THE LEPER - Year Two - c AD28-29

(Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16)Matthew 8:1-4 - Large crowds followed him when he came down from the hillside (after the Sermon on the Mount). There was a leper who came and knelt in front of him. "Sir," he said, "if you want to, you can make me clean." Jesus stretched out his hand and placed it on the leper saying, "Of course I want to. Be clean!" And at once he was clear of the leprosy.
"Mind you say nothing to anybody," Jesus told him. "Go straight off and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your recovery that Moses prescribed, as evidence to the authorities."
Mark 1:40-45 - Then a leper came to Jesus (as he continued preaching and healing throughout Galilee), knelt in front of him and appealed to him, "If you want to, you can make me clean."
Jesus was filled with pity for him, and stretched out his hand and placed it on the leper, saying, "Of course I want to - be clean!"
At once the leprosy left him and he was quite clean. Jesus sent him away there and then with the strict injunction, "Mind you say nothing at all to anybody. Go straight off and show yourself to the priest, and make the offerings for your cleansing which Moses prescribed, as public proof of your recovery."
But he went off and began to talk a great deal about it in public, spreading his story far and wide. Consequently, it became impossible for Jesus to show his face in the towns and he had to stay outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from all quarters.
Luke 5:12-16 - While he was in one of the towns (of Galilee after the calling of Simon Peter, Andrew, John and James), Jesus came upon a man who was a mass of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he prostrated himself before him and begged, "If you want to, Lord, you can make me clean."
Jesus stretched out his hand, placed it on the leper, saying, "Certainly I want to. Be clean!"
Immediately the leprosy left him and Jesus warned him not to tell anybody, but to go and show himself to the priest and to make the offerings for his recovery that Moses prescribed, as evidence to the authorities.
Yet the news about him spread all the more, and enormous crowds collected to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases. But he slipped quietly away to deserted places for prayer.

THE INVALID AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA - Year Two - c AD28-29

- Jesus now journeys south from Galilee to Jerusalem for a festival - possibly the second Passover of the Gospels:

John 5:1-15 - Some time later (after Jesus had met the woman at the well in Samaria, and then, in Cana in Galilee, saved the official's dying son) came one of the Jewish feast-days and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. There is in Jerusalem near the sheep-gate a pool surrounded by five arches, which has the Hebrew name of Bethzatha (the Pool of Bethesda). Under these arches a great many sick people were in the habit of lying; some of them were blind, some lame, and some had withered limbs. (They used to wait there for the "moving of the water", for at certain times an angel used to come down into the pool and disturb the water, and then the first person who stepped into the water after the disturbance would be healed of whatever he was suffering from - this explanation in brackets is only in some ancient manuscripts.) One particular man had been there ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there on his back - knowing that he had been like that for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to get well again?" "Sir," replied the sick man, "I just haven't got anybody to put me into the pool when the water is all stirred up. While I'm trying to get there somebody else gets down into it first."
"Get up," said Jesus, "pick up your bed and walk!"
At once the man recovered, picked up his bed and walked.
This happened on a Sabbath day, which made the Jews keep on telling the man who had been healed, "It's the Sabbath, you know; it's not right for you to carry your bed."
"The man who made me well," he replied, "was the one who told me, 'Pick up your bed and walk.'"
Then they asked him, "And who is the man who told you to do that?"
But the one who had been healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away in the dense crowd. Later Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, "Look: you are a fit man now. Do not sin again or something worse might happen to you!"
Then the man went off and informed the Jews that the one who had made him well was Jesus.

THE MAN WITH THE SHRIVELLED HAND - Year Two - c AD28-29

- Jesus returns to Galilee:

(Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11) Matthew 12:9-14 - Leaving there (the cornfields where Jesus and his disciples were criticised by Pharisees for picking corn on the Sabbath) he went into their synagogue (in Galilee, possibly Capernaum), where there happened to be a man with a shrivelled hand.
"Is it right to heal anyone on the Sabbath day?" they asked him - hoping to bring a charge against him.
"If any of you had a sheep which fell into a ditch on the Sabbath day, would he not take hold of it and pull it out?" replied Jesus. "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep? You see, it is right to do good on the Sabbath day."
Then Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" He did stretch it out, and it was restored as sound as the other.
But the Pharisees went out and held a meeting against Jesus and discussed how they could get rid of him altogether.

