Although I’ve talked about when Jesus progressively heals someone before, I wanted to talk about immediate healing and compare it with progressive healing in the Gospels.

In my last post, I talked about why Jesus liked to heal on the Sabbath. In this post, I want to take another look at immediate and progressive healing in the Gospels and.

We’ve talked about the progressive healing of the blind man from Bethsaida when I talked about Jesus healing the blind people. But I didn’t get to talk about progressive healing versus immediate healing in the Gospels and Acts.

This is a really important aspect of healing because you will see an overwhelming amount of one type of healing. I believe there’s a reason for it and I will point it out in this post. But along the way, we will find some interesting facts about the way Jesus healed in the Gospels specifically.

What Is Progressive Healing?

Scholars refer to progressive healing as healing that occurs over time instead of immediate healing. As I’ve mentioned, this only happens one time in Jesus’s ministry. There are an overwhelming amount of miracles in which He heals immediately.

Why aren’t there more progressive healings? That’s a good question and I don’t think anybody knows the answer. My suggestion is that Jesus came on the scene with great power and it was more surprising and something to put people’s faith in when they saw immediate results.

One problem with Jesus healing in the Gospels is that you often read that He told people who were healed not to tell everyone about it. He does this because He knows with every dramatic healing miracle, He puts himself in the crosshairs of the religious leaders to try to get rid of Him. And that’s exactly what happens at the end of the Gospels.

The One Time Jesus Progressively Healed Someone

Out of the roughly 15-24 healing miracles in the Gospels, Jesus heals a person progressively just one time. This happens to a blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26). It’s a very short account and only Mark records it. Otherwise, there would be no accounts of Jesus progressively healing someone.

I have covered this account before when I talked about Jesus healing blind people. But here I want to stress that this is the only time Jesus heals progressively or in two stages. It’s astounding to realize that if Mark did not record this, we would think Jesus has to heal immediately.

Why so Many Were Healed Immediately

No one knows how many times Jesus and His disciples healed people throughout His ministry. We don’t know if there were other times Jesus healed people progressively. But the vast majority of accounts of Jesus’s healing in the Gospels occurs immediately.

There are 77 occurrences of the word “immediately” in the Gospels and Acts. That includes instances outside of the healings. We must also remember that some of the Gospels share the same miracle across different Gospels. I did some quick work to see if “immediately” is repeated across the Gospels and Acts in the same miracle.

Here’s what I found. There are 13 healings in the Gospels and three in Acts that have the word “immediately” in them. Here is the list:

• The Cleansing of the Leper (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16)
• Jesus Heals Two Blind Men outside of Jericho (Matthew 20:29-34)
• Jesus Heals the Paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26; [John 5:1-9])
• The Man with the Withered Hand (Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11)
• Jairus’ Daughter and the Woman with a Hemorrhage (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56)
• Jesus Heals Two Blind Men (Matthew 9:27-31; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43)
• The Healing of Peter’s Mother-In-Law (Matthew 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38-39)
• Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17)
• Jesus Heals a Man with Dropsy (Luke 14:1-6)
• Peter and John Heal a Paralytic (Acts 3:1-10)
• Paul Receives His Sight (Acts 9:17-18)
• Peter Heals Aeneas (Acts 9:32-35)

So, why did Jesus heal so many people immediately and only heal one person progressively? The main reason might be that the Kingdom of God is breaking ¥out into the world. Jesus restores those with sicknesses and disabilities.

This shows that Jesus was inaugurating the Kingdom of God. He was proclaiming the gospel and the gospel has within its power the saving of souls, healing of bodies, and deliverance from unclean spirits and demons. The power of the Kingdom is greater than anything that happens to us and this world.

Is Immediate Healing Better Than Progressive Healing?

There is a false understanding that people have to be healed immediately by Jesus. We find it hard to have to go through progressive healing. People want to see the flashy acts of Jesus in healing. They’re looking for that immediate healing.

It’s not wrong to want an immediate healing, and Jesus does these immediate healings to people today. After all, they overwhelmingly Occur in Bible healings where “immediately” appears alongside the healing as the result.

It’s important to point out that Jesus can heal in two or more stages and it is still miraculous. Even how God has designed our bodies to heal themselves in many ways is amazing. Let’s not lose sight of Jesus’s amazing ways He progressively heals people.

The fact is that no matter how we receive our healing, Jesus is glorified and we praise Him for healing us. Whether Jesus heals people progressively or immediately, only He can do the work of healing.

Leave It up to God

No matter how you want your healing to occur, progressively or immediately, leave it up to God. He decides how He will do things. In some instances, He may want to heal you immediately because there is a crowd to see His glory in the miracle and give Him praise.

But even if God progressively heals you in your home without any flashy healing, He still receives the glory as you bear witness and testify to what Jesus has done for you. Your body bears the marks of Jesus’s healing power.

Doctors will confirm what Jesus has done for you. All these things bear witness to the glory of God and Jesus’s healing power. Whether you receive your healing progressively or immediately, only Jesus knows the best way to do it.

Praying for Your Healing

Lord Jesus, I thank You that You can heal a person progressively through steps or immediately and one amazing, public way. No matter how You choose to heal my brother and sister, and myself, we are praising You ahead of time for Your marvelous and miraculous healing in us. I pray for my brother and sister that You will heal them even today as they read this. We’ll be sure to give You all the praise and glory! In Your mighty name we ask these things, amen.

Up Next

We have seen how the Gospel writers talk about Jesus healing people progressively and immediately. Next, we will look at New Testament words for healing.

Image by Yerson Retamal from Pixabay