In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Lewis reflected on the fact that in his early childhood education he was made to read newspapers and expressed his disagreement with the practice, especially when it was done in place of reading other, more important things. He wrote, “Even in peacetime I think those are very wrong who say that schoolboys should be encouraged to read the newspapers. Nearly all that a boy reads there in his teens will be known before he is twenty to have been false in emphasis and interpretation, if not in fact as well, and most of it will have lost all importance. Most of what he remembers he will therefore have to unlearn; and he will probably have acquired an incurable taste for vulgarity and sensationalism and the fatal habit of fluttering from paragraph to paragraph to learn how an actress had been divorced in California, a train derailed in France, and quadruplets born in New Zealand.”1
Perhaps what’s most amazing about that quote is that he wrote it in 1955, talking about newspapers and not in 2015, talking about the internet! One wonders what in the world Lewis would have to say about this day had he lived to see it.
But when I first saw that quote from Lewis the other day, I thought it ironic that in the midst of information being more available in our day than it was even in the newspapers of his day, our ignorance on important topics has only grown. While we live in a day, for example, where we can go to a website and find positions of political candidates, we are almost certainly filling the voting booth with greater ignorance now than we were seventy years ago. Or though students can hold technology in their hands packed with more information than can be learned in a lifetime, it’s hard to imagine that our schools are necessarily filled with better educated students. The availability of information simply doesn’t guarantee less ignorance.
And this is no more clearly seen than in man’s understanding of Jesus, who he is, what he has done, and how we must respond to him. Jesus has been noted as “the dominant figure in the history of western culture for almost twenty centuries.”2 And it’s hard to argue for any other figure being discussed more in every part of the world over the last twenty years. I recently sat in a restaurant and was once again amazed that “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was playing over the speakers with phrases like, “offspring of a virgin’s womb,” “veiled in flesh the Godhead see,” and “hail the incarnate deity” sounding through the place.
Despite so many discussing Jesus throughout the years and even true declarations of his work and identity being heard all over the place in song this time of the year, our world largely remains ignorant of any accurate understanding of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what our response to him must be. In the first century, we know that people were imagining him to be John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. In our day, many imagine him to be a wise and moral teacher or a disillusioned man who died for some crazy dream of establishing God’s kingdom. But in the end, if we’re going to have an accurate picture of who Jesus is and what he has done, we must find ourselves in the Bible, which is nothing less than God’s very revelation to us. It certainly doesn’t reveal everything we might be curious about in an exhaustive fashion, but everything it does tell us is true, trustworthy, and authoritative. And in particular this gospel of Matthew that we have been studying is focused on answering for us again and again these very questions regarding who Jesus is and what he came to do.
When we last looked at the book of Matthew, Jesus had just finished the sermon on the mount, and the people were amazed at his teaching. They were used to individuals teaching by quoting authorities greater than them, but Jesus had repeatedly said, “I say to you.” So, they marveled at the authority with which he taught. Well, after coming down from the mountain, Matthew tells us that he encountered a leper, who needed healing, and Jesus healed him. Then he encountered a Roman soldier, whose servant was paralyzed. And Jesus merely spoke and healed him. Then, Jesus went to Peter’s house, where he saw Peter’s mother-in-law sick with fever and healed her. And of course, these healings drew the attention of the people so that Matthew writes in 8:16, “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.”
So, it’s clear that Matthew has compiled a number of stories where Jesus healed individuals. But why? What is Matthew wanting us to see concerning who Jesus is and what he came to do by compiling these stories together in this fashion? Well, first I think he wants us to see that:
Sometimes we can see the healings performed by Jesus in the gospel and think merely of his compassion (which is present in his healings) and the fact that we should love the outcast (who often comprise those whom he heals). Both of those are true statements. However, if we stop there, we’re missing something central that is being shown to us in the healings of Jesus.
Do you remember when John the Baptist had doubts about whether Jesus was really the Messiah? John had proclaimed him as the Messiah, but then was later arrested and awaiting what looked like certain death (and indeed was). So, from prison John sent word to Jesus by his disciples, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And interestingly, this was Jesus’ response: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them” (Matt 11:2-5).
Now, we could read that and think that Jesus’ answer was simply, “Tell John before he goes too deep into his doubts that I’m doing some pretty impressive miracles over here.” But that’s not what Jesus was saying. Jesus was rather saying to John that what God foretold would happen when he himself would come to his people, I am doing. For example, Isaiah 35:4-6 says, “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”
You see, Jesus is saying, “John, you know what Isaiah prophesied God himself would do when he came to his people. Well, it’s happening in and through me.” That is, Jesus is the Messiah, the promised savior, the one who would have to be both God and man in order to fulfill all that was prophesied. That’s who he is; he is the God-man. And his works of healings are at least in part for the purpose of attesting to who he is. He is the promised Messiah that Isaiah spoke of bringing these works of healings.
