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Comparing Mark And The Gospel Of John

Good Essays

Faith is Health Insurance
May Tun

In both the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John, Jesus performs many miracles, but the most notable one is the healing miracle. In the Bible, diseases and physical impairments often symbolize spiritual uncleanliness and sins, and Jesus’ healings restore their complete bodily function as well as the spiritual well-being. The healing illustrates the relationship between men and Jesus through faith. The function of Jesus’s healing is very much alike in both the Gospels of Mark and John because it serves more than simple physical healing. It not only establishes faith in Jesus and His power, but it also confirms and supports pre-existing faith in Jesus. His healing also serves as a kind of societal purification, …show more content…

A man comes to Jesus’s disciples for his son to be healed from the epilepsy that the child suffers, but the disciples could not heal him. The father of the son begs Jesus, and Jesus replied, “All things can be done for the one who believes.” Immediately, the father of the child cries out, “I believe: help my unbelief!” (Mark. 9.23-24). There is no doubt that the father believes that Jesus and his disciples could heal his son, and this is why he brings his son in the first place. However, the father does not wholly believe in Jesus because he needs to articulate and swear that he does have faith in front of Jesus. Only after knowing that the father now truly believes in Jesus and his ability, Jesus heals the son by ordering the unclean spirit to leave the body alone. Jesus explains that prayer is needed to validate the faith of the non-believers because it acts as a measure of the quality of the faith that man has. This healing event compels the father, who is introduced as an uncertain believer, to completely believe in Jesus by expressing his faith …show more content…

Jesus is “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” when visiting the tomb of Lazarus, but when he commands Lazarus to rise and the man did, “many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him” (John 11. 33, 45). Even though Jesus wishes to heal Lazarus during the time of sickness, he chooses to wait in order for more people to experience his healing miracle. The event where Jesus raises the dead man symbolizes the complete healing of the physical and spiritual being of a man. Jesus purposefully waits so that a large amount of people can experience the miracle, which consequently leads to people believing in him and his power to heal a person completely in both the physical and spiritual

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