As we turn now to what the New Testament teaches about healing we will consider first the ministry of Jesus as it is revealed in the four Gospels. We will take representative examples from each. In Matthew’s Gospel I have chosen the healings recorded in Matthew 8:1-17 because:
After the general statement about Jesus’ healings in Matthew 4, this is the first record of specific healings found in Matthew. The passage appears to be fairly representative of the healings of Jesus recorded in Matthew. The specific healings recorded can teach us much about Jesus’ healing ministry. The passage concludes with the controversial quote from Isaiah 53 to which we shall return when we discuss healing in relation to the atonement in Part Two of this book.
This passage records the healing of a man with leprosy (vv.1-4), the healing of a centurion’s servant (vv. 5-13), and the healing of many, including Peter’s mother-in-law (vv. 14-17). We will deal with each of these in turn.
The Man with Leprosy (vv.1-4)
After the teaching Jesus gave in chapters 5-7, which is often referred to as The Sermon on the Mount, large crowds followed him as he came down from the mountainside (8:1). Then Matthew tells us that:
A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean”. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing”, he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy (vv. 2-3).
To appreciate the full significance of this it is important that we understand certain things about leprosy. It was a highly contagious disease which at that time was medically incurable. Consequently lepers were the outcasts of society, being forced to live apart for fear that others might catch the disease (Leviticus 13:46).
The first thing to notice here is that the leper did not doubt Jesus’ ability to heal, but he was unsure if Jesus would be willing. His faith that Jesus could heal him was probably based on what he had already heard of Jesus’ miracle working ministry described briefly by Matthew in 4:23-24. It is sometimes said that to be healed we need to believe not only that God can heal us but also that he will. But the Bible nowhere states this and the leper’s healing seems to contradict such teaching.
Secondly, Jesus’ reply to the leper is noteworthy. I am willing, he says. In fact, his willingness to heal is evident right through this passage as we shall see when we come to examine the other healings recorded in Matthew 8. Indeed it is evident throughout the Gospels. However, it is especially noticeable here, as the leper is the only person mentioned in the New Testament who asks the Lord to heal him if it is his will. The fact that Jesus responds in the way he does, affirming that it is his will to heal, must surely suggest that that when praying for the sick we should always assume that it is God’s will to heal, for as we have said, in the person and ministry of Jesus we have the final revelation of the nature and purpose of God.
Next, it is important to notice the compassion of Jesus. He touches the leper! This was contrary to the Levitical law, but for Jesus love is the fulfilment of the law. It is difficult to imagine the emotional impact that his touch would have made upon the leper. We do not know how long he had had the disease, but ever since he contracted it few if any would have touched him. Now Jesus touches him. This may simply indicate that his power was often conveyed by a touch – cf. the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law in v. 15 – but it seems also to demonstrate Jesus’ love and concern for the marginalised in society.
But, of course, it is one thing to have compassion on the sick and to be willing to heal them. It is quite another to have the power to do so. As we will see in the next section, Jesus was a man under authority and his power to heal was directly related to that authority. He only acted in obedience to his Father. On one occasion, when challenged about his authority to heal, he replied:
I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing (John 5:19).
This was the secret of his authority and the power of his word. He lived in submission to his Father and he knew his Father’s will. So now to the leper he says, Be clean! And he is clean – immediately! One word from the Master is enough. When he commands, it is so! In fact, throughout this chapter, as we will see, Matthew is emphasising the power of the word of Jesus (cf. vv. 8, 16).
Finally, Jesus commands the man:
See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to them (v. 4).
See that you don’t tell anyone presumably means ‘Don’t tell anyone about this before you see the priest’. It cannot mean that he was never to tell anyone in the light of the words as a testimony to them later in the verse.
The instruction to go to the priest was in line with the command concerning lepers given in Leviticus 14:2-32. It was the priest who would certify the cure. So, as a testimony to them probably means ‘as evidence that you have been healed and may therefore be restored to the community rather than living apart’. Jesus was not just concerned with the man’s physical condition, but with his social and spiritual needs too. His healing meant full reintegration into society and admission to the synagogue from which he had been barred as unclean.
The Faith of the Centurion (vv. 5-13)In the next passage Matthew records the healing of a centurion’s servant. He says:
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help. 6 “Lord”, he said, “my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering. 7 Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him”. 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this’, and he does it” (Matthew 8:5-9).
On hearing this Jesus was amazed at the man’s faith (v.10) and told him, Go! It will be done just as you believed it would and his servant was healed at that very hour (v.13).
In some ways this passage teaches us lessons similar to those learnt from the healing of the leper. We notice again:
Jesus’ willingness to heal (v. 7) The power of his word (vv. 8, 13) The immediacy of the healing (v. 13)However, there are some added features in this story which are of great importance. These include:
Jesus’ willingnessto heal a Gentile The secret of Jesus’ authority The role of faith.Jesus’ willingness to heal a Gentile (vv. 7-8)
During his earthly life Jesus’ healing ministry was confined almost exclusively to Israel. This is clear from the record of his healings in the Gospels and from his statement in Matthew 15:24, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. However, when Gentiles came to him in faith he granted their request. When a Canaanite woman came to him asking for help for her daughter who was suffering terribly (Matthew 15:21-28), Jesus was amazed at her faith and healed her daughter, like the centurion’s servant, at a distance.
