Category Archives: The Healings of Jesus

Ultimate Healing

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“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” Luke 24:5b-7 ESV1

Read Matthew 27:1-28:10, Mark 15:20b-16:7; Luke 23:1-24:12 & John 19:1-20:18

“Ultimate” is defined as “1. last; furthest or farthest; ending a process or series … 2. maximum; decisive; conclusive … [and] 3. highest; not subsidiary.”2 The next healing we will consider is the ultimate healing Jesus ever consummated. It is chronologically the last healing He completed during His earthly ministry, but it is also the supreme healing. It is the panacea, the catholicon, the cure-all. Let’s dig in and discover why this healing is so matchless and so far above any of the other amazing healings Jesus ever brought about.

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Choosing Forgiveness

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Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” John 18:11 ESV1

Read Matthew 26:47-56, Mark 14:43-50, Luke 22:47-53 & John 18:1-11

Have you ever been let down by someone you counted on to stand beside you? Or have you been betrayed by someone you had considered a friend? Have you ever been slandered by someone you had tried to help? Or have you been abandoned by someone who was supposed to love you?

I have. I can answer in the affirmative to each of those questions. Even though years have passed since some of those incidents took place, when they are brought back to my memory, the pain floods in anew and emotions rise in me which I thought had long ago subsided. Most of us can probably identify with such hurts. Jesus can too. But how we deal with being rejected may be quite different than the way Jesus did.

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All In Love

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And Jesus said …, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” … And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Luke 18:42 & 43b ESV1

Read Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52 & Luke 18:35-43

In the autumn, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths (see John 7:10). In the winter, He was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication (see John 10:22-23). But, in Jerusalem, His life was in danger, so “He went away again across the Jordan … and there He remained” (John 10:40) until He heard that His friend Lazarus from Bethany needed help. Against the advice of His disciples, He, to revive Lazarus, went dangerously close to Jerusalem again (see John 11:18).

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Because He Loved

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Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. John 11:5-6 ESV1

Read John 11:1-45

After Jesus averted the attempt of the angered religious leaders of Jerusalem to seize Him (see John10:39) and stone Him (see John 10:31), “He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there He remained” (John 10:40). He stayed there with His disciples for a while until He was alerted of a friend in need. Out of love, He left His place of safety, and entered dangerous territory, to help this one whom He loved.

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To See or Not to See

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Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” John 9:39 ESV1

Read John 9:1-41

“After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea [where Jerusalem was], because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. [But] the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand” (John 7:1-2). The Feast of Booths, also known as The Feast of Tabernacles, is a time of remembering the LORD’s faithfulness toward His people, the Israelites, during the forty years they wandered in the wilderness after being freed from slavery to Egypt. It is an eight-day feast with the first and last days being Sabbath days. It is immediately followed by an additional Sabbath day which marks the beginning of the year’s cycle of Torah readings. This Feast was one of the three mandated Feasts which all able-bodied Jewish men were commanded to journey to Jerusalem to attend.

Because His life was in danger, Jesus considered not attending the Feast (see John 7:8). When He did decide to go, He tried to remain out of the public eye (see John 7:10). But He did not remain hidden for long. “About the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching” (John 7:14). I believe, at that point, He realized there was more work that needed to be done (see John 9:4-5), and that even though threats abounded, He was in no real danger, “because His hour had not yet come” (John 8:20b). It wasn’t yet time for Him to give up His earthly life, and God’s plan would trump the plans of man.

This truth was evidenced by the fact that during the Feast week, there were five unsuccessful attempts to arrest Him (see John 7:30, 32, 44-46 & John 8:5-6, 20), and one failed undertaking to kill Him (see John 8:59). Jesus remained safe as He boldly proclaimed the truth. In the process, “many of the people [listening] believed in Him” (John 7:31a, also see John 8:30). Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem was a special blessing for one man in particular; because of Jesus, the whole trajectory of this man’s life was changed for time and eternity.

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Blessed Assurance

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Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?”             Luke 17:17 ESV1

Read Luke 17:11-19

Assurance is defined as full confidence; freedom from doubt; certainty.2 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). As we consider this next account, our faith may be tested, but that is a good thing. Faith that is tested and has been proven genuine, gives us all the assurance we need for this world and the next (see 1 Peter 1:7).

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To Keep From Drowning

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And He said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”  Luke 14:5 ESV1

Read Luke 14:1-24

As Jesus’ time on Earth grew short, “He set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). He and His disciples “went on from [the villages of Caesarea Philippi (see Mark 8:27)] and passed through Galilee … to Capernaum” (Mark 9:30a & 33a) “to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan” (Mark 10:1a).

Looking at a map of Israel during Jesus’ lifetime, one can deduce that a trip from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem is about 120 miles (193 km) as the crow flies. But as the human walks, over mountains, through valleys, and across rivers, avoiding the land of the Samaritans (see Luke 9:52-53), it is much longer. According to most Biblical timelines, Jesus’ final journey appears to have taken about nine months. Jesus knew where He had to go and what He was going to have to do, but He took his time, stopping along the way to offer a helping hand.

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Upside Down and Backward

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And He laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. Luke 13:13 ESV1

Read Luke 13:10-17

I was traveling through the center of a city near my home with two of my friends. We passed a church building that was for sale. There was a sign out front. My one friend said, “I wonder what is going in that building. It must be a business from a foreign country. The sign is written in letters that are unfamiliar to me.” My other friend contradicted her. “Oh, no,” she said, “The sign reads ‘First Presbyterian Church.’ It is just upside down and backward.” Then we all saw it. Indeed, in an attempt to show that the building would soon be changing hands, the seller or the realtor had taken out the transparent, printed panel of the sign and had replaced it upside down and backward.

When I think of that event, I think of Jesus. Much of what He said and did seemed (and still seems) upside down and backward. This next account illustrates that truth perfectly.

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Sure and Ready

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Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” Matthew 17:19 ESV1

Read Matthew 17:14-20, Mark 9:14-32 &            Luke 9:37-43

“And Jesus went on with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi” (Mark 8:27). “And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves” (Mark 9:2). Much of spiritual significance happened on the mountain near Caesarea Philippi, but our focus today will be on what happened in the valley.

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Stay or Walk Away

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“Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?” Mark 8:17b-18 ESV1

Read Matthew 16:1-12 & Mark 8:11-26

Jesus spent most of His time during His earthly ministry near the Sea of Galilee. “The sea’s location makes it subject to sudden and violent storms as the wind comes over the eastern mountains and drops suddenly onto the sea. Storms are especially likely when an east wind blows cool air over the warm air that covers the sea. The cold air (being heavier) drops as the warm air rises. This sudden change can produce surprisingly furious storms in a short time.”2  In this next account, an “east wind” was blowing, and a storm was brewing, but not in the physical sense.

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