Mark 1.32-34,
Matthew 8.16-17,
Luke 4.40-41.
In ancient Israel there was no such thing as healthcare. If you got sick, your only recourse was either for God to miraculously heal you, or folk medicine. Science hadn’t been invented yet!
Following the standards of the day, folk medicine was largely unproven: People did what they believed oughta work, based on guesses (educated or not), hearsay, rumor, or
Some of it did actually work—like willow bark, which we nowadays call “aspirin.” Or poppy juice, which we nowadays call “opium.” But y’notice sometimes these cures did more harm than good.
Because the “experts” didn’t know what they were doing. All of them were fumbling around in the dark. Read Hippocrates or Galen sometime: Their philosophical theories are kinda entertaining, but when you realize people were actually trying to cure desperately ill people with their “knowledge”—it gets kinda horrifying.
Among pagan yatrí, one of the tools in their iffy arsenal was
So as I said in my article
As I also said in that article, when Americans get sick, and western medicine doesn’t know how to treat them, we too will get desperate, and dabble in witch doctoring. Call it “eastern medicine,” call it “alternative medicine,” call it “natural healing,” call it whatever; none of these guys went to medical schools, and some of them call upon demónia same as the ancient Greeks. Times change; human nature hasn’t.
Jesus cures and exorcises all comers.
Even if they hadn’t turned to witch doctors, the Galileans still had no healthcare. No wherewithal to get it. Little hope. They might be born with a birth defect, suffer though a crippling childhood disease, break a leg but never have it set properly, have poor vision but never have the money for crystals to see through (yep, that’s what they did back then instead of glasses), have a mental illness, be otherwise sick or injured or stricken… or have a devil in ’em pretending to be any of the above so no one would ever realize the real problem.
For these people, Jesus was the greatest thing ever. Here’s someone who can really cure the sick. Cure ’em completely. Cure ’em permanently. Finally they had hope!
Really, it’s no surprise Jesus found an entire town’s worth of problems at his door.
Mark 1.32-34 KWL - 32 Becoming evening, when the sun sets,
- they’re bringing to Jesus
- everyone who has anything wrong, and demoniacs.
- 33 The whole city is being gathered at the door.
- 34 Jesus cures many
- who have something wrong,
- from all sorts of maladies,
- and throws out many demons,
- and isn’t permitting the demons to speak,
- because they knew him.
Matthew 8.16-17 KWL - 16 Becoming evening,
- they bring many demoniacs to Jesus.
- He throws out the spirits with a word,
- and cures everyone who has something wrong.
- 17 Thus he could fulfill the prophet Isaiah’s word,
- saying, “He takes our weakness
- and carries our disease.”
Is 53.4 Luke 4.40-41 KWL - 40 At the setting of the sun, everyone,
- whoever has a sickness, all sorts of maladies,
- brings them to Jesus.
- Placing his hands on each and every one, he cures them.
- 41 Demons are also coming out of many,
- screaming and saying, “You’re God’s son!”
- In rebuke, he doesn’t let them speak,
- for they knew him to be Messiah.
Some of the reason nothing happened till Sabbath was over, may well have been because the people believed as
Notice the whole city was there.
The three gospels aren’t consistent about whether Jesus cured many
The reason people doubt the gospels which state Jesus cured everyone, is ’cause nowadays we don’t see Jesus curing everyone. Sometimes he’s cured me; sometimes he hasn’t. Sometimes he cures the people I pray for; sometimes he doesn’t. I’m no
So why’d Jesus cure everybody in Capharnaum? Three reasons.
Jesus came to preach the gospel:
Secondly, Jesus
And make people more apt to listen to him. Y’know, there are
But they make this assumption based on zero practical experience. In practice: When I pray for someone and God cures ’em, they immediately wanna know everything about the God I’ve called upon. They assume I’m an expert; after all, he just listened to my prayers, so I must know something about him! Fortunately for them, I do; I can point ’em to what the scriptures say about him, and send ’em to healthy churches who can tell them even more. Miracles prompt people to seek and follow Jesus. Cessationists presume they won’t, and that’s because they simply don’t know what they’re talking about. And they misread Jesus’s motives in way more than this one area.
Lastly: Watching God cure people is fun. They’re so happy! If you could cure everybody in a room, with everyone praising God (or at least awestruck at him), and no one going away disappointed or faithless, why on earth wouldn’t you?
Demons begone!
Certain faith-healers act as if every single illness is a devil, or has a devil at the back of it. Clearly that’s not true. Jesus didn’t perform exorcisms every time he cured someone. He rebuked illness, but that doesn’t mean there’s an illness-demon for every disease. As we know nowadays, there are bacteria, viruses, microbes, and parasites which each need to be exorcised in their own way.
But devils pretend to be illnesses so they can go undetected. Still happens, you know. Doctors will treat symptoms and have no idea why their patients show no improvement whatsoever, and really it’s because the symptoms aren’t caused by a disease, but a devil mimicking the disease. Jesus can detect every single devil, and root ’em out.
True, nowadays not every devil gets exorcised. Some folks don’t want ’em gone. They like the sins which led them to become possessions of evil spirits. They like the evil spirits themselves. They can’t imagine freedom, so they stick to slavery. And in some cases, Jesus will permit ’em to stay enslaved till they’re finally ready
Jesus wouldn’t let these demons talk. Mainly because they knew Jesus is God incarnate, the Son of God, the Messiah. You know, facts the Galileans couldn’t yet handle. They were trying to scare people away from Jesus, and intimidate him away from driving them out by threatening to spill the beans. Jesus really didn’t want any devil’s endorsement—“According to the demons, Jesus is Messiah… but you know you can’t trust demons.” True, we can’t. In general, their statements create more problems than not, as exorcists nowadays can tell you. So rather than listen to their attempts at distraction or offense, Jesus simply shut ’em up. And if they try to tell you stuff, or otherwise intimidate you as you’re praying for the sick, do likewise: “By Jesus, shut up.” You don’t need to interview them, like those exorcists who like to show off how mighty Jesus has made them. They’re playing with fire. Don’t be like them. Be like Jesus.
Don’t just tell. Show.
Jesus had come to preach good news to the poor.
We can show them God in lots of ways. Not just supernatural ways, if that’s what you’re worried about.
But presenting the gospel with nothing more than nice words… well, that’s only a segment of the gospel. The gospel doesn’t come through clever talk and logical arguments, but the acts and power of the Holy Spirit,
Stuff we need to keep in mind when we proclaim this gospel. It’s not enough that we tell. We often have to show, as Jesus did.
