Advent Devotional - December 20, 2016

“Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! / Hail the Sun of Righteousness! / Light and life to all He brings / Ris’n with healing in His wings”

-Hark the Herald Angels Sing

There’s this wonderful line near the end of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. After a fierce battle, many injured men and women are suffering under a severe illness that cannot be cured by normal means. As she looks around at the wounded, Ioreth, the eldest woman who worked in the sick house, longs for a king to come and help, “For it is said in old lore, ‘The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.’ And so the rightful king could ever be known.” In other words, if only there were a king, he would know what to do. He would heal these sick and wounded.

Ioreth spoke more than she knew. It’s true not only in Middle Earth, but in reality: “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.” We have doctors and nurses who do amazing work, but who ultimately only patch things up as our bodies continue to decay. But as Jesus ministered here on earth, His miraculous healings were not only signs of His compassion. They served as signs that He was indeed the King who had the power over nature, disease, and death itself. Even more so, as He rose from the grave, He now offers healing to all who come to Him. Hope that was lost is now found, not just for His generation or His tribe only, but for all people. King Jesus offers light, life, and healing. And so as we look to him, we say with Micah 4:2, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”