6. The Healings of Jesus

The world is obsessed with health. In every century the physician or healer has always been a significant person in the community. But this century more than any other has been obsessed with the wholeness of body and mind, accepting health care as a basic right. We even believe that our governments should pay us to be kept well.

In the first century, there was no Medicare program, but doctors were valued highly. Jewish people were told to pray for physicians, 1 and a good physician was a valued man in any community. Jesus quickly become known as ‘the great physician.’ 2

Luke, one of the earliest of the people to record the life of Jesus, was a medical doctor himself and therefore took a vital professional interest in the healings of Jesus. 3 Although Jesus developed a reputation as one who could heal people ‘from all their diseases’, the remarkable thing is that Jesus did not seem to promote that image himself. 4 Instead he sought privacy, departing to lonely places for personal prayer and discussions with his disciples.

In his first sermon at Nazareth, Jesus indicated that ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me’ and that ‘He has chosen me to bring good news to the poor.’ 5 There he announced his ministry objectives as, in part, ‘to proclaim…recovery of sight to the blind and to announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.’ 6 These two functions were intertwined in the Old Testament in the role of physician and priest. We were to pray – the priestly function – and God would heal us – the medical result. 7 Psalm 103 says: ‘Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget how kind he is. He forgives all my sins and heals all my disease.’ 8 The forgiveness of sin and the healing of disease are bound together. The very term ‘Saviour’ means to be made whole: Mentally, psychologically, physically and spiritually.

Four case studies

We do not know how many people Jesus healed altogether, although we have about thirty healings of individuals recorded in the four Gospels. These healings include relatives of the disciples. 9 As well we read of whole groups of people – large crowds, even townships, who followed Jesus, all clamouring to be healed. 10

Let us look at four healings that took place, typical of the types of diseases that Jesus healed.

(a) The ten lepers

Leprosy, or ‘Hansen’s Disease’, was one of the great scourges of the ancient world. The only form of treatment that was possible was ostracism from the rest of society. The Old Testament law, in Leviticus chapter 13, was very strict. Anybody having leprosy had to be cast out of the village – form their family and all personal relationships: ‘A person who has a dreaded skin disease must wear torn clothes, leave his hair uncombed, cover the lower part of his face and callout “Unclean! Unclean!” He remains unclean so long as he has the disease and he must live outside the camp, away from others.’ 11

The disease itself led to lack of feeling within the limbs. This in turn led to accidents and to disfigurement through boiling water, fire, or gnawing by rats of face or limbs while the person was asleep. Ugly nodules frequently resulted. It is not without significance that the healing of the ten lepers took place when Jesus was walking along the borders between Samaria and Galilee. 12 These people were found in the fringe areas, unwanted by all.

Jesus saw them and said to them, ‘Go and let the priests examine you.’ [This was the normal procedure if a person claimed to be healed.]

On the way they were made clean. When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. Jesus spoke up, ‘There were ten men who were healed; where are the other nine? Why is this foreigner the only one who came back to give thanks to God?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Get up and go; your faith has made you well.’ 13

It is apparent that this healing took place very quickly. The ten men were unaware they were healed except when they realised they were no longer sufferers from leprosy. The point Jesus wanted to make was that only one person – and a despised Samaritan at that – was sufficiently grateful to return and give thanks.

This particular healing is an object lesson in teaching us appreciation for God’s healing. The Christian Church around the world has had phenomenal success in its ministry to lepers ever since. Following the example of Jesus, missionary medical personnel have touched the untouchable and brought relief to leprosy patients. The wonderful story of Father Damien on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, where he lived with those who were ostracised from the rest of society, could be recounted in every continent where Christian missionaries have identified with those who were suffering. Some have themselves caught the disease. Today, various sulphur drugs have almost eradicated the scourge of leprosy from most developed countries, while these plus delicate operations on muscle tissue have made inroads in checking what is still a major health scourge in Third World countries.

One final note: when Jesus spoke with lepers, we read on several occasions that he touched them or laid his hands on them. 14 This is probably the greatest example in early recorded history of a compassion that reached out the heal those whom society had rejected. Jesus was not afraid to have physical contact with the diseased.

