Jesus' Healing Ministry

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I saw Jesus last week. Not in a dream, but figuratively as a statue in the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital where my recent foot surgery occurred. Their mission is "to provide physical and spiritual comfort to patients and families in the Jesuit tradition of cura personalis, caring for the whole person." Jesuits understand care of the sick as a continuation of the healing ministry of Jesus, who healed the sick and called on his disciples to continue that work as integral to proclaiming the gospel.

Hospitals and welfare were mostly serviced by religious entities from early Medieval time to the early 1900s in Europe and America. This includes American Methodists who made caring services a missional priority in the 1850s starting with orphanages and homes for the elderly. In the 1880s, Methodists began opening hospitals in the United States, which served people of all religious beliefs. By 1895, thirteen Methodist hospitals were in operation in major cities.