Suffering, sickness and death are alien incursions into our world. They were not part of God’s good design for humanity. Instead they belong to the Curse. But while they are painful realities in our fallen world, when Jesus began to announce the coming of God’s kingdom, he began to reverse the effects of sickness (and even of death) and to heal those who were suffering (eg. Luke 4:40). Whether it be healing those with a fever, opening the eyes of the blind, enabling the lame to walk or healing the leper, Jesus not only displayed power over sickness, but that it has no place in God’s kingdom, and ultimately we look forward to a time when it is forever banished, to the day when “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more…for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
To heal the sick, therefore, is Kingdom work, and Christian tradition has seen many believers look to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, including through medical work. Indeed, the Bible records that Luke himself was a doctor (Colossians 4:14). Christians, led by Basil of Caesarea, founded the first ever hospitals in the 4th Century AD – previously medical care had been provided by private doctors to those who could afford it, but Christians offered medical care to all, free of charge – and eventually Charlemagne ordered that cathedrals must have hospitals attached to them. Today, Christians continue to pioneer within medicine, such as Cicely Saunders founding the hospice movement, and leading in the development of palliative care.
So far, so uncontroversial. But questions as to how we might live this out today are more unclear. The UK operates with a government-funded healthcare provider (the National Health Service) which is free at the point of use (unlike, for instance, America). But rarely does a week go by without headlines about the NHS being at the point of collapse, or the waiting lists being too long; in response, many who have the financial means understandably instead pay for private healthcare to obtain treatment. These problems are likely to develop further with an increasingly ageing population, and more government money goes on healthcare than any other area (with the figure rising all the time, and not, seemingly, making an indent into the difficulties).
In response, we might want to lay out three key principles to shape our thinking: the value of humans, the need to look to the Bible, and the need to look after the poor.
Although monetary value is assigned to healthcare, humans themselves are “made in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) and are imbued with inherent dignity and infinite worth. This does not mean that we look to extend life artificially – for God has “ordained all of our days in his book” (Psalm 139:16) – but it does suggest that providing quality healthcare for everyone, whether young or old, male or female, or disabled or able-bodied, should be an economic priority for our nation, even though the cost may be high.
Secondly, we must look to the Bible to see what good healthcare looks like. For not everyone today agrees on what healthcare is. Today, some activists would claim that “abortion is healthcare”, that older people should be allowed to procure their own deaths through the introduction of Assisted Suicide legislation, and that young people who are questioning their gender should be put onto puberty blockers and other medicalised pathways. Healthcare is, sadly, not a neutral area: there are areas of it which as Christians, we might want to speak into, rooted in God’s word, as our nation navigates complex ethical dilemmas.
Finally, as in every area of life, it ought to be a priority to ensure that healthcare is particularly accessible to those who are less well off. We know that God has a particular heart for the poor, and for all those who are furthest from justice; this heart was baked into Old Testament law, which included various measures which were for the benefit of those in poverty, and Old Testament Israel was criticised whenever the poor were forgotten, such as by the prophets. Jesus said that he has come to “proclaim good news to the poor”, in his first public sermon which laid out his agenda to bring the kingdom of God. Whether our model for healthcare is a fully public service, or whether we have a mixture of public healthcare and private healthcare, it is a priority to ensure that the poor and the vulnerable have access to the care that they need.
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17If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
