Jesus on Healing in Luke

Luke
Chapter	Verses	Citation
4	14 - 30	He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did ... and he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, 'This is Joseph's son, surely?' But he replied, 'No doubt you will quote me saying, "Physician heal yourself," and tell me, "We have heard all that has happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own country." ' And he went on, 'In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.' 'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these, he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia. And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured - only Naaman the Syrian. When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town, and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff, but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.
4	33 - 36	In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and he shouted at the top of his voice, 'Ha! What do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.' But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet. Come out of him.' And the devil, throwing the man into the middle, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, 'What is it with his words? He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.'
4	38 - 39	Leaving the synagogue he went to Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in the grip of a high fever and he asked him to do something for her: he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to serve them.
4	40 - 41	At sunset: all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hands on each he cured them. Devils too came out of many people, shouting 'You are the Son of God.' But he warned them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
5	12 - 14	Now it happened that Jesus was in one of the towns when suddenly a man appeared, covered with a skin disease. Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored him saying, 'Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me.' He stretched out his hand and touched him saying, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' At once the skin disease left him. He ordered him to tell no one, 'But go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your cleansing just as Moses prescribed, as evidence to them.
5	17 - 25	Now it happened that he was teaching one day and Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was there so that he should heal. And now some men appeared, bringing on a bed a paralyzed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front of him. But as they could find no way of getting the man through the crowd, they went up onto the top of the house and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles in the middle of the gathering in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, 'My friend, your sins are forgiven you.' The scribes and the Pharisees began to think this over. 'Who is this man, talking blasphemy? Who but God alone can forgive sins?' But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, 'What are these thoughts you have in your hearts? Which of these is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Get up and walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' -- he said to the paralyzed man -- 'I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.' And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home praising God.
6	6 - 11	Now on another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was present, and his right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see see if he would cure somebody on the Sabbath, hoping to find something to charge him with. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand in the middle!' And he came forward and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, 'I put it to you: is it permitted on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil, to save life, or to destroy it?' Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He did so and his hand was restored. But they were furious and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus.
7	1 - 10	When he had come to the end of all he wanted the people to hear he went to Capernaum. A centurion there had a servant, a favorite of his, who was sick and near death. Having heard about Jesus he sent some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus they pleaded earnestly with him saying, 'He deserves this of you, because he is well disposed towards our people, he built us our synagogue himself.' So Jesus went with them, and was not very far from the house when the centurion sent word to him by some friends to say to him, 'Sir, so not put yourself to any trouble because I am not worthy to have you under my roof; and that is why I did not presume to come to you myself; let my boy be cured by your giving the word. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come here," and he comes to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.' When Jesus heard these words he was astonished at him and turning round, said to the crowd following him, 'I tell you not even in Israel have I found faith as great as this." And when the messengers got back to the house they found the servant in perfect health.
7	12 - 16	Now when he was near the gate of the town there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable number of the townspeople was with her. When the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her and said to her, 'Don't cry.' Then he went up an touched the bier and the bearers stood still, and he said, 'Young man, I tell you, get up.' And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Everyone was filled with awe and glorified God saying, 'A great prophet has risen among us; God has visited his people.'
8	40 - 56	On his return Jesus was welcomed by the crowd, for they were all there waiting for him. And suddenly there came a man named Jairus, who was president of the synagogue. He fell at Jesus' feet and pleaded with him to come to his house, because he had an only daughter about 12 years old, who was dying. And the crowds were almost stifling Jesus a he went. Now there was a woman suffering from a hemorrhage for the past twelve years, whom no one had been able to cure. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak and the hemorrhage stopped at that very moment. Jesus said, 'Who was it that touched me?' When they all denied it Peter said, 'It is the crowds round you, pushing.' But Jesus said, 'Somebody touched me. I felt that power had gone out from me.' Seeing herself discovered, the woman came forward trembling and falling at his feet explained in front of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been cured at that very moment. 'My daughter,' he said, 'your faith has saved you; go in peace.' While he was still speaking, someone arrived from the house of the president of the synagogue to say, 'Your daughter has died. Do not trouble the Master any further.' But Jesus heard this, and he spoke to the man, 'Do not be afraid, only have faith and she will be saved.' When he came to the house he allowed no one to go in with him except Peter and John and James, and the child's father and mother. They were all crying and mourning for her, but Jesus said, 'Stop crying, she is not dead, but asleep.' But they ridiculed him, knowing she was dead. But taking her by the hand himself he spoke to her, 'Child, get up.' And her spirit returned and she got up at that very moment. Then he told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
9	1	He called the Twelve together and gave them the power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases,
9	38 - 43	And suddenly a man in the crowd cried out, 'Master,' he said, 'I implore you to look at my son: he is my only child. A spirit will suddenly take hold of him, and all at once it gives a sudden cry and throws the boy into convulsions with foaming at the mouth; it is slow to leave him, but when it does, it leaves the boy worn out. I begged your disciples to dive it out, and they could not.' In reply Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be among you and put up with you? Bring your son here.' Even while the boy was coming, the devil threw him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and cured the boy and gave him back to his father, and everyone was awestruck by the greatness of God.
14	1 - 6	Now it happened that on a Sabbath day he had gone to share a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely. Now there in front of him was a man with dropsy, and Jesus addressed the lawyers and Pharisees with the words, 'Is it against the law to cure someone on the Sabbath, or not?' But they remained silent, so he took the man and cured him and sent him away. Then he said to them, 'Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a Sabbath day without any hesitation?' And to this they could find no answer.

