Scripture · Luke 4:40
Luke 4:40
Christ Healing a Sick Child (study)
At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them.
Seen from behind Christ, we look toward a woman holding a pale child and lifting her face toward him.
About the artwork
The viewpoint puts the people seeking help in front of us. Headscarves, simple clothes, and a wooden wall locate the encounter in the kind of village setting familiar from Uhde’s religious paintings. The loose handling leaves much unresolved, but the woman’s upward gaze and the child in her arms make the appeal legible.
The work is attributed to Fritz von Uhde, rather than securely established as his. It is also distinct from his large Christ Healing the Sick of 1897. The study shows an approach for help; it does not make a completed cure visibly certain or identify the child with a named Gospel patient.
Featured in: Fritz von Uhde’s Bible Paintings: Jesus at the Peasants’ Table, and Why It Was Called Blasphemous
What does Luke 4:40 mean?
Luke 4:40 describes a succession of healings at Capernaum. At sunset, people bring those suffering from various illnesses to Jesus, who lays his hands on each one. The emphasis falls on care reaching individual people within a larger gathering.
That passage offers a suitable context for this unnamed child and the woman who carries the child. It does not identify the picture as Jairus’s daughter or the royal official’s son, whose stories have different circumstances. The connection is to the broader ministry of healing rather than a securely identified episode.
Luke 4:40 frames the appeal for healing without assigning this unnamed child to a different, specific miracle.
Sources
Wikimedia Commons — image and catalog references.
Fritz von Uhde’s Bible Paintings: Jesus at the Peasants’ Table, and Why It Was Called Blasphemous. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Luke 4 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Luke 4:40.
Also from Luke:The Angel Appearing to ZachariasAnnunciation