Jesus the Healer

Part 5 | Return to Who is Jesus

Opening question

What do you think is necessary for a human to have fulfillment in life?

Skeptical or not, we desire healing

When you read through the gospels, it’s hard to miss Jesus' miracles of healing. Page after page, there are recorded accounts of supernatural healing such as the blind seeing, the lame walking, demons cast out from tormented individuals–even bringing the dead back to life! No wonder Jesus became well known so quickly. 

“At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.” (Luke 4:40)

Whatever your view of supernatural miracles may be, chances are that if such healing power became available, most people would seek after it. Something within us longs for wholeness. The occasional news report of a miracle draws not just attention, but also joyful celebration. Much of human work is directed at bringing healing to brokenness in the human experience, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, or relational. 

As we have previously explored, the biblical worldview sees the existence of a brokenness in the world: what the bible calls sin. In religious terms, sin is often thought of as bad things or rules being broken, but the biblical view of sin is bigger than that. The biblical authors and Jesus believed that God created the world and there was shalom–or wholeness–and sin is anything that breaks that shalom. So whether it’s sin we partake in, sin done to us, or ways in which we feel the effects of sin–none are immune to this.  

Jesus’ power over brokenness

Jesus demonstrated a power that seems to cast out the effects of this brokenness in the body. For many of these ailments, it was thought that physical touch would make another unclean as well. And yet Jesus touched them–and rather than them imparting their uncleanliness, Jesus seems to have imparted a healing power onto them. 

When he interacts with a man with a shriveled hand:

“He stretched it out, and his hand was completely healed.” (Mark 3:5)

A man with leprosy kneels before Jesus:

“He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”” (Mark 1:41 )

Jesus even sought out individuals who weren’t looking for him, such as a man paralyzed for 38 years, offering:

“Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6 )

The deeper diagnosis

All throughout Jesus’ life, he demonstrated the ability to restore individuals back to physical wholeness. Yet as we read his interactions with individuals, it seems that he had a deeper diagnosis of the problem: the human heart. 

“Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”” (Luke 5:31-32) 

The gospel writer John records Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman at a well. The woman is shocked because Jews and Samaritans do not associate, and she is a woman. Jesus looks straight into her soul and points out the metaphorical thirst in life:

“But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Moved by Jesus’ compassion, John records:

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”” (John 4:28)

Could it be that Jesus was interested in not only healing bodies, but the heart? As humans, we are faced with the reality of death regardless of whether we live a healthy or injury-free life. Perhaps Jesus’ deeper diagnosis is the problem of sin and brokenness, which not only affects our bodies, but goes to the core of our being. 

The late Tim Keller once wrote, “Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds but a promise to our hearts that the world we all want is coming.” 

Reflection questions

  • What might Jesus’ actions of healing reveal about him and his character?

  • If Jesus were to offer you healing, where would you want healing in your life? 

  • What do you think of Jesus’ diagnosis that we have a metaphorical thirst in life?

Exercise

Slowly read Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-42 this week, ideally 2-3 times each day. As you read, notice any aspects that stick out at you and choose to meditate those words and phrases.