Issue #11 - The Great Physician Will See You Now
"Jesus answered them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.'" Luke 5:31
Many of us have heard Jesus referred to as The Great Physician, a term never actually used in the Bible but popularized by a 19th century hymn written by William Hunter. Now, a cheesy thing some Christian medical doctors (ahem) like to do is to debate what kind of “physician” Jesus actually was.
Orthopedists like to claim Him as one their own, since he healed the lame and made them walk again. Otolaryngologists (a.k.a. ENTs) point to the ears opened and the mute person’s vocal chords opening up. Gynecologists will certainly refer to the woman who suffered a bleeding disorder for twelve years but was healed in an instant by merely touching the edge of His cloak. Ophthalmologists of course will argue how His spit mixed with dirt made totally blind eyes see again, so of course he was an eye doctor! The dermatologist? Jesus is recorded healing dozens of lepers! (Though technically if it was true leprosy, a bacterial disease, then the infectious disease specialist wants in on that action.)
Jesus might have been a pediatrician because He, too, cares for the little children. The cardiologist and the psychiatrist can join hands and make a compelling case of how the most important thing Jesus did was to heal the hearts and minds of the sick. He often worked from morning to late taking care of any kind of sick person would come His way, and ER docs certainly know what that’s like. General practitioners do as well, and rightly note that you can’t spell Great Physician without “GP”!
I’m an eye doctor, so I pretend that Jesus loved healing eyes more than anything else.
Whatever the case, one thing can be agreed upon: Jesus’ medicine and methods were certainly… unconventional.
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Do you know what my favorite question from patients is after I suggest a diagnosis? It’s “Are you sure? Because when I Googled it, it said…”. I’ve gotten that so many times over the years, and every time I hear it, I want to instantly punt the patient out of my office.
This is something different, but I remember about 20 years ago an otherwise healthy, middle-aged patient came into my office because he had experienced a bout of sudden vision loss in one eye that improved after a short time. He was feeling okay but just wanted to make sure nothing bad had happened so I did a thorough examination and couldn’t find anything wrong with him. It seemed farfetched, but I told him to get a cardiac workup to see if he might have any risk factors for a stroke.
He went to his internist who laughed it off and sent him home because he had no history of hypertension or high cholesterol. The patient went on his own to the ER to get a workup and was found to have hardened plaques in his carotid arteries, so it turns out what he’d experienced was a mini-stroke in his eye, and he was then placed on medical therapy.
The patient showed up a week later and said, “Doc, thank you for saving my life!” I would say I just got lucky, but my point is that sometimes you go to the doc thinking it’s one thing but then are surprised, and grateful, that you and Dr. Google were not the ones calling the shots.
Think of when the paralytic in the unroofed house was brought to Him, and the first thing Jesus says is “Your sins are forgiven”. Huh? The guy thought his friends made a dramatic entrance so he could start feeling better about his legs. Jesus, are you sure? Think of the rich young ruler in Mark 10 who asks Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers, “You know the Ten Commandments, yes? Start there”, which was answered with a “Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check... Aaaaaaand check.” Then Jesus says, “There is just one thing you lack… get rid of everything you have, so you can inherit the truest possession.” Jesus, are you sure? I came here for a wellness check but you’re saying I am sick? You say I lack “one thing”, but… I feel like I lack nothing.
The young ruler went away sad because he had thought he already had everything, but Jesus was telling him the opposite. And like a good doctor, Jesus didn’t say it with a smirk, but rather had compassion for him and loved him in that moment. I think it was Tim Keller who said that when you come before God, it’s not about what you can offer to Him, but rather that “the only thing you need is need.” Also from Dr. Keller: you only know He’s all you need when He is all you have. The young ruler had everything but need, thinking self-sufficiency was his greatest asset, not his greatest detriment. The same with the Pharisees referenced in the passage above, who leaned on their own acts of righteousness, not realizing their pride was causing Class 4 spiritual heart failure.
How you view yourself determines how you view Jesus—is He your physician or are you your own physician?
If you’re in a place of need, you’re starting in the right place. Not an easy place, no…but in a right place. Jesus is the Great Physician, and He knows what you need even more than you do. His medicine and methods might not seem like the standard of care or make sense to you, but He is also like a radiologist who can see right through you and an anesthesiologist who knows which area to touch to take away the pain. Let Him heal you in the way only He knows how.
The Great Physician now is near
The sympathizing Jesus;
He speaks the drooping heart to cheer,
Oh! Hear the voice of Jesus.
-Jacob