After his Holy Baptism, Jesus Christ began his public ministry on earth so that everyone would know His words were true: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14.6). Christ taught those who followed Him the Way of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the Way of Life that heals us from death. He healed the sick from illnesses ravaging the body. These physical healings pointed to the greater healing He came to accomplish: The destruction of death in soul and body.
Christ healed the paralyzed man to reveal His power to raise up souls paralyzed by sin and death. He gave sight to the blind to show that He, the Light of the World, is alone the Source of true spiritual Enlightenment. He anointed suffering soul with divine forgiveness and freed the possessed from their demonic tormentors. Christ even raised the dead to confirm His Life-Giving power over death in the soul and the body.
During His ministry on earth, Christ gathered together Twelve men to learn the Way as disciples and to carry the Way into the world as apostles. They witnessed what Christ said and did, announced the kingdom of heaven, healed the sick, and cast out demons. In addition to these Twelve, Christ also appointed Seventy apostles to share in this ministry.
By His teaching of the Way and His miraculous healings, Jesus Christ publicly demonstrated that He is the one Physician, being God and man, who can restore life to the whole human person, body and soul.
Read: Luke 4.14-30; 5.17-26; 6.12-16; 9.1-6; 10.1-18; Mark 5:21-43; John 5; John 9
Text copyright © 2017 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees