Jesus took our illnesses and bore our diseases
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| English: Jesus and the centurion in Capernaum (Matthew 8:5), miniature, Codex Egberti, Trier, Stadtbibliothek, cod. 24, fol. 22r, detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
This passage is set in Capernaum, Jesus’ home during His time in Galilee (Matt. 4:13). As in His healing of the centurion’s servant there, our Lord uses a miracle to reveal His authority, but this time the person restored to health is a close acquaintance of Christ, a relative of Peter, one of Jesus’
chief disciples.
Archaeologists think they have found Peter’s house in Capernaum, under the
ruins of a church built there early in church history, corroborating the
historicity of Matthew 8:14–17. In any case, Jesus finds Peter’s mother-in-law
“sick with a fever” when He enters the home (v. 14). According to tradition it
is improper to touch a feverish individual, but Jesus breaks this unbiblical
custom and heals the woman (v. 15). Her restoration is instantaneous, and she immediately rises and serves her guest. By the Messiah’s great authority,
disease must vanish when He desires to bring healing.
That evening, the citizens of Capernaum bring demoniacs and the physically ill
to Jesus for healing (v. 16). The people come after the sunset because it
marks the end of the Sabbath (Mark 1:21–34), a day on which healing would
break God’s law, according to the Pharisees (3:1–6). Of course, Jesus will
later demonstrate this instruction to be false, but at this point He
apparently heals without explaining how such work actually fulfills the
Sabbath’s intent.
Matthew 8:17 tells us the Great Physician’s work fulfills Isaiah 53:4. In
context, Isaiah is describing how the Suffering Servant bears His people’s sin
(see v. 5). Matthew’s reference to Isaiah’s prophecy makes sense considering
that the presence of illness and death is rooted ultimately in the fall of
man. Jesus’ healing begins to roll back the terrible effects of sin, thereby
showing Him to be the Suffering Servant who suffers God’s wrath to save His
elect. Charles Spurgeon says, “Jesus is able to heal all the mischief that sin
has worked…because He Himself took our sin upon Himself by His sacred
Substitution. Sin is the root of our infirmities and diseases and so, in
taking the root, He took all the bitter fruit which that root did bear” (The
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 36, sermon no. 2,124).
We should pray for the sick knowing that our God may bring healing if we ask in faith and trust in His good purposes.
