John 14:9 “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Does God still heal today?

I’m not talking about the runny nose, broken bone, upset stomach kind of healing.

I’m talking about the cancer kind of healing. The big, bad, scary disease kind of healing. The “I can’t function anymore” kind of healing. The kind of healing that is nothing short of miraculous. Does God intervene in that kind of healing today?

As I ponder this question, I am struck by the idea that perhaps a better question is, why do we expect that God will intervene in this kind of miraculous healing at all?

Throughout history, accounts of miraculous healing are relatively few. Even in the nearly 4,000-year sweep of Old Testament history, testimonies of miraculous healing are rare, and can be counted on both hands. The raising from the dead of the woman’s son by the hand of Elijah. The healing of Naaman’s leprosy. The healing of King Nebuchadnezzar. The healing of King Hezekiah. And the healing from infertility of several of the Old Testament matriarchs.

By my math, that’s perhaps 1 dramatic healing every 500 years. Not quite enough to establish a pattern of expected behavior! It just doesn’t seem that this is how God usually operates – to break through the veil separating the heavenly from the earthly realm, and in so doing, breaking the laws of nature on this earth.

The one great exception to this pattern occurs during the 3-year period of Jesus’ ministry on earth. During these 3 years, at least 38 recorded miraculous healings took place. This time of extraordinary miracles included healings from blindness, chronic bleeding, lame legs, demon possession, leprosy, and death.

What are we to make of all these healings? Why was this a time of such unusual restoration to health? Did Jesus heal so frequently because that was His intended purpose in coming to earth? To be kind to us broken humans, to touch and heal us wherever possible, doing the greatest amount of good in the shortest amount of time?

Not exactly. Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to earth was not to heal or to restore to life. His primary purpose in taking on flesh and walking among us was to introduce us to the Father and to restore us to right relationship with Him.

Why then did Jesus heal at every occasion when someone cried out to Him for healing?

The only answer is that He just couldn’t help Himself. With the removal of the veil which separated us from Him, in His unfathomable love for us, He reached out, and touched, and healed. Again. And again. And again. It is in looking at these acts of love from the hand of Jesus that we see the true heart of the Father.

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Does God still heal today?

Absolutely. Even the cancer kind of healing. Even the big, bad, scary disease kind of healing. Even the “I can’t function anymore” kind of healing. But what we learn from the Word of God is that the breaking-through-the-veil, heaven-interrupting-the-natural-order-of-earthly-law, miracle kind of healing is not to be expected every day. And we learn that in our waiting and in our praying for healing, when we turn our eyes toward Jesus, we see the loving heart of the Father who longs to make us whole.