In the case of the centurion, Jesus actually states that he has not found anyone in Israel with such great faith (Matthew 8:10). He goes on to say:
I say to you that many will come from the east and west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside… (Matthew 8:11-12).
This wonderfully illustrates the truth, later to be so clearly stated by the apostle Paul in his letters to the Galatians and Romans, that it is not our nationality or our physical ancestry which pleases God and makes us one of his children, but our faith. The healing of the centurion’s servant, therefore, points us forward to the end of the Gospel where Jesus, having died for the sins of the world, would commission his followers to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
The secret of Jesus’ authority (vv. 8-9)
Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith apparently because he believed that Jesus could not only heal, but heal at a distance (v.8)! He also seemed to understand that one word from Jesus was enough. His reason for saying this was simple. He recognised that Jesus was a man under divine authority. As a Roman centurion he had one hundred men under his command. But his authority over those men sprang from the fact that he himself was under authority (v.9). If he had rebelled against the authority of the general at the head of his legion he would have been stripped of his rank and would have lost his authority over his men. He understood that to have authority one must first be under authority.
The fact that Matthew quotes the centurion in detail here shows that he intends us to understand that the centurion had accurately assessed the reason for Jesus’ authority. Jesus could do the miraculous things he did because he lived the whole of his life under the authority of his Father. Satan had tempted him to submit to his authority (Matthew 4:9) promising all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would do so, but Jesus resisted the temptation and submitted himself to God’s will, even to death on a cross. That’s why, when he had finally accomplished the Father’s purpose, he was raised from the dead and could say in Matthew 28:18,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me!
The lesson is clear. If we want to have authority, we must be under God’s authority. We cannot take it. It must be given us by God. And he will only give it to those who are submitted to him.
The role of faith (vv. 10, 13)
The role of faith in healing is an extremely important subject and we will discuss it in more detail in Part Two of this book. For the present it will be helpful to draw a simple comparison between the healing of the leper and the healing of the centurion’s servant. In this connection, two things are noteworthy:
We noticed in the story of the healing of the leper that the man’s faith was limited to the belief that Jesus could heal him. He was not sure that he would. The centurion, however, clearly believed that his servant would be healed (v. 13). In the case of the leper, it was the sick person himself who was exercising faith. In the story of the centurion’s servant the faith was exercised by the centurion, not by the sick servant.This seems to suggest that, although faith is clearly an important element in healing, it would be unwise to be dogmatic as to how much faith is necessary for healing or who needs to exercise it. Interestingly, as we shall see in a moment, in the case of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, faith is not mentioned at all!
Jesus heals many (vv14-17)In the final section of the passage we are considering, Matthew records the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, followed by a summary of how, later in the day, Jesus healed all who were sick. This, he says, was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 53:4,
He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.
As we have already mentioned, there is no mention of faith in the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Matthew simply tells us:
When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on them (vv.14-15).
In Luke’s account we are told that it was a high fever and that Jesus bent over her. He also says that Jesus rebuked the fever (Luke 4:39). Matthew’s version, however, is rather more dramatic. Jesus comes in, sees the woman, touches her hand, and she gets well. By expressing it this way Matthew is emphasising again Jesus’ total authority. His touch, like his word, is enough. The healing is immediate and complete. She gets up and begins to wait on them.
In the evening, we are told, they brought many who were demon-possessed to him and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick (v. 16). Although, as we shall see later, there is sometimes a connection between demons and sickness, there is no need to assume that all sickness is caused by demons. In Matthew 4:24 a distinction is made between demon-possession and other afflictions, and here in 8:16 the natural way to read the verse is to understand that two distinct activities were taking place – demons were being cast out and the sick were being healed.
Two things are significant here. First, the demons were cast out with a word. It only takes one word from the Man with authority. Out! And the demons flee. So again Matthew is emphasising the power of the word of Jesus. Secondly, he stresses that Jesus healed all who were sick. This is a common theme in Matthew (cf. 4:23-24, 9:35). It undoubtedly provides further evidence of his willingness to heal. So in two short verses Matthew repeats the theme that we have already noted – Christ’s power to heal the sick and his willingness to do so.
But in verse 17 Matthew adds another reason. Jesus heals the sick in order to fulfil what was prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus is portrayed throughout Matthew as the fulfilment of all Israel’s hopes and ideals and Matthew quotes frequently from the Old Testament to show that Jesus is the One for whom they had been so long waiting.
Later we will consider in more detail the significance of this quotation when we discuss whether Jesus carried our sickness on the cross. For now it should be sufficient to point out that Matthew does not quote Isaiah 53 in the context of Jesus’ atoning death, but of his healing ministry in Galilee.
ConclusionIn this short passage from Matthew’s Gospel we have learnt many lessons about healing. Because Jesus was always submitted to his Father’s authority, and because he came to demonstrate the love and compassion of God, he was both willing and able with a simple word of command, to heal all who came to him, whether Jew or Gentile, and where necessary to make possible their reintegration into society. In doing so he demonstrated that he truly was the Christ. More importantly, he revealed the loving heart of God for suffering humanity.