Mark 3:1-6 - On another occasion (after the cornfield incident) when he went into the synagogue, there was a man there whose hand was shrivelled, and they (the Pharisees) were watching Jesus closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, so that they might bring a charge against him. Jesus said to the man with the shrivelled hand, "Stand up and come out here in front!"
Then he said to them, "Is it right to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do harm? Is it right to save life or to kill?"
There was a dead silence. Then Jesus, deeply hurt as he sensed their inhumanity, looked round in anger at the faces surrounding him, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!"
And he stretched it out, and the hand was restored as sound as the other one. The Pharisees walked straight out and discussed with Herod's party how they could have Jesus put out of the way.

Luke 6:6-11 - On another Sabbath day (again after the cornfield incident) when he went into a synagogue to teach, there was a man there whose right hand was wasted away. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, which would, of course, give them grounds for an accusation. But he knew exactly what was going on in their minds, and said to the man with the wasted hand, "Stand up and come out in front."
And he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I am going to ask you a question. Does the Law command us to do good on Sabbath days or do harm - to save life or destroy it?"
He looked round, meeting all their eyes, and said to the man, "Now stretch out your hand."
He did so, and his hand was restored as sound as the other one. But they were filled with insane fury, and kept discussing with each other what they could do to Jesus.

RAISING THE WIDOW OF NAIN'S DEAD SON - Year Two - c AD28-29

Luke 7:11-17 - Not long afterwards (after healing the centurion's servant), Jesus went into a town called Nain (in Galilee), accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd. As they approached the city gate, it happened that some people were carrying out a dead man, the only son of his widowed mother. The usual crowd of fellow-townsmen was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."

 

Then he walked up and put his hand on the bier while the bearers stood still. Then he said, "Young man, wake up!"
And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus handed him to his mother. Everybody present was awe-struck and they praised God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us and God has turned his face towards his people."
And this report of him spread through the whole of Judea and the surrounding countryside.

THE WOMAN WITH THE HEMORRHAGE - Year Two - c AD28-29

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 This healing story is tucked into the THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER
(Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5: 25-34; Luke 43-48)Matthew 9:18-22- While he was saying these thing to them (parables such as the bride and the bridegroom, and the new cloth sewn onto old; also after healing the madman in the region of the Gadarenes) an official (or synagogue ruler or president) came up to him and, bowing low before him, said, "My daughter has just this moment died. Please come and lay your hand on her and she will come back to life!"
At this Jesus got to his feet and followed him, accompanied by his disciples. And on the way a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years approached him from behind and touched the edge of his cloak.
"If I can only touch his cloak," she kept saying to herself, "I shall be all right."
But Jesus turned right round and saw her.
"Cheer up, my daughter," he said, "your faith has made you well!" And the woman was completely cured from that moment.

Mark 5:21-34 - When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side of the lake (after the incident of the madman and the Gadarene swine), a great crowd collected around him as he stood on the shore. Then came a man called Jairus, one of the synagogue presidents. And when he saw Jesus, he knelt before him, pleading desperately for his help.
"My little girl is dying," he said. "Will you come and put your hands on her - then she will get better and live."
Jesus went off with him, followed by large crowds jostling at his elbow. Among them was a woman who had a hamorrhage for twelve years and who had gone through a great deal at the hands of many doctors (or physicians), spending all her money in the process. She had derived no benefit from them but, on the contrary, was getting worse. This woman had heard about Jesus and came up behind him under cover of the crowd, and touched his cloak, "For if I can only touch his clothes," she said, "I shall be all right."
The hemorrhage stopped immediately, and she knew in herself that she was cured of her trouble. At once Jesus knew intuitively that power had gone out of him, and he turned round in the middle of the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"
His disciples replied, "You can see this crowd jostling you. How can you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
But he looked all round at their faces to see who had done so. Then the woman, scared and shaking all over because she knew that she was the one to whom this thing had happened, came and flung herself before him and told him the whole story. But he said to her, "Daughter, it is your faith that has healed you. Go home in peace, and be free from your trouble."

