Christianity Today: The Cross that Saves and Heals, by Jeremy Treat (Biola University):
[There is a] deep human desire to be healed and made whole. Good Friday speaks directly to that longing. It tells the story of a God who entered a wounded world not only to forgive sin but also to bring healing. …
We know something in us—and in the world—is not the way it’s supposed to be. Every ambulance siren, every crowded emergency room, every whispered prayer beside a hospital bed reminds us that something in this world is deeply wrong. We live in a world marked by illness, injustice, grief, broken relationships, anxiety, and despair. …
[T]he Good News of Good Friday is that God has not abandoned his creation to its sickness. He has entered it to bring healing. …
Scottish theologian John Swinton notes the Bible doesn’t have a word precisely equivalent to the modern medical definition of health. Today, we often think of health simply as the absence of disease. The Bible paints a richer picture. It speaks instead of righteousness and peace, of being in right relationship with God, with others, and with creation. The Hebrew word shalom captures this vision: harmony, wholeness, life working the way God intended (Isa. 32:16–18; Col 1:19–20). …
Although healing and wholeness have been accomplished at the Cross, our experience of them unfolds in what Christians often call the “already and not yet” of the kingdom of God. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the decisive victory has already been won. Sin has been forgiven. Evil powers have been defeated. The restoration of creation has begun.
But the fullness of that healing has not yet arrived. We still live in a world of hospital rooms and funeral services. Christians still experience illness, grief, and mental anguish. Sometimes God brings remarkable healing in this life. Other times the healing we long for comes only in the end-of-time resurrection.
This tension can be difficult to live with. But it also points us toward hope. Good Friday reminds us that the deepest healing in the universe came through suffering love. Easter assures us that suffering will not have the final word.
One day the healing that began at the Cross will spread through the entire creation. Bodies will be raised. Tears will be wiped away. The fractured world will be restored to shalom. Until then, we wait in hope, trusting the one who bore our wounds. And by his wounds, we are healed.
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