Jesus also performed miracles to show people that he was the Jewish Messiah promised to the people of Israel by God. In Jewish scriptures it said how God would make the Messiah able to heal, making blind people see, the lame walk and making sick people well again. When Jesus did those things it gave evidence that he was the Messiah.
Jesus performed miracles by touch, for example the woman with the haemorrhage (Luke 8:43-48). He performed them by his words, such as when the paralyzed man was healed (Luke 5:18-25). He also performed them at a distance, for example, the Centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10). This shows people that Jesus does not physically have to be with the person who is ill to heal them, giving hope to people who are ill today now that Jesus is no longer physically on the earth.
One of Jesus’ miracles was when he calmed the storm (Luke 8:22-25). The story of Jesus’ power over nature shows some important things about Jesus. It shows he was powerful as the storm calmed when Jesus told it to; he was also mysterious and his disciples were amazed and afraid at what Jesus had done, it showed he was more than just a teacher and prophet. Jesus responded to people when he performed the miracle, he calmed the storm because his disciples had asked him to and it was not his idea. He had faith because he had no doubt that the storm would die down when he told it to, the same faith that he wanted his disciples to have. He was setting an example.
In the miracle when Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10) he shows how he responds to faith. The Centurion, a Roman and a Gentile, shows great faith in Jesus because he believes Jesus can heal his servant from a distance and not have to come into his house. Jesus is impressed at his great faith and heals the servant without entering the house.
In Jesus feeds the 5000 (Luke 9:12-17) he shows his power over nature. The miracle shows Jesus cares about his followers and their needs and is generous. The disciples don’t believe he will be able to feed 5000 people with just five loaves and two fish. The miracle Jesus performs by feeding everyone helps people to believe he is the messiah and shows his power and that he is the son of God.
Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Luke 8-40, 49-56). This shows Jesus’ power over death and his acts of love, as he wanted to help Jairus and give him back his daughter. Jairus was a Jewish leader and an elder of the synagogue, so it must have taken courage to come forward and ask for help from Jesus because many other Jewish leaders were against Jesus. The miracle shows that Jesus responds to courage.
The miracles that Jesus performed show his love for others and how he wanted to help people and show them how they should live their lives. He responded to faith and courage and would always help people that had faith in him and God.
b) Discuss the meaning of healing miracles with reference to present day belief and Christian life.
The miracle stories in the Bible are important to Christians today. They help Christians to have faith in God and Jesus. Whether they believe the miracles actually happened or are just symbolic, Christians today can learn from the miracles Jesus performed.
The miracle ‘Jesus and the woman with the haemorrhage’ (Luke 8:43-48) shows Jesus’ power over illness. Jesus rewards faith and the woman shows great faith by just touching him. It also shows that Jesus reaches out to outcasts; the woman was considered an outcast from society because according to Jewish law, the woman’s bleeding meant that she could not join in the Jewish religious ceremonies. This teaches Christians today about the faith they should have, and teaches them to follow Jesus’ example and help outcasts.
In the miracle ‘Jesus and the paralysed man’ (Luke 5:18-25), the four friends show great faith and friendship. They make an opening in the roof above Jesus and lower their friend in front of him. They are not interested in themselves, only in helping their friend. This can teach Christians today the power of faith and friendship. Jesus tells the man that his sins are forgiven. This teaches Christians today that spiritual healing is just as important as physical healing and that God is forgiving.
The miracle ‘Jesus heals the leper’ (Luke 5:12-13) shows how Jesus pities outcasts and rewards faith. The leper was an outcast as he was considered unclean and had to live outside the town, leprosy was regarded by society as a sign of God’s displeasure. The leper had faith that Jesus had the power to heal him but was unsure if Jesus would be willing to do it. Today some Christians see God as being able to help them but for some reason, not willing to. This miracle can help Christians today to have faith.
The miracles Jesus performed in the Bible help to inform Christian belief about how Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah. They can help people to have faith in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God.
Some churches run healing services today. Many people believe that healing services can help people physically and mentally. They believe that God has given certain people the gift of being able to heal others. Other people, however, believe only God can heal and people that claim to be able to heal are only taking advantage of desperate, gullible people.
