"Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly."
And he said to him, "I will come and heal him."
(Matthew 8:6-7 ESV)
Matthew 8:1-17 tells us of three healing miracles that Jesus performed after coming down from preaching the Sermon on the Mount. First Jesus heals a leper. This man had been ostracized. He was ceremonial unclean, and had probably not been touched for a long time. Yet he came to Jesus, and in faith, he stated that he knew Jesus was able to heal him. His only question is whether Jesus was willing to heal him. Jesus answered the leper by affirming his willingness and a command. Just as he spoke "let there be light," Jesus spoke, and a leper was made clean.
Next a centurion came to Jesus about his parallelized servant. The centurion must have cared a lot about this servant. He didn't simply cast him aside and get a new servant, but he came and asked Jesus for healing. This centurion was a Roman soldier, and he understood something insightful about Jesus' authority. He said, "I am a man under authority, and I say to one "Go" and he goes." What does this mean? The centurion was under the authority of Caesar, and this authority was invested in him. So when the centurion commanded someone to do something, he was doing so with the same authority as Caesar. Likewise, the centurion recognized that when Jesus spoke, he spoke with the authority of God. Jesus commended the centurion for his faith, and healed the servant from a distance.
Finally, Jesus went to the home of Peter to rest, and in the home he found that Peter's mother-in-law was suffering from a fever. Jesus touched her, and immediately she was healed as well, and she didn't have to have time to recover--she immediately got up and served.
These three healing miracles were followed by a summary of more healings, and then Matthew states that all of this took place to fulfill what Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:4. "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." What does this mean? When Jesus came the first time, his healing ministry announced the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. In the cross, Jesus was doing more than just providing forgiveness, but he took on all our pain and our sorrows. He took on our diseases and experienced pain and death so that we could be healed. In his second coming, there will no longer be any sickness or pain because he has taken it all.
Next a centurion came to Jesus about his parallelized servant. The centurion must have cared a lot about this servant. He didn't simply cast him aside and get a new servant, but he came and asked Jesus for healing. This centurion was a Roman soldier, and he understood something insightful about Jesus' authority. He said, "I am a man under authority, and I say to one "Go" and he goes." What does this mean? The centurion was under the authority of Caesar, and this authority was invested in him. So when the centurion commanded someone to do something, he was doing so with the same authority as Caesar. Likewise, the centurion recognized that when Jesus spoke, he spoke with the authority of God. Jesus commended the centurion for his faith, and healed the servant from a distance.
Finally, Jesus went to the home of Peter to rest, and in the home he found that Peter's mother-in-law was suffering from a fever. Jesus touched her, and immediately she was healed as well, and she didn't have to have time to recover--she immediately got up and served.
These three healing miracles were followed by a summary of more healings, and then Matthew states that all of this took place to fulfill what Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:4. "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." What does this mean? When Jesus came the first time, his healing ministry announced the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. In the cross, Jesus was doing more than just providing forgiveness, but he took on all our pain and our sorrows. He took on our diseases and experienced pain and death so that we could be healed. In his second coming, there will no longer be any sickness or pain because he has taken it all.
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