By Clement Harrold

November 20, 2025

In the Gospels it often seems as if Jesus grants healing to anyone who asks for it. For many of us, this raises the question of why the same doesn’t hold true today.

We all know people who have prayed for healing for years without ever seeming to receive what they ask for. Perhaps we’ve even had that experience ourselves.

So why is Jesus apparently less willing to heal people today than He was when He walked on earth?

The Times When Jesus Didn’t Heal

In reflecting on this question, we should begin by noting that there are a few examples in the Gospels where Jesus chooses not to heal people. In John 5, for instance, we hear how at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem there “lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed” (v. 3). And yet, as far as we know, only one paralytic was healed by Jesus.

Another example comes when Jesus returns to His hometown of Nazareth, only to be scorned by His own people. As a result, we are told that Jesus “could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them” (Mark 6:5). Why couldn’t Jesus do mighty works there? The evangelists inform us that it was because of the people’s lack of faith (see Matt 13:48; cf. Mark 6:6).

Finally, we know of at least one occasion where Jesus chooses to delay a particular miracle, even if He does eventually go through with it. In John 11, when Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick, He intentionally waits two days (long enough for Lazarus to die) before traveling to Bethany to raise His friend from the dead. Interestingly, John tells us that the reason for Jesus’s delay was that He loved Lazarus and His two sisters (see 11:5-6).

We see, then, that it isn’t quite true that Jesus heals every sick person He encounters. Nevertheless, He does heal most of them. And so we’re still left asking: Why them and not us?

The Power of Faith

Something that immediately stands out in the Gospels is just how frequently Christ’s physical healings (and, on occasion, His forgiveness of sins) are tied to an act of faith on the part of those requesting the miracle. Consider these seven examples:

1. Healing of the Paralytic in Capernaum: And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matt 9:2; cf. Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20)
2. Forgiving of the Sinful Woman: And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:50)
3. Healing of the Centurion’s Servant: And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Matt 8:13; cf. Luke 7:9–10)
4. Healing of the Bleeding Woman: Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. (Matt 9:22; cf. Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48)
5. Healing of Blind Bartimaeus: And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:52; cf. Matt 9:29-30; Luke 18:42)
6. Healing of the Canaanite Woman’s Daughter: Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matt 15:28; cf. Mark 7:29)
7. Healing of the Samaritan Leper: And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19)

The recurring theme in these episodes is that Jesus performs a miraculous healing when people approach Him in faith. Does this suggest, then, that the only thing standing between us and more healings is a stronger faith? Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

If we take the Scriptures seriously, then there is ample reason to believe that a deeper faith will lead to God working more dramatically in our lives (see, e.g., Jas 5:16). At the same time, even a deeper faith is not a guarantee that we’ll always receive the healing we desire.

St. Paul was clearly a man of profound faith, yet when he asked God three times to remove his mysterious thorn in the flesh, he didn’t receive the healing he wanted. What he got instead was the reminder that God was permitting this cross for some deeper purpose: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

At this point, it might seem as if we’re more distant than ever from answering our original question. But perhaps the Catechism can help us find the beginnings of an answer:

Moved by so much suffering Christ not only allows himself to be touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” [Mt 8:17; cf. Isa 53:4] But he did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the “sin of the world” [Jn 1:29; cf. Isa 53:4-6] of which illness is only a consequence. By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion. (CCC 1505)

This section of the Catechism invites us to hold two truths in tension. On the one hand, Jesus delights in the healings which He performs in the Gospels, and He has every intention of restoring all things in due course. Jesus is not indifferent to our pain, and part of the reason He became human is so that He could share in our suffering and redeem it from the inside. On the other hand, the healings which Jesus performs in the Gospels are also intended as signs which point forward to the more radical spiritual healing which we all desperately need.

These two truths are wonderfully illustrated in the case of the paralyzed man in Caparnaeum. Even when the paralytic is lying in front of him, Jesus’s number one priority is not the man’s disabled legs but rather his disabled heart. Hence it is the man’s sins which Jesus heals first, and only then does He heal the man’s legs—and He does this so that we may know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins (see Matt 9:6; Mark 2:10).

A Deeper Healing

None of this is to suggest that Jesus didn’t care about the man’s physical disability. Jesus always cares deeply about the things that hinder and afflict us. Nevertheless, the fact that Jesus prioritizes the paralyzed man’s spiritual healing—and the fact that He so often ties His physical healings to an act of faith—is suggestive of the lessons He wishes us to draw about the ways His healing works in our own lives. For the truth is Jesus always answers our prayer for healing, even if the answer isn’t necessarily the one we would like.

The Gospels teach us that what Jesus calls us to first and foremost is faith, because it is faith which heals our souls. This in turn gives us the confidence that whenever we approach Jesus in faith to ask Him to heal us of a particular affliction, one of two things will happen. Either He will say “Yes” and grant us physical healing. Or He will say “Not yet, because I am using this affliction to bring a deeper healing to you and to those around you.” In neither of these cases does Jesus ignore or outright deny our request. In both cases, His end goal is for us to become happy and whole.

As people of faith, we know that this goal will not be achieved perfectly in this life. And yet, if we surrender all of our present pains and trials to Christ, then He will without fail use these things to prepare our hearts—and yes, our bodies too—to spend an eternity with Him in heaven, where “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy” (Isa 35:5-6).

Further Reading

Matthew Breuninger, Finding Freedom in Christ: Healing Life’s Hurts (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2022)

Megan Hjelmstad, Offer It Up: Discovering the Power and Purpose of Redemptive Suffering (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2025)