Could Jesus have caught an infectious disease?

[Deadworm]

Here are just 4 reasons why the earthly Jesus was vulnerable to sickness and physical ailments:

(1) The claim that Jesus never got sick clashes with Hebrews 4:15: He was tempted in every day just as we are." Coping with physical sickness, fatigue, and other physical problems is one of the basic ways we are tested.

(2) Jesus was vulnerable to exhaustion (Mark 4:38), overwhelming distress, and deathly grief (14:33). His vulnerability to deep agitation and distress led to eruptions of "loud cries and tears" during His frustrated prayer life--and not just in Gethsemane--abd He needed these emotional ordeals to learn obedience (Hebrews 5:7-8).

(3) Jesus' own family didn't buy His Messiah act after His baptism by John (See Mark 3:21; 6:4 John 7:5). This fact alone attests to their perception of Jesus as an ordinary carpenter prior to His baptism.

(4) His earthly Dad, Joseph figures in no story of Jesus' life after age 12 and apparent dies prior to Jesus' public ministry. Thus, at the cross, Jesus must entrust the care of His mother to the "Beloved Disciple" because Joseph is not alive. Why didn't Jseus heal His Dad? There is not a shred of evidence that Jesus could perform miracles prior to His reception of the Holy Spirit at His baptism. To incarnate "He emptied Himself" of His divine prerogatives (Philippians 2:6) and therefore needed the Holy Spirit in order to perform His miracle ministry.

(5) But even after His reception of the Spirit, conditions needed to be right for Jesus' miracles. For example, it can't be said that He chose not to perform miracles in His skeptical home town, Nazareth. Rather, "He could do no miracles there because of their unbelief (Mark 6:6)." Scholars consider the "except clause as a contradictory later gloss. But even if you reject that, "can do no" most naturally implies that Jesus tried and failed to heal in His home town, thus reinforcing His family's skepticism.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

Jesus could have cast away the sickness easily from Himself before it even set in within Him. He could walk on water. He knew people's thoughts. He said where two are three are gathered in His name, He was among them. He held all things together by the Word of His power when He died for us on the cross. He was the anointed Son of God who was without sin. Disease was a picture of sin. Jesus cast out disease out of other people to show that He was the perfect lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. So if Jesus got sick, it would destroy that picture or type. So you can say Jesus could have gotten sick, but I do not believe that such a thing was possible or within God's plan at all because He is our savior from sin and disease. For in the New Earth, there will be no more pain, sorrow, suffering, or disease anymore. This will be as the result of Jesus Christ.

So please. Let's try and not attack the good character of our Lord Jesus Christ today. There are enough problems in the world to focus our love upon than to say such things. Focus on the good and not the bad.


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[Greg J.]

Jesus was fully tested in human physical frailty in the wilderness. After forty days of fasting and standing firm against the temptation to use His lordship over creation to turn stones to bread (see Colossians 1), He passed the test and was not tested again.

Jesus was tested every day of his life.

Sheesh. The answer is easier than that.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Microbes also obeyed Him.

Only human beings did not recognize the Lord of Creation.

Jesus did not do anything to please himself. The Father was in charge of whether Jesus would get sick or not. Even the Father did not do what pleased himself, but rather what was best for us. It is incorrect for anyone to reason that because Jesus could heal himself, he never got sick (or stayed sick).

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (John 14:10-11, 1984 NIV)

 

[Bible Highlighter]

Jesus was tested every day of his life.

Jesus did not do anything to please himself. The Father was in charge of whether Jesus would get sick or not. Even the Father did not do what pleased himself, but rather what was be best for us.

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (John 14:10-11, 1984 NIV)

Why would the Father want Jesus to get sick?
It wouldn't make any sense.
Does not Jesus cleansing diseased people paint a picture of Jesus cleansing our sin?
In fact, Jesus did not get sick according to Scripture.
So this is a huge testimony right here that the Father did not desire such a thing.


...

 

[Deadworm]

Jason: "So please. Let's try and not attack the good character of our Lord Jesus Christ today. There are enough problems in the world to focus our love upon than to say such things. Focus on the good and not the bad."

