And when Jesus finished…the crowds were astonished … for He … had authority. Matthew 7:28-29 ESV1
Read Matthew 7:28-29
I do not believe, as some do nowadays, that miracles have somehow ceased upon the completion of the canon of Scripture. I believe healings happen even today. How could I not?! I, myself, have been healed from a potentially debilitating disease. It wasn’t a spontaneous alleviation of the problem, but over some time, the malady was gone and it no longer affects my life. I have a close family member who has experienced a similar healing. I also believe instantaneous healings happen in this day and age because that is exactly what happened to one of my friends. She had an infirmity which was interfering with her ability to perform her job. As she was considering what else she might do for employment, she was approached by a man who stated that God had sent him to lay hands on her and pray for her healing. She was cured right then and there.
Though I prayed earnestly for my healing and the healing of my close family member, and those prayers were answered, I do not believe I have the gift of healing. There are many people for whom I have prayed who still struggle with their diseases or have died from them. And even the man who God used to heal my friend, if he has the gift of healing, he is not able to use it on whomever he would please. That man’s son is in a wheelchair. I am sure he would very much want to give his son the gift he has given others, yet he has not been able. Why the limitations?
As far as I can tell from the study of Scripture, every single person who encountered Jesus while He walked on this Earth and ask for healing received exactly that for which he/she asked. That same trend seems to have continued with the apostles even after Jesus went back to Heaven. Why don’t we see the same powerful results today? Is there something we are missing? Is there a proper formula to follow?
Those are the very questions that drive people to the study of miraculous happenings and miracles in the Bible. We want to figure out what God requires for us to get an affirmative answer when we ask for miracles or beg for healing for ourselves, our friends and loved ones, or anyone else in need.
I have to admit, as I have been studying Scripture and providing my commentary, I hoped and prayed that I would find the sought-after answer to these questions. I did not. But what I did find was more valuable—the astonishment of realizing at a much deeper level who Jesus is and the authority He has over the seemingly impossible. God is in control. He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, for whatever reason He wants, because He is God. And God is good, always doing what is best for us, while honoring His Name, and often going above and beyond in the process. So, as I launch into a series on the healings and miracles of Jesus, I want to focus not on what we can figure out so that we can get what we want from God, but on what we can learn about God and His character and the Gospel, what we can learn about those who experienced His miracles, and what we can learn about ourselves. In that process, may we be awed by His authority and be able to rest in the sufficiency of the grace of God along with the Apostle Paul, who, by the way, didn’t receive a healing for which he diligently prayed (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
I will do my best to visit each of the healings and miracles of Jesus in the order in which it happened. This will be an imperfect task, as scholars far more knowledgeable than I, don’t always agree. When one tries to overlay the Gospel writings, there is some confusion on the order of some of the events. Most of the events are fairly easy to place, but when the Gospel writers, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, wrote down that which God laid on their hearts, they put the events in the order that made sense for their purpose in writing. As they were writing, they may have thought of events that connected to what they were writing but may have happened at a different time, so they included them in the narrative where they were writing at the time. (They didn’t have word processing with cut and paste options as we do now).
I invite you to join me on this journey. May “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, … give [us] the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of [our] hearts enlightened” (Ephesians 1:17-18a) as we search for the treasures He has hidden for us in the accounts of each of His miracles.
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.