the Father and establish his kingdom. For this purpose have I lived my life to this hour. If, therefore, it should be the will of Him who sent me and not inconsistent with my dedication to the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, I would desire to see my children made whole—and—" but the further words of Jesus were lost in the tumult.
Jesus had passed the responsibility of this healing decision to the ruling of his Father. Evidently the Father's will interposed no objection, for the words of the Master had scarcely been uttered when the assembly of celestial personalities serving under the command of Jesus' Personalized Thought Adjuster was mightily astir. The vast retinue descended into the midst of this motley throng of afflicted mortals, and in a moment of time 683 men, women, and children were made whole, were perfectly healed of all their physical diseases and other material disorders. Such a scene was never witnessed on earth before that day, nor since. And for those of us who were present to behold this creative wave of healing, it was indeed a thrilling spectacle.
But of all the beings who were astonished at this sudden and unexpected
outbreak of supernatural healing, Jesus was the most surprised. In a moment
when his human interests and sympathies were focused upon the scene of
suffering and affliction there spread out before him, he neglected to bear in his
human mind the admonitory warnings of his Personalized Adjuster regarding
the impossibility of limiting the time element of the creator prerogatives of
a Creator Son under certain conditions and in certain circumstances. Jesus
desired to see these suffering mortals made whole if his Father's will would
not thereby be violated. The Personalized Adjuster of Jesus instantly ruled
that such an act of creative energy at that time would not transgress the will
of the Paradise Father, and by such a decision—in view of Jesus' preceding
expression of healing desire—the creative act was. What a Creator Son desires
and his Father wills IS. Not in all of Jesus' subsequent earth life did another
such en masse physical healing of mortals take place.
As might have been expected, the fame of this sundown healing at Bethsaida in Capernaum spread throughout all Galilee and Judea and to the regions
beyond. Once more were the fears of Herod aroused, and he sent watchers to
report on the work and teachings of Jesus and to ascertain if he was the former
carpenter of Nazareth or John the Baptist risen from the dead.
Chiefly because of this unintended demonstration of physical healing, henceforth, throughout the remainder of his earth career, Jesus became as much a physician as a preacher. True, he continued his teaching, but his personal work consisted mostly in ministering to the sick and the distressed, while his apostles did the work of public preaching and baptizing believers.
But the majority of those who were recipients of supernatural or creative physical healing at this sundown demonstration of divine energy were not permanently spiritually benefited by this extraordinary manifestation of mercy. A small number were truly edified by this physical ministry, but the spiritual kingdom was not advanced in the hearts of men by this amazing eruption of timeless creative healing.
The healing wonders which every now and then attended Jesus' mission on earth were not a part of his plan of proclaiming the kingdom. They were incidentally inherent in having on earth a divine being of well-nigh unlimited creator prerogatives in association with an unprecedented combination of