On the contrary, I am defending His character by establishing biblically that His example was an authentic model for us because He assumes all our human limitations and was tested in every way our limitations promote. Your Jesus has unfair and, more importantly, unbiblical advantages over us, and so your Jesus is not a true example for us.
Secondly, your pontifications simply ignore points (1)-(5) in my post above on Jesus' full humanity.

 

[Greg J.]

... Rather, "He could do no miracles there because of their unbelief (Mark 6:6)." Scholars consider the "except clause as a contradictory later gloss. But even if you reject that, "can do no" most naturally implies that Jesus tried and failed to heal in His home town, thus reinforcing His family's skepticism.

I agree with your post. For "could do no," I prefer the explanation that the Father didn't want him to do any miracles, as revealed to Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. (bold mine, Luke 5:17, 1984 NIV)

In other words, Jesus couldn't do miracles because it was against the will of the Father. Jesus was not necessarily in control of the Father's power through him (Mark 5:30). —Certainly not because the power of the Father was insufficient there due to the lack of faith of the people. Doing miracles in front of people without the faith to receive them harms them, and God does not seek to harm people.

 

[RaymondG]

I believe it is very possible that He experience sickness in his early years as a child.....But not after realizing his oneness with God. God is light and in him there is no darkness...no sickness....no dis-ease....only perfection. Once he knew he was the Son of God, disease could not touch him, and he could remove it from others as well.

Same will be true for all of us when we are born from above....

 

[RaymondG]

Why would the Father want Jesus to get sick?
It wouldn't make any sense.
Does not Jesus cleansing diseased people paint a picture of Jesus cleansing our sin?
In fact, Jesus did not get sick according to Scripture.
So this is a huge testimony right here that the Father did not desire such a thing.


...

You may be doing the Son a dis-service by implying that He had special privileges or protection during His life that we dont have....and therefore He wasnt a perfect example. To be an example He had to come from where we are to where HE IS......not start at a level higher than we can reach.

Jesus said that everything He did, WE can do. When he knew He was God, sickness could not touch him.....no need to heal himself....there is nothing to heal God is Perfect! God is Good!

You can do it as well.......if you choose not to learn how to do it that is your free will.....but try not to hinder anyone else who wants to be like JESUS by telling them Jesus had special privileges or protection.

 

[John Hyperspace]

This is actually an interesting thread.

 

[Greg J.]

The reasoning in this thread sometimes seems to ignore the fact that Jesus had Mary's DNA.

This is actually an interesting thread.

As are all threads that someone started that weren't also discussed last week!

 

[rockytopva]

3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. - Acts 28

The Lord Jesus would have also shook off any infectious disease, and would have felt no harm.

 

[mindlight]

Leprosy is caused by Microbacterium Leprae, a close relative of Tuberculosis.
Similar to TB, it is spread by droplets but require close proximity and is worsened by staying out of the sun as UV light does damage mycobacteria (hence TB sufferers used to be told to sit in the sun all day and frequently went off to tropical or Mediterranean areas on account of this).

The ancient world greatly overestimated its virility, mostly because its symptoms are so devastating and debilitating. It was fear of it, I think.

Regardless, the chance of Jesus or his disciples contracting leprosy are slim. They didn't stay in cramped quarters for prolonged periods with lepers and moved around in the Judaean sunshine.

I do think Jesus could get sick, I feel it docetism to think otherwise. Afterall He bled, suffered and died on the cross, so His physiology was fully human. Obviously though, Jesus was here to die for our sins, not to be another nameless victim of first century diseases. God would not have incarnated at a time and place where He would then succumb to disease.

While I think Jesus could cure himself if ill, it is not in Jesus's nature to lessen His own suffering. I think he would let nature run its course.

With our superior scientific knowledge about how leprosy actually works it would be easy to sneer at the apparent ignorance, exaggeration and fear of the people of that era. But it seems to me that God used these laws to protect his people from a horrifying disease at a time when there was no cure. Just as it was loving to exclude for a season it was also loving to model a path of healing and reconciliation long before that became technically feasible.

But Now even if God had not made large swathes of the law redundant by Christs life these leprosy laws would be overthrown by technological advances in the last 2 centuries. Although it still takes years to fully cure people. Jesus did it with a touch.


But Jesus also addressed an issue to do with impurity and its relationship to this disease. People were excluded from a theocratic community on the grounds that their leprosy was a symptom of a deeper impurity, identified by priests who would also police the casting out of such people. Was it Jesus's purity that guaranteed his immunity or his incarnate status or his perfect alignment with Gods purpose?

