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AN ANALYSIS OF THE HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS

Stan Ousley, Jr.
© Symphony of Love Ministries
Santa Fe, NM

Statement of the problem

New Thought "metaphysical Christianity" and Divine Science teachings have attempted to "restore" the healing ministry of Jesus while at the same time interpreting this aspect of his ministry in a "scientific" manner. (An implicit assumption, which is open to theological debate, is that "healing" actually happened.) Over the decades, New Thought and Divine Science have achieved a reconciliation of sorts with medical science, as New Thought students moved further away from the refusal to utilize the advances in medical science and holistic medicine (including Oriental medicine and chiropractic medicine). Christian Science, a "metaphysical cousin" of New Thought, had maintained a refusal to allow medicine or "materia medica" as a way of realizing health and wholeness. New Thought has "enlarged" its understanding and found compatibility with allopathic and holistic medicine.

Orthodox Christianity is confronted today with the theological problem of adapting its creeds and dogmas to a post-modern mindset and finding a place for Christianity in a multi-cultural pluralist society. The challenge to New Thought is to adapt its teachings, which were based on a "metaphysical" application of Jesus' teachings derived from the Gospels, to a world that is ripe for Universal Spirituality and steeped in a "scientific" approach to explaining the world. Jesus' ministry must be re-interpreted for a new age.

It is this writer's thesis that the "solutions" can be found by a study of the Gospel accounts themselves - an "internal" focus for analysis. This approach is centered upon using solely the Gospel texts to explain "scientifically" Jesus' healing ministry in a "scientific" context. This approach, therefore, is Bible-based and Christ-centered, but it is not religion (Christian) specific. It honors the Universal Spirituality aspects of Jesus' ministry. This is in keeping with the educational approach of the Brooks Divinity School where the author of this study was a ministerial student and where he was ordained. A 1990's edition of the catalogue of the Brooks Divinity School defines parameters of theological perspective that are compatible with this writer's approach. In the Brooks catalogue, it is stated:

An Evolving Explanatory Framework of the Nature of Healing in Divine Science

Early Divine Science was close to Christian Science in its rejection of medicine and medical science. In the early textbook Truth And Health, Fannie James wrote in answer to the question "Is it ever permissible to use medicines?" as follows: "Outward means or applications have no place in Divine Science methods. A true Science practitioner can never advise remedies, or outward appliances - not even the laying on of hands." [2] In addition, Mrs. James wrote (in direct contrast to some of Jesus' methods): "Never touch your patient. Give him no reason to believe that you, personally, have any healing power. To lay hands on the patient is apt to mislead him and is little better than laying on a plaster." [3]

Nona Brooks, a founder of Divine Science and Fannie James' sister, wrote of the levels of law in her early pamphlet The Kingdom of Law. [4] She distinguished between mental and physical laws and a higher spiritual law. She wrote that "Man has made the mistake of thinking that there is but one realm of Law - the outer. It is the external that is emphasized while man is yet undeveloped spiritually." [5] But above these levels is Truth or the spiritual law. "What has been called the physical world is included in the spiritual." [6] Commenting on the overuse of mental law (such as it is sometimes taught in Science of Mind and the Religious Science movement as "mind science"), Nona Brooks wrote: "The power of the mental is usually overemphasized when it is first recognized." [7] She added that: "If we limit the power of mind to personal activity in the little self, our thought is centered upon - what can I do? We achieve, it is true, but through the personal mental will." [8] This is selfish because, as Brooks stated, it is "A strenuous method, and a tragic time follows, for the centering of attention upon ourselves means forgetfulness of others." [9] But by the "law of spiritual unfoldment" we come to the "spiritual consciousness of God." [10] "An all-inclusive Kingdom is this Kingdom of Law," and "The one who understands the spiritual law has dominion in every realm." [11]

The out-picturing of this law is described by the pioneer New Thought mystic, Emma Curtis Hopkins, in chapter one of her book High Mysticism. [12] The mystical level influences the mental level, which in turn is "manifested" as the material (physical) level. The point is that all healing in New Thought is a realization of our innate natural health and wholeness. Physical biological homeostasis merely duplicates spiritual homeostasis. So whether our process of realization of the Divine Norm of wholeness is realized via physical or mental or spiritual means (the latter is termed "direct realization" in the Science of Mind teaching), the outcome is the same. It is merely outdated "superstition" to deny an outer means to an inner reality.

