He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses

Lamb of God, mosaic, 6th century, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.  And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."  And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."  The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."  When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!  And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And his servant was healed that same hour.

Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with fever.  So He touched her hand, and the fever left her.  And she arose and served them.  When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed.  And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

"He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses."

- Matthew 8:1-17

We have recently been reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  Yesterday, in the final reading of the Sermon, Jesus said, "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'  And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'  Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall."  And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.  And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."   The biblical law which concerns leprosy is in Leviticus 13 and 14.  Deuteronomy 24:8 addresses the purification of lepers and leprous houses as assigned to the priests.  My study bible says that leprosy was considered a direct punishment for sins.  As lepers were unclean, they were not permitted to live in the community or to worship in synagogues or the temple.  To touch the unclean was forbidden (Leviticus 7:21).  But Jesus touched the leper, which displays His compassion.  It also shows that He is not subject to the Law but rather over it.  My study bible says that to the clean, nothing is unclean (see Romans 14:14; also Acts 10:14-15).

Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."  And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."  A centurion was a commander of 100 men in a Roman legion (and also a Gentile).  My study bible says that Jesus is the Savior of all, and in Him ethnic distinctions are void.  I will come has also been read as a question by many scholars of the Greek text, reading instead, "Shall I come?"  Whichever way the text is understood, Jesus shows that He is prepared to deal graciously with this Gentile, even to go into His home -- which would make Him unclean in the eyes of the Jews.  Thus, ancient audiences would immediately see the connection with the healing of the leper.

The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."   This centurion is, indeed, quite an unusual man, especially for a Roman commander!  He calls Jesus, who is Jewish, Lord, displaying a remarkable faith.  My study bible also points out that the statement, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof," as one quoted often in liturgical texts as an ideal expression of humility.

When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!  And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And his servant was healed that same hour.  My study bible points out that there are only two occasions in the Gospels upon which it is said that Christ marveled.  The first is at the unbelief in His hometown of Nazareth (Mark 6:6), and then here at the belief of this foreigner.  Related to these contrasting occasions of unbelief and belief, note also in this passage that Christ nullifies all ideas of ethnic superiority.  The rejected sons of the kingdom, my study bible shows us, are both the Jews who deny Christ and those raised in the Church who do not live their faith.  Outer darkness and weeping and gnashing are descriptions of the state of the unrighteous dead in Sheol (Hades) in the Jewish tradition (see, for example, Enoch 103:7,8).   They are common expressions in Matthew (13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), and also found in Luke (Luke 13:28).

Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with fever.  So He touched her hand, and the fever left her.  And she arose and served them.  When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed.  And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:  "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."  Here and in 1 Corinthians 9:5 (in which Peter is called Cephas) we are given an indication that Peter was married and had an extended family.  My study bible tells us that Christ's healing miracles are quite diverse.  Here He heals by touch.  But in verse 13, above, He healed by a word.  This healing is immediate and complete, but there are others which are gradual (Mark 8:22-25), or which require cooperation of the healed person or loved ones (Luke 8:54-55).   The quotation (the final verse of today's reading) is from Isaiah 53:4, and it characterizes all of Jesus' miracles as those which manifest His redemption or salvation of ailing humanity.

The quotation from Isaiah is quite fascinating:  "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."   In the New King James Version, it reads in full, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted."  It implies, once again (as we have previously discussed in commentary) a kind of reciprocity to Jesus' ministry, but this time in the context of healing.  Overall, healing is the aim and theme of Christ's ministry as Savior.  To redeeming an ailing humanity is to "set right" on every level we could think of, and most likely also many we cannot!  Here, the quotation from Isaiah makes clear the extent to His compassion for human beings:  He took on our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.  He becomes one of us in our suffering; whether that suffering be injustice, illness, back-breaking labor and toil, or even death, Christ is not only there with us, but His taking on and bearing of the things that ail us is His way of healing us.  The ancient Church Fathers had a way to see this and to understand and apply it in many dimensions.  St. Gregory of Nazianzus, among others, has famously said, "What has not been not assumed [by Christ] has not been healed; what is united to his divinity that is saved . . ."  (Epistle 101).  In the Resurrection, this applies even to death, as in the Orthodox hymn of Easter, it is sung that He "trampled death by death," thus liberating humanity from this "last enemy" (1 Corinthians 15:26).   In this understanding, to be truly healed is to come to terms with the energies of healing which Christ offers us.  In His ministry, this comes in the form of His full assumption of humanity.  But it is also in God's mercy at work in the world, specifically through the work of the Holy Spirit -- and through the entire Trinity as well, for where One is, there Three are.  This can be extended through the ministry of angels, even as Jesus told us about ourselves, human beings, that "where two or three of you are gathered in My name, I am in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).  Bearing all these things in mind, we may well ask why healing doesn't seem immediate for those of us with faith -- or even why there are things that never seem to be healed.  Perhaps we are looking in the wrong places, and we don't exactly understand what healing is or even where it is properly taking place.  When St. Paul prayed several times about a particular affliction (which He calls a "thorn in the flesh"), he was told by the Lord, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  What does this mean?  How can we understand it?  St. Paul goes on to say, "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong"  (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).   Moreover, he also declares that the "thorn in the flesh" was given in order that he not be too exalted.  Can we understand, then, how Christ works through our human nature with the gift of healing?  St. Paul came to see his own infirmities as those gifts by which God's energies could be at work, expressing a kind of strength that passes normal experience and understanding.  What we might find, in our own source of healing through faith, is that the things we believe we want healed are not exactly the things God chooses to heal.  There may be something just out of sight, beyond our understanding, upon which the Lord is working in us and through us.  An ailment, for example, of acute anxiety, may well need for us to understand underlying issues in order to be healed.  That goes to the concept of righteousness, right-relatedness.  We may need to heal certain relationships, even seeing what is "wrong" about them, or letting go of them, in order to address an anxiety problem.  We may need to revisit patterns in our lives around our own decision-making, or worldly experience, in order to address a deeper concern which the Lord would have us understand -- and through us, to help to heal the world.    Perhaps we are concerned with our appearance, various aspects of what impression we make upon the world, even a nominal health issue such as St. Paul's, but God will choose to work through our own imperfections to create a greater healing than merely addressing the material or the physical.  God is concerned not simply with the material but with all the elements that make up what it is to be a human being, including our relationships within the world, the choices we make, and even the nature of the state of our faith.  In all these ways, then, the things which Christ takes on with His ministry become part and parcel of how and why we may also be healed in surprising and unexpected ways we don't quite discern until after the fact.  Such is St. Paul's surprising understanding of strength through weakness, and so may we learn to discern through our own experience of faith.  Let us remember His ministry into our world for us and our healing -- and not seek to limit all the ways in which God may choose to heal us.  We may even find ourselves healing in ways that we don't even understand need fixing.