Christ Church Sermon, Unsung: Healing, September 27th, 2026

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>> Good morning.

Today's

scripture is Galatians 6:1-2.

Galatians 6:1–2

Brothers and sisters,

if someone is caught in a sin,

you who live by the spirit

should restore that person gently.

But watch yourselves,

or you also may be tempted.

Carry each other's burdens,

and in this way,

you will fulfill fulfill the law of

Christ.

Hear what the spirit is saying to the

church.

>> Thanks be to God.

>> Thank you, Marnell.

Somewhere back around the time that

televangelists claimed to be able to

miraculously do it, healing began to get

a bad rap in the church.

People really latched onto the idea that

one human could channel the power of God

to heal someone else, and they bought in

hard. '70s and '80s was the time for it.

They gave their money to these healers,

only to be left with empty wallets and

empty hearts when the fraud was

discovered and tearful confessions were

made.

And although we're only talking about

physical healing with regards to

televangelists, I think the damage to

the subject of healing at that point,

healing of all kinds, was done.

All of this played a role in landing

healing on our unsung list of

discipleship traits. Those that don't

get as much attention as others, but as

we've seen with other traits in this

series, just because an attribute

doesn't get the most attention, or in

this case gets attention for all the

wrong reasons,

doesn't make it any less important.

Healing is a critical trait for

followers of Jesus to have. Important

enough that we have to put aside our

preconceived ideas and biases about

healing and embrace the idea that we can

participate in helping someone else to

heal.

As I just said, there are different

kinds of healing, and today we're

actually going to be talking about

spiritual healing, the restoration of a

person who has been caught in a sin.

And while only Jesus can set us free

from sin, that doesn't mean the rest of

us are off the hook.

We are called to be Jesus's hands and

feet to help facilitate that spiritual

healing process.

So, how do we do that?

Today's scripture that you just heard

tells us to be gentle in how we help, to

carry another's burdens. And when we do

that, we're fulfilling the law of

Christ.

Which naturally begs the question, well,

what's the law of Christ?

Remember the Old Testament had a lot of

laws, but when Jesus came, he said it

boiled down to really one thing.

"A new command I give you," he said,

"love one another. As I have loved you,

so you must love one another. By this,

everyone will know that you are my

disciples if you love one another."

So important, he said it three times in

two verses. Love one another.

The law of Christ is simply love.

In order to help restore someone from

sin, in order to help them heal, we need

to walk with them, treat them gently,

carry for them some of the weight that

they are experiencing. Helping someone

to heal is a form of love.

Now, the great thing about Jesus is that

he didn't just tell us how to live,

he showed us how to live, including

showing us how to help someone heal.

Many of you probably already know the

story of the woman at the well. If you

don't, or you need a refresher, let me

tell you a condensed version of that

story.

After he began his public ministry, but

before he was well-known, Jesus was

traveling alone through a small town

where he came upon a well. It was about

noon time, and he sat down for a break.

While he was there, a woman walked over

to the well to draw water from it. No

one else was around. It was just the two

of them, and Jesus asked her for a

drink.

The woman said no.

She was a Samaritan, he was a Jew, and

she knew the rules. The two did not mix,

even over a drink of water.

Jesus' reply to the woman in the face of

her rejection was to offer her living

water.

He went on to explain that the water

from the well would never quench her

true thirst. But once people had a taste

of that living water, they'll never be

thirsty again.

Intrigued, the woman asked Jesus for

that living water.

But instead of offering it to her, Jesus

asked her question.

He actually told her to call her

husband.

To which the woman replied, "I have no

husband."

And then Jesus told her he was right,

and he told her about her life.

He told her that she didn't have one

husband, that she had actually had five,

and that the man that she was currently

living with at that time was not

actually one of those five men.

Making that revelation probably put the

woman's guard up.

This man knew about her sin and her

shame.

Was he going to judge her like everyone

else did?

He did not.

Instead, Jesus met her exactly where she

was, both physically at that well and

spiritually in her soul.

He stayed with her. He talked with her.

This woman had been trying to fill a

spiritual thirst with empty

relationships and Jesus knew that only a

relationship with him could quench that

real thirst.

So when she told him that she knew that

this Messiah was going to come and that

that Messiah would explain everything,

telling her everything, it was then that

he revealed to her who he really was

with three simple words.

I am he.

I want you to think about for just a

what happened in that moment with this

woman.

I want you to imagine a little bit how

the look on her face must have changed

when she realized who she had been

speaking with this entire time.

After having experienced years of pain

and shame, picture the light coming back

into her eyes as she began to comprehend

that the real Messiah, the one her

people had been talking about for so

many years, was sitting in front of her.