Coming several decades later in time, Divine Science minister and New Thought author Joseph Murphy, using more recent psychological theories that posited the existence of a conscious and subconscious mind, sought to explain how healing was realized, regardless of the religious faith or the method used. In his milestone book How to Use The Laws of Mind, Murphy observed that "Any form of belief which inspires the faith of the patient, when supplemented by a corresponding palliative suggestion, is efficacious as a therapeutic agency." [13] The outer method is merely a means to the end of achieving the "impregnation of the subconscious mind, thereby releasing and activating the infinite healing presence." [14] Murphy presents an anecdote regarding a woman who was praying for a healing of her cancer condition, but did not want surgery. He stated "I explained to her that it was wrong for her to dictate the way the healing would come, as the ways of the Infinite Presence are past finding out." [15]

In his book These Truths Can Change Your Life, Murphy wrote that "Spiritual healing is based on the union of your conscious and subconscious mind." [16] This writer's thesis is that Jesus used this method through the spoken word and outer methods such as touch, as well as through his own inner conviction (belief or faith) that wholeness was the reality of everyone who misperceived they were lacking health. This belief is the one advanced in New Thought as well. The Rev. Dr. Murphy wrote:

Experiences of this writer, who is a Registered Nurse as well as a Divine Science minister, validate the role of the subconscious mind in realization of wholeness. For many years, I have gone weekly for acupuncture and chiropractic treatments from Dr. Jaime Cobb, who is both a chiropractic physician and a Doctor of Oriental Medicine. Actually, Jaime is very much a "spiritual friend" to me and knowing him has been one of the highlights of my life. Over time, I have experienced "healing dreams" in which he inspires my realization of wholeness. One time, I had ongoing severe shoulder pain from a condition of bursitis. In my dream, Jaime placed his hand on my aching shoulder, and I felt a healing warmness (which I experience in "real life" as well). In my dream, he said "Silly guy! "he's sleeping all through this treatment. He'll wake up soon and wonder if it really happened!" When I woke up, the pain was gone and I still felt a tingling warmness to my shoulder. When I told him, Jaime grinned and said "No wonder I feel tired; I'm working day and night for you!"

Dr. Larry Dossey, M.D., in the book Healing Words, writes about "dreams of wholeness" and observes that: "Dream prayers may indeed be our most effective prayer, because it occurs when the inhibitions and distractions of waking awareness and the ego have abated for a few hours. Unobstructed, the unconscious during sleep and dreams may be free to realize its natural, innate affinity with the Divine." [18]

In his book Jesus The Wayshower, Episcopal priest and Divine Science minister Dr. David Alkins describes Jesus' healing ministry in the reverse order from the process described by Hopkins. Alkins states that Jesus' public healing ministry went from "the laws of matter" to "the laws of mind (mental laws)" to "the laws of Spirit, showing that mind and matter were meant to serve Spirit." [19]

An analysis of Jesus' healing ministry will show that Jesus understood the scientific "mind-body connection" and the power of faith operating through the subconscious mind. He often used a physical intervention such as the laying on of hands or rubbing mud and spit on a blind man's eyes. He also used verbal affirmation, and operated at all times from a spiritual consciousness that was grounded in a realization of wholeness as normative.

An Analysis of the Healing Ministry of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke

In the Gospel of Luke, written by a Gentile Greek physician who was interested in the universal aspects of Jesus' ministry, we see in detail how Jesus healed others. A description of the healings follows, supplemented by a brief explanation of the method Jesus used. (This section also illustrates the inductive approach to topical Bible study. We base general conclusions on the accumulation of evidence taken from specific scriptural texts.)

In the fourth chapter of Luke, we see the first description of a healing in this Gospel account. A man is "bedeviled" or "unclean," and Jesus "rebuked the devils" and told them to "come out" of the man. This is a healing "by the word" of Jesus that inspired in the man a confidence that his wholeness was his reality. "Devil" in New Thought refers to thoughts or perceptions adverse to God's Truth. The next healing demonstration occurs when Jesus "rebuked" a fever in Simeon's mother in law. This was again a "speaking of the word" of wholeness. Jesus in essence told the woman her fever devils had been exorcised and she felt this to be true at the level of her faith. Next in chapter four, Jesus "laid his hands" on many who were diseased - he evoked a faith in them that healing had occurred by the outer method of touching people.

