Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

In the specific example cited in the question, although it was Jesus' power that was the immediate cause of the woman's healing, it was her faith that led her to touch the edge of His garment in the belief that it would cause her to be healed. According to the text, it would seem unlikely that Jesus would have singled her out for healing had she not done so, since He was in the midst of a crowd of people. So, in a sense, it was in fact her faith that had led to her healing.

By the same token, anyone who came to Jesus for healing, or who followed Jesus' instructions on how to be healed without question, was expressing their faith in His power to do so. On occasions when He healed someone without their actively requesting or seeking it (such as with the paralytic by the Bethesda pool (John 5:1-9); Malchus, the servant of the high priest (Luke 22:50-51); or the crippled woman in Luke 13:10-13), He did not make this statement about the person's faith healing them. 

Nor did He always make this explicit statement even when someone came to Him in faith for healing (such as the man in Luke 14:1-6 or the crowds in Mark 1:32-34), or instruct His followers whom He sent out to preach and miraculously heal in His name to make this statement (Luke 9:1-6; Luke 10:1-12).

Even when seeking care from a conventional physician today, don't people put their faith in the doctor whom they are seeing to properly treat their ailment? In that sense, healings even today (whether sought from a physician or from God, and whether by "normal" or apparently miraculous means) continue to occur because of the faith of the people who seek those healings.

I would therefore say that, even if the people whom Jesus healed gave the credit for their healing to Jesus, rather than to their own faith, Jesus was correct in saying that their faith had healed them, and was using the healing as a teaching point to emphasize to them the power of their faith.

March 26 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report