Here I analyze all the references to healing book of John. It is the last of the four canonical gospels, written by John the Apostle (or Saint John the Beloved) who was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally known as the youngest apostle and was the brother of James, who was another of the Twelve. See everything he recorded about healing.
The Gospel of John contains within what has been called the Book of Signs (miracles). John uses these miracles or extraordinary events to reveal the Messiah. I his own words, “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20: 31)”. Four of these signs are healing of sick people or raising of the dead (the ultimate healing, in my opinion).
Healing of the son of the royal official in Capernaum
Jesus went to Cana of Galilee (in this location He had previously turned water into wine in a wedding party). There He met a royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. The man told Him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.
Immediately, Jesus told him, “Go, your son will live.” The man believed Him and departed. On his way home, his servants met him and told him that his boy was alive, so he asked them at what time the child had become well. They told him the time of the day the fever had left him. The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” The official and his whole household then believed (John 4: 46-54). This was the second sign.
Healing the paralytic at Bethesda
Jesus went up to Jerusalem during a Jewish festival. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool called Bethesda. Near the pool there were always several sick people, blind, lame, and paralyzed. People believed that when the water of the pool moved from time to time, by the action of an angel. The first sick person who got in after the water was stirred up, recovered from their illness.
Get up and walk!
There was one man there who was paralyzed for 38 years. Jesus met him and asked him if he wanted to get well. The man explained that he did not have anybody to help him, and when the water was stirred up, someone always got in ahead of him. Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” The man was instantly healed, picked up his mat, and started to walk.
To some, the Sabbath was more important!
It was the Sabbath, and the Jews said to the man that it was illegal for him to pick up his mat. He replied that the man who had healed him told him to pick up the mat and walk. They asked him who was the man, but Jesus had already disappeared into the crowd. Later, Jesus found the healed man in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well (John 5: 1-15). This was the third sign. Notice that here we again see an association between sin and disease.
After this event, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and John tells us that a huge crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was performing by healing the sick (John 6: 1-2).
Healing a man blind from birth
Jesus passed by a man blind from birth. The disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered than neither the man nor his parents had sinned, and that his blindness came about so that He may display God’s works. Jews believed that if something bad happened to somebody, such as getting a disease, the sin committed by that person, or by his parents or grandparents caused the disease. Jesus rejected both alternatives and just saw it as an opportunity to do God’s work.
He then spit on the ground to make some mud with the saliva and put the mud on the eyes of the blind man. He then told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. When he did so, he gained his sight. This was the sixth sign (John 9: 1-12).
His friend Lazarus at Bethany
Lazarus and his two sisters Mary and Martha were friends of Jesus and lived in the small village of Bethany, a couple of miles southeast of Jerusalem. Lazarus got sick and his sisters sent a message to Jesus, who was on the road. When Jesus heard the message, He said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it,” and He stayed another couple of days where He was (John 11: 1-7). Jesus obviously was planning on bringing Lazarus back to life and to make a point on the resurrection in general.
Lazarus dies
Jesus then went back to Judea and when He arrived at Bethany, He found out that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Martha told Jesus that if He had been there in time, Lazarus would not have died (imagine saying that to Jesus), but He told her that her brother would rise again.
Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day,” but Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?” Martha said, “Yes, Lord, I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world (John 11: 17-27).” This is one of the most plainly written descriptions in the Bible of who Jesus is, and what He came to do.
Jesus resurrects Lazarus
John wrote that Jesus wept for His friend Lazarus and was angry. This is a very strong word in the original Greek text that probably means that Jesus was angry against the tyranny of sin and death of this world. Jesus then went to the tomb of Lazarus, which was a cave, and told them to remove the stone that covered the entrance. Martha warned Him that Lazarus had been dead for four days, but Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” Jesus then shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth, part of the burial rituals of that time in Israel. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.” (John 11: 33-44)
A message for all of us
Raising Lazarus from the dead was an illustration of the resurrection of the dead and eternal life, and the seventh sign of the book of John. It was also the ultimate healing, making somebody well even after death.
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