Mark 5: Jesus and Illness
Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Jesus’ healings help to overturn common notions about how God views sick people. During Jesus’ lifetime, Pharisees teach strictly that all suffering comes from sin. In other words, if you’re sick, you deserve it. In fact, Pharisees judge a deranged or demon-possessed person as permanently cursed by God. They see God’s hand of punishment in natural disasters, birth defects and such long-term conditions as blindness and paralysis. Following Old Testament law, they consider “unclean” those who suffer from diseases such as leprosy, and they exclude them from worship.
Jesus boldly challenges such teaching. This chapter shows him curing a demon-possessed man, touching and healing an “unclean” woman and resurrecting a child (even though touching a corpse made a person “unclean”).
On other occasions, Jesus directly refutes the traditional doctrine of sin and suffering. He denies that a man’s blindness comes from his own or his parents’ sin, and he dismisses the common opinion that tragedies happen to those who deserve them (see Luck 13 and John 9)
Jesus does not heal everyone on the earth or even in his homeland. But his treatment of the sick and needy shows that they are especially loved, not curses, by God. His healings also provide a “sign” of what will happen in the future, a time when all diseases, and even death, will be destroyed.
Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Jesus’ healings help to overturn common notions about how God views sick people. During Jesus’ lifetime, Pharisees teach strictly that all suffering comes from sin. In other words, if you’re sick, you deserve it. In fact, Pharisees judge a deranged or demon-possessed person as permanently cursed by God. They see God’s hand of punishment in natural disasters, birth defects and such long-term conditions as blindness and paralysis. Following Old Testament law, they consider “unclean” those who suffer from diseases such as leprosy, and they exclude them from worship.
Jesus boldly challenges such teaching. This chapter shows him curing a demon-possessed man, touching and healing an “unclean” woman and resurrecting a child (even though touching a corpse made a person “unclean”).
On other occasions, Jesus directly refutes the traditional doctrine of sin and suffering. He denies that a man’s blindness comes from his own or his parents’ sin, and he dismisses the common opinion that tragedies happen to those who deserve them (see Luck 13 and John 9)
Jesus does not heal everyone on the earth or even in his homeland. But his treatment of the sick and needy shows that they are especially loved, not curses, by God. His healings also provide a “sign” of what will happen in the future, a time when all diseases, and even death, will be destroyed.
1 comment:
The masses can crowd around Jesus without actually touching Him by faith.
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