Now, what’s interesting is that in this first story where Jesus heals the leper, he tells the man, “See that you say nothing to anyone” (v. 4). So, the question is, “If Jesus’ healing works attest to the fact that he is the promised Savior, the promised Messiah, then why doesn’t he want the leper to go around telling everything what Jesus did for him in healing him?” And I think the answer is that not everyone would have properly understood what Jesus’ mission was as the Messiah. People may well have misunderstood him to be a “wonder-worker” ready to trounce the Romans and deliver Israel from political oppression, when in reality, he was coming to call them to repentance before God and save them from his coming judgment.3
First, then, I want us to see that Jesus’ works of healing attest to him as the Messiah. Second,
Let’s look at this first episode of healing in more detail. Matthew tells us that as Jesus came down from preaching the sermon on the mount, a leper came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean” (v. 2). Now, leprosy was a skin disease that was contagious, so to be a leper was to be ostracized from society. Moreover, the law of Moses in Leviticus 5:3 and chapters 13-14 forbade one from touching an unclean person; otherwise, you would become ceremonially unclean.
Yet, we read, “And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (v. 3). So, at this point, you might think that Jesus is showing complete disregard for the law. However, in the next verse we read, “And Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them” (v. 4). This seems to be Jesus communicating strict obedience to the law such that he even tells the man to do what Moses commanded in Leviticus 13-14. So, how can we reconciled Jesus seemingly disobeying and then strictly obeying the law of Moses in Leviticus 13-14?
Well, one reason we see Jesus with such meticulous obedience to the law of Moses in verse 4 is because as the Savior who was promised, one thing we need him to do for us is to obey God’s commands on our behalf. God demands perfect obedience. None of us can obey perfectly. Therefore, Paul can say in Galatians 3:10-14 that if any of us tries to rely on our obedience to the law in order to be justified we’ll all simply be cursed of God. And the reason is because God demands absolutely perfect obedience, and none of us can obey perfectly. Consequently, the law was always intended to push us to look for one who would come and obey on our behalf. That’s what Jesus did. The Son took on flesh and was born “under the law” as Paul says in Galatians 4:4 so that he might obey the law perfectly on our behalf so that we might place our faith in him and be credited with the perfect righteousness of Christ. Thus, we needed Jesus as the God-man to obey God’s law on our behalf if we are to be saved.
On the other hand, however, Jesus is not simply a man living in obedience to the law. He is also the law-giver. He is God the Son. And one reason Moses had said not to touch a leper or else one would become ceremonially unclean is because for any of us to touch a leper would be to risk contracting leprosy ourselves. The leper’s uncleanness would spread to us. But Jesus, who not only lives under the law but is also Lord of the law, does not have uncleanness spread to him. Instead, miraculously, his cleanness spreads to the unclean leper so that the leper becomes clean and is healed of his leprosy at the touch of Jesus!
Thus, Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is the God-man who obeys God’s law on our behalf so that we might have a representative before God whose righteousness can be credited to us. He is the law keeper. And he wants us to see that Jesus is the God-man who transcends the law because not only is uncleanness not transferred to him but cleanness is transferred to him. He is the law giver. He is God the Son. He is the incarnation of every good and glorious thing the law pointed to and prophesied. That is, he not only obeys the law but prophetically fulfills everything the law prophesied. He is the obedient Son who obeys and fulfills the law. And we need him to be both if we are to be saved.
One might think at this point in Matthew that Jesus has come to teach, heal, perhaps perform some miracles, and just float through a joyous life. Perhaps he’ll be like one of those characters in a television show who wonders from place to place, gets in adventures, and saves the day again and again. But that isn’t the case. Jesus came with a mission to lay down his life on the cross, bearing the very judgment of God for sinners. And this crucial aspect of his mission was even part of his healing ministry.
Let’s look at how this works. We’ll skip the middle section of our text for a second and come back to it. In verses 14-17, we read that Jesus enters Peter’s house, his mother-in-law is sick, and Jesus heals her so that she is immediately well, even able to get up and serve Jesus. And then Matthew adds, as we’ve already reference that the people start bringing many to Jesus so that he cast demons out of many who were being oppressed by demands and healed all who were sick. Then Matthew adds this note, “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases’” (v. 17).
Now, this is a quote from Isaiah 53, where we read in Isaiah 53:4-5, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
You’ll recognize this as a chapter in Isaiah where the prophet speaks of the crucifixion of Jesus about 700 years before Jesus was crucified, and he does it with such remarkable clarity. Isaiah says that the people will look upon Jesus and think to themselves, “God is striking him; God is pouring out his judgment on him,” as Jesus would hang on the cross. And the reality is that they would be right. But what they wouldn’t understand is that Jesus would not bear God’s judgment for his own sins, for he had none. He would bear God’s judgment for our sins. The penalty and curse of God that our sins deserved he bore in his body on the tree.
And now Matthew says that as Jesus healed those who were sick this is a fulfillment of Isaiah prophesying about Jesus’ atoning death? How can Matthew say that?
