An example of a healing story showing Jesus’ compassion for the rejected is in Luke 17:11-19 Jesus heals the lepers.
In Jerusalem, ten men suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to meet him, they called: ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ He saw them and said, ‘go and show yourselves to the priests.’ As they went they were cleansed. One of them turned back to praise God and thanked Jesus. He was a Samaritan. This led Jesus to say, ‘were not all ten made clean? …it seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner. And he said to the man, ‘stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’
Jesus pitied these unfortunate people, showing them care and affection by actually touching them, in defiance of law and danger. Healing of lepers was one of the signs of the coming of God’s kingdom which was prophesised by Isaiah therefore he is fulfilling the Old Testament. Luke makes the point that the man who returned to thank God was a Samaritan which highlights the theme of universalism, a major theme in Luke’s gospel. Samaritan’s joy which is typical of Luke shows that Jesus came to help all those who are rejected and hopes that they will in return praise and glorify God when they have felt or seen his power at work.
An example of an exorcism miracle which demonstrates Jesus’ command and authority over sickness and evil is in Luke 9:37-43 when Jesus cures the Epileptic Demoniac.
A man in the crowd asked Jesus to cure his boy who was possessed with a spirit which would throw him into convulsions with foaming at the mouth. He begged the disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t. Jesus replied ‘faithless and perverse generation! …Bring your son here.’ As the boy came, the devil acted upon him but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and cured the boy.
It seems as if Luke is directing this to the father, trying to point out the necessity of faith for a miracle to happen which seems to be lacking in the father. Through faith Jesus was able to defeat Satan. This miracle shows Christians that they should have faith in hope for a miracle to take place. Luke uses the story to comment on Jesus’ person. The contrast is drawn between how Jesus rebuked the spirit and cured the boy, casting out the evil spell but his disciples couldn’t. Luke added this sentence to express what he thinks of Jesus:
“they were all struck with awe at the majesty of God”
This shows a direct intervention between Father and Son. Jesus acts as God and defeats Satan bringing the message that God will also defeat evil and he will continue to do so if you have enough trust and faith in him.
An example of Jesus raising the dead which implies that eternal life follows death is in Luke 8:49-56 when Jairus’ daughter is raised to life.
Someone arrived into the synagogue to say: ‘your daughter has died, do not trouble the master any further.’ Jesus told the man: ‘Do not be afraid, only have faith and she will be saved.’ They went to the house and Jesus only allowed Peter, John, James and the child’s parents to go in. Jesus said:‘Stop crying, she is not dead, but asleep.’ But they thought him ridicule. Jesus took her by the hand and said, ‘Child, get up.’ Her spirit returned and she got up. Her parents were astonished but he told them not to tell anyone.
Again, Luke shows how Jesus is presented as a worker of miracles through miracles. By raising the dead, he was claiming to be the source of life itself. Only God can give and take life away, so by this claim, Jesus was claiming equality with God, showing that he is indeed the Son of God. This was the supreme challenge to the Jewish authorities who were determined to get rid of him. Luke shows how Jesus reveals his power and authority that is given by God through miracles and it is again through these actions that his faith and belief in God the almighty is reflected. It is also plain that both Luke and the early church saw in this story a message- that death is not the end. The power of God is stronger than death and new life comes after it. Perhaps through this miracle he was foretelling or pointing towards his resurrection which also proves life over death.
Through this miracle we can also see how Luke refers to the messianic secret. Jesus orders the parents not to tell anyone about the miracle that has just taken place as he doesn’t want others to think that he will perform them for no particular reason. He encourages people to come up to him and have faith in order to be healed to prevent people from misunderstanding the type of miracles worker he is.
Through these miracles, Jesus is presented as caring and compassionate. It also shows the various ways in which Jesus performs them e.g. quietly, by touching the infected or solely by speaking the word. Jesus’ will is for all people to be whole in mind, body and soul, and through his actions he teaches Christians about love and brings God’s message to those who needed courage, who needed support and those who have been rejected by society that God is with them and that He has an overwhelming sense of love and compassion for them, therefore they should have faith and they would be cured. Through the above miracles, Luke’s key themes of universalism, Jesus caring for the outcasts, the sick, and sinners are reflected.
