…many followed him, and he healed them all (Matthew 12:15b, English Standard Version).
Jesus healed them all. Should we be expecting that kind of healing to be happening today?
Apparently not. Aside from a few exceptions, Jesus is not healing that way today.
Why is that? Easy if incorrect answers start with we did not pray long enough, hard enough, or with enough “faith.” Or illness is a punishment for sin sent by God. Or illness is evil but sent by God to teach a greater good to the victim or to the victim’s family or friends.
A harder yet truer answer comes from inquiring about God’s relationship to us. In the Old Testament, there are long periods when God is silent: the times of the Judges, the exile in Babylon, the four centuries before the birth of Jesus. We are in such a period now. This point was developed at length by Jacques Ellul in his book, Hope in Time of Abandonment (1972).