Sermon: Physician, Heal Yourself: St Luke's Day

The saying, Physician, heal yourself, can be found in other places besides the dialogue between Jesus and the people of Nazareth. There was the Jewish proverb used by the Rabbis, Physician, heal your own limp. And an Arabic proverb, A doctor who cures other people and is himself ill. The Greek dramatist Euripides has the  line, He is a healer of others, but himself swells with sores. A slightly different line appears in the Gospel of Thomas, A healer does not treat his own parents. 

This last instance may seem to have the most reference to the situation being described in Luke 4. Jesus has returned to his home town of Nazareth to find a hostile reception among the people he had grown up with. They are annoyed that he has done great and famous deeds among the inhabitants of other towns, without honouring them in the same way. Surely, they argue, he ought to have made his gifts of healing available to his own kinsfolk and friends before spreading them around among strangers. 

The reason why Jesus has not done this is similar to that of the doctor's reluctance to treat himself or his family. It is easier to give medical treatment to a stranger, to someone with whom you are not emotionally involved in any way. Surgeons do not usually operate upon members of their own family, and they certainly do not operate upon themselves. They depend upon each other, and the one who has brought healing to many will come to the time when he must go to a colleague to ask for healing for himself or his dear ones. 

So Jesus has to acknowledge that no prophet is acknowledged in his own country. The familiarity which the Nazarenes have with him will inhibit his work among them, and others must accomplish it whilst he moves on elsewhere. 

The writer who conveys this story to us, and the saying about the physician which is its centre, was a physician himself - S.Luke. It was Luke's task to accompany S.Paul on his journeys across sea and land to bring the Christian good news to places where it had never been proclaimed before. This was an exacting vocation, partly because Paul had such a dramatic life. Luke was shipwrecked with him once, and also had to treat him in prison following his arrest. Partly also, because Paul's state of health was not good. He endured considerable hardship and rough treatment despite being small and frail and, by all accounts, suffering over many years from a serious eye complaint which greatly restricted his vision. Luke stayed with Paul and saw him through his bouts of illness and nervous collapse, and in so doing he made a vast contribution to the progress of the Christian Church in the world. 

But Luke's fame does not rest only upon this. He was the author of two New Testament books, the Gospel according to S.Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. In both he shows himself a good physician, for he recommends to us the best medicine and urges us to await our recovery with patience. 

The medicine which Luke recommends is prayer. The emphasis given to prayer in his writings has often been remarked upon. In the Gospel, Jesus and the disciples pray together at every critical point in his earthly ministry. In the Acts, the early Church is conceived in prayer, and every new departure, every difficult challenge, is embarked upon with prayer. Mention of prayer is of course not absent from the other Gospels, but in Luke it is a major feature. Prayer is the medicine which the good doctor prescribes for the Church, to be taken often and in generous measure. 

Again, as a careful doctor Luke does not wish the Church to become impatient, to get ahead of itself and try to do too much too soon. He wrote his Gospel just at the time when the expectation of the earliest Christians that their Lord would return soon from heaven was beginning to wear thin, and many were losing their first faith and enthusiasm. His achievement was to replan the agenda, to enlarge the perspective, to set the ongoing purpose of God in a longer time scale, so that the hope of the return of Christ in the last days was by no means abandoned, but it was understood in a way that encouraged the Church to be patient, and to continue their discipleship in this world quietly, without panic or unease. 

The proverb was true. It is difficult for a physician to heal himself or those closest to him. When self-help fails us, when our own resources run dry, it is good to turn to the writings of Luke. He will direct us back to prayer, the indispensable means of access to the healing power of God in body, mind and spirit. And he will soothe away our anxious impatience by resetting the framework of our faith so that we are better able to appreciate the unfolding of God's kingdom in God's good time, and to relax in patient assurance that all will be well.