And that he had just healed her by

freeing her from the sins of her past.

So let's take a look at this scenario.

How did Jesus heal this woman?

First, Jesus was present.

The stop at the well really should have

been a very quick stop on a much larger

journey, but Jesus did not rush off when

he saw the woman coming.

Instead, he sat with her.

He spent precious time with her. He

openly acknowledged her past and when

others refused to associate with her, he

refused to leave.

Second,

Jesus started the conversation.

This healing moment does not happen

unless Jesus starts talking first.

Societal norms at that time would have

kept the woman from talking to him and

even if they didn't,

why would she, with the past that she

had, start a conversation with anything

what anyone? What would she have to gain

by talking to a strange man at a well?

If Jesus did not initiate that

discussion, the woman would likely have

drawn her water and left and then

healing doesn't happen.

Third,

Jesus listened.

Jesus didn't need this woman to tell him

her story because he already knew it.

But still he listened when she confirmed

that story and when she went on to voice

her skepticism and concern about what he

was saying to her.

Sometimes just the act of saying or

confessing something out loud sets a

person on the path to healing.

Sins are acknowledged.

And as we've talked about before what

when we bring things from the dark into

the light they lose their power and

healing can begin.

The fourth thing Jesus did in this

conversation was that he refused to

shame her.

In this encounter the savior of the

world is sitting across from a woman who

has broken so many rules that she is an

outcast.

The likely reason she's at the well at

noon to begin with is because she

probably didn't want to deal with the

judgment of the other women who would

have come to the well to draw their

water earlier in the morning when it

would not have been as hot and it would

have been an easier task. And so instead

she chose to go in the heat of day

because who wants to be around people

who make us feel bad for our sins or for

needing healing?

Jesus reacted totally differently than

what she might have expected.

He did not shame her.

And in refusing to shame her Jesus also

refused to weaponize the truth of her

story against her.

Instead he allowed her truth to set her

free without shame or blame

so that the healing could reach the

deepest parts of her soul.

There's a saying in the world of

psychology.

And it is that hurt people hurt people.

What that implies is that once a person

has been hurt, their instinctual

tendency becomes to hurt someone else

before that person can hurt them again.

I think most of us have seen that theory

tested and proven true throughout the

course of our lives.

But what I want to ask you this morning

is what do you think happens to that

concept of hurt people hurt people when

healing is introduced? When healing

enters the picture? What happens when a

hurt person is offered presence, an

honest conversation, a listening ear,

and response without shame?

After Jesus told the woman at the well

that he was in fact the Messiah, that he

knew all the sins of her past and still

offered her the living water that healed

her soul, this is what scripture says

happened next.

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman

went back to the town and said to the

people, "Come, see a man who told me

everything I ever did. Could this be the

Messiah?"

And they came out of the town and made

their way toward him.

Healing changed the complete trajectory

of this woman's life.

In the course of that conversation with

Jesus, the woman went from isolation to

inclusion, from desperation to joy, from

broken to whole.

And when she experienced healing like

that, she could not help but share that

experience with others. She couldn't

keep it to herself. She abandoned her

water jar at the well, and she

immediately headed back to town to share

the transformation of transformational

message of healing that she had

experienced.

She went from being a hurt person who,

based on how she initially responded to

Jesus and talked with Jesus, was

arguably ready for a fight.

Ready to hurt in the way that she had

been hurt so many times.

And she went from that to someone who

was ready to spread the good news of

Jesus Christ to the world.

Scripture goes on to say even further

that many of the Samaritans from that

town believed in Jesus because of the

woman's testimony.

Hurt people hurt people

doesn't always have to be true.

Instead, when healing enters the

picture, now we see something different.

Hurt people heal

people.

After her encounter with Jesus, the

woman at the well no longer hid from her

past or other people.

Instead, she used that experience to

start others on the path of healing. She

told her story, she owned it, and she

told people about Jesus so that they

could experience healing.

Hurt people heal people.

Only Jesus can heal sins. We know this.

But what we can take from this story as

a model of how to treat others who are

hurting.

How to help them get started on the path

of healing.

A few years ago, a friend of mine

experienced a time of significant trauma

in her life.

It was one of those times, as she

described it, where everything fell

apart at once.

She was hurt, she was lost, she was not

sure where to turn or who to turn to,

and who she could depend on.

She struggled to stay focused enough to

do basic tasks like put a meal on the

table for her family.

It was hard to do her job.

It was hard to make sure her kids were

okay and keep life going for them, all

while feeling totally uncertain if she

was even going to make it through this

crisis.