Luke 8:40-48 - On Jesus' return (again after healing the madman), the crowd welcomed him back, for they had all been looking for him.
Then up came Jairus (who was president of the synagogue), and fell at Jesus' feet, begging him to come into his house, for his daughter, an only child about twelve years old, was dying.
But as he went, the crowds nearly suffocated him. Among them was a woman, who had a haemorrhage for twelve years and who had derived no benefit from anybody's treatment. She came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak, with the result that her haemorrhage stopped at once.
"Who was that who touched me?" said Jesus.
And when everybody denied it, Peter remonstrated, "Master, the crowds are all round you and are pressing you on all sides ...."
But Jesus said, "Somebody touched me, for I felt the power went out from me."
When the woman realised that she had not escaped notice she came forward trembling, and fell at his feet and admitted before everybody why she had to touch him, and how she had been instantaneously cured.
"Daughter," said Jesus, "It is your faith that has healed you - go in peace."

THE SICK DAUGHTER OF THE SYROPHOENICIAN WOMAN - Year Three - c AD29-30

(Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30)

- The woman is a Gentile Canaanite living in the Phoenician part of Syria - present day Lebanon. This is another difficult account to understand. First Jesus says the Gospel is only for the Jews - the "lost sheep of the house of Israel". Then, in using the term "dogs" to refer to Gentiles, he is being uncharacteristically unkind.
The term "dogs" is believed to have been meant in the more gentle form of domestic "young puppies". But whatever the actual incident, or how it is reported, Jesus did not refuse her request, and her daughter was healed. And later in the early Church, it is the Gentiles who become the main beneficiaries of the Gospel of Jesus:

Matthew 15:21-28 - Jesus left that place (the Galilee region after clashing with the scribes and Pharisees about what really makes a person clean) and retired into the Tyre and Sidon district. There a Canaanite woman from those parts came to him crying at the top of her voice, "Lord, have pity on me! My daughter is in a terrible state - a devil has got into her!"
Jesus made no answer, and the disciples came up to him and said, "Do send her away - she's still following us and calling out."
"I was only sent," replied Jesus, "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Then the woman came and knelt at his feet. "Lord, help me," she said.
"It is not right, you know," Jesus replied, "to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
"Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs live on the scraps that fall from their master's table!"
"You certainly don't lack faith," returned Jesus, "it shall be as you wish."
And at that moment her daughter was cured.
Mark 7:24-30 - Then (as in Matthew's account) he got up and left that place and went off to the neighbourhood of Tyre. There he went into a house and wanted no one to know where he was. But it proved impossible to remain hidden. For no sooner had he got there, than a woman who had heard about him, and who had a daughter possessed by an evil spirit, arrived and prostrated herself before him. She was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she asked him to drive the evil spirit out of her daughter. Jesus said to her, "You must let the children have all they want first. It is not right, you know, to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
But she replied, "Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs under the table eat what the children leave."
"If you can answer like that," Jesus said to her, "you can go home! The evil spirit has left your daughter."
And she went back home and found the child lying quietly on her bed, and the evil spirit gone.

THE MAN BORN BLIND WHO GOES BEFORE THE PHARISEES - Year Three - c AD29-30

John 9:1-41 - Later, as Jesus walked along (in Jerusalem, after he had forgiven the woman caught in adultery) he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

"Master, whose sin caused this man's blindness," asked the disciples, "his own or his parents'?"

