The healings of Jesus are told in the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels because they each tell the stories of Jesus’ life and ministry with a similar view and structure. The gospel of John focuses on proving that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that through Him, all may have eternal life.

Matthew and John were two of the Lord’s 12 disciples, so they were witnesses of Jesus’ healing miracles. They told what they personally saw and heard.

Mark was not a disciple but his source is considered by many to have been Simon Peter, who was a disciple. In 1 Peter 5:13, Peter refers to Mark as his son (spiritual son).

Luke, a physician and Gentile, writes his gospel from Mary’s viewpoint and confirms the tradition that Luke’s source of information was from the mother of Jesus.

Those healed either came in faith or were presented by others who had faith that Jesus could heal. As you read in scripture the stories of healing, look for the word “faith” or its indication.

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The first healing recorded is of a leper and that story is told in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-16). The healing of a leper was an especially important report. A leper was an outcast of society. There was no known cure and some forms were highly contagious. A leper was removed from his family and society and was required to warn people not to touch him by crying out “Unclean, unclean.”

In Luke 5:12, it says “a man came along who was covered with leprosy” (NIV). To be covered, would mean his disease was advanced and he likely had lost fingers, toes, or bodily tissue of some kind. His need was great, but so was his faith.

The first thing Jesus did when the leper cried out for healing was to touch him. (Can you hear the gasp of the crowd?) “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man” (Matthew, Mark, and Luke record this with the same words). It was an important point to make. Since his leprosy was advanced, it would have been years since this man had been touched or even acknowledged as a person. The healing Jesus provided was restorative physically and psychologically. When Jesus healed the man’s leprosy, he gave him far more than a clean and recovered body.

Take a minute to put yourself there on that day when this man was healed and look at it from different perspectives: as an onlooker, as a disciple, as a teacher of the law caught in legalism. Finally be the leprous man and take in the wonder of your healing miracle.

(Along with this particular man’s story, there is one other healing of leprosy told in Luke 17:12-10 and it was the healing of ten leprous men.)