Why was healing and deliverance so important in Jesus' ministry?
Healing was essential to the ministry of Jesus because He had the power to perform miracles and impact people's lives. Healing and Deliverance flowed from within Him as heat from the sun, water from a waterfall, and dryness from the sirocco winds of the Mediterranean. He knew it, people sensed it, so they came to him in great numbers. With much confidence, Jesus welcomed blind, crippled, leprous, and even dead people into His presence. No problem was too great for His skill, and nothing intimidated Him into silence. He performed all the healing and deliverance we would expect since He came as God's Healer (YHWH Raphe Ex 15:26 & Gen 20:17).
Healing and Deliverance were essential to the ministry of Jesus because He had compassion equal to His power (Mat 8:17 & Mat 14:14) when the throng of people interrupted His plans for a quiet retreat with His disciples. He healed their sick and fed them even if He would have preferred the much-needed. This was different from His disciples, who would have preferred that the crowds be dispersed. People knew they could receive help from Him if they could access Him. They knew that His response to them would always be compassion. The Canaanite woman struggled through His disciples' desire to dismiss her and His own initial, courteous refusal to get what she knew she could trust Him to grant (Mat 16:28). The woman with a haemorrhage crept silently through the crowd to merely touch the hem of His clothes (Mark 5:28). And the crowds "begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak," and "all who touched him were healed." (Mat 14:36)
Healing and Deliverance was essential to the ministry of Jesus because it symbolised His success in the spiritual warfare between Himself and Satan. Many Christian and secular scholars have suggested that Satan is the agent by which illness, disease, and disaster entered the world. However, Jesus unapologetically identified Satan as the enemy responsible for the harm done to humanity. Satan hates God compulsively but has no recourse but to harm humankind made in God's image (in Luke 13:16). He said that Satan unrelentingly attacks humanity, knowing His time to oppose God's creation is short (Rev 12:12). Whenever Jesus confronted Satan's presence in illness, disease, or demon-possession, He overcame the symptoms of Satan's presence to prove His conquest of Satan personally. That is why He says "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. . ." (1 John 3:8). He came to dismantle every tool of illness, disease, and demon-possession which Satan used to exercise control over creation. The victory He won in the wilderness (Mat 4:1-11) authenticated His ministry because He was able to evict Satan from the people's lives. By healing all bodily systems as well as all bodily dysfunction, Jesus reclaims and recovers for God, His Father, all that Satan had stolen and/or pirated. Healing and Deliverance prove that Jesus has invaded Satan's realm, bound him, and despite Satan’s protests, He has plundered and snatched from Satan’s kingdom any victim He pleased. Through Healing and Deliverance, Jesus assaulted Satan from every angle, and Satan never knew where the next attack would come from or how devastating it would be. But every blow had an impact on him and his kingdom.
Healing and Deliverance were essential to the ministry of Jesus because He envisioned healing as a physical symbol of forgiveness. He showed us the ultimate glorification of the human body through His resurrection; however, He shows us that the perfected result of the forgiveness of sin is the new, imperishable body Paul described in 1 Cor 15:35-57. All of our physical ailments, limitations, and adversities have their final removal in the Master's initial healings and ultimate victory over death. We that have been paralysed by sin, which has resulted in twisted, shrunken, blinded limbs and organs, are restored once we are forgiven (Mark 2:1-12).
Healing and Deliverance were essential to the ministry of Jesus because healings offered indisputable evidence that He is the Christ of God (John 21:30-31). Jesus considered healing and deliverance as credentials of Himself. He used them as His own best defence. That is why Jesus does not heal for money. He expected healing and deliverance to recruit faith in Him. This is why, when the Pharisees wanted to see a miraculous sign (Mat 12:28), He instead spoke of His death and resurrection. On His second visit to Nazareth, He performed but a few miracles, not because He had lost His ability to do so, rather, He perceived that the miracles would not propel His people to believe in Him as God (Mark 6:5). This is why He did not “perform” a miracle for Herod, because the miracle would not help Herold believe in Him (Luke 23:9). Nevertheless, for those who had “faith” in Him, miracles caused them to say “my Lord and my God”.
Therefore, the ministry of healing and deliverance is meant to
- Demonstrate that Jesus' Power is equal to His Compassion.
- Demonstrate that Jesus has power over Satan.
- Demonstrate that forgiving our sin will ultimately bring us to our glorified bodies.
- Cause our faith to rise and be firm on who He is and not what He can do.