"He was not born blind because of his own sin or that of his parents," returned Jesus, "but to show the power of God at work in him. We must carry on the work of him who sent me while the daylight lasts. Night is coming, when no one can work. I am the world's light as long as I am in it."
Having said this, he spat on the ground and made a sort of clay with the saliva. This he applied to the man's eyes and said, "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam (in the Lower City of Jerusalem)." (Siloam means "one who has been sent".) So the man went off and washed and came home with his sight restored.
His neighbours and the people who had often seen him before as a beggar remarked, "Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?"
"Yes, that's the one," said some.
Others said, "No, but he's very like him."
But he himself said, "I'm the man all right!"
"Then how was your blindness cured?" they asked.
"The man called Jesus made some clay and smeared it on my eyes," he replied, "and then he said, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So off I went and washed - and that's how I got my sight!"
"Where is he now?" they asked.
"I don't know," he returned.
So they brought the man who had once been blind before the Pharisees. (It should be noted that Jesus made the clay and restored his sight on a Sabbath day.) The Pharisees asked the question all over again as to how he had become able to see.
"He put clay on my eyes; I washed it off; now I can see - that's all," he replied.
Some of the Pharisees commented, "This man cannot be from God since he does not observe the Sabbath."
"But how can a sinner give such wonderful signs as these?" others demurred. And they were in two minds about him. Finally, they asked the blind man again, "And what do you say about him? You're the one whose sight was restored."
"I believe he is a prophet," he replied.
The Jews did not really believe that the man had been blind and then had become able to see, until they had summoned his parents and asked them, "Is this your son who you say was born blind? How does it happen that he can now see?"
"We know that this is our son, and we know that he was born blind," returned his parents, "but how he can see now, or who made him able to see, we have no idea. Why don't you ask him? He is a grown-up man; he can speak for himself."
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews who had already agreed that anybody who admitted that Christ had done this thing should be excommunicated. It was this fear which made his parents say, "Ask him, he is a grown-up man."
So, once again they summoned the man who had been born blind and said to him, "You should 'give God the glory'.
for what has happened to you. We know that this man is a sinner."
"Whether he is a sinner or not, I couldn't tell, but one thing I am sure of," the man replied, "I used to be blind, now I can see!"
"But what did he do to you - how did he make you see?" they continued.
"I've told you before," he replied. "Weren't you listening? Why do you want to hear it all over again? Are you wanting to be his disciples too?"
At this, they turned on him furiously.
"You're the one who is his disciple! We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't even know where he came from."
"Now here's the extraordinary thing," he retorted, "you don't know where he came from and yet he gave me the gift of sight.
Everybody knows that God does not listen to sinners. It is the man who has a proper respect for God and does what God wants him to do - he's the one God listens to. Why, since the world began, nobody's ever heard of a man who was born blind being given his sight. If this man did not come from God, he couldn't do such a thing!"
"You misbegotten wretch!" they flung back at him. "Are you trying to teach us?" And they threw him out.
Jesus heard that they had expelled him and when he had found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
"And who is he, sir?" the man replied. "Tell me, so that I can believe in him."
"You have seen him," replied Jesus. "It is the one who is talking to you now."
"Lord, I do believe," he said, and worshipped him.
Then Jesus said, ÒMy coming into this world is itself a judgement - those who cannot see have their eyes opened and those who think they can see become blind."
Some of the Pharisees near him overheard this and said, "So we're blind, too, are we?"
"If you were blind," returned Jesus, "nobody could blame you, but, as you insist 'We can see', your guilt remains."

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THE CRIPPLED WOMAN The Last Months - c AD29-30

The Last Months - c AD29-30

- This miracle probably took place in Perea, from where Jesus travelled to Bethany in Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead:

Luke 13:10-17 - It happened (sometime after Jesus told the parable of the unfruitful fig-tree) that he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. In the congregation was a woman who for eighteen years had been ill from some psychological cause; she was bent double and was quite unable to straighten herself up. When Jesus noticed her, he called her and said, "You are set free from your illness!"

And he put his hands upon her, and at once she stood upright and praised God. But the president of the synagogue, in his annoyance at Jesus' healing on the Sabbath, announced to the congregation, "There are six days in which men may work. Come on one of them and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!"
But the Lord answered him, saying, "You hypocrites, every single one of you unties his ox or his ass from the stall on the Sabbath day and leads him away to water! This woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom you all know Satan has kept bound for eighteen years - surely she should be released from such bonds on the Sabbath day!"
These words reduced his opponents to shame, but the crowd was thrilled at all the glorious things he did.

