come together; your dreams seem within your grasp—and then something or someone knocks you down.

Like the parents who took their toddler to the children's hospital for evaluation, only to hear the team of medical and psychological experts say, "He's delayed, but we don't know why. It's possible he's retarded." The mother, through tears, told me, "My child is dead. The son I dreamed I'd have is dead."

What do you say when a dream dies—especially when it seems was God who sabotages our dreams? What do you say when plans fail? When things don't work out? When life is interrupted by sickness?

One thing I've learned—one thing I'm still learning—is that many of our dreams are aimed in the wrong direction. We aim our dreams at earth while God wants us to aim in the direction of heaven. We wrap ourselves up in selfish goals and worldly ambitions. For this reason, many of our dreams need to die—so they can be resurrected as God's dreams for us. God wants to give us new dreams with new life and purpose. God wants to replace our selfish dreams with godly ambitions.

"It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone" (Eph 1:11, MSG).

"...it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil 2:13).

God wants us to discover his higher purpose. He wants us our dreams to die so we can have resurrected dreams, shaped by his plan for eternity.

3. The Resurrection heals the human heart.

A wounded spirit or a broken heart, ripped apart by cruel words, by painful memories, by hurt or rejection, can be healed by the power of the Resurrection.

Why do we carry the pain of the past? When Jesus took to the cross all the wrongs we have done and all the wrongs done to us, why do we still hang on to those things?

"He personally carried the load of our sins in his own body when he died on the cross so that we can be finished with sin and live a good life from now on. For his wounds have healed ours!" (1 Peter 2:24, LB).

In his book, Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the story of his life during WWII as a Japanese POW building the infamous Burma Railway. They endured horrific conditions with what seemed to be no hope or purpose to life. Some POWs, just to survive, learned to look out only for themselves, stealing from and cheating each other.

During one work detail a shovel went missing, and the Japanese guard shouted, insisting someone had stolen it. Striding up and down before the men, he ranted and denounced them for their wickedness, working himself up into a paranoid fury. Screaming in broken English, he demanded that the guilty one step forward to take his punishment. No one moved; the guard's rage reached new heights of violence. "All die! All die!" he shrieked. To show that he meant what he said, he cocked his rifle, put it to his shoulder, and looked down the gun sights, ready to fire at the first man at the end of the line.

At that moment one of the men stepped forward, stood stiffly to attention, and said calmly, "I did it."    The guard unleashed all his whipped up hatred—he kicked the helpless prisoner and beat him with his fists. Seizing the rifle by the barrel, he lifted it high over his head and, with a final howl, brought it down on the soldier's skull, who sank limply to the ground and did not move. The men of the work detail picked up their comrade's body, shouldered their tools, and marched back to the camp. When the tools were counted again at the guard house, no shovel was missing.

That was a turning point for a number of the POWs. Someone who was innocent had given his life, taking the abuse and hatred intended for them all. Christian prayer groups formed and amazing transformations began occurring within the camps. [Ernest Gordon, Miracle on the River Kwai (Collins, 1963), p. 88]

Jesus took all the sin of the world on himself—all the abuse and hatred. He took all that pain and suffering, the rage and the anger, with him to the cross. Has someone wronged you? Has someone hurt you? Has someone cheated you or attacked you? Has someone maligned you?

Jesus knows your pain—he took all those wrongs and injustices with him to the cross. Since he has already endured the suffering for those things, why can't we let them go? Jesus wants us to be healed of all that pain.

The healing has already occurred! "His wounds have healed ours" it says—his wounds have healed our wounds. We don't have to suffer again for something that Jesus has already suffered for. His death and resurrection brings healing to the wounded spirit and the broken heart.

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalms 34:18).

4. The Resurrection restores relationships.

A family that has grown apart, a sick or dysfunctional home, a dead or dying relationship poisoned by hurt, suspicion, mistrust—all these can be healed by the power of the Resurrection.

The Bible says we can "...live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2).

Because Jesus loved us so much, he went to the cross for us. And because he went to the cross, he gives us the power to live a life of love—so much so that we can suffer for those we love.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16).

Some of you say, "I can't do that. That's asking too much. I can't be that vulnerable." The truth is, we cannot love without being vulnerable. Everyone of you who is married had to give your heart to another person. The day I stood at the altar and said, "I do," I didn't know what I was doing. But I found out! You have to risk yourself in order to love.

We need to be vulnerable in order to love. C.S. Lewis wrote: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to be sure of keeping your heart intact—you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safely in the casket of your selfishness. And in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will not change, it will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable and irredeemable. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the dangers of love is hell. [The Four Loves]

If you cannot forgive one who has wronged you...if you cannot love the unloveable, then you still need to experience for yourself the power of the cross and the victory of the Resurrection.

Note: You can forgive or love someone who because of his own sinful condition continues to hurt others—but that does not mean you should be careless and unconcerned about your own safety. We can forgive and love an abusive or destructive person from a safe distance, simply by seeing that person as God sees him, with God's eyes.

The resurrection of Christ offers us the promise of everlasting life in heaven with him. But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ also offers life and healing today for sick families and ruined relationships. The Resurrection offers life for those who are dead or dying on the inside.

Colossians 3 begins with these words: "Since you became alive again, so to speak, when Christ arose from the dead..." (Col 3:1, LB); "Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven..." (Col 3:1, NCV).

The resurrection of Jesus helps us aim for heaven, but it isn't just about eternity! The resurrection life is something that we should see in our homes and in our families and in our marriages!

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it..." (Col 3:1, MSG).

The chapter goes on to talk about how a resurrection perspective will affect the way we live: we will put to death things belonging to our earthly nature (v 5); we will get rid of anger, rage, malice, slander (v 8); we will treat each other with compassion, kindness, humility, patience (v 12); above all else, we will act in love toward others (v 14)—all because we have been raised with Christ.

It grieves the Lord who gave himself on the cross to see us living as though nothing happened at Calvary. Jesus is grieved to see relationships dying in our homes, because he died to give life to our relationships!

Maybe the question shouldn't be, "How many holidays does it take to heal a family?" Maybe the question should be, "Do you believe that Jesus died and rose again?" Because if you do, then you should also be able to say...

Jesus died and rose again to heal my family.

Jesus died and rose again to heal my marriage.

Jesus died and rose again to heal my home.

Jesus died and rose again to heal my broken heart.

Jesus died and rose again to heal my wounded spirit.

Jesus died and rose again to heal my shattered dreams.

Jesus died and rose again to heal my soul.

Jesus died and rose again to give me life in all its fullness!