 

[mindlight]

The wages of sin is death. Jesus knew no sin. It's likely that not only could He not get sick but if He hadn't allowed Himself to be killed He'd likely be around in His earthly body today.

What is death and disease except a failure of an organism designed to live forever. As God Christ was Life Eternal, as a man without sin he had the potential to live forever as did Adam, as a man in perfect alignment with the will of God he could in faith receive Gods perfect and healing life. It is hard to see how Christ could die or suffer except by choice. He could have requested 12 legions of angels any one of whom could probably have destroyed Ceasars armies but did not. Christ was obedient unto death so that righteousness might be fulfilled.

 

[mindlight]

The flaw I see in some reasoning presented here is that Jesus was fully susceptible to his Humanity. We see Him hungry, ageing, sleeping, we see Him being hurt and ultimately dying.

If Jesus was bodily Unfallen and therefore perfectly immune as people seem to suggest, this makes no sense to me. Jesus was the perfect example, the only person that could live an unfallen way in a fallen world. I think it rank Docetism or at best Monophysitism to say Jesus was not susceptible to something so normal as getting sick.

The poison and corruption of death and disease cannot coexist with the Eternal life that was Jesus Divine nature. If Jesus inherited flaws through Mary I think that very early on these were healed and driven out. That Jesus healed from the overflow of Gods life in Him is evident in the healing of the woman who had internal bleeding and who reached out to Him.

If Adam before he fell was never ill and was designed to live forever why not Jesus also.

If Jesus had not died he would still look like a mature male in his thirties. Now today having been resurrected and glorified his human nature persists in perfect form and it is hard to see how corruption , darkness or death could have a foothold in that.

 

[mindlight]

Here are just 4 reasons why the earthly Jesus was vulnerable to sickness and physical ailments:

(1) The claim that Jesus never got sick clashes with Hebrews 4:15: He was tempted in every day just as we are." Coping with physical sickness, fatigue, and other physical problems is one of the basic ways we are tested.

There is no bible account of Jesus being sick. Tiredness etc is not sickness. Man is a finite and limited creature and Jesus accepted these limits when he became one.

(2) Jesus was vulnerable to exhaustion (Mark 4:38), overwhelming distress, and deathly grief (14:33). His vulnerability to deep agitation and distress led to eruptions of "loud cries and tears" during His frustrated prayer life--and not just in Gethsemane--abd He needed these emotional ordeals to learn obedience (Hebrews 5:7-8).

(3) Jesus' own family didn't buy His Messiah act after His baptism by John (See Mark 3:21; 6:4 John 7:5). This fact alone attests to their perception of Jesus as an ordinary carpenter prior to His baptism.

But still no actual examples of sickness.

(4) His earthly Dad, Joseph figures in no story of Jesus' life after age 12 and apparent dies prior to Jesus' public ministry. Thus, at the cross, Jesus must entrust the care of His mother to the "Beloved Disciple" because Joseph is not alive. Why didn't Jseus heal His Dad? There is not a shred of evidence that Jesus could perform miracles prior to His reception of the Holy Spirit at His baptism. To incarnate "He emptied Himself" of His divine prerogatives (Philippians 2:6) and therefore needed the Holy Spirit in order to perform His miracle ministry.

(5) But even after His reception of the Spirit, conditions needed to be right for Jesus' miracles. For example, it can't be said that He chose not to perform miracles in His skeptical home town, Nazareth. Rather, "He could do no miracles there because of their unbelief (Mark 6:6)." Scholars consider the "except clause as a contradictory later gloss. But even if you reject that, "can do no" most naturally implies that Jesus tried and failed to heal in His home town, thus reinforcing His family's skepticism.

But there was never any question of faith when it came to Christ himself. He shocked his nervous and faithless disciples by calming the storm. It was not their faith that saved them. Why Jesus did not heal his adopted father or why there are no accounts of him healing as a boy is all a matter of speculation

 

[Galatea]

The poison and corruption of death and disease cannot coexist with the Eternal life that was Jesus Divine nature. If Jesus inherited flaws through Mary I think that very early on these were healed and driven out. That Jesus healed from the overflow of Gods life in Him is evident in the healing of the woman who had internal bleeding and who reached out to Him.

