The Role of Jesus in the Bible - Essay Example

Healing in Mark's Gospel The Bible, especially New Testament, has numerous examples of miracles done by Jesus or his followers. Unlike global miracles such as the creation of Universe in Genesis, there are a number of smaller, "local" wonders such as breaking the laws of nature, resurrection (not only the resurrection of Christ, e.g., of Lazarus in John 11:43-44), and healing and casting out demons, which is almost the same thing, as we will see later. Let's examine the cases of healing in Mark and try to answer the question: are there any true miracles like the restoration of amputated ear in Luke 22:50-51, or is it just healing through belief Catholics also say that men could work miracles only by prayers or by "performing some other act in co-operation with the Divine agency" (Catholic Encyclopaedia). Further we will see that it is very arguable point. All cases of healing in Mark can be split into two broad categories: healing itself, and casting out demons and unclean spirits. The former one includes healing from fever, leprosy, paralysis, withered hand, haemorrhage, death, deafness, blindness, and in the latter one there are numerous instances of exorcism. When Jesus cast out an unclean spirit in Capernaum, it "convulsing him [a man] and crying with a loud voice, came out of him" (Mk 2:26). Whenever we read about demons and evil spirits we must remember that it's a common reference for mentally sick people of ancient and medieval times. Possessed ones actually had hysteria or various kinds of mental disorders (Crombie, 1964); belief in somebody's divinity could be a shock strong enough to cure themselves. It is important to note that at least in some cases (or even maybe in every one) it was a sick person healing himself, and Jesus was simply an agent, a catalyst. Crowds gathered around Jesus, for they believed that even a touch of his clothes could remove disease (Mark 5:28). A woman suffering from haemorrhage was healed, or maybe we should say "self-healed" in this way - in Mark 5:24-34 it is clearly shown. The woman thought that she would be healed if had touched Jesus' clothes, she believed in it. Notice that the meaning of "belief" has at least two different meanings: you can believe that Earth is round (in fact, it's a flattened sphere) but it doesn't affect your feelings, since you're not an ancient astronomer questioning the contrary. And there is belief that is somehow connected with your welfare, health or even life. Sometimes it grows up to the stage of temporary insanity, and a stress situation can have a great impact on individual. In our case we see the latter situation: "your faith has made you well" (Mark 5:34). Then the author adds: "go in peace, and be healed of your disease" to emphasise the role of Jesus. If we agree to the aforesaid, we must agree that disbelief works in adverse way. When Jesus returned to his hometown, there was no sensation, for they remember him to be just a son of carpenter. Men in synagogue demonstrated hostility against him and "he could do no deed of power there" (Mark 6:5), though healed a few people. About the same way Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law, who had fever (Mark 1:29); a paralysed man (Mark 2); a man with a withered hand (Mark 3:5); a deaf man near Decapolis (Mark 7:31-35); a blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) and near Jericho (Mark 10:46-52) and a multitude of people whose diseases are not mentioned. Actually, it doesn't matter what disease was healed; it matters, how it was healed. Sanders in his book "The Historical Figure of Jesus" (Sanders, 1996, especially chapter 17) goes further and also asks about perception specifics of ancient men, what they thought they saw and what really happened. Why the blind man in Bethsaida wasn't healed from the first attempt There may be many suggestions, but I think it's because of author's attitude towards prayers. Compare the case of epileptic boy, when Jesus' disciples were unable to heal him; there Jesus emphasised the importance of prayer and faith. We don't have to pay attention on imaginary distinction between demons and mental illnesses, and obligation of prayers is just Mark's whim. If men believed in Jesus and his power that came from God, they should believe that every act he does (such as putting saliva on blind man's eyelids) is effective, and if they believed in prayers only, why don't they pray themselves Author just shifts attention from Jesus to his connection with God. Jesus also passed some power of healing to his apostles, and they "cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them" (Mark 6:13). Jesus describes himself as a physician for the sinners: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17). We have already explained the interchangeability of words "possessed with demons" and "mentally (sometimes physically) ill", and we could say that he had power of healing which he believed came from God. And again, therapies of ill count as miracles in the Bible, and "it was certainly not the case that in the world of the time of Jesus every charismatic attracted miracle traditions. No miracles were related of John the Baptist" (Theissen & Merz, 1998). So the things regarded as miracles in ancient times can have a clear and unequivocal explanation nowadays. Whether there were true miracles or treatment by suggestion, we might ask, for what purpose If Jesus possessed divine power, he could simply cure everybody in his region. But his goal might be to change the world, or at least social life in his community, and doing miracles is the way to attract attention, set people thinking and to make them refrain from sinning. "He really wanted economic and social reform. The disciples dropped that part of his teaching" (Sanders, 1996). What about cases of resurrection or cases that can be counted as resurrection Sanders states that "Jesus' followers had resurrection experiences is, in my judgement, a fact. What the reality was that gave rise to the experiences I don't know" (Sanders, 1996, p. 280). Should we think that Jairus' daughter was resurrected, it is uncertain. But if she was, then it was a true miracle; moreover, some of apostles knew it (Peter, James and John - see Mark 5:37) and it could explain why Peter later admonished Jesus not to tell about his future death. But there are only speculations like in Sanders that lack facts from other sources than the Bible. Summary. According to prevailing notions of old times there was a relation between some human diseases and "demons" who were believed to possess people's souls. So the next step taken by Jesus - to replace demons with sins - seems quite logical. As we see from the Bible, forgiveness of sins through prayers acts in the similar way as nowadays psychotherapy. Concerning resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus it is likely to be an author's fantasy, since there are no other trustworthy source except the Bible -- "we do not have a comment in Tacitus or another Gentile writer that offers independent evidence about Jesus, his life and his death" (Sanders, 1996, p. 50). REFERENCES The Bible, New Revised Standard Version, (n.d.), Retrieved: May 25, 2005, from http://www.devotions.net/bible/00bible.htm Catholic Encyclopaedia, Gift of Miracles, (n.d.), Retrieved: May 25, 2005, from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10350a.htm Crombie A.C. 1964, Early Concepts of the Senses and the Mind, Scientific American, vol. 210, 108-116. Sanders, E.P. 1996, The Historical Figure of Jesus, Penguin Books, London. Theissen, G. & Merz, A. 1998, The Historical Jesus, SCM Press Ltd, London. Theissen, G. 2001, The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative, SCM Press Ltd, London. Read More