Christ's Universal Healing

3 Nephi 17 is a powerful chapter that shows the great love of the Savior and His ability to heal all of us.  He invited the people in these words, “Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them” (v7).  His invitation was all encompassing—He was ready to heal any kind of ailment that the people might have.  And the record tells us that He did just that: “All the multitude, with one accord, did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their blind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him” (v9).  It must have been the most magnificent of experiences for those who were there to see everybody who was afflicted in any way be healed by the Savior.  Indeed, those who were there described it in these words, “The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things” (v16). 

               In thinking about the universality of His healing on that day—there was no one desiring to be healed who wasn’t healed—I’ve wondered why we don’t see the same kind of unconditional healing today.  There are many faithful followers of Christ who come unto Him with challenges and sicknesses and great trials who don’t receive the desire of their hearts to be healed or have their burdens taken away.  Why would Christ not heal them today if He was willing to heal all of those among this group of Nephites?  The thought struck me that perhaps this miraculous account is not meant to be a representation as much of this life as of the next.  This day of healing came after Christ died and was resurrected, after His coming among them, after the great day of destruction.  We generally see the account of the Nephites in Helaman and 3 Nephi leading up the coming of the Savior to be a parallel of the last days and our time leading up to the second coming of the Savior.  (For example, President Benson said, “The record of the Nephite history just prior to the Savior’s visit reveals many parallels to our own day as we anticipate the Savior’s second coming.”)  And so, if we can continue the parallel, that would put this account in 3 Nephi 17 as symbolic of what happens after the Savior comes again.  I don’t mean to suggest that the Savior doesn’t heal us today in this life—we certainly believe that Christ can heal us spiritually and physically in miraculous ways in our day.  But in the case of physical healings, sometimes He chooses not to in this life.  It seems to me that this universal healing, the day when all of us can be made whole from all trials and sicknesses and sorrows, is yet future.  We may have to suffer with problems throughout mortality, but this account in 3 Nephi 17 gives us “hope for a better world” that can be “an anchor” to us today in the storms of life (Ether 12:4).  We can have faith that “all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ” as Preach My Gospel says.  The universal healing of the Savior awaits all of us who will come unto Him, and though we hope for it “in [our] day,… let it sooner or later, in it [we] will rejoice” (Alma 13:25).