Yeah, that is not the greatest question ever posed. It is sort of like asking if God gets more glory in seeing us delivered out of a situation or suffering through it? It really depends, does it not? In disability, infirmity, or weakness, is Jesus visibly seen? Could it be that in blindness, in hearing impairment, through inability to walk that God’s glory shines brightest?
Zacchaeus likely had an impairment the made him short. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts would have been cut off from the temple according to Old Testament law. Paul had an infirmity that would not leave. Each of these people did not get healed.
Well, maybe they were not healed in this life but in the age to come surely, they will be healed. Surely everyone will be restored to the way God intended them to be. Not so fast. Remember the Lord’s response to Moses when he said he could not speak well:
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4)?
Lest we believe that Satan has control over humans and is going around blinding and muting people, the Lord reminded Moses that He controls it all and even superintends disability.
Does the Lord heal? Yes. Dramatically and emphatically He does. Does Jesus give the Father glory as he heals those who are sick? Absolutely. Yet, there seems to be a place in God’s Kingdom for weakness. . . and perhaps it is more than a place but a centering stage.
Jesus this time:
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14)
Just a few verses prior, Jesus heals a man of dropsy that the Pharisees humiliated to try to make a religious point. Now, Jesus admonishes His listeners to welcome the disabled with no reference in sight that they will be healed. Quite the contrary, the Kingdom of God comes in power in their weakness.
Should we pray for people to get healed? Should we plead and keep banging on the door of heaven for infirmities to be taken away? Will all infirmities go away in heaven or will there somehow be a miracle of inclusion and appreciation for all people regardless of ability? Is able-ness the point of this whole discussion or is God’s glory far greater than the either or question I suggested at the start of the post?
Perhaps there is a different way to think about healing and disability. Perhaps the Spirit of God will captivate us with His imagination to allow for space for healing, disability, suffering, and deliverance to all be happening simultaneously where we all give praise to a glorious God. In weakness. In healing. In suffering. And in deliverance. God is bigger than our either or, tit for tat dance.
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