Jesus and People with Disabilities: Old Stories, New Approaches

According to some authors, the healing narratives in the New Testament have fuelled destructive attitudes toward disability among Christians. The purpose of this paper is to explore a subset of Jesus' miracle healings for more constructive messages, and for guidance about pastoral care for people with disabilities. Of twenty-nine miracle accounts found in the four gospels, five were selected for this study that deal with physical disability in individual persons. Using the socio-rhetorical interpretive method, the stories are mined for themes regarding spiritual aspects of healing, identity, faith, sin and touch.