Jesus did not physically heal everyone but gave inner strength to many. Christians today are more concerned with spiritual health, although they also pray for the healing of sickness and physical pain. An example of this can be seen in the visitors to the Marian shrine of Lourdes. Lourdes pilgrims are often sick and there have been claims of physical healing there but most people go there to receive inspiration and spiritual health through prayer and worship. People make pilgrimages to Lourdes because in 1858, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared there to a peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous and the water is believed to have healing properties.
An example of a healing at Lourdes is Joseph Charpentier, fifty-nine, who had been wheelchair bound for nineteen years when he came to the grotto to pray for a cure. During the healing service he was anointed with oil and ten minutes later was able to stand for the first time. To quote his words ‘I felt a great warmth rise from my feet to my heart’.
Twenty-eight year old Léo Schwager, of Fribourg (Switzerland) had multiple sclerosis for five years. He came to Lourdes in April 1952, with the Pilgrimage from Fribourg. During the Blessed Sacrament Procession he realized that all his symptoms had vanished. His ability to stand, walk, speak, see and eat, all came back in an instant when the sick were being blessed.
Marie Bigot, thirty-one, suffered from blindness, deafness and hemiplegia. For the first time she went to Lourdes in October 1952 with the Rosary Pilgrimage. No improvement followed, despite her hopefulness. In October 1953, she went to Lourdes again. There she recovered the ability to walk. The next year, on the 8th October 1954, she recovered her hearing at the end of the Procession, and on the train her vision returned to normal.
Many people believe that the healings at Lourdes are miraculous and God is working his powers through a sacred place. Other people believe it is the shock of going to Lourdes that mentally heals people and helps them to have faith in God and themselves.
c) ‘Healing miracles do not happen today.’ Do you agree? Give reasons to support your answer and show that you have thought about different points of view. You must refer to Christianity in your answer.
There are many different views on whether healing miracles happen today or not. Some Christians believe that miracles don’t happen anymore because Jesus is no longer around to perform miracles. But others believe that Jesus can still work miracles even though he isn’t on the earth. They believe that God has not changed and still cares about the world he created and that he will still sometimes respond to prayers for healing, and bring about a cure in an incurable condition. Some people believe you just have to have faith in God for miracles to happen.
Now there is more scientific and medical discovery so people often find it harder to believe in miracles as many of them can be explained by science and medicine. Some people believe that miracles are not miracles but just events seen outside of science yet are in science although unexplainable. They believe miracles are just normal events that most never see, only because they are rare and are thought of as miracles just because people can not understand then. However, some Christians think that if we believe that every time science explains an event that it is no longer a miracle, we are losing all faith in God.
Twenty year old Malot Clementine was presented with a case of tuberculosis in 1892. In desperation, she decided to go to Lourdes in 1898 with the National Pilgrimage. After going to the baths she felt a marked improvement in her health and by 21st August 1899 a cure was confirmed for certain. This was declared as miraculous.
This account could be thought of as miraculous or it could just be a coincidence. Some Christians would say that because of Malot Clementine’s faith in God, by making a pilgrimage to Lourdes, she was rewarded by being healed. Others would say that her faith in Lourdes and believing that she would be healed was what actually healed her.
On the 16th April 1962, Micheli Vittorio, a soldier in the Alpine Corps, was admitted into a hospital in Verona for the diagnosis and treatment of an obscure condition of his left hip. After various tests he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor on 4th. June. His case deteriorated, with total destruction of his hip joint, but he still undertook a pilgrimage to Lourdes in June 1963. During the pilgrimage, nothing notable happened, except that he bathed, encased from pelvis to foot in a plaster cast. On his return he appeared to be in better shape. Six months after the pilgrimage he was in excellent health, had no pain, he could walk and his hip somehow seemed to have ‘reconstructed’.
This miracle seems remarkable and many people would think it was God and the Holy Spirit at work, rewarding his faith. Even though he could barely walk, he still made the pilgrimage to Lourdes because he believed it would heal him. Other people may not find the account completely believable, as it seems impossible that his hip joint could have been miraculously reconstructed. Some people might think it is possible that his case gradually got better and his pilgrimage to Lourdes was nothing to do with it.
People have many different opinions on whether miracles happen today. I believe miracles can happen today if God wants it that way but a lot of things that are labeled as ‘miraculous’ may just be coincidences. For some people, having faith in God and miracles can help them get well and have faith in themselves.