Luke's Gospel seems to have a lot of the same stories as Matthew's and Mark's, but with some other content and with different emphases, explanations and justifications. If people choose to be very particular about examining the accuracy of these stories they are likely to conclude that they aren't easily seen as consistent in every detail.

The truth is, this doesn't particularly concern me other than when people get very picayune about their own interpretations with some passages and ignore others. But this is one of many reasons why I try to focus on not being hypocritical in my own spiritual efforts and try to not get too wrapped up in citations and interpretations to justify what I want.

In chapter 8 we get a specific piece of information/insight about Jesus' experience of healing.

I felt that power had gone out from me.

One of the things I find a bit frustrating about the Gospels is they recount other's observations. We don't seem to get very much at all about what Jesus experienced as he worked. He shares parables and insights, but he doesn't seem to share his own experiences. This may well be tied to a lot of the frustrations Jesus seems to have expressed about particular groups, generations and locales. I do realize it is probably considered bad to criticize anything that many people probably consider to be "divine" and possibly perfect like the Gospels. But I do not believe I can know if something is perfect and I am even less inclined to believe something is perfect if I think/feel others are trying to intimidate me into pretending I think/feel something is. Regardless, I want to refer to this phrase in later discussions. I think it has impact on a number of explanations for Jesus' approaches to healing. I think this phrase is evidence that many people's explanations of Jesus' healing aren't as accurate as claimed.

I'm curious if other's could sense these sorts of power shifts without Jesus stating it. Because the gospels don't talk about it without Jesus bringing it up, I'm inclined to believe that at least the source people for these gospels didn't sense/perceive such things.

In this section of verses we also get another curious phrase

And her spirit returned

As is the case throughout the Gospels, the writer writes as if they are an eye witness, though maybe they are more likely to be recounting someone else's eye witness statements. I am curious whether someone actually perceived this spirit returning or whether they extrapolated from popular notions of death. Having my own perceptions of realms that most consider to be unperceivable I often wonder what many of the people around Jesus were actually perceiving and what Jesus was actually able or choosing to make apparent to others.

We also get a repeat of the rather unexplained efforts by Jesus to tell some people to not tell anyone what has happened. Sometimes Jesus expects some sort of public testimony in front of priests and synagogues, other times he is reported to discourage any sort of public witnessing. Unfortunately, as usual we are left to guess at Jesus' motives and purposes.

Chapter 9, verse 1 seems to totally contradict my experience. The writer of the Gospel claims that Jesus gives these powers over devils and disease. Though, it is interesting to me that Jesus is not cited as saying he is just giving these powers and authorities to them. All I can say is that Jesus hasn't just given these things to me and if he does just give them to others I'm feeling pretty damn screwed by his arbitrariness. I'm definitely complaining that he should just give these things to someone else so I can get off this damn planet with all its vicious people. There are all kinds of people who apparently love it here, I think they should be doing what I've been doing and taking on all the burdens.

The truth is I seriously think that people need to be demonstrating some serious trustworthiness, understanding about what is truly just and respect for others, among other things, in order to merit handling such abilities. I sincerely doubt that Jesus just "gave" these abilities to particular apostles.

There are many obvious examples where Jesus didn't just give something to someone. For example, think of Peter struggling to walk on water. Jesus clearly was hoping for more from Peter, though what it was he was really hoping Peter to be seems to be hidden due to the lack of clarity of what the "faith" word actually meant to Jesus.

But then, later in chapter 9 we have an epileptic demoniac who Jesus' disciples were unable to cure. If the Gospel's writer is to be considered literally and precisely in the first verse of the chapter, this must be because Jesus did not give them the powers to do this. But, in reality, it seems Jesus makes it clear that other things impact such abilities. Could all of my difficulties with certain passages actually derive from imprecise translations?

Luke also contains many stories of Jesus healing on the Sabbath and the desire of many wanting to justify extending the suffering of others by use of the Sabbath as a means to denigrate Jesus. It is hard to imagine such people, but then again, this is Earth! There are much worse around.