It was one of those times, she said,

where it was all she could do to keep

her head above water.

And she had chosen not to confide in too

many people for a variety of reasons,

but one of the people who did know, who

she did talk to,

was her boss.

and listen to how things were going.

A couple of weeks after everything fell

apart, her boss walked into her office

and sat down as he had been doing.

But this time the visit was different.

He looked at her and he told her to go

home.

He told her to take the next 2 weeks

off, paid, not using vacation time, just

go.

He told her that the parts of her job

that needed to be covered would be

covered by other people in the office.

He said her top priority for those 2

weeks was her healing.

He told her that the office needed her a

lot,

but they needed her well.

And so he gave her that time to focus on

healing for herself and for her family.

In a time where she could not articulate

what she even needed to start healing,

he knew it. He knew what she needed and

he willingly provided it.

She listened and she took time off.

And when she returned to work 2 weeks

later, she was stronger,

not totally healed,

but she was on the path to healing, a

place she had not been before the gift

of those 2 weeks.

She was still a hurt person,

but she was able to face the day again,

ready to do her job and ready to start

offering healing through her struggles.

Today, when she talks about that

difficult time,

she will openly say that her boss in

many ways saved her life. Those are her

words.

She'll say that she was so hurt that

healing seemed like an impossibility.

She didn't even know how to ask for

help.

But her boss's presence,

the conversations,

the listening, the lack of judgement for

what she was experiencing, and the grace

that ran through it all,

helped healing to begin.

Remember our scripture from today.

Carry one another's burdens and so

fulfill the law of Christ.

What the scripture does not explicitly

say though and what I think it's really

important to point out is that it is not

easy to carry another person's burdens.

Walking hurt people through a crisis is

hard work

and it often requires self-sacrifice.

It requires focusing on someone else

more than you focus on yourself, a

desire to put someone else's healing

above your own needs or your own plans.

It is so much easier to walk away from

that.

Jesus didn't have to engage in that

healing conversation with the woman at

the well,

but he did.

He chose to sit with her and he took her

shame and her sin on his shoulder so

that she didn't have to carry it

anymore.

And in doing so, he showed her and us

what it means to fulfill his law,

which again is love.

My friend's boss did not have to give

her time off.

He could easily have told her to suck it

up while she was at work and deal with

her personal stuff on her own time and

he would have been within his rights to

do that.

Instead, he covered for her at meetings,

explained her absence in vague enough

terms to keep questions at bay and even

offered to drive her children around so

if she needed help.

In other words, he picked up her burdens

and he carried them for her.

And in doing so, he fulfilled the law of

Christ.

When we are willing to do it,

when we are willing to stay when it is

difficult,

when we are willing to listen to someone

else's pain, to meet their needs without

blame or shame,

in other words, when we are willing to

be the hands and feet of Jesus to

someone who is hurting, lives change.

Jesus' law is fulfilled.

And hurt people begin to heal.

All of us will have to deal with hurt at

some point in our lives.

Some of us are in the middle of it right

now.

If that is you,

look for someone who is willing to love

you like Jesus and carry some of your

burdens for you.

I promise you, God will provide.

And if you look around your life and you

do not see anyone who can do that for

you, please call the church.

Please call the church anytime day or

night and we will stand with you.

Some of us have been hurt in the past

and are slowly starting to heal.

If that's you,

keep leaning on the healing that God is

providing and trust him and those he

puts in your life to sustain you when

you go through those rough periods.

For still others, the hurt that we have

experienced may be a distant memory now

in our past.

If that is you,

remember that hurt people heal people.

Remember how God and others got you

through your season of hurt

and do for others what was done for you.

Reach out and help someone else start

healing.

Televangelists made healing look really

easy,

but they lied.

Real healing takes time and connection

and the Holy Spirit and work and someone

willing to walk alongside a hurting

person.

It is a hard, hard journey.

But when healing happens

and if we fulfill the law of Christ, it

will.

It makes every step of that journey

worthwhile.

Let us pray.

God, for those

of us who are in the midst

of hurting right now,

we pray for [music] healing.

We pray for those of us who are not

experiencing hurt to be your presence

to help facilitate healing.

There are so many hurting people in this

world, God, and for those of us who

understand our role as Christians to

help facilitate that healing, give us

the strength and give us the courage to

be

>> [music]

>> your hands and your feet. Give us the

strength and give us the courage to go

out and to help those who are hurting

[music]

to help them heal.

To show your love through the ways that

we carry each other's burdens.

To show your grace in the ways that we

interact with one another without shame

or blame.

Guide us,

prompt us,

and help us to listen to that so that we

can be a part of your miraculous

healing.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen.