Christ Jesus performed many healings which illustrated the power of Mind to remove diseases from the body. There was, for example, the case of the man with the withered hand. "[Jesus] said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other" (Luke 6:10). There was the case of the man blind from birth, who said, after Jesus had healed him: "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing" (John 9:32, 33). And a case clearly surgical in nature was that of the servant of the high priest whose ear was cut off at the time of the Master's betrayal. "And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him" (Luke 22:51).
In Christian Science we learn that these healings were the result of Jesus' spiritual understanding. We learn also how we may gain spiritual understanding and increasingly obey the Master's command that we perform similar healings.
Christian Science teaches that the body is the manifestation of the thought of the individual who possesses it. Thought which is based on the belief of life in matter is manifested in a body which is the objectification of that belief. Since the belief of life in matter includes the belief in disease, the body appears also to be subject to attacks of disease. But as the individual who possesses that body surrenders his belief in material life and acknowledges God, good, as the only Life, disease proportionately disappears from the body.
