PERSPECTIVE: THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS

Everyday, images of suffering, destruction and poverty bombard us from the television, newspapers or any other mass media. These tug at our heartstrings and make us want to contribute our very important skills to these people to alleviate their sufferings. However, we could be falling into the trap of a purely social concern endeavour without any spiritual dimension to it and we would end up very much like a secular medical relief operation.

The Bible does give specific guidance of the use of healing to advance the Kingdom of God. Actually, it is an essential skill given by God for spreading the Gospel. In Matthew 10:1, after Jesus called the 12 disciples and gave them power over unclean spirits and "…to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of weakness and infirmity."(Amplified Bible). Obviously God thought it important enough to give the disciples the tool for healing and by doing so He puts it on the same level of importance as spiritual healing. Also, this verse gives us an important principle that physical healing should go hand in hand with spiritual healing and they should be accomplished together and not divorced from one another. Therefore, this gives rise to the concept of medical missions in which the physical healing must go together with the spreading of the Gospel, and it is not meant in the Christian context to be a pure medical relief operation. God also encourages us Christian medical professionals to visit and look after the sick. In Matthew 25:36, He commends those who have visited Him when He was sick "..with help and ministering care…".

We should also recognise that not all physical illnesses have an organic origin. In Matthew 12:22, a blind and dumb man who was under the power of a demon was cured by Jesus, "…so that the blind and dumb man both spoke and saw."

So what are the purposes of Christian Medical Missions?

They are:

1. To show compassion

Jesus exemplified this when He heard that Lazarus had died and Mary came sobbing, He was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled" and He wept with the onlookers commenting "how tenderly He loved him" and Jesus subsequently raised Lazarus from the dead. (John 11:32-36) Therefore, going on a medical mission to heal people shows that we have compassion on these unfortunate persons.

2. For conversion

Physical healings can be used to point the light to God. In a series of miraculous healings in Lyyda and Joppa, Peter healed a paralysed man and "Then all the inhabitants of Lydda and the plain of Sharon saw [what had happened to] him and they turned to the Lord." Similarly, in Joppa, Peter resurrected Dorcas and "this became known throughout all Joppa, and many came to believe on the Lord." (Acts 9:32-43)

3. To give glory to God

Jesus healed so that he could give glory to God. In the account of Jesus healing a man paralysed and prostrated by illness miraculously, when the crowds saw that the man picked up his mat and went away, "they were struck with fear and awe; and they recognised God and praised and thanked Him, Who had given such power and authority to men." (Matthew 9:1-8) Similarly, on one of the hills at the seashore of Galilee, Jesus healed the great multitude that gathered there with all sorts of infirmities and they" recognised and praised and thanked and glorified the God of Israel." (Matthew 15:29-31)