“And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.” Matthew 21:14
How many of us have glossed over this scripture when we read about Jesus casting the merchandisers and money-changers from the temple? Before he healed the blind and lame, he had to cast out the thieves.
“The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy,” Jesus stated in John 10:10. But, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
In Jesus’ day, thieves ruled in God’s house, the temple. That’s because they had allowed the biggest thief of to influence them – the thief that steals, kills and destroys. That thief is the devil.
Sometimes before Jesus could heal people, he had to cast out the devil behind the disease.
The passage in Luke 13:11-16 gives an account of a woman who had a spirit of infirmity. She walked hunched over, which meant she was looking down and couldn’t see straight. In a sense, it was like being blind. It also kept her from walking straight, so in a way she was lame too.
But when Jesus spoke the word and laid his hands on her, she straightened up. No stumbling block kept her from seeing the path that lay before her and walking in it. She had come into the synagogue (the equivalent of church for a Christian) and received not only healing, but deliverance too. Once Jesus cast the thief out, what was blind and lame in her got healed.
It wasn’t just a spiritual healing, it was physical too! But to heal her, Jesus had to cast out the spirit that kept her bound.
Peter told the Cornelius crowd in Acts 10:38 that Jesus went about doing good and healing everyone the devil had oppressed,
He first cast out the thieves, then healed the blind and lame.
What, if anything, immobilizes you and/or blinds you to whatever opportunities are knocking on your door? Do you need some sort of healing, whether spiritual or emotional?
The thief may try to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus gives abundant life to all who will believe.
Signs, Wonders, Miracles 