Jesus Heals the Sick

Jesus had begun to attract some attention with his authoritative teaching, but his following increased tremendously when he began healing the sick and casting out demons. The motivation for such a large following is obvious, as all sick people want to be well. The side benefit of attracting these large numbers of people is that a "great cloud of witnesses" was created. There is little dispute among Bible scholars, even liberal ones, that Jesus was seen as a miracle-worker. Liberal scholars do not believe that He worked "natural miracles" but rather that He was able to heal people with psychosomatic illness...kind of a "power of positive thinking" phenomenon. But most agree that He was a Healer. Even ancient Jewish and pagan writings list Jesus as a sorcerer, which is evidence that He was able to perform wonders that His critics needed to explain away as sorcery.

The fact that the gospels were written and the message of Jesus was being preached while His contemporaries were still alive, is further proof of the historicity of His miracles. The gospels were written within 35-55 years of His death, and the preaching of the gospel began immediately following his death. It would have ben impossible to convince people who lived in that place and time, that a Rabbi was actually a great miracle-worker. It would be akin to promoting the story that JFK was not only a great President but also able to heal disease and raise the dead! There are too many people still alive who could refute such claims. The amount of detail given about some of the miracles would have made it very easy to check out their validity. For example, Lazarus is named, along with two of his sisters, as well as his hometown. The account of his rising from the dead could have been refuted with ease, were it not true.

And additionally, the gospel writers would have had no motivation to make up such stories for the purpose of making Jesus a more believable Messiah. The Jews were not looking for a divine Messiah and had no expectation that he would do miracles. So there was no reason to include them other than the fat that they were accurate reports of historical events! We can believe with confidence, that Jesus performed all of the miracles recorded in the Bible. And I am so grateful that He chose to do these things publicly, making it very difficult for the world to deny.

Tomorrow's reading: Luke 5:1-39; Mark 1:40-2:22; Matt. 9:1-17