(b) The blind man

We’ve already observed how Jesus had proclaimed one of his major tasks as to heal the blind. 15 Like leprosy, blindness was one of the great scourges of the first century. In many Third World countries today blindness still remains an incurable disease. The blind person was also isolated from people – not so much because of society’s rejection, but by their own inability to support themselves. The lack of any guaranteed financial support for the ill or diseased meant that they were reduced to begging for a livelihood.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. His disciples asked him, ‘Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents’ sin?’

Jesus answered, ‘His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.’ 16

While other people were willing to talk about the nature or origin of blindness in the abstract, Jesus looked at the patient. You may have had the experience of being in a hospital bed when the surgeon makes his rounds, trailed by a galaxy of young students. For a while a discussion goes on about our condition. We may be poked or prodded while the students match wits with the professor on diagnosis. After having been thoroughly discussed, the group passes on to another interesting ‘case’.

Jesus refused to treat people like that. They were not ‘cases’. They were persons with individual problems and concerns. He did not see them as a ‘disease’, but as a person who was troubled by disease.

Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud with spittle; he rubbed the mud on the man’s eyes and told him, ‘Go and wash your face in the Pool of Siloam.’ So the man went, washed his face, and came back – seeing. 17

Jesus was using a very ancient method of healing – a simple paste, made of spittle and dust. We know the instinctive reaction we all have when we cut a finger or burn our hand, to put it into our mouth and to ‘lick our wounds’. The ancients believed that we were made from the dust of the earth and between our own salve and the dust from the earth we could be ‘made whole’.

The Pool at Siloam still remains, low in the valley within the shadow of the old city of David. Archeologists have excavated the aqueducts with fed it from springs, providing a constant supply of fresh water. The prophet Isaiah knew about this pool, stating that its waters were given by God for the benefit of Jerusalem. 18

The pool was fed by an underground network of tunnels dug in 715-687 BC during the reign of King Hezekiah. It brought water into the city by means of a tunnel bored right through the Jerusalem mountain. 19 In 1880, archeologists discovered an inscription cut into the rock telling of its completion. The water that flowed into the city from this long, underground tunnel collects in the Pool of Siloam.

The tunnel itself, higher than a man’s head, ran for 1,750 feet, travelling in many twists in order to maintain a gradual fall of water. Eventually the two groups of diggers working from opposite ends of the mountain met with hardly a foot of difference between them, a remarkable engineering feat in the ancient world. The purpose of the tunnel was to enable the people of Jerusalem to survive a long siege by Assyrian or other invaders.

One feature of the healing of this blind man was that he did not understand who it was who had given him back his sight. His first reference to Jesus was simply to ‘the man called Jesus’. 20 A litter later, under questioning by religious leaders who refused to accept his account of healing, the man showed further growth in his understanding: ‘He is a prophet.’ 21 A little later in the account, when actually thrown out of the Temple because he claimed to have his sight restored, the blind man answered his critics by saying, ‘You do not know where he comes from, but he cured me of my blindness!…Since the beginning of the world nobody has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a person born blind. Unless this man came from God, he would not be able to do a thing.’ 22

Later again, Jesus spoke to the man:

‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’
The man answered, ‘Tell me who he is, sir, so that I can believe in him!’
Jesus said to him, ‘You have already seen him and he is the one who is talking with you now.’
‘I believe, Lord!’ the man said, and knelt down before Jesus. 23

Jesus was criticised because he had made this blind man see. But the point of the attack was not the miracle itself, but the fact that it was done on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees condemned Jesus for doing the work of a physician, even though it brought sight to a blind man.

Once more we see the compassion of Jesus. Free of legislative restrictions, he exercised a ministry of care. But note: it wasn’t only people who believed in Jesus that witnessed miracles. Even his enemies did not try to deny that he healed people.

(c) The man with evil spirits

The healing of a mentally disturbed man took place on the east side of the Lake of Galilee, near the area of Gerasa. The event is one of the most eerie in the New Testament. It took place in the early morning, after a stormy night at sea when they had been crossing the lake.

