Why Do We Get Sick?

There are so many sick people. Why? Of course there are numerous answers to the question. For instance, those who embrace the emerging science of Darwinian medicine argue that illness is part and parcel of the evolutionary system. Sickness actually helps us to evolve towards a better adaptation to our environment. We are adapting by natural selection. So those who have a tendency toward child abuse are probably influenced by evolution and the passing on of genes!

First century Jewish people in Galilee and Judea had theories about sickness almost as outlandish as those of current Darwinian medicine folks. They connected sickness and disabilities directly to a person's sins or to the sins of his/her parents.

As he (Jesus) passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." - Jhn 9:1-5 ESV

Of course we all know that there can be a direct connection between sin and sickness. We sin against one another. A mother on drugs ends up with a baby addicted to cocaine. Children abused by their parents become themselves abusers. Many illnesses are directly related to poor diet. The list goes on and on. But dare we say that God causes sickness as a punishment for the person's sins? What a frightening thought. We'll come back to that later as we look in depth at Jesus' promise to bring light to the world—also in this arena. For now, a little background to modern thinking about sickness.

Ancient Greek physicians, like Hippocrates and Galen advanced the concept of humorism, a theory which held that we get sick from imbalances of the four basic substances within the human body, which they identified as blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. Health or eucrasia was associated with a balance of these humors,. The qualities of the humors, in turn, influenced the nature of the diseases they caused. Yellow bile caused warm diseases and phlegm caused cold diseases. These theories led to such practices as blood-letting by cutting or with leeches in order to balance the humors. Incidentally the traditional red and white striped poles—representing blood and bandages—can still occasionally be seen outside barber shops. Barbers were also blood letters. All this is a fascinating reminder that these medical beliefs and practices didn't finally die out until the late 1800s.

This thinking also influenced medieval doctors to group each person into one of four temperaments, based upon the dominance and combinations of the four humors. Thus they concluded a person was either sanguine, choleric, melancholic or phlegmatic. In turn, these bodily dispositions determined a person's susceptibility to particular diseases, as well as being inclined toward certain behaviors and emotions. The causal link between bodily fluids and health has not stood the test of time. However, the analysis of the four temperaments as a personality model has. The Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory is a dominant modern example. Stephen Montgomery, an English teacher, in a spin on the Myers-Briggs personality types (People Patterns: A Popular Culture Intro. to Personality Types), even connects them to Ezekiel's vision of the four creatures.

As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. - Eze 1:10 ESV

There does indeed seem to be a strong correlation between personality and sickness. So today we often speak about psycho-somatic illnesses. I will not attempt to go into detail other than to point out that almost all physical illnesses have mental and psychological factors that determine their onset, how they present, maintain and are resolved. Psychological factors also make one susceptible to various illnesses. Psychosomatic medicine is considered a subspecialty of the fields of psychiatry and neurology.

Finally, there are those who claim that the New Testament teaches that all sickness comes from the devil. So Peter proclaimed to the household of Cornelius.

As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. - Act 10:36-38 ESV

Jesus himself said the same thing as he healed a woman bent over for 18 years.

Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" - Luk 13:15-16 ESV

I shall leave modern medicine and modern psychology to ponder their own theories about why we get sick. What interests me more is the spiritual question. Does the devil indeed cause all sickness? More on that in my next posts.