Did Jesus Pray for the Sick

29 Jul Did Jesus Pray for the Sick

We recently had a visitor to Peace who had been on a mission trip to India with Stuart Gramenz.  Stuart taught people to lay hands on the sick and say, ‘Be healed in Jesus’ name.’

During a church meeting, our visitor was presented with a girl who he was told ‘had sore legs.’  Because of translation difficulties, he was unaware that she had in fact never walked in her life.  But he thought, ‘I can believe for that.’  So he laid hands on her and did as he had been taught, saying ‘Be healed in Jesus’ name.’  After that the girl was running around and everyone was very excited.  She had never walked in her life, and was now healed.   The visitor was himself surprised to find out the details, admitting he might have doubted if he had known the truth.

The story emphasises that the healing power of God does in fact come from God and not from any person.  We can limit what God does, but in this case, ignorance of the facts helped.

There is a question in all of this to consider.  Did Jesus every pray for the sick?  Stuart was teaching people to command the healing of the sick.  Here are a few examples of miracles in the Bible:

• Jesus commanded a spirit saying, ‘Be quiet!  Come out of him.’ (Mark 1:25)
• Jesus said to a leper, ‘Be clean.’ (Mark 1:41)
• Jesus said to a paralytic, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ (Mark 2:9)
• Jesus said to a man with a shrivelled hand, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ (Mark 3:5)
• Jesus said to the storm, ‘Be still.’ (Mark 4:39)
• Jesus said to a dead girl, ‘Get up.’ (Mark 5:41)

And so on it goes…

Did Jesus ever pray?  Certainly.

Did Jesus ever pray for the sick?  In my own reading I have not been able to find a single example.

So what about us?  Should we pray for the sick?  My sense is yes, we should pray for the sick person, but we should finish our prayer with a command for healing as Christ demonstrated.  The prayer helps us and the one we are praying for to find faith, and the command releases the power and the work of the Lord.

As St Augustine said, ‘Without God we can’t, but without us, He won’t.’