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FRAGILE AND VULNERABLE IN THE SYNOPTICS

The Bible sees human being as the highest of all God’s creatures on the earth, because
he is created in his image and likeness, and possesses qualities that resemble in some
degree the qualities of God himself. God made him/her “a little lower than angels and
crowned him with glory and splendour” (Ps 8:5). He/she is a free creature with an essential
relation to God. The very freedom which is one of God’s greatest gifts to man/woman is
also the cause of his(her sin, perversion, weakness, fragility, vulnerability, illness. Reason,
conscience, will, love, thoughts and actions are all affected by sin. His/her happiness is so
fragile, his/her days are fleeting, his/her life transient (cf. Ps 103:13-16; Is 40:6-8). As a
result of this fragility, vulnerability and mortality, man/woman experiences anxiety, worry,
fear, and especially illness, which is one of the commonest subjects of Synoptics accounts
of Jesus’ working miracles. Fragility, vulnerability, illness highlight the isolation of human
beings and the boundaries that often stand between life and death. The health supposes a
fullness of vital strength, while illness is conceived especially as a state of fragility,
vulnerability and weakness.
The views of Jesus about the nature of human being are found mainly in the Synoptic
Gospels. The most general impression derived from a survey of passages in the Synoptics
is that Jesus’ views are essentially those of the Old Testament (cf. Mt 26:41; Mk 14,38).
The general view of the Old Testament writers is that fragilty, vulnerability, moral
weakness, disease are consequences of man’s originial sin. Besides, they can be sent by
God as a punishment for not obeying his voice and not keeping commandments. The penal
concept of illness survived into New Testament times. Other views ascribed the origine of
disease to the work of spirits (Mk 9:17; Mk 9:25; ecc.). There can be no doubt that Jesus
regarded disease as one manifestation of evil within human experience, but he never once
supported the Old Testament concept of disease as a punishment sent by God for
transgression. Instead, he frequently considered the disease as the result of evil producing a
disturbance within the personality. Without interpreting illness, he saw in it the result of the
operation of evil in human life, a sign of the power of Satan over men (cf. Lk 13:16). Thus
his attitude toward its presence in the lives of individuals marked a considerable advance in
thought on the consensus of Old Testament opinion regarding illness (cf. Mt 20:33-34).
As part of the healing ministry of Jesus, a considerable number of widely differing
diseases were encountred and cured. While he was always concerned to help the fragile, to
heal the sick in body, he invariably paid close attention to the mind and spirit of the
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sufferer, he has come to heal the whole man, soul and body (cf. Mk 2:5-12). His curative
acts, his healing miracles, were a spontaneous expresssion of his pity and sympathy and a
sign of the kingdom of God. He is the Messiah awaited by John. He proclaims the kingdom
of God, and through his ministry of healing he proves that it is present (Mt 11:2-5; Lk 7:18-
22; cf. Is 26:19; 29:18; 35:5-6; 61:1-2). The list of five types of healing miracles performed
by Jesus makes certain that the messianic era is being inaugurated.
The elements in the Synoptics taken over from the Old Testament view are particularly
the idea of the influence of demonic powers (Lk 13:11,16) and the connection between
disease and sin. Demoniacal possession is not so much the result of a league with Satan as
an expression of bondage under Satan’s dominion. The primary insight of the Synoptics,
however, is that disease have to do with the power of hostile forces which oppose the rule
of God (Mk 1:23-24). In Jesus’ ministry the two kingdoms are pitted against one another.
His ministry involves the destruction of Satan’s rule over the world. The temptation story
was set at the beginning of the public ministry in Matthew (4,1-11) and Luke (4,1-13) to
tell us that the coming of the kingdom involved a struggle with Satan. This is the logic of
Mk 3:22-27: Jesus’ expulsion of demons is not a case of Satan’s kingdom divided against
itself, but of God’s kindgdom against Satan’s. That is why a miracle is an “act of power”.
On the one hand, he breaks through the terrible connection of sin and disease (2:5ff.) by his
assurance of forgiveness; on the other hand, he brings in the dawn of God’s kingdom by
casting out demons and healing the sick (Mk 5:1ff.; Lk 11:20). Along with the direct
expulsion of demons, the cure of illness is another aspect of the war against Satan (Lk
13:32). Jesus’ compassion toward the ill and his many healings of every kind of infermity
reveal the triumph of God’s kingdom.