In the fifth chapter of Luke's Gospel, a man's request to Jesus (evidencing his inner belief that Jesus had an ability to heal him) led to Jesus laying his hands on the man as he said (KJV) "Be thou clean," and the man was healed of leprosy. Or in New Thought, we would say that he realized the reality of his wholeness. Jesus used a combination of touch and the spoken word to elicit faith in this man. Another man with palsy was lowered through a roof and realized his wholeness when Jesus told him his "sins" were forgiven. In New Thought, "sins" are error thoughts. But in Jesus' time, there was a belief that disease was a punishment for sin, so Jesus appealed to this man's base belief (rather than challenging him) and told him what he needed to hear to evidence his natural health. The Pharisees complained so Jesus next spoke the results of the outer forgiveness to the man: rise up and walk. Jesus was working the process described earlier: from the spiritual to the mental to the physical, or as Hopkins would put it, from the mystical to the mental to the material.

In chapter six, a man's withered hand was healed after Jesus spoke the word of truth that lead the man to an inner conviction in the reality of that truth in his situation. "Stretch forth thy hand." Next, Jesus healed a multitude of people with "unclean spirits" who wanted to "touch his virtue." Their inner feeling was that by touching him, they would be healed. Jesus always said it was their faith that healed, not anything he "did" to others. He was not a healing magician. In chapter seven, a "pagan" military officer's servant is healed because the soldier, a leader of others, had a feeling faith that if Jesus spoke his word, even from a distance, the healing would occur. This example was more subtle, and illustrates the idea in modern physics that the presence of an observer changes the outcome of that which is observed, and that thought vibrations can impact the physical out-picturing. We all have had psychic experiences "in the natural," - it is not voodoo magic per se but a natural ability that only is "evil" if misused. A controversial healing occurs when Jesus raises the dead son of the widow at Nain, through touching the funeral casket and saying "Arise!" It is possible, of course, that the man was in a catatonic state or a coma, and simply "appeared" dead, just as others "appeared" to be sick.

An interesting phenomenon occurs in chapter eight, when Jesus told "devils named Legion" to come out of a man and enter the pigs. This may have been a "teaching extension" of a healing event (as was the resuscitation of the widow's son) to show that the Spirit operating through the mental laws has power over all "unclean" things, which are as the swine were in Jewish cultic religion. Also in chapter eight, a woman "with an issue of blood" touched Jesus, and the act of touching him inspired in her a faith to realize she was healed. Jesus emphasized that it was her faith, not her action of touching him, which made her whole. Then, another "revival of life" occurred as Jesus told a family to "Fear not; only believe" and Jairus' daughter comes to life.

Jesus' "Fear not; only believe" formula - a universal formula that is not religion-specific -- worked well for the writer of this paper. I was driving my VW Beetle down a street in Louisville in the hippy days of the early 1970's, when the radio announcer said "There's a tornado - take cover!" I looked in my rear view mirror and there was the tornado right behind me! I had no fear; it never entered my mind that I could be in danger. I had an innate "faith" or inner conviction that if I could get out of my car and run up to the "White Castle" restaurant on the corner (interesting symbolism), I'd be safe. So, I got out just as the tornado struck and ran against its full force, reaching the restaurant. It was an invigorating feeling! I only discovered much later that some around me had remained inside their vehicles and been crushed to death. I got into my car again (my leaving the door open as I ran out had equalized the air pressure and there was minimal damage to it), and drove around the debris and fallen electric wires. I was not into New Thought or organized religion at the time. My "faith" or "belief" was that I was not in any danger and I had no fear. Jesus' formula is "scientific" and universal.

In chapter nine, Jesus "commissioned" his disciples to do as he had done and heal others (for free). But the disciples could not heal a child "possessed by a spirit" and he rebukes them for faithlessness. The teaching that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" follows - illustrating that faithlessness is not compatible with faith. Likewise, Jesus taught that people must "keep their houses strong" (inner faith) because otherwise, an unclean thought might be replaced by seven other such ones if a person had not "fortified" his house (mind). In chapter thirteen, a woman experiencing some type of osteoporosis or spinal weakness is healed when Jesus spoke his word "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity" and laid his hands upon her. He thus inspired an inner faith in her that she could stand up straight. In chapter fourteen, Jesus healed a man with a condition of dropsy, apparently through his consciousness of the man's wholeness, which the man perceived. Likewise, Jesus' own consciousness of wholeness led ten lepers to realize healing. Only the socially despised Samaritan returns to thank Jesus. From a New Thought perspective, the Samaritan man is thanking Jesus because Jesus was his "practitioner" who helped the man realize from within his true reality of health. Jesus stressed that the man's faith made him whole. It is likewise in chapter eighteen, when Jesus assisted a blind man in recovering his sight by speaking the word of faith: "Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee."

