In Mark’s account quoted earlier we see our Lord ministering healing to Peter’s mother-in-law through the laying on of hands. If we read only Mark’s account of this incident it seems to indicate that all that Jesus did was take her by the hand, and that was sufficient for her healing to take place. But that is not the case at all because when we look at Luke’s account of the same incident we see that in order to impart His healing power to her; Jesus did more than just take her hand in His. Luke’s account reveals to us that our Lord also rebuked the fever at the same time. And so we see that in order to heal an individual and get them delivered, our Lord would lay His hands on that individual and at the same time He would rebuke whatever sickness or demon He may have been dealing with. Jesus would rebuke the sickness or demon by commanding it to leave the body He was ministering to. Something else that we can see from this account is that our Lord took Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand when He rebuked the fever. In other words He didn’t lay His hands on her head to impart God’s healing power. His hand holding her hand had the same effect of transferring God’s healing, as if He had laid hands on her head. The reason our Lord could do this in this instance was because the fever was in her entire body. And so His hands just touching her hands had the effect of imparting God’s healing power to her body to drive out the fever. Normally our Lord Jesus would place His hands on the affected part of the person’s body in order to heal that person’s affliction. For example when our Lord laid hands on those who were blind He would place His hands on their eyes. And so in following our Lord’s example, when we lay hands on people we are to lay our hands on the afflicted part of their bodies and we are to rebuke whatever sickness we are dealing with and command it to leave that body in the name of Jesus.
Michael E.B. Maher
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