THE OFFICIALS' DYING SON - Year One - c AD27-28

John 4:43-54 - After the two days were over (following his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well), Jesus left and went away to Galilee. (For Jesus himself testified that a prophet enjoys no honour in his own country.) And on his arrival the people received him with open arms. For they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem during the festival, since they had themselves been present. So Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, the place where he had made the water into wine. At Capernaum there was an official whose son was very ill. When he heard that Jesus had left Judea and had arrived in Galilee, he went off to see him and begged him to come down and heal his son, who was by this time at the point of death.

Jesus said to him, "I suppose you will never believe unless you see signs and wonders!"

"Sir," returned the official, "please come down before my boy dies!"
"You can go home," returned Jesus, "your son is alive and well."
And the man believed what Jesus had said to him and went on his way.
On the journey back his servants met him with the report, "Your son is alive and well." So he asked them at what time he had begun to recover, and they replied: "The fever left him yesterday at one o'clock in the afternoon". Then the father knew that this must have happened at the very moment when Jesus had said to him, "Your son is alive and well." And he and his whole household believed in Jesus. This, then, was the second sign that Jesus gave on his return from Judea to Galilee. (The first was changing the water into wine, also at Cana, earlier in John 2:1-11) .

THE ROMAN CENTURION'S SERVANT - Year Two - c AD28-29

(Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10) Matthew 8:5-13 - Then as he was coming into Capernaum (after healing the leper) a centurion approached. "Sir," he implored him, "my servant is in bed at home paralysed and in dreadful pain."
"I will come and heal him," said Jesus to him.
"Sir," replied the centurion, "I'm not important enough for you to come under my roof. Just give the order, please, and my servant will recover. I'm a man under authority myself, and I have soldiers under me. I can say to one man 'Go' and I know he'll go, or I can say 'Come here' to another and I know he'll come - or I can say to my slave 'Do this' and he'll always do it."
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished. "Believe me," he said to those who were following him, "I have never found faith like this, even in Israel! I tell you that many people will come from east and west and sit at my table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But those who should have belonged to the kingdom will be banished to the darkness outside, where there will be tears and bitter regret."
Then he said to the centurion, "Go home now, and everything will happen as you have believed it will."
And his servant was healed at that actual moment.

Luke 7:1-10 - When Jesus had finished these talks (the Sermon on the "Plain" in Luke's Gospel) to the people, he came to Capernaum, where it happened that there was a man very seriously ill and in fact at the point of death. He was the slave of a centurion who thought very highly of him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him with the request that he would come and save his servant's life. When they came to Jesus, they urged him strongly to grant this request, saying that the centurion deserved to have this done for him. "He loves our nation and has built us a synagogue out of his own pocket," they said.
So Jesus went with them, but as he approached the house, the centurion sent some of his personal friends with the message, "Don't trouble yourself, sir! I'm not important enough for you to come into my house - I didn't think I was fit to come to you in person. Just give the order, please, and my servant will recover. I am used to working under orders, and I have soldiers under me. I can say to one, 'Go', and he goes, or I can say to another, 'Come here', and he comes; or I can say to my slave, 'Do this job', and he does it."
These words amazed Jesus and he turned to the crowd who were following behind him, and said, "I have never found faith like this anywhere, even in Israel!"
Then those who had been sent by the centurion returned to the house and found the slave perfectly well.

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 TEN LEPERS - Year Three - c AD29-30

Luke 17:11-19 - In the course of his journey to Jerusalem (the last from Galilee), Jesus crossed the boundary between Samaria and Galilee, and as he was approaching a village, ten lepers met him. They kept their distance but shouted out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

When Jesus saw them, he said, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

And it happened that as they went on their way they were cured. One of their number, when he saw that he was cured, turned round and praised God at the top of his voice, and then fell on his face before Jesus and thanked him. This man was a Samaritan. And at this Jesus remarked, "Weren't there ten men healed? Where are the other nine? Is nobody going to turn and praise God for what he has done, except this stranger?"
And he said to the man, "Stand up now, and go on your way. It is your faith that has made you well."

THE BLIND MAN (OR MEN) NEAR JERICHO - The Last Months - c AD29-30

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(Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43) Matthew 20:29-34 - A great crowd followed them as they were leaving Jericho (on the final stage of the journey to Jerusalem), and two blind men who were sitting by the roadside, hearing that it was Jesus who was passing by, cried out, "Have pity on us, Lord, you Son of David!" The crowd tried to hush them up, but this only made them cry out more loudly still, "Have pity on us, Lord, you Son of David!"
Jesus stood quite still and called out to them, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord, let us see again!"
And Jesus, deeply moved with pity, touched their eyes. At once their sight was restored, and they followed him.

Mark 10:46-52 - Then (as in Matthew's Gospel) they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving it accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting in his usual place by the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to call out, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"
Many of the people told him sharply to keep quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!"
Jesus stood quite still and said, "Call him here."
So they called the blind man, saying, "It's all right now, get up, he's calling you!"
At this he threw off his coat, jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked him.
"Oh, Master, let me see again!"
"Go on your way then," returned Jesus, "your faith has healed you."
And he recovered his sight at once and followed Jesus along the road.

Luke 18:35-43 - Then, as he was approaching Jericho, it happened that there was a blind man sitting by the roadside, begging. He heard the crowd passing and enquired what it was all about. And they told him, "Jesus the man from Nazareth is going past you." So he shouted out, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"
Those who were in front tried to hush his cries. But that made him call out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!"
So Jesus stood quite still and ordered the man to be brought to him. And when he was quite close, he said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord, make me see again," he cried.
"You can see again! Your faith has cured you," returned Jesus. And his sight was restored at once, and he followed Jesus, praising God. All the people who saw it thanked God too.