If Adam before he fell was never ill and was designed to live forever why not Jesus also.

If Jesus had not died he would still look like a mature male in his thirties. Even today his human nature persists but it is hard to see how corruption , darkness or death could have a foothold in that.

It seems you are referring to His glorified body. The one He received after resurrection. His first body was human like ours.

 

[Monk Brendan]

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?

Jesus was prone to all of the non-culpable faults of any man. However, because He is God, if He did catch a disease, He could have healed Himself immediately.

As far as a cold, yeah, he could catch one, but again, He could heal Himself right away.

But I'm sure when He was a little boy, He fell down, skinned His knee, and ran crying to Mary for comfort.

 

[Monk Brendan]

He said where two are three are gathered in His name, He was among them.

That particular clause, however, was for after His resurrection. This is implied by the context.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

That particular clause, however, was for after His resurrection. This is implied by the context.

No. That is not true. It is also written,

"Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." (John 1:48).


...

 

[Bible Highlighter]

Jason: "So please. Let's try and not attack the good character of our Lord Jesus Christ today. There are enough problems in the world to focus our love upon than to say such things. Focus on the good and not the bad."

On the contrary, I am defending His character by establishing biblically that His example was an authentic model for us because He assumes all our human limitations and was tested in every way our limitations promote. Your Jesus has unfair and, more importantly, unbiblical advantages over us, and so your Jesus is not a true example for us.
Secondly, your pontifications simply ignore points (1)-(5) in my post above on Jesus' full humanity.

You may be doing the Son a dis-service by implying that He had special privileges or protection during His life that we dont have....and therefore He wasnt a perfect example. To be an example He had to come from where we are to where HE IS......not start at a level higher than we can reach.

Jesus said that everything He did, WE can do. When he knew He was God, sickness could not touch him.....no need to heal himself....there is nothing to heal God is Perfect! God is Good!

You can do it as well.......if you choose not to learn how to do it that is your free will.....but try not to hinder anyone else who wants to be like JESUS by telling them Jesus had special privileges or protection.

Christ's Omniscience (i.e. to have all knowledge) was merely suppressed during the Incarnation so as to be like a man (limited in knowledge) (Philippians 2:6-9). For Christ was that like figure (type) of Adam (Romans 5:14), and both Adam and Jesus were limited in knowledge as a part of God's design for a certain amount of time.

Jesus said and did everything the Father told him to say and do. Jesus always pleased his Father. So He could be like a man who served God perfectly so as to be our substitute.

Yet, Jesus was not only just a man who was limited in knowledge, He had physical flesh and blood and He could feel pain, get tired, and get hungry, -- Jesus was also the Son of God (Second person of the Godhead) who was Holy and perfect in everything He did. He quoted a Psalm of David (Psalms 22) not because He was speaking from some human side of Himself. The body was just a shell. For He said so Himself. It was a temple. Jesus was speaking as God but limited in knowledge (at times) because His divine attribute of Omniscience was suppressed in the Incarnation. When Christ had achieved His mission, there would have been no reason for Him not to have His Omniscience back. This mission was paying the penalty for sin on the cross, then conquering sin and death with his resurrection, then ascending to the Father (After He told Mary to touch Him not) so as to be our mediator and Heavenly High Priest.

Yes, Jesus worked miracles by God the Father and the Holy Spirit; However, Jesus also had divine power during His incarnation, as well.

#1. Jesus said He also has power to raise the dead to life just as the Father had power to raise the dead to life.

#2. Hebrews talks about how Christ held all things together by the word of His power when He purged us of our sins.

#3. Jesus said, He would raise up this Temple (His body) three days later.

#4. Jesus had the power to forgive sins and give eternal life.

#5. Jesus had power to take away the sins of the entire world.

#6. Jesus Christ said wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. This was said to the people he was around and not to just us today.

#7. Jesus received worship as God.​

So Jesus is God;
Not just in name, but in power, too. Yes, Jesus was also a flesh and blood man. But Jesus did not have a created soul like you and me. His soul is 100% God (a part of the Trinity) and eternal that was uncreated.

Side Note:

Oh, and Jesus was not tempted internally by sin. He was tempted in all points like us externally. For it would be impossible for Jesus to be allured by sin because He is God.


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