Primarily in the Synoptics we have the miracles of Jesus, on account of which Mt 8:17
can sum up the work of healing of Jesus in a literal translation and understanding of the
saying in Is 53:4. As described by Isaiah the servant “took” our sorrows on himself in the
sense that his own suffering was expiatory. Matthew interprets this verse of Isaiah referring
not to the suffering of disease by the Servant, or Jesus, but to the removal of disease by the
power of Jesus. It was to take on himself the expiation of sin that Jesus, the ‘servant’ came
on earth. Jesus’ commision in coming to the earth is to transform the plight of man which
expresses itself in fragility, vulnerability, sin and disease, by his call to repentance and his
works of healing, into the salvation which belongs to God’s kingdom. This physician had
come for a deep healing of human fagility and ills.
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Jesus’ miracles were the weapons he used to overcome Satan, to destroy the works of
the Devil. He responded to the disease situation by healing the sufferer whenever he was
confronted with fragility and illness. Without stopping to distinguish natural illness from
diabolic possession, he casts out spirits and cures those who are ill (Mk 1:33; Mt 8:16; Lk
4:40-41). The two things go together. They equally manifest his power (cf. Lk 6:19) and
they ultimately have the same meaning. They signify the triumph of Jesus over Satan and
the inauguration of the kingdom of God. The ultimate expression of the miracle as the
triumph of God’s kingdom over Satan is found in Jesus’ restoration of life to the dead (Mt
9:18; Lk 7:12).
In his healing activity Jesus’ efforts were to raise the sufferers whom he encountered to
a more advanced degree of spirituality. Illness is a symbol of the state in which sinful man
finds himself; spiritually he is blind, deaf, paralyzed, etc. The cure of the ill man is,
therefore, also a symbol. It represents the spiritual cure which Jesus came to work in men.
He forgave the sins of the paralytic, and to show that he had this power, he cured him (Mk
2:1-12; Mt 9:1-8; Lk 5:17-26). It was Jesus’ desire that men should be won for the divine
kingdom. Entrance to this realm of the spirit presupposed a degree of faith manifested
either by the sick person or by someone connected with him (Mk 1:40; 5:36; 9:23; Mt 8:2-
6; 9:28; Lk 9:50). Though the degree of participation in faith varied with different
individuals, the Synoptic narratives make it clear that some measure of faith was normally
evoked by Jesus as a condition of healing.
The healings of the ill in the Synoptic Gospels are not only wonders, they are signs of
the dawing kingdom of God. The revelation of this power takes place through the word of
God and visible signs. Both bear witness to the salvific will of God. Side by side, word and
miraculous deed gave expression to the advent of God’s redemptive power (Mt 12:28; Lk
6:19). Hence miracles are visible signs of the spiritual salvation which accompanies the
arrival of eschatological times.
Throughout his whole ministry, Jesus found fragile and ill people wherever he went:
Peter’s mother-in-law (Mt 8:14), the friends of paralytic (Mt 9:2), the woman with a
hemorrhage (9:22), the widow of Naim (Lk 7:13), the crippled woman (Lk 13:12). The
same is true where there is question of a less physical healing: the pitful crowds were
likewise the object of his compassionate gaze (Mt 9:36; Mk 6:34), the sight of Jerusalem
brought him to tears (Lk 19:41). The ministry of Jesus contains numerous instances when
he became the listener to cries and reports of human anguish and need. Seeing and hearing
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them in misery, he helped them: (Mt 9:24; 9:27; 15:22-23; 20:30; Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:39;
etc.).
Although Jesus himself refused to draw any equivalence between illness and actual sin
(cf. Lk 13:1-5), nevertheless human fragility, weakness, illness, sufferings, according to the
Synoptic Gospels, are the consequences of original sin. His whole attitude toward illness
and diseases implies that they belong to the disorder characteristic of the realm of evil and
are connected with Satan and his kingdom (cf. Mk 2:1-12; 3:10; 5:10; 5:29,34; 9:14-29; Lk
4:39; 13-10-17). His preferential love for the sick has not ceased through the centuries to
draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who suffer. Jesus’ seeing,
hearing, touching of those whom he healed is an invitation to us to do the same. He expects
from the Christians their engagement in the work of helping the fragile and weak people,
and healing the wounds of all those who suffer in whatever manner. And the Church
teachis us that life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God, and that
we must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the
common good.
In the Magnificat (Lk 1:47-55), which comes as a response to the angelic
announcement to her that she is to bear “the Son of the Most High”, two features stand out.
First, Mary’s description of herself as God’s “servant girl”, which is a deferential reflection
of her fragility and weakness, as compared to God’s majesty. Second, the general
thanksgiving for God’s unparalleled power to change the face of human society. God fills
the hungry with good things and lifts up those who, like Mary, are regarded in the eyes of
the world as “of low degree”, as fragile and weak.