As Jesus stepped ashore at Gerasa, he was met by a man who had demons in him. Seeing Jesus, he gave a loud cry, threw himself down at his feet and shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of the Most High God! What do you want with me? For God’s sake, I beg you, don’t punish me!’ 24

This man, disturbed and estranged from the rest of the community, lived in rags among the burial caves. He took fits when, with superhuman strength, he broke chains that bound his feet and arms. Taking up sharp stones, he cut himself with them. 25

This man was as fully possessed as any psychotic met in the locked wards of psychiatric hospitals. Jesus looked at the man with compassion, but also with a commanding presence, ordering the demons to leave him.

The ancient world believed that all kinds of mental and emotional distress were caused by the presence of demons, as do many peoples in the world today. One effective form of treating such a person is by the use of ‘reality therapy’ – helping the person realise the extent of their own situation by treating as real the forces they feel working against them.

Jesus used a simple demonstration of healing. Pointing to a group of pigs nearby, an animal rejected by the Jews as unclean and unfit for human consumption, Jesus commanded the devils possessing the man to leave him. At once the pigs took fright, stampeded over the side of the cliff and into the lake below. The man, dressed and sane, sat calm and quite, listening to Jesus. 26

Most people would have been happy to have left the situation at that – but the owners of the pigs urged Jesus to leave lest he cause them further loss of income. There have been many times since in history when people have found that caring for others is expensive and that the presence of Jesus can deprive them of profit.

Once restored to sanity, the man wanted to become a disciple and travel in the boat with the others. Such is frequently the grateful response of those who have been healed by Jesus. Realising what he has done for us, we feel we have to rush off into a missionary occupation, into full-time Christian service or, in previous centuries, into a monastery to devote ourselves to a life of prayer. But Jesus sent the man back home to his family to tell them what God had done for him. The man bettered this: he went throughout the town telling what Jesus had done for him! 27

In this healing Jesus once more showed compassion, a shrewd insight into the psychology of his patient and also a reluctance to personally benefit in any way. In our days of shock therapy, chemical control of the mind and long-term psychoanalysis, we could still learn the techniques, understanding and, above all, the compassion of Jesus towards the mentally disturbed.

(d) The lame man

The fourth healing occurred in Jerusalem before a crowd of people at a place where people sought healing. Once more it was associated with one of the pools of drinking water within the bounds of Jerusalem. Called Bethesda, it was a pool with five porches near the Sheep Gate.

The Hebrew word ‘Bethesda’ has been associated with places of Christian healing for the past twenty centuries. Around this particular pool, fed by a subterranean stream, large numbers of people gathered. The common belief was that, when the spring caused a bubbling in the water, the first into the water would be healed. This man for thirty-eight years had suffered the frustrations of having others get there first.

Jesus in asking him ‘Do you want to get well?’ laid the onus of healing on the man. 28 To be healed after nearly four decades of being an invalid would mean having to learn a trade, earn a wage and re-establish a whole pattern of life. There are many today who cannot stand the change involved when healing is made.

Once more the authorities accused Jesus of Sabbath-breaking. Jesus answered their accusation with an amazing set of claims. He acknowledged that he had the same responsibility as God in healing and restoring a person to health, that he did it with the full knowledge of God’s plan, and that he had the authority and power to give life to those who needed it and to judge all people. 29 His defiant attitude made the leaders of religious orthodoxy all the more determined to get rid of this man.

So Jesus healed the dying and diseased. He touched those suffering from fever, leprosy and epilepsy and brought wholeness to them. The evidence is clear that he gave mobility to paraplegics, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the mute. He restored withered limbs, diseased organs and degenerating spines; he cured haemorrhages and skin sores.

No wonder the common people crowded about him, enthusiastically seeking restoration of health.

Motives and methods

These examples of healing raise some surprising questions:

(a) When did Jesus heal?

Jesus healed in an age when people expected healings to occur, when ill health of body or mind was associated with lack of faith or the presence of sin – hence the emphasis on forgiveness and belief in the person with the ability to heal. The ability to heal was an acknowledged sign of the presence of God’s power.

(b) Why did Jesus heal?

Jesus never healed to prove himself, to demonstrate his miraculous power of his own sake, or to gain either prestige, position or money. Quack healers and faith healers in every generation have failed at the very point where Jesus was most particular: he preferred his healings to be done privately without public fuss, using the occasion to point people to God.

(c) How did Jesus heal?

