What Did Jesus Do When He was Sick?

Why is that when you're sick, you feel rather disagreeable? Disgruntled? Annoyed that the sun has the audacity to shine when you can't go outside and enjoy it? To be honest, I don't know. But what I do know is that you do feel it, because I feel it right now! I'm not terribly sick, but I have a cold. With so much sickness going around these days, I'm surprised I didn't catch it sooner. But better late than never, right? Wrong.

Anyway, in my clouded, illness-ridden mind I'll try not to run off on too many tangents here. Just one. And that is: what did Jesus do when He was sick? When we're lying in bed, cursing the sun and getting mad at the world, what did Jesus do? Our frustration in sickness and unjustified anger is sinful. Jesus did not sin, so He couldn't have been frustrated and disagreeable when He was sick. So what did He do? And what can we learn from Him?

First of all, there is no passage in Scripture that details a time in Jesus' life when He was ill. Now, He was human, so He most likely did get sick on occasion, just like everybody else. But based on the rest of His earthly life, here are a few things that Jesus did when He wasn't sick (but also maybe when He was) that we can certainly apply to when we're dealing with sickness:

1. He prayed. (See Matthew 14:23 26:39-44; Mark 1:35, 6:46, 14:35-39; Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:28, 11:1, 22:41-44) Jesus prayed to His Father a lot. He was constantly in communion with Him. When He was preparing for the most agonizing part of His earthly mission (the Cross and bearing the full wrath of God), He prayed. When we're going through stuff about a million times more trivial than that (e.g. colds and sickness), we too should humbly come before our Father in heaven.
2. He served others. (Mark 10:45) The mighty King of kings lowered Himself to the form of a servant and served His creatures. He healed, He cared for, He loved, He treated with kindness so many people. We too can follow His example and, even though we feel badly, serve others in our sickness.
3. He entrusted His weakness to the will of God. (Matthew 26:39) In His agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed that His Father would remove the cup of wrath that He was about to pour on Him, but He finished with "not as I will, but as you will." He was about to be broken for the transgressions of His chosen people, and He submitted Himself to the will of God. In our sickness, when we're weak, we should we must entrust ourselves to the will of God.

So whether you're sick or healthy or somewhere in between, let's try to apply these principles of Jesus our Lord, the ultimate Physician and Healer of the sick, to more glorify Him through all that we do, especially through sickness.