Was Jesus ever sick?

[JurisPrudens]

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, our Lord experienced fear, sorrow, and sensible pain (S.T. III, Q. 15). As far as I know, he does not say explicitly whether our Lord was vulnerable to disease, but I think it could be inferred from what he writes on the previous question:

It was fitting for the body assumed by the Son of God to be subject to human infirmities and defects; and especially for three reasons. First, because it was in order to satisfy for the sin of the human race …] Secondly, in order to cause belief in Incarnation. For since human nature is known to men only as it is subject to these defects, if the Son of God had assumed human nature without these defects, He would not have seemed to be true man …] Thirdly, in order to show us an example of patience by valiantly bearing up against human passibility and defects.

In Art. 4, he goes into the kinds of defects our Lord would and would not have been subject to, e.g. he would not have suffered defects “incompatible with the perfection of knowledge and grace”, but he did suffer hunger, thirst, and bodily death.

It is worth noting, in line with what dshix wrote above, that

Christ did not contract these defects as if taking them upon Himself as due to sin, but by His own will.

Thank You, that’s the most complete answer. :thankyou:

Actually, Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died so early and the two thieves executed with him had to have their legs broken to make them die quicker.

Valid point.

Pilate was amazed to hear that Jesus had already died, so he summoned the centurion to ask him if he was in fact dead.

Mark 15.44

 

[Lucretius]

An ordinary man would have died much sooner than Christ did, due to all of the ridiculously horrible tortures He endured, but Christ willed to live on until He had completed His crucifixion.

On the contrary, the Scriptures say:

Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died (Matthew 15:44).

So, Jesus actaully died quicker than most of the others, quick enough to even surprise a man who was very experienced in Crucifying orthers.

Furthermore, St. John, an eyewitness, tells us that Jesus died faster than the others so that a prophecy would be fulfilled:

…they asked Pilate that the bodies might have their legs broken, and be taken away. And so the soldiers came and broke the legs both of the one and of the other that were crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus, and found him already dead, they did not break his legs…this was so ordained to fulfil what is written, “You shall not break a single bone of his” (John 19).

So, Jesus was actaully the one who died sooner

Christi pax,

Lucretius

 

[Lucretius]

I disagree. Natural death (and aging) is a direct consequence of sin, and therefore, a person who is without sin cannot die naturally. Jesus would not grow old, since the decay of the body is part of the consequence of sin.

Your argument that his growth into an adult proves he was subject to the laws of nature is true, but does not contest my point. Any being in the physical world is subject to the laws of nature, since God created them, and after the fall, the natural flow of human life includes death. However, that doesn’t mean that sinless persons are naturally bound or affected by the consequences of sin, even in this fallen world.

On the contrary, St. Athanasius says:

If they guarded the grace and retained the loveliness of their original innocence, then the life of paradise should be theirs, without sorrow, pain or care, and after it the assurance of immortality in heaven. But if they went astray and became vile, throwing away their birthright of beauty, then they would come under the natural law of death and live no longer in paradise, but, dying outside of it, continue in death and in corruption.

Source: On the Incarnation; spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm#ch_1

According to St. Athanasius, death is a natural consequence of our nature, as well as the possiblity of pain and suffering, but such things were supervened by the effects of Original Grace (not Original Grace per se). When we lost that Grace (this lack of Grace is called Original sin), we were subject to death, because we lost the supernatural innocence that overcame such a weakness.

Christi pax,

Lucretius

 

[Ad_Orientem]

…] Natural death (and aging) is a direct consequence of sin, and therefore, a person who is without sin cannot die naturally.

The Fathers teach that Adam & Eve had a preternatural gift of immortality. In other words they were mortal by nature, but were given a special grace: the ability not to die (posse non mori), as St. Augustine put it (, Bk. XXIICity of God, Ch. 30). This was a suspension of the laws of nature, of the natural process of biological deterioration and death. It was also a gift, and not a natural consequence of sinlessness; therefore, a sinless man could, in theory, die naturally, if God did not bestow upon him the gift of immortality.

In other words, the reason that natural death resulted from the fall was not that their nature was changed into something lesser, but rather that they lost the preternatural gifts and thus defaulted to their natural state. Only in heaven do we enjoy the inability to die (non posse mori).

Edit: I see someone beat me to it.

 

[TimothyH]

Jesus wept. (John 11:35)

The shortest verse in the Bible.

-Tim-

 

[HelenRose]

Suddenly got stuck with this question. Did Jesus know sickness and pain, before his Passion, of course?

Did He even cry at birth?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I wasn’t there and neither were you. This will remain an unanswered question.

 

[TimothyH]

Your guess is as good as mine.

I wasn’t there and neither were you. This will remain an unanswered question.

No, it’s answered.

He was like us in all things except sin.

totus2us.com/teaching/jpii-catechesis-on-jesus-christ/like-us-in-all-things-except-sin/

-Tim-

 

[teeboy]

I think he became infirm when he healed others. The NT tells of how he could feel the power come out of him when he healed the hemmoraging woman.

Those who know more than me say he was “used to infirmity”.

 

[Viki63]

As he had the power from God to heal others, it seems to me he would have remained in good health himself. I am guessing he could have suffered injury, as we know from his scourging, so that if he stepped on a splinter as a child, he would have gone to Mary for comfort and first aid. But bacteria, infection, viruses, I think would have stayed away from him, since they came into the world as a result of sin. They seem connected to evil somehow.
So I think he was never ill. It would seem odd if he, who could touch Peter’s mother in law and cure her instantly, would ever catch a cold.

.