It is evident that Jesus' ministry was not just religion-specific. He assisted the ritually unclean, a Roman "pagan" soldier, the Samaritans, and anyone who approached him. He authorized the twelve disciples and later the seventy followers to continue this healing ministry, long before there was a "Christian church" to do so. (Jesus was never a so-called "Christian" of course and it is debatable as to whether he wished to "establish a church" or instead, initiate a healing and teaching spiritual movement!) Jesus' healing ministry was "scientific" because it utilized universal truths, especially psychological and psychophysical ones, and was not dogma-specific or limited to any religious tradition. As was also true with his spiritual teachings, the ministry of Jesus was for everyone, not a chosen few in a specific religion. It was non-institutional and interfaith in scope. The "faith" required was simply that healing could occur, without favor or price, and such healing was (and is) available to anyone who recognized and realized the reality of wholeness and trusted the natural homeostatic process. No ritual or church or organizational allegiance was necessary. Jesus was a spiritual scientist, and his methods are revealed through an analytical approach that follows the principles of inquiry of Spiritual Humanism and New Thought scientific religion. At the same time, this study validates the insights of "metaphysical Christianity" that also transcend religious specificity.

Currently, "liberal" mainstream Protestant Christianity tends to theologically minimize Jesus' healing ministry based on minimizing and debunking the authenticity of the Gospels. Conservative Fundamentalist Christianity is more superficial (say the "sinner's prayer" and you'll be "saved") and conduct oriented and fails to act upon the healing implications of the Gospel accounts. It is claimed that the "healing miracles" were only to prove Jesus' divinity. Pentecostal and Charismatic Catholics and Protestants do practice healing prayer in an active way, but results are "hit or miss" and occur in the realm of Divine Favor and Grace. New Thought Christianity has, with varying degrees of success, "recovered" Jesus' healing ministry and his methods are seen to be universal and "scientific" in scope and practice.

Jesus' teachings as presented in the Gospels have been seen to be universal rather than religion-specific in scope. But the "healing domain" was often steeped in faith-specific superstitions. This left many rational people, be they Christian or non-Christian, with a credulity problem. Contemporary medical science is now validating the efficacy of prayer in healing. Holistic Medical Doctor Larry Dossey has documented the prayer-healing connection in books such as Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. [20] There is no "faith challenge" to adherents of "metaphysical Christianity," but rather an expansion of perspective to realize that Jesus was a universal teacher, and his entire ministry can be explained rationally and non-dogmatically within the analytical parameters of Spiritual Humanism and universal spirituality. Jesus' methods are validated by the science of religion.

NOTES:

1) Brooks Divinity School Catalogue. (Denver, Colorado: no date, mid- 1990's.) p. 4.
2) Fannie B. James, Truth and Health. (Denver: Divine Science College, 1942). p. 226.
3) Ibid., pp. 235-236.
4) Nona Brooks, The Kingdom of Law. (Denver: College of Divine Science, no date).
5) Ibid., p. 9.
6) Ibid., p. 12.
7) Ibid.
8) Ibid., p. 13.
9) Ibid.
10) Ibid., p. 14.
11) Ibid., p. 15.
12)Emma Curtis Hopkins, High Mysticism. (Marina del Rey: DeVorss & Company, no date). Chapter one.
13) Joseph Murphy, How to Use The Laws of Mind. (Marina del Rey: DeVorss & Company, 1980). p. 19.
14) Ibid., p. 23.
15) Ibid., p. 24.
16)Joseph Murphy, These Truths Can Change Your Life. (Marina del Rey: De Vorss Publications, 1982). p. 43
17) Ibid., p. 42
18) Larry Dossey, M.D., Healing Words - The Power of Prayer and The Practice of Modern Medicine. (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993). p. 71
19) David S. Alkins, Jesus The Wayshower. (Denver: Brooks Divinity School, 1983). p. 43.
20) Dossey, op. cit.

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