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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Healing Christ (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 03. Hopeless Incurables
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Hopeless Incurables
There are thirty-three instances given of miracles done by Christ. And twenty-eight of them have to do with the body. Twenty-four of them were miracles of healing (including now the three cases of death). Four others have to do with supplying bodily needs.
There are sixteen summaries given of His various activities, including bodily healing. If one runs over these summaries the first-flush, rough impression comes that the total of those healed probably ran into some several thousands. People came in throngs. They came from all the surrounding countries, as far away as Tyre and the Upper Mediterranean.
There are twenty-four individual instances of healing, given in the four Gospels. These become of intense interest for what they tell of Christ's healing ministry. Of the twenty-four two would be classed as acute cases.
The other twenty-two are all chronic cases, incurables, extreme hopeless incorrigibles. Six (possibly eight) were demon-possessed, reckoned quite incurable. Three were actually dead. The thirteen others were distinctly hopeless incurables.
The healing power went to the last degree of human need. The humanly impossible yielded to Christ's touch every time. There were no exceptions so far as the soreness of the need was concerned.
The story told is quite explicit on this point. Here is the list of diseases specifically named—epilepsy, dropsy, deaf and dumb, palsy or paralysis, chronic hemorrhage, demon-possession, leprosy, withered hand (i.e., paralysis), blind, infirmities (possibly paralysis), restoration of ear cut off, and even the dead, three times named in three distinct stages.
There is one outstanding passage that touches the extreme of need which Christ's healing covered. Matthew says "There came unto Him great multitudes, having with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at His feet; and He healed them" (Mat_15:30) It is a significant passage.
It was clearly an unusual crowd of helpless incurables, brought by their kinsfolk and friends and neighbours. What a sight!
That word "maimed" catches one's eye. It occurs twice. The word underneath has two meanings, crooked is one, and mutilated the other. Its use in Mar_9:43 clearly means a limb quite gone.
The word under "lame" here is also used in the Mark passage for a limb cut off. The meaning intended here is quite clear. The healing went to the extent of restoring a lost portion of the body, a limb or an arm or some other part.
The extent of healing as regards the need is made quite clear, and is as sweeping as clear. There were no exceptions so far as need went.