This is the week in which we celebrate the Feast of St Luke. St Paul speaks of Luke as the ‘beloved physician’, and as such Luke is venerated as the patron saint of doctors and nurses. It’s a good time to give thanks for the skill and dedication of the doctors, nurses and other carers who work in our healthcare system.
One of the better-known phrases in Luke’s Gospel is usually quoted in the language of the King James Version: ‘Physician, heal thyself’. Jesus had returned to his hometown of Nazareth, having already performed many miracles at Capernaum. At first he was well-received by the worshippers in the synagogue: their ‘eyes were fastened on him’ and they ‘wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth’.
But then they recognised him: this is no messiah – he’s only the son of Joseph the carpenter! It was then that Jesus foretold how they would test him: ‘Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country’. But people who knew you in short trousers don’t believe you can perform miracles. As Jesus said, ‘No prophet is accepted in his own country’. And sure enough, they chased him out of town to the brow of a hill so that they might throw him off. On this occasion, however, Jesus got away through the crowd.
Of course we should place our trust in the doctors and nurses who treat our illnesses, but how are we really healed? In Nazareth, Jesus had shown that, without faith, miracles will not happen. If we really want to be healed, we may have to look closer to home than we had dared to believe. We need to have faith in Joseph’s boy, the one covered in sawdust.
Duncan McCall
