Where in the Bible does it say Jesus heals the broken hearted?
In speaking of Jesus, the Lord declares this to Israel:
Ezek. 34:15 “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord GOD.
Ezek. 34:16 “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.
This is the Lord’s promise to bind up the broken, but it’s spoken metaphorically. As a shepherd binds the wounds of a sheep, so will the Lord bind up His people, healing them by giving them a new, resurrected body. This is the essence of the phrase "to bind up the broken."
On the other hand, the phrase “heal the broken-hearted” does not appear in the Bible, though the thought is present in other ways. For example, when speaking of how God comforts martyrs, the Bible says:
Rev. 7:14 I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev. 7:15 “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
Rev. 7:16 “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat;
Rev. 7:17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
God wipes away our tears in the sense that He promises us a future of glory in new, eternal, sinless bodies living in a Kingdom with Him where we will not have reason to mourn. That is the Bible’s promise for all believers. Meanwhile, the Bible reminds us that we will have difficulties in this life, and there is no promise that the Lord will resolve those difficulties during our lifetime:
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus says we will have tribulation in this world, but because Jesus has overcome the world, we can know we have better things waiting in the Kingdom to come. For more in-depth teaching on these matters, please listen to our Matthew Bible study.
