Physical healing Miracles.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Coursework

a (ii)

Jesus performed many miracles, each one different. Most of them fit into one of four categories and are described in the gospels. They are: physical healing miracles, resurrection miracles (bringing the dead back to life), exorcism miracles (casting out the devil) and natural miracles (e.g. calming a storm). Every miracle has a meaning and a reason and they are done through the power of God.

When Jesus spoke in the synagogue at Nazareth, he said things like: the poor would hear good news, people in prison would be set free, the blind would see, the oppressed would no longer have to suffer and God was about to save his people (Luke 4: 16-20).

Physical healing Miracles

Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus healed the sick, including blindness deafness and dumbness. Some examples of this are when Jesus healed a roman officer’s servant (Luke 7:1-10), the healing of Simons mother-in-law from a fever (Luke 4: 30-40), the man with a skin disease (Luke 5: 12-15) and the man with the paralysed hand (Luke 6:6-11)

Jesus performing these healing miracles shows the love of God reaching out to people who were suffering. This also shows God’s love for gentiles and not just for Jews as Jesus healed many people of different religions like the roman officers servant.

When Jesus heals the paralysed man (Luke 5:18-25), he is not just healing him physically, but it is a healing of his relationship with God. It brought him into Gods kingdom.

Resurrection Miracles

When Jesus raised people from the dead, he showed that the power of God was stronger than death and nothing could ...

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When Jesus heals the paralysed man (Luke 5:18-25), he is not just healing him physically, but it is a healing of his relationship with God. It brought him into Gods kingdom.

Resurrection Miracles

When Jesus raised people from the dead, he showed that the power of God was stronger than death and nothing could stand in God’s way. Luke’s gospel describes two different occasions when Jesus raised people from the dead. One of them was Jarius’ daughter (Luke 8:41-42, 49-56) and the other one was the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-15)

“He told her not to cry. He went over and touched the coffin of her son and brought him back to life”. (13-14)

This miracle was not just a show of God’s power but an act of his love.

Of course the greatest miracle that ever took place is the resurrection of Jesus himself (Luke 24:1-12). This showed that believers may face physical death but they are assured of a future with Jesus in a new spiritual kingdom.

Natural Miracles

Jesus walked on the water, fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fishes (Luke 8:10-17), and calmed a fierce storm (Luke 8:22-25).

When Jesus showed his power over nature he showed God’s power breaking into the world. God could do miraculous things for his people that were unexpected and seemed impossible. When Jesus calmed the storm, it told us a lot of things about Jesus. He is powerful; this is shown by the storm responding to Jesus’s command. He is mysterious; his disciples were amazed at what he had done. And he had faith; he had no doubt that the storm would die down because he had told it to.

Exorcism Miracles

Jesus had many clashes with evil spirits under Satan’s control (Luke 4:11-13, Luke 4:33-35, Luke 9:42-43, Luke 11:14) but Jesus many exorcisms showed that his power was far greater than Satan and the forces of evil. People believed that demons were evil forces or spirits of the devil and often caused illness and mental disorders. When Jesus cast out demons he showed that the Kingdom of God was stronger than the Kingdom of Satan and that Satan would be defeated.

By casting out the demon from a man at Garasa (Luke 8:26-39) Jesus showed not only that he had authority over people but he showed his great love for all people even the outcasts and gentiles.

In this way Jesus presented himself as a liberator whereby people would no longer have to suffer alone but that he would help them in a way that no one else had.

However, Jesus did not want to be seen just as a miracle worker and this was why he did not jump off the mountain when he was tempted to by the devil. (Luke 4: 9-13). He didn’t want people to follow him just to see his miracles so he often told people not to tell others what miracles they had seen him perform. (Luke 5: 14-15)