What is a dinner guest to do? Jesus and his friends had been invited to a post-synagogue meal at the home of Simon Peter. They arrived to find that Peter's mother-in-law was laid up with a fever. Jesus went in to see her, took her hand, and voilà, the fever left. In fact, she felt good enough to get out of bed and serve them dinner. Wow!

Of course, she was not the only one. Over and over, the New Testament record tells similar stories — the blind were given sight, the lame were made to walk, the broken were made whole. Nearly a fifth of the gospel record is about Jesus' miracles and the discussions they occasioned, and that includes fourteen distinct instances of physical and mental healing. And Jesus was not the only healer — the disciples were involved as well. In fact, when Jesus sent …