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Background Information
The many stories about Jesus healing people have both encouraged and troubled people. As you will read in Holding Hands with Pascal, healings and exorcisms often went hand in hand (see Luke 4:40–41 and 6:18 on this). Most instances of what we would call mental illness were labelled as demonic possession in the ancient world (see Matthew 8:28–34). Sometimes this has led to people mistakenly “spiritualizing” certain illnesses. Other times, those afflicted with certain conditions have had to bear the additional stigma of being controlled by some evil force. Also, there is no story preserved in the Gospels of the New Testament where Jesus encounters a physically sick, injured, or impaired person and leaves them in that condition. Does this mean that people with life-long impairments or ongoing injuries are somehow perpetually imperfect and flawed until they are healed at some point in the next life? Some have felt that way.
We cannot resolve all of these complex issues in this short class, but two brief responses might suffice for now. First, we should acknowledge the complex interaction of the spiritual and the physical in the experience of disability and suffering. Jesus worked within the worldview of his day that attributed more things to spiritual forces, while we recognize other mundane causes at play. On the other hand, the scientific and secular bias in contemporary Western cultures has downplayed spiritual realities, only recently coming around to recognize the role of faith and souls in human existence. Second, Jesus’s ministry on earth was truly a unique event. His healings (and exorcisms) were part of a campaign demonstrating that Jesus was in the process of proclaiming and inaugurating God’s Kingdom. Thus, we must not press this aspect too far and conclude that impaired bodies and minds are unacceptably faulty and in need of fixing. While some disabled persons long for healing and restoration (e.g., those with spinal cord injuries), many others find their impairment to simply be part of who they are as people made in the image of God (e.g., those with hearing loss from birth). Jesus redeems people body and soul, but exactly what that looks like probably varies widely with the grace and creativity of God.
Instructions
Read Holding Hands with Pascal, ch. 6.
Read the assigned Bible passages from the Gospels: Luke 4:14-43; John 5:1-18; John 9:1-41
Compose a 300 word paper that contains the following:
An opening paragraph that introduces the healing ministry of Jesus and outlines the paper as a whole.
Annotations on approximately 4-6 verses from one of the assigned passages. Briefly introduce your chosen passage, add 5-7 annotations on the passage, and then conclude with a brief summary of what you gained by reading the passage more closely.
Two paragraphs that discuss the healings (and exorcisms) of Jesus in terms of how they demonstrate Jesus’s message and how they relate to the experience of suffering and/or disability. You should include a citation of one of the other two Gospel passages and one citation of ch. 6 of Holding Hands with Pascal.
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