This is the sixth column in a series on serving others. Today we start by considering how we can serve Jesus. He gave us a list of six ways we can each serve him: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-36). All six of these kinds of service could be done by anyone—though Jesus warned that they are often not done by some. All six are acts of service to Jesus by serving others. In today’s column we will focus on #5: caring for the sick.
Christians have always been involved in caring for the sick.
How do we do this? The age-old answer—which is still good— is to take them chicken soup.
Perhaps the healing powers of chicken soup are overrated but it does have caring power. Soup assures that the ill are well fed and contented. Comforting the sick also includes simply sitting with them and praying with them. In addition to the sick, those needing care include the injured, the disabled, the elderly, and the mentally challenged.
An example of Christians caring for the sick was the deadly plague that struck Alexandria, Egypt, in the third century. Christians did not flee the city as others did, they stayed to serve. A historian of that time described their service, “Many of our brothers and sisters, compelled by deep love and compassion, selflessly tended to the sick. Laying aside all fear, they visited the ill, cared for them, and provided for every need in the name of Christ. In doing so, they often contracted the disease themselves and died alongside those they served” (Eusebius, 4th century).
As that historical account tells, caring for the sick begins with love and compassion—and it may involve some risk. The Bible gives us two examples, one good, one bad, of how to care for the sick.
First the good example: In answer to the question of “Who is my neighbor?” meaning the one to be loved as myself, Jesus told a parable we call the Good Samaritan. The story begins with the mugging of a traveller who was left beside the road to suffer.
Two religious officials saw him, but passed by on the other side.
We might say that by choosing not to help this man they also chose not to help Jesus. But another traveller, a Samaritan, a foreigner, stopped to help. He understood the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) better than the Jewish officials did! The Samaritan did not know the victim, but he stopped to help, he treated his injuries and took him to an inn where he paid for his room and board and medical costs, and he committed himself to paying more if needed. The Samaritan showed kindness to the injured man—and in so doing he also showed kindness to Jesus. Jesus ended this story by telling us to be like the Samaritan (Luke 10:37).
But the Bible also gives a bad example regarding care for the sick: the account of Job’s suffering and the “care” offered by his friends (Job 3-37): they blamed Job for being responsible for his troubles! They asserted that Job’s sickness was God’s punishment for some secret sin he had committed. Of course, they were totally wrong, and their false accusations made Job’s sufferings even worse.
Sadly, such harmful advice still happens. We may assume that our own good health is proof of God’s blessing, or, like Job’s friends, we might assume that someone else’s disease is proof of some unrepented sin in their life. Lynn Eib, who leads a cancer support group, tells this true story of one member of her group: “My friend Kristie expected to get some words of healing and blessing when she went to talk to her priest shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer just before her fortieth birthday. Instead, her priest said, ‘You deserved this. You’ve done something wrong, something bad, and this is God’s way of showing you that.’ He was adamant about it.”
Hopefully, Kristie found a different counselor to give her more theologically-correct and more sympathetic words of encouragement!
A similar response is by those who counsel Christians who are seriously ill that they just need to have more faith so that God will heal them. In other words, such counselors are saying, “Your suffering is your own fault”—just like Job’s friends counseled him.
We shouldn’t claim to know the reasons why God allows sickness in our own lives, much less in the lives of others. We all need to stop playing God!
We need to trust that the God who administers the whole universe knows what he is doing— even when we don’t know. By prayer we can place the sick into his caring hands, and trust him.
But trusting is not a magic key to deliverance from sorrow and sickness—it wasn’t for Job.
Words of sympathy, acts of kindness, and praying with them are ways to care for the sick. But the Bible also speaks about miracles of healing. In next week’s column we will look at healing the sick.
Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe.
Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current part-time roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell. Please visit his website at reflections-on-wisdom. com.