B) Although Jesus does not exist physically in our world today, the miracles he performed during his ministry still remain important to Christians today. A lot of believers still pray in hope that their faith will save them or those they love. They believe that miracles still take place in our society through people, healing places or science, both in actions and in a spiritual sense through the mind. A lot of Christians also believe in the canonisation process. This is when two miracles have been worked by this person in response to their faith.
Although most Christians try to uphold the beliefs of the church that miracles were true events and that if they do not believe in them, they are denying God and all that Jesus has done for them, there may still be a variety of responses. Healing miracles may have different meanings to different Christians. Liberals believe that God is alive in a spiritual form, healing them by performing miracles on the minds of individuals and therefore not by actions but by mental healing. Charismatics believe that a part of God is around them, helping Christians through their difficulties by performing miracles if they have faith in Him. They believe that He has sent the holy spirit which represents Jesus to guide them through their journey of life by helping them and performing miracles when they are truly desperate, hoping that through miraculous events whether they are physically, mentally or emotionally would strengthen our believes, bringing us from spiritual darkness back into light, continuing the work of Jesus though Christians and followers today. They would refer to Luke 24:49:
‘and I myself will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city until the power from above comes down upon you.’
This would support their belief that the Holy Spirit is around Christians to continue the work of Jesus, including the performance of healing miracles for those who have faith in Him.
Fundamentalists would strongly believe that miracles will happen and just as it was in Jesus’ time because they believe the Holy Spirit is only the love between God, son and whoever enters the lives of Christians to give them love, joy and peace. They would argue that love is intangible and that it will not be able to perform miracles for miracles can only be carried out by a person physically. They would refer to Luke 4:38-40 and say that the healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law was performed physically to show the command and authority that Jesus has over sickness. Therefore they believe that today, God would still perform healing miracles through priests or places of healing to continue proving the power of God over evil and to these Christians, miracles are still as real and would still be performed through actions. However, both would agree that miracles are a sign that god is with them and loves them.
To some Christians miracles do not have a meaning and are not important as it is not part of their belief and practise. They would say that if Jesus performed miracles why did he not save himself from suffering and dying on the cross when he could have healed himself from his wounds? They do not see that miracles are demonstrations of Jesus’ power as the Son of God, which are part of the mission to bring about the kingdom of God. They would say that some of the healing miracles can be explained that the sick healed suffered from psychosomatic illness. These are real illnesses which are caused by the mind and are cured by filling the person with love and hope and that could have been what Jesus did accidentally.
To Some Christians, healing miracles mean a lot. Believing in healing miracles may help a lot of sufferers see God and have hope in their life, they may feel the presence of God around them and not give up hope, instead this will help to strengthen their faith and encourage praying, building a closer relationship with God. In Luke 5:17-26, Jesus heals the paralysed man physically as a result of the faith of his friends. This proves that Jesus has the authority to perform healing miracles and some Christians hold strongly onto the belief that if you have enough faith in God, a healing miracle will take place physically.
In Luke 7:1-10 Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant from a distant because of the faith of the centurion who receives the highest praise from Jesus- ‘I tell you, I have never found faith as great as this, not even in Israel.’ This healing miracle shows one of Luke’s themes, universalism. The centurion was a roman outsider but he cared and had compassion for his servant and for the Jewish community and therefore Jesus performed a healing miracle for him. People can see the compassion of Jesus and that he responds to those who have faith and ask. He does not seek out miracle events to prove his powers. Christians can learn from this and say that the meaning of healing miracles is that Christians must have faith in God and he will heal them, even though he is not physically in our world, but he will do so from heaven, from a distance just as he cured the centurion’s servant. The Christian church understands this and therefore still practises healing today, physically, emotionally or spiritually. It may be praying over someone who is ill or anointing the sick with oil, water and the laying of the hands. The will of Jesus is that all people should be whole in mind body and spirit. A person with faith prays for healing in the belief that a healing miracle can take place, some might think this is coming in the wrong intention, expecting something and that they should not take God as personal advantage but to come with open faith. Sometimes a sick person’s friend show their faith in action such as taking a person to a healing service or to some centre of healing such as Lourdes. However faith coming before and bringing about healing miracles is as real and important to many Christians today as it was at the time of the Gospel.