Well, first we need to realize that the reason there is sickness, disease, and death in the world is because of sin. Now, by that I don’t mean that every time any of us is sick it’s because we’ve sinned and our sickness is the direct result of that sin. Yes, that can happen. Paul told the Corinthians as they were abusing the Lord’s Supper and abusing one another as they gathered for the Lord’s Supper that their sin is why some of them had gotten sick and some even died. It was the disciplining hand of the Lord.
But of course not all sickness is directly related to sin. Sometimes we get the cold or the flu because of viruses and changing weather patterns that make us susceptible to such things. However, all sickness and disease is at least indirectly related to sin. What I mean by that is that if it weren’t for the fact that Adam sinned and brought death and condemnation into the world, then there would be no sickness or disease. The reason we have in our world cold viruses, flu viruses, heart disease, and cancer is because when Adam sinned God cursed the world because of Adam’s sin. Therefore, every time you get a cold, it’s a reminder of the judgment of God that fell because of Adam’s sin. And hopefully it’s a reminder to long for the new heavens and new earth which will come at Christ's return, where there will no longer be any sickness or death.
But the only reason that new heavens and new earth will be a reality one day is because Jesus Christ bore the curse on the cross. He bore the judgment of God for sinners on the cross so that it might be removed from those who place their faith in Christ in this life. That is, our complete healing on that day when we get resurrection bodies at the return of Christ is only possible because Jesus died so that the curse for sin might be removed from us. His atoning death not only purchased our forgiveness from sins but also was necessary for the removal of the curse which is necessary if there is to be no more sickness and death. That’s what Matthew is saying here. Our healing is purchased in his atoning death.
Now, it doesn’t mean that we are always healed in this life. The reality is that we’ll never taste all that Christ has purchased for us through his atoning death on this side of the resurrection. But it does mean that when Jesus made the decision to reach out, touch, and heal that leper that he was stating his intention to go to the cross and bear God’s wrath. When Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, he was making the decision to pay the penalty for sins in his death. When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and the many who came to him, he knew this was only possible because one day he would pray in the garden, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
That is, even here in his healing ministry or we might say by his healing ministry, Jesus was stating his determination to fulfill the purpose for which he came and bear the curse of God for us on the cross.
We have then seen a glimpse of who Jesus is and what he did as lived and died. But I also want us to see one other element in our text. It is this:
In this middle story, Matthew tells us that a centurion approached Jesus and told him about a servant who was paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. Our pew Bibles tell us that Jesus said, “I will come and heal him” (v. 7). But it is probably best translated as a question, so that we read Jesus asking, “Do you want me to come and heal him?” And one reason Jesus would ask that question is because it was understood that a Jewish teacher would not enter a Gentile home.
And the centurion understands this, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” (v. 8a). But this merely gives the centurion an opportunity to express his faith in Jesus and Jesus’ ability. He notes that as a soldier, he knows authority. He is under the authority of the emperor, and when he tells a solider under him what to do, he says it with the authority of Rome at his back. He sees something similar in Jesus. He knows he is under the authority of God ultimately, and he knows that when he speaks, he speaks with the power of God. Thus, Jesus need only speak and the servant could be healed.
Now, we don’t know what all the centurion understood about Jesus, who is of course himself God the Son. But this is amazing faith nonetheless. So, Jesus indeed speaks, the servant is healed at that very moment, and then Jesus marveled at the man’s faith, saying, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (vv. 10-12).
That is, there is coming a day when there will be a great banquet where God’s people will sit and dine with the Lord. Isaiah tells of that feast in 25:6 as a “feast of rich food, a fest of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” And of course the Jews thought that they would naturally be at this meal while no Gentiles would. However, Jesus says here that many foreigners would indeed be there on that great day while many Jews who simply assume they’ll be there won’t.
What then is the deciding factor? Well, this is the point of the text. The deciding factor is how one responds to Jesus. The centurion had responded in faith. Many of the Jews who should have recognized Jesus were rejecting him. The deciding factor is whether or not you’ll bow the knee to Jesus and place your faith in him as the crucified and risen Lord.
And Jesus isn’t shy about making this clear. Remember at the end of the sermon on the mount where Jesus tells some people to depart and not inherit the kingdom? Specifically Jesus had said, “I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.’” (7:23). You see, their eternal hope was tied to whether or not they knew and were known by Jesus. And this is the deciding factor for everyone’s eternal fate. If your faith is in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ and your heart obedient to him, you’ll enter into the kingdom. If you don’t know him, don’t trust in him, and aren’t obedient to him, then you’ll be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But the good news is that you’ve been presented with who this Jesus is today. He is the promised Savior who took on flesh as the God-man, who lived the perfect life none of us could live, who died on the cross to bear the penalty for the sins of anyone who would believe in him, and he was raised from the dead on the third day so that we might repent of our sins, believe in him, and have eternal life. So, I plead with you today to turn from your sins and trust in him. And if he is your Lord, let us again visibly demonstrate our faith in Christ as we come to the table. Amen.