THE MAN WITH DROPSY The Last Months - c AD29-30

- This miracle probably took place in Perea, from where Jesus travelled to Bethany in Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead: 

Luke 14:1-6 - One Sabbath day (as Jesus continued to criticise the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy) he went into the house of one of the leading Pharisees for a meal, and they were all watching him closely. Right in front of him was a man afflicted with dropsy. So Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees and said, "Well, is it right to heal on the Sabbath day or not?"

But there was no reply. So Jesus took the man and healed him and let him go. Then he said to them, "If an ass or a cow belonging to one of you fell into a well, wouldn't you rescue him without the slightest hesitation even though it were the Sabbath?"

And this again left them quite unable to reply.

LAZARUS RAISED FROM THE DEAD - The Last Months - c AD29-30

John 11:1-44 - Now there was a man by the name of Lazarus (not the poor man who went to heaven in Luke's parable, Luke 16:19-31) who became seriously ill. He lived in Bethany (outside Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives), the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. (Lazarus was the brother of the Mary who poured perfume upon the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus: "Lord, your friend is ill."

When Jesus (across the River Jordan in Perea) received the message, he said, "This illness is not meant to end in death; it is going to bring glory to God - for it will show the glory of the Son of God."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard of Lazarus' illness he stayed where he was two days longer. Only then did he say to the disciples, "Let us go back into Jude"
"Master!" returned the disciples, "only a few days ago, the Jews were trying to stone you to death - are you going there again?"
"There are twelve hours of daylight every day, are there not?" replied Jesus. "If a man walks in the daytime, he does not stumble, for he has the daylight to see by. But if he walks at night he stumbles, because he cannot see where he is going."
Jesus spoke these words; then after a pause he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him up."
At this, his disciples said, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right."
Actually Jesus had spoken about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about falling into natural sleep. This made Jesus tell them quite plainly, "Lazarus has died, and I am glad that I was not there - for your sakes, that you may learn to believe. And now, let us go to him."
Thomas (known as the twin) then said to his fellow-disciples, "Come on, then, let us all go and die with him!"
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the grave four days. Now Bethany is quite near Jerusalem, rather less than two miles away, and a good many of the Jews had come out to see Martha and Mary to offer them sympathy over their brother's death. When Martha heard that Jesus was on his way, she went out and met him, while Mary stayed in the house.
"If only you had been here, Lord," said Martha, "my brother would never have died. And I know that, even now, God will give you whatever you ask from him."
"Your brother will rise again," Jesus replied to her.
"I know," said Martha, "that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
"I myself am the resurrection and the life," Jesus told her. "The man who believes in me will live even though he dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die at all. Can you believe that?"
"Yes, Lord," replied Martha. "I do believe that you are Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world." Saying this she went away and called Mary her sister, whispering, "The master's here and is asking for you." When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet arrived at the village itself, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who had been condoling with Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and go out, they followed her, imagining that she was going to the grave to weep there.
When Mary met Jesus, she looked at him, and then fell down at his feet. "If only you had been here, Lord," she said, "my brother would never have died."
When Jesus saw Mary weep and noticed the tears of the Jews who came with her, he was deeply moved and visibly distressed.
"Where have you put him?" he asked.
"Lord, come and see," they replied, and at this Jesus himself wept.
"Look how much he loved him!" remarked the Jews, though some of them asked, "Could he not have kept this man from dying if he could open that blind man's eyes?" (The man born blind who went before the Pharisees, John 9:1-41)
Jesus was again deeply moved at these words, and went on to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay in front of it.
"Take away the stone," said Jesus.
"But Lord," said Martha, the dead man's sister, "he has been dead four days. By this time he will be decaying ...."
"Did I not tell you," replied Jesus, "that if you believed, you would see the wonder of what God can do?"
Then they took the stone away and Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of these people standing her so that they may believe that you have sent me."
And when he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with grave-clothes and his face muffled with a handkerchief.
"Now unbind him," Jesus told them, "and let him go home."