I didn’t intend to have a little series on ‘where have your friends gone’ in approaching the last of Paul’s writings before he was executed. If I hadn’t then I would have entitled this something like, ‘even the greatest apostle couldn’t heal everyone.’
“… and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.” (2 Timothy 4 v 20)
Trophimus was with Paul on his third missionary journey (Acts 20). He was with Paul in the Jerusalem riot (Acts 21). However, this devoted companion of this great apostle who had risked his own life for the gospel is left behind. He hasn’t walked away from the gospel or Paul. He hasn’t been unfaithful. He was left behind due to illness.
Paul the miracle worker who had handkerchiefs placed on him and then taken to the sick to be made well. Paul the miracle worker who did “extraordinary miracles” (Acts 19) Paul had the gift of healing. But when it came to his faithful friend and ministry partner, healing didn’t come.
It reminds us that:
- Healing isn’t earned.
- Healing is according to what God is purposing.
- Healing isn’t a science nor does it need explaining when it doesn’t happen.
- Paul doesn’t try and explain the reason why he wasn’t healed.
- Paul doesn’t blame Trophimus for a lack of faith.
- Paul doesn’t become derailed by healing not coming.
I was thinking the last few days of a lady I met who had survived the super-typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, in 2013. She was an amazing lady who had survived by standing under the only remaining part of her house, the door frame. I had met her in the ruins of her home and highlighting her story we raised money for a new home for her. Yesterday I heard she had died a few years ago with a stroke. I don’t understand why God saves us in a typhoon but we die from an illness later. But it isn’t something new. Paul also knew these thoughts.
We don’t know what happened to Trophimus after Paul left Miletus. Did he eventually recover? Did he die from his illness? The silence is itself instructive. Not every story has a neat resolution. Not every prayer receives the answer we seek. Yet God’s purposes continue to unfold, often in ways we cannot see.
Trophimus, a disciple of Christ, a ministry partner of the apostle, remaining sick, speaks loudly to so many today. This is authentic faith. A faith that remains when the healing doesn’t come.
Missions Paul 