Healed by Jesus

Matthew summarizes whole seasons of the ministry in a sentence: Jesus went throughout all Galilee, "healing every disease and every affliction among the people," and they brought Him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics and paralytics, and He healed them (Matthew 4:23–24). Behind that summary stand named and unnamed individuals whose stories the Gospels tell one at a time.

Some came because friends carried them. Four men could not get near the door, so they removed the roof and let down the paralytic at Capernaum on his mat, and Jesus first said, "Son, your sins are forgiven," and then told him to rise, pick up his bed, and go home (Mark 2:1–12). Bartimaeus, a blind beggar at the roadside outside Jericho, would not be silenced by the crowd and cried out, "Son of David have mercy on me!" until Jesus stopped and asked what he wanted; he received his sight and followed on the way (Mark 10:46–52). The Woman with a Discharge of Blood had suffered twelve years and spent all she had on physicians, and she touched the fringe of His garment from behind, and He turned and called her "Daughter" (Mark 5:25–34). Ten Lepers called out from a distance and were cleansed as they went, and only one, a Samaritan, turned back praising God (Luke 17:11–19).

Others were healed at a word from a distance. The Centurion's Servant was healed in the hour the centurion said, "Only say the word," and Jesus marveled at his faith (Matthew 8:5–13). The Official's Son at Capernaum recovered at the seventh hour, the very hour Jesus said, "Go; your son will live" (John 4:46–53). The Syrophoenician Woman's daughter was freed when the mother answered that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table (Mark 7:24–30).

Some healings were arguments as much as mercies. The Man With a Withered Hand was restored in the synagogue on the Sabbath while the Pharisees watched to accuse Him (Mark 3:1–6), and so was The Woman With a Disabling Spirit, bent over for eighteen years, whom He called "a daughter of Abraham" (Luke 13:10–17). The Invalid at Bethesda had been ill thirty-eight years beside the pool (John 5:1–9), and The Man Blind from Birth was sent to wash in the pool of Siloam and came back seeing, then was put out of the synagogue for saying so (John 9:1–34). Even the ear of Malchus cut off by a sword in Gethsemane, was touched and healed on the night of the arrest (Luke 22:50–51).

Among those who followed afterward were women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means (Luke 8:1–3). When John the Baptist sent to ask whether He was the one to come, the answer sent back was a list of these very people: "the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear" (Matthew 11:4–5).