TOS073 Who did Jesus Heal—The Lord Healed Them All (Part 2) For audio only PPN
Part 2 of the series “The Lord Healed Them All” this episode “Who Did Jesus Heal?” expounds the idea of the healing ministry of Jesus as he travelled around the countryside. You’ll hear not only the types of healing that Jesus did but also some examples of healing that continue to take place today. There is nothing too big, too desperate, nor too overwhelming for Jesus to heal.
What I want you to realize as we go over a few scriptures is that healing everyone was not a rare thing for Jesus to do. Everywhere he went, with the exception of his hometown, he healed them all. Until we get it in our heads and hearts that Jesus healed all the people we will limit him just like the people of his home town. There is nothing too big, too desperate, nor too overwhelming for Jesus to heal. Today if one in a hundred is healed we are surprised and we praise God. Would 100 out of 100 not honor him more completely? That’s what Jesus did.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. Today’s topic is “Who did Jesus Heal?” I’m Patti Brunner. This is part 2 of “The Lord Healed Them All”, a series to teach you about healing as a follower of Jesus Christ.
As Jesus began his public ministry he stepped into the Synagogue and spoke about his own Baptism of the Spirit by quoting an ancient prophecy from Isaiah. This is reported in Luke 4:18-19[i] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” He then goes about the countryside proving that the Holy Spirit is indeed within him. He proclaims liberty to those who are held in the bondage of pain, illness and sin. He provides recovery of sight to the blind to those who are physically and spiritually blind. When he lets the oppressed go free he provides inner healing and healing of memories so that demons can no longer torment us through our past. Jesus proclaims a year of the Lord’s favor; a year acceptable to the Lord is a Jubilee Year. A Jubilee Year restores property, frees slaves, and forgives unpaid debts thus healing relationships.
When I was first learning about the Holy Spirit I fell in love with the scriptures of the Bible. It is, without a doubt in my heart, the inspired Word of God. Spending time in the Word has given me training me in the Way to go. Early on, as the Lord called me to pray for others for healing, I sought the truth in scripture and I was surprised by what I found. Until you pick up the books of the Gospels and read them in context you can miss the fullness of the truth of what Jesus is telling us. Following Jesus on his journey of preaching and healing you begin to comprehend the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus gives us a foretaste of heaven as he heals all. What I want you to realize as we go over these few scriptures is that healing everyone was not a rare thing for Jesus to do. Everywhere he went, with the exception of his hometown, he healed them all. We’ll discuss the barriers Jesus encountered in his hometown in a later episode. The examples of his healing in Matthew’s Gospel were not a repetition of a one-time event but illustrations of multiple times that he healed people. These passages from Matthew also show that Jesus was on the move. He went throughout the region of Galilee and his fame spread throughout all of the Roman province of Syria. Great crowds from Galilee, from the Greek cities in Palestine known as the Decapolis, from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan people followed him. Jesus began his ministry among those willing and ready to accept help in all of Galilee by healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.
Living in a time without electronic media, it was his personal appearances and word of mouth that shared the Good News.
Matthew 4:23-24 says “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them.”
Then, Jesus entered Capernaum.
Matthew 8: 16 says“That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick.
Matthew 9:35 “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.”
Matthew 12:15b “he departed. Many crowds followed him, and he cured allof them,”
Matthew 14:14 “When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.”
Matthew 14:34-36 At Gennesaret: “After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.”
In Matthew 15:29-31 we read “After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.”
Matthew 19:1b-2 Jesus “went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there.”
Did it sound like I was reading the same passage over and over? I wasn’t. At each place people brought to him those who desperately needed his help. In each of these places Jesus healed them all. Until we get it in our heads and hearts that Jesus healed all the people we will limit him just like the people of his home town. How can we have the faith that Jesus will heal today if we don’t comprehend the magnitude of his will for healing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people? These scriptures chosen from Matthew show the degree of healing Jesus gave to those who asked.
Jesus combined words of teaching in the synagogues and the hillsides with the works of healing. He offered the people truth. What is this truth? Jesus came to heal body and soul. Through Baptism our soul is healed from an inherited original sin that is worse than any inherited disease because it separates us from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus healed all physical illnesses he was pointing us toward the truth of the Kingdom of God. He was preparing the people to receive the healing power of the Resurrection that would restore all who asked to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the kingdom of heaven there is no infirmity, no depression or oppression, no lunatics, no paralytics, no pain. Jesus taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
Scripture also points out various specific healings to help us to grow in understanding of the nature of Christ and how he heals individuals:
Matthew 8:2- 3 “2 and there was a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
Matthew 8:5-8,13 “5 As he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” 8 The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” “13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour.”
Matthew 9:7 another paralytic rose and went home.
Matthew 9:18-19, 25 “18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.” “25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.”
Matthew 9: 20-22 “20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ 22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well.”
Matthew 9:28b-30 “28b blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ 29Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith let it be done to you.’ 30a And their eyes were opened.”
Matthew 12:9-10a, 13 “9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10a man was there with a withered hand,” “13Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other.”
Matthew 15:21-28 A Canaanite woman’s daughter severely possessed by a demon was healedinstantly.
