Did Jesus ever get sick?
This is a question many people ask, especially in circles where sickness is directly associated with sin. It is a sad fact that I know a man whose sister-in-law was expelled from her church for prolonged sickness, which they assumed to mean she was in secret sin. What a terrible and unfortunate misunderstanding of the scriptures! Let us begin with this passage from John's gospel, 9:1-3:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
A common idea is that sickness is a by-product or consequence of sin-nature, a sort of punishment for being sinful. Because Jesus had no sin nature, one may reason, he would not have been exposed to sickness. I must disagree with this line of thought. I believe Jesus was subjected to sickness without having a sin nature, just as animals, which have no sin, are subject to sickness.
It is true, animals sometimes inconvenience or even endanger humans, but this is not sin. If it were, God himself would be a sinner! Sin is the violation of God's law. [1 John 3:4] Animals have no sin because no law was given to them. Where there is no law, sin is not imputed. [Romans 5:13] Why then do sinless creatures endure weakness and suffering?
When the world was first created God granted Adam authority to subdue and represent it. Adam was the federal head of earthly creation. When he sinned all of the physical creation which he represented was cast into the temporal repercussions of suffering with him. The creation now looks forward, as it were, to being set free from these effects of the fall.
"The creation itself shall also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. " [Romans 8:22]
Sickness is neither sinful, nor a necessary repercussion of personal sin, or else animals would be necessarily sinners. I assure you, my dog will not be at the judgment seat awaiting his sentence, but this very night he is sick with an infection in the eyes. His sickness comes as the effect of Adam's sin. Though animals are not sinners, they are federally subjected to the temporal consequences which their and our original head, Adam, brought upon the creation.
For this same reason Christ, though born of a virgin and thereby free from spiritual corruption, was birthed into the physical weakness of his mother. He dealt with the same temporal repercussions of sin in the world which animals face. He hungered after fasting [Luke 4:2], his capillaries burst under stress [Luke 22:44], and he thirsted on the cross [John 19:28-29].
The people who said of Jesus, "isn't this the carpenter, the son of Joseph?" probably remembered him pricking his finger on a splinter and quickly drawing it to his mouth. How could a normal person be God? Yet Jesus Christ was fully God, and fully man, sin excepted. In order to perfectly represent broken men, Christ had to come as a broken man. The author of Hebrews explains why.
"Therefore since the children [for whom Christ died] are made out of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; so that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil... For this reason he [Jesus Christ] had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." [Hebrews 2:14-15, 17]
For these reasons I believe Jesus was prone to sickness. So, the next time you feel a cold coming on, lift your prayers to Christ who was himself tempted to complain and become discouraged, yet never succumbed to the temptation. He is merciful and compassionate toward all his children whom he represents as a perfect priest before the Father. He may desire to heal you now or, like the blind man in John 9:1-3, to use your patient endurance of illness as a means to manifest God's glory. My prayer is that you saints would be "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." [Colossians 1:11]
