Curing vs. Healing

She came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak… Immediately her bleeding stopped…. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” …Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Mark 5:24-34

Often (in both the ancient and contemporary world) religious leaders focus on curing instead of healing. Jesus prefers the kind of healing that enables us to know God sees us and loves us and that includes restoring us to our social networks. This week, as we think about how Jesus interacted with those needing wholeness we’ll be listening in to some folks who have done a lot of thinking about disability theology.

Jesus’s ministry is not all about a physical cure but about holistic healing… ​​Curing is a physical process; it’s individual, usually (fairly) rapid, and concentrates on eliminating disease. Healing is a sociocultural process. It focuses on restoring interpersonal, social, and spiritual dimensions. It’s lengthy and ongoing because it’s a process of becoming whole…

…The difference might best be understood in trauma cases. If a soldier is shot, the bullet wounds can be sewn up, and infection from any lingering shrapnel can be treated with antibiotics. That’s curing. It resets the body to its physical state before the trauma occurred. But true healing might not occur until much later, when the soldier has processed the event and waded through the emotional labor of the aftermath. Healing is nonlinear. It takes time.

-        Amy Kenny, My Body Is Not a Prayer Request

In your own life, see if you can trace some of the distinctive between being physically cured vs being holistically healed. How might the Spirit be inviting you to look at your own healing and that of others as a holistic process?