Christological Titles – Divine Physician
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come not to call the righteous but the sinner to repentance.
Luke 5:31-32
I had a very pleasant family physician when I was living in Erie, Pennsylvania. I went to his office one morning to have a small growth removed by electric needle. He came into the examining room, and as was his custom, he sat and conversed for a few minutes. He then got up from his stool and took my blood pressure, checked my temperature, then my reflexes, continuing to systematically examine all the significant parts of my anatomy. I felt as if I was having a yearly physical; instead, I was transfixed by the thoroughness of his preparation for what was seemingly such a benign and routine procedure. He then sat down, we spoke for a few minutes, and then he pronounced me to be in perfect health.
As he was getting up to leave, I asked him when he was going to perform the procedure for which I made the appointment. He looked at me inquisitively, studied his chart, realizing the appointment wasn’t for a scheduled physical. Somewhere between checking my ears and hammering my kneecaps I should have inquired what he was about. Though, like most people, I held my physician in such high esteem that silence was my usual course of action.
Physicians, from the earliest documents in recorded history, have been individuals of respect. The pedestal on which we place them is acceptable, considering the skill and knowledge required to be a healer.
Hippocrates (ca 460 B.C.E. – ca 370 B.C.E.) is considered the Father of Medicine. He tried to dispel the myth that illness was not punishment inflicted by supernatural or divine forces, but instead a result of environmental factors. He wrote the Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of seventy medical essays. The most notable article, and the one most familiar to us, is the Hippocratic Oath, which addresses the ethical practice of medicine. The line that is most often quoted reads, “The regimen I adopt shall be for the benefit of the patients to the best of my power and judgment, not for their injury or for any wrongful purpose.”
It would have been good if Hippocrates method of scientific inquiry was universally instituted, but the power of religion, superstition, and myth is hard to dispel, even in the twenty-first century.
Superstition was the case among the Jewish people at the time when Hippocrates developed his standard for scientific inquiry and ethical medical treatment. In the Jewish world there were two things that militated against the work of a physician. The first was Jewish theology. It was a basic tenet in Judaism that suffering was due to sin. Ill health and physical pain were God’s vengeance inflicted upon one who failed to remain obedient to the Torah. Physicians were often cursed by the public, for in trying to alleviate the distress of the sufferer the healer was interfering with God’s judgment upon an individual. The second hindrance to Jewish physicians was the lack of education. Dead bodies were deemed unclean to touch one would be declared ceremonial unclean. The result was that it was very difficult for Jewish doctors to acquire any skill in anatomy, for they could not dissect dead bodies without violating ceremonial law. Rigid orthodox Judaism regarded the physician as a man counteracting the decrees of God.
In the New Testament the word for salvation is soteria. Originally it was a secular word used by the Greeks to denote health, safety, security. In Greek mythology Soteria was the daughter of Zeus, the ruler of all gods. She was the personification of safety deliverance. Her image could only be looked upon by the priests. The word took on theological significance when it was used to inquire about the welfare of one’s soul. The Greek word soteria was translated in Latin as salva which means “to save,” and tio which means “tion,” so we derive our English word “salvation.” From the perspective of the New Testament authors, to be saved is to be healed.
It was into this cultural milieu of Judaism that Jesus made his pronouncement, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come not to call the righteous but the sinner to repentance.” (Lk 5:31-32) This was in response to the Pharisees complaint that Jesus associated himself with the sinners and outcasts of the community.
The Greek word for physician is phusikos, which is connected to the word phusis, which means “nature.” A physician is an individual whose studies nature, the very essence and bedrock of life. A physician is one who studies and understands an individual’s physical, emotional, and spiritual nature. Therefore Jesus, as the Divine Physician, understands an individual’s nature, and in so doing is enabled to deliver both body and soul.
This, of course, was one more affront to the Jewish authorities. In violation of all ceremonial law Jesus would reach out and embrace the untouchables of society. Further, he approached healing holistically, as physical illness was not the judgment of God, as well as spiritual illness was a soul being distanced from God. Jesus could not only cure, he could recreate. In this ministry the Kingdom of God was manifested.
In Mollie Dickenson’s book Thumbs Up, she described the courageous comeback of White House Press Secretary James Brady after he was felled by an assassin’s bullet. On Monday afternoon, March 30, 1981, John W. Hinckley Jr. stood next to the police line at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Concealed beneath his coat was a .22-caliber pistol, loaded with six Devastator bullets that are especially designed to explode into tiny fragments upon impact. His goal was to murder the President in order to impress his heart throb, actress Jodie Foster.
As the presidential party was leaving the hotel, Hinckley drew his revolver and began shooting. The first bullet fired struck Jim Brady in the middle of the left eyebrow. It exploded into 20 or 30 pieces, sending lead and bone fragments into his brain. Rushed by ambulance to George Washington University Hospital, he was placed under the care of neurosurgeon Dr. Arthur I. Kobrine, who immediately took the patient into surgery for an operation that lasted four and a half hours. At the completion of the operation Kobrine believed that Brady would die, or at best, wake up totally depersonalized.
Brady was placed in the care of nurse Alison Griswold. Even though the prognosis on her patient was grave, she refused to give up hope. All through the night she worked with Brady, and after hours of effort was able to get him to move his right arm and leg. When Kobrine and his staff made their morning rounds, they refused to believe Griswold’s report. They concluded she was tired, too emotionally involved with the patient, only imagining a response, for Brady was not even expected to regain consciousness for ten days.
Determined to prove otherwise, Griswold went to Brady’s side and shouted, “Jim, shake your fist,” shaking her own fist in frustration. Brady responded to the command and shook his fist. Then Griswold instructed, “Now, give them the thumbs up sign.” And to the amazement of the physicians Brady signaled “thumbs up.” Brady knew that he would eventually recover from his wound.
Believing in the power of the Divine Physician who is able to restore both body and soul, we can live a thumbs up life.