We are confronted in the book of Job with the problem of suffering: how a righteous man called Job experienced failures, calamities, misfortunes and tragedies, including an embarrassing skin sickness, to the point of hopelessness and near despair, but how the man kept holding on to faith in God. In the face of great trails and temptations, he questioned himself and questioned God. In the midst of such calamities befalling the righteous, he was puzzled by the mystery of God's ways, and he wondered both aloud and in silent tears about the meaning and destiny of human life, and the futility of the human struggle. It is in the process of these painful reflections that he proclaimed:
"Is not man's life on earth nothing more than pressed service, his time no more than hired drudgery? Like the slave, sighting for the shade, or the workman with no thought but his wages, months of delusion I have assigned to me, nothing for my own but nights of grief. Lying in bed I wonder, 'When will it be day?' Risen I think, 'How slowly evening comes!' Restlessly I fret till twilight falls. Swifter than a weaver's shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind. Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy (Job 7:1-7).
In the Old Testament times, it was thought that suffering was directly connected with people's conduct, and that anyone who suffered, sinned. This view is presented by Job's friends who came to console him. But Job consistently protested against the idea. He was convinced that he had not sinned, and for that reason he questioned the justice of God. He even challenged God to take his case to an independent court of law, where the injustice of God against him will be demonstrated. However the painful lesson which Job had to learn, and which all of us must learn, is that a person's righteousness gives him or her no claim upon God. Job is a symbol of all innocent people in history who suffer pain, and who are puzzled at the reality of suffering. We all have something of Job in us. We often share his hurt and frustration, his anguish and bewilderment. We have often lived through some of his questions and we continue to wonder: "Why is there so much suffering in the world?" "Why do I have to suffer?" "What have I done?" "Why me?"
Job's soliloquy reminds one of what the Psalmist says in Psalm 90:9-10, "All our days pass under your wrath, our lives are over like a sigh. The span of our life is seventy years - eighty for those who are strong - but all of these are spent in anxiety and trouble, they are over in a moment and we are gone." Indeed human life after the fall of Adam and Eve (our first parents), appears to be a cursed existence (see Genesis 3:19). It is characterised by emptiness, toil, pain, sweat and tears. Life is often full of frustration, anxiety, restlessness, disappointment, disenchantment, betrayal, wars, accidents and natural disasters, sickness, violence and death. All these make life look like a nightmare. The author of Ecclesiastes summarised this dilemma of human life and suffering in the famous phrase "Vanity of vanity, all is vanity." Classical novelist Thomas Hardy comes to a similar conclusion in the book The Mayor of Casterbridge when he said that the human story is such that "moments of joy and happiness are only interludes in (life's) general drama of pain." All these reflections appear to underscore the reality of suffering and pain in the world, which Jesus attributes to the reign of darkness in the world. It is this reign darkness and death that he came to confront and dislodge permanently and replace with his kingdom of light and life.
Job's reflection on the misery of human life is meant to provide a background for the healing work of Christ as shown in the Gospel of Mark chapter 1. It is to save us from such misery as described by Job and others that Jesus has come. The opening chapter of Mark's Gospel demonstrates that Jesus' words and actions overpower the devil, and every dimension of the devil's work, including sickness and demonic possession, blindness, selfishness and prejudice. Jesus brings healing, wholeness and holiness by his presence. He brought wholeness and holiness to Peter's mother in law. He will bring the same healing wholeness and holiness to all who accept his message of salvation. He takes away sin, the fundamental cause of all human suffering. He also removes the numerous consequences of sin. He calls to repentance and conversion from evil and admonishes submission and surrender to God.
After the first miracle of freeing the demonised person whom he saw in the Synagogue (Mk.1:29), the next was Peter's mother in law. Then what follows is a deluge of sick people, crowding around him. He healed many of them and stopped the devils from calling on his name. Thus, when confronted with concrete human suffering, Jesus did not philosophise or rationalise about suffering. He did something about it. He healed the broken hearted and set the captives free. He confronts the sick and suffering person with the love of God. Whatever evil existed in Capernaum was challenged by the presence of Jesus. He soon became very popular in the area, and everyone was coming to him to seek for healing, such that he had to flee the place.
By fleeing from Capernaum and the healing and deliverance work which had brought him so much success and popularity, to go elsewhere, Jesus demonstrated that his miracles (important as they are) are actually a subordinate feature of his ministry. His central focus is to preach the good news of the kingdom. His main purpose is to preach repentance and conversion and to make people accept him as the Christ, but only as the crucified Christ, not just a miracle-worker Christ. Thus in Mark's gospel, the miracles of healing or deliverance prefigure or foreshadow the ultimate miracle which is the cross and the resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus the Son of God is the greatest act of healing for humanity. Therefore Jesus continues to heal the broken hearted, and every time we partake in the Eucharist, we have the opportunity to benefit from his healing grace.
Like the disciples, we too often think that Jesus came only to heal us of our physical ailments, to get rid of our aches and pains, to save us from danger, and that is all. He definitely came to do these, but much more. He came to change the whole world of darkness. He came to introduce the Kingdom of God, and that is much more than healing a sickness or two. If all the healings paraded before us on TV everyday by Televangelists are authentic miracles, then they belong to the mission of Christ. But that is not all that he came for. Jesus understood this very well. That is why he had to flee Capernaum where his healing work had made him very popular and successful. He realised that the people would misunderstand his mission if he stayed there with that successful apostolate. No, for him the kingdom of God is a complete overhaul. It is the bringing about of a totally new creation. It is the inauguration of a new world and a new humanity which all the prophets dreamt about and longed for. The kingdom of God should not be restricted to some healing acts here and there while the world remains in darkness, corruption, injustice, violence and death.
Complete healing therefore, the healing of Jesus, is a sign of the Kingdom of God where there will be no crying, no mourning, no suffering and no death. The healing of Jesus is a sign of the Kingdom where God will wipe away all tears and defeat death itself! (Rev.21:1-4). Jesus definitely did not heal all those who were physically sick in his day. He healed some as a sign of the Kingdom. The only true salvation of mankind is not the momentary healing of passing fever. It is the resurrection. The real healing which Jesus offers us is to pass from faithlessness to faithfulness, from an existence outside the ambience of God to the life a child of God. For Jesus the essential evil in the world is to be separated from God. The real evil which Jesus fought and which his disciples have to constantly fight is much deeper than physical pain and suffering. The heart of the human person is often sick due to the presence and prevalence of sin. And this is the greatest sickness. Jesus wants to heal this profound sickness. The best equipped hospital or the most qualified doctor in the world could never address this profound sickness. The sick person needs love, the love of friends and relations, far more than he needs medicine. In the same way, we need to be healed of sin far more than we need to be healed of our stomach aches, our blood pressure, and our diabetes problems.