At Nazareth we read he could do no mighty work because the people did not have sufficient faith. Jesus always required faith for the healing. Sometimes it was faith in himself, in his form of treatment, or in his method, but always Jesus stressed the fact that the person must want healing and act in faith to receive it. Very often there was mention made of forgiveness of sins: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ was frequently the prelude to ‘Go in peace, and be healed of your trouble’. 30

As we look at the teaching of Jesus and in his healing of those who were diseased, we see certain recurring themes: God is willing to remove our guilt, Jesus frequently encouraged self-understanding, reconciliation replaced alienation, inner peace was transmitted to the troubled person with a corresponding release of faith, and Jesus usually sought to surround the diseased person with spiritual resources. These are vital elements in the total healing ministry of the Church today.

The Healer and his art

Three aspects of the character of Jesus are seen in his healing power:

(a) Jesus recognised the worth of a person

Jesus stopped on his busy way because a woman had touched him, recognising that she needed his healing. He stopped and saw a blind man and asked if he wanted healing. He stopped by blind Bartimaeus who called out while begging on the street. Jesus ministered wherever his compassion led him to see people disabled and disadvantaged because of disease.

(b) Jesus had compassion on the hurting

With great tenderness he listened to a father who brought his epileptic boy to him. We can imagine how Jesus winced when the father explained that his epileptic fits would sometimes cause the boy to fall into a fire or boiling water, suffering extreme physical pain. On several occasions we read ‘He had compassion upon them.’

(C) Our faith unlocks God’s grace

Jesus frequently said, ‘Your faith has saved you: go in peace.’ Or on another occasion, ‘My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.’ 31

The Old Testament had shown that disease was the result of sin and thus needed to be fought with faith, not magic. God was the healer; the physician co-operated with God by binding our wounds. As Galen, a second century physician to Marcus Aurelius, said, ‘I bind his wounds, but God heals him.’

In the healing ministry today, we have faith in particular techniques, in particular hospitals, in particular surgeons and in special equipment. All these have their place.

However, many of our illnesses are also brought upon ourselves and are the result of our emotional and spiritual state. There are still people who need a physician and a priest to draw together, in the mystery of the healing of the body and mind, the resources of faith – faith in the One who made us and who can make us whole.

Endnotes:

1. Ecclesiasticus 38:1-15
2. Matthew 4:24 and 8:16
3. Colossians 4:14
4. Luke 5:15-16
5. Luke 4:18a
6. Luke 4:18b-19
7. Exodus 34:7; Psalm 86:5 and 130:7-8; Isaiah 43:25
8. Psalm 103:2-3
9. Mark 1:29-31
10. Mark 1:32-39
11. Leviticus 13:45-46
12. Luke 17:11-13
13. Luke 17:14-19
14. Mark 1:41
15. Luke 4:18
16. John 9:1-3
17. John 9:6-7
18. Isaiah 22:8b-11
19. 2 King 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30
20. John 9:11
21. John 9:17
22. John 9:30-33
23. John 9:35-39
24. Mark 5:7
25. Mark 5:4
26. Mark 5:13
27. Mark 5:20
28. John 5:6
29. John 5:16-23
30. Luke 7:48; Mark 5:34
31. Luke 7:50 and 8:48

For personal reading

Theme: That’s Incredible!

Monday : Amazing faith (Matthew 8:5-17)
Tuesday : A man and a woman who were healed (Mark 1:21-34)
Wednesday : Two men who were restored (Mark 1:40-2:12)
Thursday : And a woman and a little girl (Matthew 9:18-26)
Friday : Faith that works (Matthew 17:14-21)
Saturday : The inescapable choice (Luke 11:14-23)
Sunday : Another kind of healing (Matthew 18:10-20)

For group reading

Topic: The Healing of Jesus

1. What are some primary reasons for ill health? How can an active faith help sustain good health?

2. Jesus promoted wholeness, not just health. How can a group of believers promote wholeness?

3. The ingratitude of the nine healed lepers is so typical of many people today. List ways of developing a spirit of gratitude.

4. Jesus touched the untouchable. What lessons are here for us today?

5. Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ What insights are there in that question for contemporary healers?

Tuesday, 4th August, 2009, 12:06 pm | Bible Studies