THERAPEIA (Healing)
WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ
What is the Word?
Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of proclamation, restoration, and healing. Through his incarnation, he inaugurated the process of healing all creation and restoring it to the state of Eden. Therefore, the Gospels speak at great length of Jesus’ healing mission, and the word that they use to describe this healing in Greek is therapeia.
How does the Bible use this word?
Right away, we notice that this word sounds very familiar to us as English speakers. Our word for therapy is directly derived from this Greek word. While therapy for us tends to denote a sort of rehabilitation – therapeia as a Greek noun conveys a more medical nuance. To receive thereapeia is to receive medical care focused on the elimination and reversal of a physical condition. This makes perfect sense in light of the many physical ailments that Jesus treats – from blindness, to paralysis, and even death itself.
Where in the Bible?
The Gospels contain several accounts of Jesus’ healing ministry. Early in Matthew’s Gospel, we are told how Jesus calls his first disciples and immediately travels around Judea teaching, preaching, and healing every infirmity in their midst:
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing (θεραπεύων) every disease and every affliction among the people.
Matthew 4:23
It is here that we see how intimately healing is woven into Jesus’ mission. His endeavor is not to condemn the world, but healing it, that we might have life in his name (Jn 3:16-20).
Moreover, this same healing spirit through whom Jesus healed is also extended to his people in the Church:
And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed (ἐθεραπεύοντο).
Acts 5:14-16
A Spirit of Healing
As we can see from the accounts of the book of Acts, the healing ministry of Jesus never actually ended, but extends throughout the Church through all ages by the power of the Holy Spirit. God willing, he has still given us, as his people, the spirit of miraculous healing. Jesus works through means, and those means are you and I. Thus, we have a divine calling to take his message and spirit of healing out into the world, reconciling all things to himself and bringing creation back into his healing embrace.