The human race is engaged in a constant battle against illness and disease. We hate what is does to us and we hate what it does to those we love. We hate the reminder that in the end we will lose. Of course we have our triumphs, our victories - some of them quite remarkable. But in the end the body decays, and what the Bible calls our 'last enemy', death itself, will claim us for his own. What hope do we have?

We thank God that we live at a time when so much progress has been made in taming disease. It is true that this control is not complete, but the steadily lengthening human life-span in so many places is evidence of our increasing understanding of nature, of the fact that we are exercising our role as God's image bearers.

We rightly seek to make these improvements available to all, and not merely to some, for all are made in God's image. We must see what can be done to meet the challenge of new plagues. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has affected over 40 million people, with families and communities devastated.

And yet, there is a limit. After all, total well-being is not attainable, even in wealthy countries. Medicines lose their power; new viruses appear; the aging process can be checked, but not reversed. We still harm ourselves and one another by inappropriate choices and addictions. We have discovered that physical health is insufficient without spiritual health as well. In the end comes death, which is a physical defeat with a profound negative spiritual meaning: after death comes judgement, as the Bible says. What hope do we have?

'And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases"'.

Jesus confronted disease, suffering and death. His encounter with the sick transformed their lives. For us it does two things: it summons us to compassion for the sick, and it lifts our spirits with hope for the future as well.

Thus, as with Jesus, so our hearts ache with pity when we ponder the reality of AIDS. We remember the devastation among men, but we also realise that, 'AIDS has a woman's face', that for so many women their lives are mercilessly desperate; or, we see the world's AIDS orphans battling for survival, with so many in 'child-headed families' after the loss of their parents to this dreaded scourge.

It is a situation that as global citizens, as people of the Commonwealth, we cannot tolerate. We must continue to ensure that there is a vision for a better future, and hope for those who are victims. Through Jesus, God has made it clear that he seeks such a response.

The essential purpose of Jesus was to bring forgiveness, peace between God and humanity, by dying for us on the cross. But human suffering through disease always moved him to pity and mercy because human misery and human failure are interconnected. In this brief passage we see him confronting human suffering of a physical and a spiritual kind. In doing so, he shows us both what we are to do, and what the world is to be.

Peter's mother-in-law was not just feeling 'off' as we may say; she was very seriously ill; indeed she was under the shadow of death itself. She had no future and all around her must have been in despair. When we see Jesus raising her back to health and service, with a touch, it tells us that it is the intention of God, through Jesus, to defeat sickness and evil and death itself in the new heavens and the new earth which God is going to create.

Likewise, those 'oppressed by demons' had a deep spiritual affliction; the demons were probably understood to be spirits of the dead, unable to find peace in the after-life. Now they were oppressing their victims. Once again, Jesus meets human need with compassion; once again he lifts a burden with a word; once again he is giving us a taste of what God is planning to do with this whole afflicted creation, in which death stands for human defeat and despair.

Hundreds of years before, the prophet Isaiah foresaw such a ministry: 'He took our illnesses and bore our diseases'. Jesus is certainly credited with a massive attack on human suffering and so a powerful summons to us that we too are to be involved in bringing relief and healing. But the patients healed by Jesus all died; this outbreak of health passed with him. Is there hope for something better, deeper, enduring?

The clue is in those words, 'He took our illnesses...', that is he took up and carried the whole burden of our illnesses. In life, Jesus brought healing. But these words point to his death, by which, he bundled together our physical and spiritual ills, our death and our judgement, and brought the healing power of forgiveness into our relationship with God. That was his great achievement and that is why the Bible sees him as the great Physician. He carried the burden of human sin and guilt and judgement for us.

Certainly the advances we have made in health are truly wonderful and we thank God for them; certainly we are bound by the example of Jesus to share this health with all who are made in the image of God; in the end, however, the final healing lies ahead of us in the kingdom of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, and it is made possible by his death on the cross.

All through my life, whenever I have been sick, the doctor has told me what I must do to cure any illness. But recently, she simply shook her head and said, 'we can help a little, but your problem is aging. Your health is simply not as good as it was, and it never will be again.' Here is a telling reminder that I will not live for ever; that before me lies death and judgement. What hope do I have?

What hope do I have? Jesus Christ is my hope - I know what he thinks of suffering and death and disease; I know what he plans to do to defeat these evils; I know what he has done for me in bearing the burden of my guilt and shame; I know that he was resurrected from the dead. I plan to keep trusting him with my future, as I trust him every day with my life. God's word tells us that there is no better hope than him!

ENDS