Healing is a Gift.

Notice that Jesus NEVER charged anyone before He healed them. During Jesus’ earthly walk on the Earth, the high priests of His day usually charged those they healed. But Jesus’ style is different.

In Matthew 10, He sends out the Twelve to evangelize, and He empowers them for this task. In that empowerment is the ability to cure ills.

Matthew 10:1 (NKJV)

1 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He GAVE THEM POWER over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to HEAL ALL KINDS OF SICKNESS and all kinds of disease.  

Observe His instructions to them in vs. 8:

8 HEAL THE SICK, CLEANSE THE LEPERS, raise the dead, cast out demons. FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE.

Note that phrase, “Freely give.” This characterizes Jesus’ healing ministry. The word “freely” translates the Greek word “dórean” (δωρεάν). It means “without payment, without cost.”

Jesus’ words here literally mean, “Ensure the person you are healing does not deserve it in anyway!” This is very strange (particularly to the mind of man), for human reasoning goes thus: if God would heal anyone, it should be “holy people,” those who are deserving. But here, He says “Give healing to those who are undeserving.”

The word “give” (vs. 8) translates the Greek “didómi” (δίδωμι) It means “bestow as a gift.” So together, “freely give” would literally mean, “Without payment, cost or merit, bestow as a gift.” He is describing how healing and miracles are given—you do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to “deserve” or “earn” them. Healing is free!

Some people try to deserve God’s healing (i.e. “I will be healed because I have been good,” “I will receiving healing because I have somehow earned it”). This logic is erroneous. We find such a case in Matthew 15:21-28.

The narrative tells the story of a woman of Canaan who sought a healing-miracle from Jesus for her daughter, vexed by an evil spirit. Oftentimes, diseased bodily conditions characterized demonic oppression in Scripture (see Matt 17:14-15, 18, Mark 9:17-27).

Mark’s account of this story calls this woman a Syro-Phoenician by birth (Mark 7:26). Syro-Phoenicia was a Greek country made up of Tyre and Sidon. In ancient times, this country was possessed by the Canaanites and was thus called Canaan. The Phoenicians descended from the Canaanites. This woman was therefore a Gentile (non-Jew).

Follow Matthew’s account.

Matthew 15:21-22 (NKJV)

21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, SON OF DAVID! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”

Vs. 23 is quite odd. It says that Jesus, “answered her NOT A WORD.” His disciples are irritated by the whole thing. They “came and urged Him, saying, ‘SEND HER AWAY, for she cries out after us.’” The Greek literally says, “Answer her, so she can let us be!”

Now, it appears like Jesus was ignoring this woman. But that is not the case at all. So, what exactly is going on here? The answer is found in vs. 22. Notice what she called Jesus—”Son of David.”

“Son of David” is a title exclusive to the Jews for their Messiah. The Messiah was promised to proceed from David’s house (2 Sam 7:12-13, Isai 11:1, Jer 23:5-6). Only the Jews were allowed to refer to their Messiah that way. But this woman, a non-Jew, came in pretence. She calls Jesus “Son of David” in hopes that He think her a Jewess, and she could “steal” a miracle.

The Jews and Gentiles had no relationship whatsoever (see John 4:7-9). This woman probably presumed that Jesus would have withheld His healing hand from her, had He known her true identity. Hence her sly actions. So she was trying to DESERVE God’s healing. Jesus knew this, and that is why He did not answer.

He makes it clear that He was aware of her deceit, in vs. 25, “But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost SHEEP OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.’”

He knew she was not an Israelite. He needed her to stop pretending! If she wanted a healing, she need only ask. She did not have to pretend to be a Jewess! Gradually, she drops her dissimulation. Vs. 25 says, “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘LORD, help me!’” She stopped calling Him “Son of David,” just “Lord.” She knew He knew.

In case His point wasn’t clear, Jesus reiterates in vs. 26, “…It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.’”

He is not being mean. He is simply emphasizing the fact that she is a Gentile and He knew. The Jews contemptuously referred to Gentiles as “dogs” (see 2 Sam 3:8, 2 Sam 16:9, 2 Kings 8:13). So He is, in essence, saying to her, “I want you to know that YOU ARE A GENTILE before I give you this healing.” She would receive the healing she desired AS A NON-JEW, and not because she pretended to be someone else.

Then she finally understood, “And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the LITTLE DOGS eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table’” (vs. 27).

That is, God will give the Gentiles the SAME THING He gives to the Jews! She FINALLY got it! And she received what she requested, “Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, GREAT IS YOUR FAITH! Let it be to you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour” (vs. 28).

So healing is best received when we know it’s free! That is the point of this story. You don’t have to be “deserving” to receive healing from God. Stop trying to merit God’s healing! The only kinds of people Jesus heals are underserving people!

In Luke 22:50-51, Jesus restored the severed ear of one of the soldiers who came to arrest Him! Who could be more “underserving”? So come to realize that there is NOTHING bad you have done that can stop Jesus from healing you.

Miracles are not deserved.

Galatians 3:5 (NKJV)

5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and WORKS MIRACLES among you, DOES HE DO IT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, or by the hearing of faith?

This is a rhetorical question. God does not work miracles amongst us because we have somehow merited them (by the works of the law), but by faith. God doesn’t give because of anything we do.

James 1:5 (NKJV)

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all LIBERALLY and WITHOUT REPROACH, and it will be given to him.  

The word “liberally” means He gives without withholding and the phrase “without reproach” means He does not prequalify those He gives to (i.e. see if they’ve been deserving or not). So God gives healing as a GIFT—FREELY, UNDESERVEDLY, UNMERITORIOUSLY, without cost or payment, free of charge!

© Josh Banks Ministries. 2022.