Exploring ideas of stigma Part 2:  Inclusion & Wholeness

Rear view of two men and a woman traveling together by holding on to each others wheelchairs.

The Pharisees began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?


Luke 5: 21-23


In this passage Jesus almost seems to be saying the exact opposite to what He was teaching his own disciples in elsewhere in scripture (John 9:1-3). In that instance of their exploration into the stigma of disability, Jesus is challenging his disciples thinking on the reason behind a person’s disability. Yet here, Jesus is addressing the universal assumption that the self-righteous onlookers held that the man’s disability was some act of punishment by God for some wrong doing the man had done during his life. 

I was born with my disability, so I had had little opportunity for any wrong doing for my sin to be reasonably seen as a punishment. But I can say without any shadow of a doubt that I have had to seek, and have received, forgiveness for many sins committed since my arrival on planet Earth. And all from a loving Heavenly Father without the reward of physical healing. The wholeness I received as a result of that forgiveness was being made acceptable and then included in His Kingdom. And so the answer to the question, “Can a person be made ‘whole’ without physical healing?” is a resounding, YES! But this truth is only possible if scriptural teaching maintains a focus on God’s desire for a person’s spiritual wholeness and their inclusion in Kingdom building, and not their physical circumstances. 

When Jesus arrives at the temple after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he doesn’t like what he sees. Consequently, not only does His direct action against the money changes clear the temple of corruption, it also clears away the physical obstacles preventing access into the temple. Those that had previously been kept outside the temple’s courts because of disfigurement and disability were now inside the temple courts before they had been healed (Matt 21: 12-14). Would Jesus have healed all of them physically? I suspect not, but the euphoria at being able to enter the Gate called Beautiful would almost certainly have lifted spirits and provided a glimpse of what was to come through Jesus’ death.


REFLECT…

PRAY…

& STEP OUT

On the life of disabled political activist, Helen Keller in this short blog by Tom Shakespeare. Then read Helen’s essay “His Presence” from the Helen Keller Archive.

Pray for Bible teachers in communities to have a fresh revelation of scripture and wisdom in how they communicate it.

If Jesus didn’t assume every disabled person he met wanted to be healed, should we? What might we do differently in response?