i am doing a sermon on Jesus healing a leper. It struck me that being in proximity to a person with Hansens disease ( in an age where there was no cure) carried the risk of catching it. Apparently 95% of people are immune from the disease but Jesus sent out disciples to cure leprosy also. Were they chosen for being immune or supernaturally protected?
So comes the question:
Could Jesus have caught a disease he was able to heal a person of? Was it his divine nature that innoculated him in which case did he fully experience being human. Or was it his superior discernment about how to engage with sick people?
Could Jesus have gotten sick at all? Do you think Jesus ever had a cold?
to deal with this question we first have to ask what is it about human beings that leads us to the weakness of our bodies that causes sickness in the first place?
the answer is original sin, which subjects us to death. That is the root cause right there from which all illness and death in all human beings springs.
Therefore, since Jesus was perfect--spotless Lamb as required for the sacrifice--He did not in Himself become sick while in life.
but He took upon Himself all our sins and diseases and all the suffering with them that sin caused while He was on the cross (thus having been sacrificed while perfect) that He might then be able to heal them for all time.
Before that time of His sacrifice He was able to heal out of His perfection as God, thus forgiving the sin which caused the illness in those He saw.
(ie. thus the quote "Which is easier to say; 'be healed' or 'your sins are forgiven', etc.)
While He lived every healing that Jesus did was at the direction of God and was done for a distinct purpose: to show that He was God and had the power of God. Thus again the quote: "I do what I see my Father doing". Note the present tense in that quote, which proves the following:
1. God hears us
2. God is still active on our behalf
3. what God wills for us is for our good
as for the disciples being sent out, that was Jesus doing what He saw His Father doing again.
God healed through the work and willingness of the disciples who themselves went out to heal. The disciples were God's willing instruments through which He brought the healing, so that they would understand first hand how God worked thru Jesus.
And also so that later when they were without Jesus they would remember what God did through them, and use that same gift to show others the power of God was still possible.
God was still at work
God still heard them
God still willed what was good for them in their lives.
God is still the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
What He did then He can do now.