The gospels report many different stories of Jesus bringing healing to someone. Each story is unique, with Jesus offering the restoration that this person required, which was often much more than physical healing. The Greek verb, sozo, that is translated ‘to heal’ can also be translated as ‘to save’ or ‘to restore.’
In this series, we will consider these different encounters in all their uniqueness, hearing imaginative first-person accounts from those that Jesus healed. In particular, we’ll consider the questions that Jesus asks in these encounters, and the questions he asks us now. We aren’t trying to create a pattern or template for healing, but noticing the many ways that God meets us in our need with his sozo power.
Ultimately, we see that these individual healings in the gospels, as well as the continued work of healing and restoration that God is doing in our lives and in our world now, are all signs of the greater restoration that God is bringing about through the death and resurrection of Jesus. For God is not content to merely heal individuals of specific issues while we remain in a sick world that continues to bring us harm. His goal is nothing short of establishing a new world, bringing about creation-wide healing, and inviting us into life in the kind of world that God always intended. We can already see signs of this new world, which Jesus calls the Kingdom of God, but the fullness of that life is yet to come.
Reading Plan
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April 12-18
Numbers 21:4-9
John 3:14-21
Mark 1:29-34
Matthew 8:23-27
Luke 19:1-10
April 19-25
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 2:13-17
Luke 4:14-30
John 15:7-8; 16:23-28
James 5:13-20
April 26-May 2
Mark 9:14-29
Matthew 9:27-34
Romans 8:18-39
Ephesians 2:1-10
Ephesians 3:14-21; Philippians 4:13
May 3-9
John 9:1-12
John 9:13-23
John 9:24-34
John 9:35-41
John 10:1-10
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May 10-16
Matthew 20:29-34
Mark 8:22-26
Mark 10:46-52
Luke 18:35-43
John 5:1-15
May 17-23
Malachi 4
Mark 5:21-24
Mark 5:25-34
Mark 5:35-36
Mark 5:37-43
May 24-30
Mark 2:1-12
Mark 2:23-28
Mark 3:1-6
Luke 7:36-50
Luke 13:10-17
May 31-June 6
Matthew 8:5-13
Matthew 15:21-28
Mark 5:1-20
Mark 7:31-37
Luke 17:11-19
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