In our society and world today, there is a rapid development in science and medicine which might affect the response to healing miracles. This may cause some Christians to loose faith in God as they think science is the only way of a cure and that it will be able to explain all the strange occurrences but we should not always separate science and religion. Perhaps God uses science to bring about healing and can still be seen as a form of miracle.
Despite the advanced scientific knowledge, healing ministries still exist today for example in Lourdes in France or in ‘Knock’ which is situated in Ireland. Both Catholics and non Catholics visit these holy grounds and those who have illnesses would go there and pray, again in hope that Mother Mary would appear and that a healing miracle would take place.
A healing story that took place in Lourdes: October 1993, a man a priest and a father that a mother and baby needed praying for therefore went outside to pray. The mother unwrapped the baby and both priests say that the seventeen month old baby was so brain damaged in birth that she had no physical movement. She could not see nor could she hear. They prayed over her and later that day, the family got in touch with the priests and told them that their daughter was doing so well. They lived in New Jersey and later on that year the parents brought the little girl who was twenty three months old to visit the priests. She was completely normal and seemed very healthy. She talked, she walked, almost a perpetual smile. They believe this as a mark of the Lord’s presence and the Lord’s working. The nature of these miracles help to strengthen the faith of Christians in God although on the whole, it doesn’t seem to be true of people becoming Christians due to belief in miracles but it does shows the authority and power of God over evil, the force which creates inequality to humans either physically e.g. inability to function body parts, mentally e.g. retardation or emotionally e.g. wish to commit suicide. Through miracles, God shows how He is able to defeat evil, Satan and help people to prevaricate between right and wrong.
The above miracle happened nearly instantly but there are miracles which take up to months for a person to be cured, therefore, although events that have taken place in Lourdes or other healing places have been classified as ‘miracles’, whilst some people believe strongly in them, others are less willing to accept them immediately. They are more cautious about accepting anything as a miracle for they would argue that it takes years even for doctors to proclaim an extraordinary event as a ‘miracle’ as some diseases might have been caused by a long term physiological malfunctioning which might actually be able to be cured if that person is given the right treatment which might not necessarily be medication but perhaps love and care and this process of healing might take years. As a result doctors have to wait for analysis and experiment results over several years before confirming an event as a miracle.
The Church is also very cautious about classifying an event as a miracle because it does not want to lead people to think that if they become a Christian, then they would experience miracles and have all their difficulties and problems solved. The other reason is that if they give every thing the title ‘miracle’ then events such as at Lourdes would loose its value and importance, and the Church thinks that miracles are something special, something unique, valuable and extraordinary which breaks the laws of nature and can be seen as the intervention of God which shows Christians the importance of healing miracles on their lives today.
Jesus’ healing miracles set an example and guide Christians into caring for the sick in our society. His will is for all people regardless of who they are to be whole in mind, body and soul and therefore for us to become true Christians we should fulfil his will which is given to us as both a responsibility and a duty by following his example in caring for those in need. We can not only pray for those who are sick but give up some of our time to visit them and give hope and compassion to them, helping them to strengthen faith in God for a miracle to take place.
A lot of Christians see the importance in miracles in that they feel more responsibility to act to change the situations of the sick or outcasts today even when they can’t perform miracles. They might encourage other people to see that through one’s actions, another’s life might be saved and that might be how God works miracles - through Christians today. For example they might donate blood to save someone who is dying. They might also say that miracles are important because they make Christians realise that there are many less fortunate people out there and by healing them through miracles, God puts across the point that he also wants us to do something to heal them, perhaps praying for them or helping them rebuild their lives.
c) Although all Christians try to uphold the views of the church, there will always be some diversions as to whether they believe everything that is written in the bible and that includes miracles.
