The Lost Gift

Mary Smith was frail and elderly when she was visited by the priest of the local parsonage. It was the late 1800s in Britain and Mary was living in a small cottage that was literally falling apart. Years earlier she had been an upstairs maid at the estate house of the local nobility.

Happy to have a visitor, Mary recounted her years of service at the “great house,” and the many kindnesses shown to her by Lady W. There was always a Christmas bonus and she lived downstairs in comfortable maid’s quarters taking her meals in the staff kitchen.

As she talked, the priest noticed a single picture frame hanging on the wall. “Oh yes,” Mary replied when asked about it. “When Lady W died 20 years ago, there was no further need of my services. They gave me a wonderful gift of 20 pounds and that lovely certificate. So I framed it and hung it on my wall.”

Upon close inspection the priest discovered that the “certificate” was actually a legal document bequeathing to Mary Smith a generous annual living allowance. He asked Mary if she had ever read her “certificate.” “Why of course not, Father, for I never learned to read. But it's a beautiful certificate so I wanted to hang it.”

Mary had been living in abject poverty for 20 years while a document hung on her wall that would have provided her with a comfortable home and everything she needed. But being illiterate, she had lost the gift through ignorance.

Over the years, I have run into various versions of this story. My guess is there never was a Mary Smith, but the story illustrates a great point. It is possible to lose an important gift simply because we are not aware of its availability.

Unfortunately, for many years the Church lost an important gift provided by Christ's death on the cross. We knew that Jesus died for our salvation, but we took only part of that gift. We were taught that salvation provides for the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with Father God. But many Christians still don't realize that salvation also provides for our physical healing as well. They have lost an important gift because they have never understood everything that was included in their salvation.

Isaiah 53:4–5 gives this account of the gift of salvation. “Surely Jesus has borne our griefs, sicknesses, weaknesses and distresses, and carried our sorrows and pains of punishment. Yet we ignorantly considered Him stricken, smitten and afflicted by God. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement necessary to obtain peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole.”

This passage describes salvation as providing not only for forgiveness of sins, but for the healing of our bodies and emotions as well. It's a total package, but too often we have received only part of this gift. Christ demonstrated the total gift as He both forgave sin and physically healed people. Large crowds followed him and 22 times in the gospels we are told that “Jesus healed them all.”

At HRock Church, we are determined to receive the whole gift of salvation, including physical healing. Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM for a continuation of our series on Healing the Sick. My sermon this week is “How to Effectively Pray for the Sick.”

We also invite you to our new service on Sundays at 2:30 PM in which we are specifically focusing on the ministry of physical healing. Come and learn how to recover the lost gift!

Pastor Che