How Many People did Jesus Heal?

John 20:30-31

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I was watching a long series on television about halfway through. It occurred to me that the main character of the story, even though he had started out as a fairly decent person, had probably directly or indirectly been responsible for the deaths of many, many people. And I thought, oh, somebody should keep track and count up how many people died because of him. Well, that was just a TV show. And finally, that doesn’t matter. But someone not long ago asked this question how many people did our Lord Jesus heal during the three years of his public ministry?

And we know that he healed quite a number of people. Some of the healings he carried out were really quite spectacular and famous. He healed people who were suffering with leprosy. He restored movement to paralyzed people. He gave sight to the blind, restored hearing for those who were deaf. He healed little children. So it’s good for us to have that record. But finally, we don’t have the exact number. It’s probable that he healed many, many more people than we learn about in the Bible. John wrote a couple of verses in his gospel account kind of dealing with this. In John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, this is what he wrote.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe[a] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

So it really isn’t the final number of healings that Jesus performed that is so very important to us. Rather, it’s this comfort that we can have in knowing that as both true God and true man in one person, Jesus was able and still able to deliver and rescue those who are in any trouble. That’s the comfort that we have, knowing him.

It’s good for us to remember that he is still able to hear and to answer prayers for rescue and healing and deliverance. And he does that sometimes still in miraculous ways, where someone who is very, very sick or injured, inexplicably makes a good recovery. More often, he does that healing through the vocation of first responders and emergency room doctors and nurses, others who are able to help. All of this comes from him.

It’s good for us to know, though, that and to rely on him not only for the physical healing that we probably all need at one time or another, but more important, the spiritual healing that we have. Because he is the one who went to the cross. He’s the one rightly known as the Great Physician, who took upon himself and immersed himself in the disease of our sin, and by his suffering and death for us has removed that curse from us, has won the forgiveness for our sins, so that we as God’s own forgiven, innocent children, trusting in him, can look forward to eternal life forever in the bliss and peace of heaven, where there is only perfect health and joy forever.

And so he says that he is the Son of God believing in him. We may have life in his name elsewhere. He said, I’ve come that they may have life and life to the fullest. Amen.