Some people believe that miracles are impossible. They might insist that miracles do not prove the divine origin of the Christian faith. People who do not believe in miracles would not understand why one prays so hard and expects so much when it is most likely that a miracle would not even take place. They would refer to the bible to support their argument, saying that in Luke9:37-43 the cure of the boy with the seizure. It was only epilepsy and that it can now be cured therefore it wasn’t a miracle.
These people who do not believe in miracles might say that events have been classified as ‘miracles’ in Jesus’ time because they did not have our current scientific knowledge and technology to explain them. However, we can look at the unexplainable now and say that they might be explained in future. Therefore it is not the right way to look at miracles, and as Christians we should understand what God message to his people. They would also argue that miracles happen so rarely that they could have been mistaken as scientific errors.
Some Christians who do not believe in miracles would also say that it is not necessary for a Christian to believe in everything that is written in the Bible. Miracles can be interpreted as legends and as acted parables rather than actual events for the sake of teaching. They would just say that the miracle stories are important for Luke. They help to explain the significance of Jesus. The miracles are therefore only theological meanings but not actual happenings.
Other Christians would say that miracle is dependent on faith. A truly rational man sets his faith openly without any preconceived notions or fears to find the truth. These Christians would be confident that regardless of what the truth maybe, he will be able to accept it as a work of God and will be able to consider it a miracle. Jesus said himself that in order for a miracle to take place, one must show unconditional love and faith in God. They see miracles as a sign of hope that one may be able to lead a normal life again, to be cured of all evil and sickness. They believe that if you truly put your life into God’s hands and worship him for what he has given us, then miracles will be a form of reward for our loyalty.
Christians would say that if you believe in Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" then everything else falls into place because they would argue that science does not explain why things are there but how they happen and therefore if we believe that God is the creator of earth then we should accept miracles as they too go against the laws of science.
Some hold the belief that every little thing is miraculous. Even a birth is a miracle by God for he has created new life from tiny cells. Or that a person might repent and become a good person again, returning to the light of God. They would consider this as a miracle for he is healed in the mind mentally. They would say that although this can be explainable, it takes a lot of courage and persuasion and it is a sign of God’s love and work. To them it is evident that God has worked through that person and therefore is a miracle.
The Catholic Church today teaches that people should pray for the healing of both others and themselves for it is God’s will for us to be whole. However, some Christians would say that sickness is also part of God’s will for us. It is important in the respective that it allows our faith to be tested and in turn strengthened. Learning to be patient in prayer leads to an inner healing of the spirit which can be seen as a miracle itself even though our outward physical condition remains unaltered.
For other Christians, it is a matter of interpretation and to them a miracle is not provable but can only be seen or felt by the person experiencing it. They believe that for those who choose to interpret coincidences as miracles, as a personal sense of destiny, then it would give them strength to make meaning out of their lives.
I think that in order for miracles to happen, you have to retain immense faith in God. I believe that faith is the request and miracle is the answer. Miracles are still performed in places of healing like Lourdes today and it is through these unexplainable events that some people enter the church. It is also through these miracles that God encourages Christians today to reflect upon their own faith and strengthen their belief and relationship with him. I don’t think miracles have to be something Christ-like, such as turning bread into water, they can be small miracles, like being saved from a car accident, being almost struck by a bus or your parents were sick and you prayed and they got better. I believe miracles still happen in our world today because God will always love and care for us. In Luke 7:11-15, when Jesus saw the widow of Nain, he told her not to cry. He went over and touched the coffin of her son and brought him back to life. Jesus’ miracles didn’t only show his power but were acts of love by God. He will love us forever and therefore will continue to perform miracles to help people, touching and changing their lives. Through miracles, he will continue to show people something of the power of God and how much God cared for them, just as he has done during Jesus’ time.
