Kelsi Vanada

Dear friends,

I find Jesus’s healing miracles—like the ones we read in Luke 6:17-23 today—difficult. In the Women’s Bible Study (Thursday nights in The Lounge) we read Mark’s Gospel last month, and the healing miracles prompted lots of questions:

Did Jesus somehow bend the physical rules of the world God created? Did the demon-possessed man have a mental illness? What form do miracles take today? 

As we read, I thought a lot about a friend with spina bifida who uses a wheelchair. She is struggling with the Christian faith she grew up with, in large part due to the healing miracles. These stories are painful for her, because she feels they convey the idea that people with disabilities don’t fully reflect the image of God just as they are. I’m grateful she shared her perspective and her hurt with me.

I’m struck by the way Jesus often tells those he heals that their sins are forgiven (especially when sin—to my modern sensibility—doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it). Jesus gives people what their hearts need: maybe they are lonely outcasts due to an illness that makes them “unclean” (such as the leper), or maybe they feel shame because they believe their disability indicates that they—or the generations before them—had sinned (such as the paralyzed man lowered through the roof). They long to be told they are ok, to be drawn in, and Jesus meets that need.

We must continue to struggle with our sacred texts, and we must struggle against ableism in our communities and in ourselves. Jesus’ healing miracles show us that as people, we all share the need for acceptance and forgiveness.

Peace,

—Kelsi