The Hands of the King

There's a great moment towards the middle of The Return of the King (the book, not the movie) where Aragorn has finally returned to his throne at Gondor. He's just finished defending his city in The Battle of Pelennor Fields and though he's escaped unharmed, there are countless others who have not.

After the battle, he comes to the houses of healing where the wounded are. He doesn't come just to visit or boost morale but to heal them. Aragorn may primarily be a leader and warrior but as Tolkien explains in one of the most memorable lines from the trilogy, "The hands of a king are the hands of a healer."

The same is true in our lives. You don't get through this life unwounded. It's a 100% guarantee that you will be hurt and that the pain will often be deep enough to leave permanent wounds. Even Jesus experienced this. All through the Gospels He is constantly being missed and misunderstood by those who should have loved Him the most. Isaiah calls the Messiah "a man of sorrows."

The difference is that Jesus understood who His Father was. He understood that the hands of His King were the hands of a healer. And so well we constantly see Jesus hurt and wounded we also see Him constantly turning to His Father for healing.

Healing like this can only be found in intimacy with God, be letting Him speak into our lives and guide us through our wounds. It's something we've largely lost and forgotten as a church but it's something God always intended to be a normal and available part of the Christian walk.

Most of our problems with sin come because we don't understand this about God. If you don't turn to Him for healing you will turn to something else. And so healing becomes another way for God to rescue us from our sin and restore us to who we were always meant to be.

Rescue and restoration. That's what God is wanting to do in each of our lives. But we won't be able to receive the fullness of all He has for us until we begin to understand what J.R.R. Tolkien knew: the hands of a king, of our King, are the hands of a healer.