I know that Jesus heals. He has shown me. In Matthew 8:3 Jesus healed a leper. I have seen Jesus heal a wart off a nose. Too small a healing for you to believe? In Matthew 8: 13 Jesus healed a paralytic who was in great distress. In Matthew 9:7 a paralytic rose and went home. Rich Curran witnessed to me about being paralyzed from an accident that destroyed his athletic career and crying out to God; he was healed. After being healed he became a Catholic evangelist. Matthew 9:22 tells of a woman healed from hemorrhaging. I recalled this scripture when I personally was diagnosed after a sonogram with uterine fibroids which caused chronic bleeding. The doctor told me the only treatment was a hysterectomy. I told him I would rather pray about it now that we knew exactly how to pray. The abnormal symptoms immediately ceased. In Matthew 9:25 Jesus restored life. In 2003 I prayed with an infertile couple at a bi-lingual healing service. Less than a year later Guadeloupe Rios was born. Another young woman we knew was told by the doctor that she had miscarried. A few days later after prayer the doctor told her that she didn’t miscarry after all. Daniel was carried full term and graduated high school in 2019; Jesus gives life. In Matthew 9:27-30 Jesus healed two blind men. In August 2003 a man who had a detached retina asked us for prayer and was healed. A woman I prayed for in May 2007 was healed of macular degeneration first in one eye then some years later when new symptoms appeared both eyes were healed of blindness.
In Matthew 12:10 Jesus healed a withered hand. We prayed for a man who had carpal tunnel which affected the strength of his hand and his work performance. After his healing he decided to attend RCIA and was baptized. When the lame man told Jesus in John 5:9 that indeed he did want healing, Jesus healed the lame. I have seen Jesus heal the lame who wanted healing. My own knee was healed at Cursillo in 1996. In Benton, Arkansas, I watched a young woman’s leg turn from a braced swollen purple to perfect healthy pink during prayer and all pain subside. A young boy was healed of leg cancer after his extended family prayed with us for his healing; and ‘Chip’ who had prostate cancer returned to church after his sister, Flo, prayed for him with us at a healing service and then the Lord healed a short ligament muscle in her leg by revelation. I could go on and on. Our God heals abundantly.
These are but a few of many examples of how Jesus continues to heal people in our time witnessed by one person. Asking God to heal makes a difference. In the gift of healing decay is overcome. The ultimate healing we will receive at judgment is “hinted” as God’s resurrection power is manifested as we seek the intercession of Jesus. Limbs can be replaced, teeth repaired, cures found, cancers dissolved, hearts mended. Emotions and memories can be purified according to the Love of the Creator.
Jesus has not forgotten those who are not yet healed. He loves them. Their healing awaits them. Certainly the ultimate healing awaits us all. But it is ok to receive healing now. When Jesus approached a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years he asked him “Do you want to be healed?” The man rested by the pool of Bethesda where miracles of healing regularly occurred. How odd for Jesus to ask him if he wanted to be healed. Or was it? When we have a chronic condition does it become not just what we have but who we are? I have seen people who have received healing of hearing reach for their hearing aids and people whose legs were healed to be able to walk reach for the wheel chair. Do you want to be healed? Do you have excuses to stay the way you are? It doesn’t matter how long you have been impaired. With Jesus the man became well immediately. God gives us freewill to make a decision for healing.
Jesus provides healing that is physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and relational. In scripture Jesus uses several of the charisms to bring about these healings. His methods include: laying on of hands, casting out demons, spitting and making mud then applying it, and proclaiming healing from a distance. By giving us the Holy Spirit he gives us the graces or charisms to do the same thing. He tells us if we are believers we should be laying hands on the sick and have them recover. Are you a believer?
There is nothing too big, too desperate, nor too overwhelming for Jesus to heal. Today if one in a hundred is healed we praise God. Would 100 out of 100 not honor him more completely? That’s what Jesus did. And Jesus only did what his Father taught him to do. The Lord wants his people healed. That is clear from what Jesus did. When we battle sickness of body, soul and mind we are kept from enjoying God’s love for us. Over and over and over, Jesus shows us that the will of the Father for us is to be healed in body and soul. These examples give us hope. They give us expectant faith: that what Jesus did for them he will also do for us.
Nowhere in scripture does Jesus refuse to heal. The only place of limitation was his home town where their lack of belief kept the number of miracles down. How often are we like these people? We think we know Jesus, too. And we decide that Jesus won’t do anything, that all that he did in scripture just doesn’t happen anymore. We think, “After all, we should be taking care of ourselves!” And so he does “not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.” Do you make fun of “faith healers”? Do you consider faith healers to be in the same category as Don Quixote chasing windmills? “Faith healers” have become one with Jesus and they instill faith in those who come forward for healing. We should bring forth the people to prayer to know that God heals. Become one in him because in him is the power of resurrection healing.
We can have the Father or the Son in us, but until we accept and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit we are missing the kingdom. We have a blank check and a million billion dollars in our account and we’re starving. The Holy Spirit gives a charism of faith—the gift that first overcomes obstacles of doubt placed there by evil one using worldly things like intellectualism and rationality. The charism of faith is different from the virtue of faith. The virtue of faith calls us to belief in the Trinity, the Virgin birth and the death and resurrection of Jesus. The charism of faith is that which inspires you to approach God for a clear understanding of his word – it connects the heart and the head with the soul through the power of the Holy Spirit. The charism of faith releases the barriers of other gifts – in faith all things are possible – it is divine trust. If you find yourself limited in the various gifts of healing, ask for manifestation of the gift of faith. Then take his healing to others.
Say what? Ask the Holy Spirit for the charism of faith so that we can bring healing to people? We can accept that Jesus heals. After all Jesus is God. We believe that. We can even believe that the Lord healed them all. Where we run into trouble and doubt is when we find out that Jesus taught the Church to continue to heal. He commissions the Church to heal. He provides sacraments of healing. Healing comes through the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick. In John 14:12 Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Jesus did a lot of great works. He healed them all. We are called by Jesus to do more: to reach more people, to cover more territory, to give more testimony because he returned to the Father and sent us the Holy Spirit. Come back for the next episode: “Followers of Jesus Are Called to Heal”.
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit and I’m Patti Brunner. We invite you to subscribe and come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there is always more.
[i] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
imprimatur of the American and Canadian Conferences of Catholic bishops.
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