Lessons on the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ and His Apostles
Lesson No. Ten

"Jesus Walked the Roads of Palestine Healing the Sick, Causing the Blind to See, and Raising the Dead"

(The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles)

In His Second Galilean Ministry Jesus healed the sick, caused the blind to see and raised the dead – The following are a few examples from which we learn important truths:

Healing the sick – When Jesus agreed to heal the servant of a Roman centurion, “The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

“When Jesus heard it he marveled and said unto them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:8-11). What Jesus was saying is what He, as Jehovah, had promised Abraham: “As many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father” (Abraham 2:10).

This is a wonderful example of what is taught in the Book of Mormon, that Jesus “inviteth all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bind and free, male and female, and remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).

Causing the blind to see – Two blind men beseeched the Lord to heal them. He tested their faith, “Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and straitly he charged them saying, Keep my commandments…” (JST Matthew 9:27-30).

The JST adds the important instruction to “keep my commandments.” As difficult as it would be to go through this life blind, from an eternal perspective it is more important to keep the commandments of the Lord, repenting and seeing with the eye of faith daily, than it is to have physical sight.

Raising the dead – Jesus and a multitude of followers traveled 25 miles from Capernaum to Nain. In this multitude light and life abounds as they were in the presence of the Lord of life, and they had witnessed, the day before, the healing of a centurion’s servant. As Jesus and His multitude arrived they met another multitude, a multitude of mourners, where sorrow and sadness reign, whose central figure is a weeping widow whose only son had died.

“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier; and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother” (Luke 7:13-15).

Other prophets, including Elijah and Elisha, had raised people from the dead. But in this case there was no struggle, no prayers or pleading, only the divine command by the great Jehovah now living as a man on earth to “Arise.” And this is “but a type and a shadow of what this same Jesus shall do for all his people at an appointed time? Will he not say to all, ‘Come forth from your graves; step out of your tombs, arise from your biers. Live again – this time in glorious immortality, never to suffer the pangs of death again’? And will he not then deliver the righteous into the arms of their mothers and fathers and loved ones” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah II).

Jesus will also “cast out devils or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men” – The Book of Mormon teaches: “For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, and the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases” (Mosiah 3:5).

This scripture continues with reference to what is the greatest and most important miracle of all, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.For those who believe on Him and repent, “he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men” (Mosiah 3:6), and to these He gives eternal life which “is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (1 Nephi 15:36).