He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses

 

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 a 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 (chapters 5 - 7 of Matthew's Gospel).  Yesterday, we read Jesus' final words of the Sermon, in which He spoke about the final judgment:   "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons 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, 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."   As Jesus has just finished His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, He comes down from the mountain, and many follow Him.  In today's reading, His engagements with the people concern healing.  My study bible comments that the biblical law concerning leprosy is found in Leviticus 13; 14.  Deuteronomy 24:8 describes the purification of lepers and leprous houses, a duty which was entrusted to the priests.  Leprosy was a disease that was considered to be 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, expressing His compassion -- and at the same time establishing that He is not subject to the Law but over it.  In that sense, we can understand this healing as an expression of divine authority in God's loving mercy.  To the clean, my study Bible says, nothing is unclean (compare Romans 14:14).

 

 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."   A centurion (a Gentile) commanded 100 men in a Roman legion.  Jesus is the Savior of all, my study Bible says, and in Him ethnic distinctions are void.

 

 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."   Many Greek scholars have read Jesus' remark, I will come, as a question:  "Shall I come?"  Whichever way it should be understood, Jesus is ready to deal graciously with this Gentile, my study Bible says, and even to enter his house, which would make Christ unclean in the eyes of the Jews.

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, 'God,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."  This centurion expresses an unusual faith in Christ, as He calls Jesus, a Jew, Lord.  The statement, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof," is frequently quoted in liturgical texts, my study Bible says, 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!"  My study Bible notes that only twice in the Gospels is it said of Jesus that He marveled:  at the unbelief in His hometown of Nazareth (Mark 6:6), and here, at the belief of this foreigner.

"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 comments that here Jesus nullifies any ideas of ethnic superiority.  The rejected sons of the kingdom 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 in Sheol (Hades) in the Jewish tradition (see Enoch 103:8).   They are common expressions in Matthew (13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), and they also occur in Luke (Luke 13:28). 

Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with a 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."  My study Bible notes here that this passage and 1 Corinthians 9:5 (where Peter is called Cephas) indicate that Peter was married.   Christ's healing miracles are quite diverse.  Here, Jesus heals by touch.  In verse 13, Jesus healed by a word ("Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you").  This healing of Peter's mother-in-law is immediate and complete, while others are gradual (Mark 8:22-25), or they require the cooperation of the person healed or of loved ones (Luke 8:54-55).  As the final quotation in today's reading indicates (Jesus quotes from Isaiah 53:4), all of Christ's miracles manifest His redemption of ailing humanity.

All of today's reading involves healing, various healings performed by Christ just after we're given the Sermon on the Mount.  If we put the two together, we could say that, coming down from the mountain, Christ comes into the world, and as the Divine-human Jesus, embodies into action what He has preached as divine word.  Put in another way, the divine Word Himself comes into the world and embodies in action what He truly is in [His] Being.  So we have to look at what He does to understand Him more clearly, and to understand His message and teachings to us, and what they mean.  He first of all heals a leper by touch.  This is doubly magnificent as a healing, because, not only does He heal the dreaded leprosy, symbol of our own sin in the Old Testament and for His community, but He does so by touch, which is forbidden, as the law considered leprosy unclean.  For a Jew, this would mean bringing uncleanness into community without the express permission of a priest who would certify first that the leprosy was gone.  But Christ, the Word, is the giver of the Law, and as such He is the Lord.  However, His compassion is the expression of His teaching ("Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" - Matthew 7:12).  But the real spark that facilitates actual connection is the tremendous faith it must have taken for the leper to say to Christ, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  This seems like an extraordinary request, given the conditions of the time and the law.  The next extraordinary request comes from the centurion, a most unlikely person to approach Jesus.  As we can see, even Jesus marvels at the great faith of this centurion, when He says, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"   That is quite an extraordinary compliment indeed.  (And just imagine, making even Jesus marvel!)  But it is that extraordinary capacity for faith that gives the spark to connect the communion of Christ's power for healing human beings.  Faith becomes the key, even as Jesus marvels and points out to us 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."  Christ affirms the power of faith in the sight of God, when He tells the centurion, "as you have believed, so let it be done for you."   Finally, by touch, He heals Peter's mother-in-law so that she is restored to her place of honor in the household -- and beyond, He cast out spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, so that He clearly fulfills Isaiah's prophesy as compassionate healer and redeemer.  He is the One who enacts God's mercy with what He does, and by extension, He invites us to do the same, with whatever capacities we have.  The key to all of this, however, is clearly faith, and it is this demonstration of great faith at which Jesus marvels, and for which He extends His tremendous compassion and healing power.  This is a lesson that mustn't be lost on us today anymore than two thousand years ago in Galilee; it is the lesson spread to the known world by the apostles, and it has to be the lesson for us now.  Where is our faith?  What is the state of our faith?  Are we waiting for miracles first?  Or do we understand that it is faith that opens up the door for the connection with Christ, and prayer that works with God's power.  Sometimes we'll find that healing doesn't exactly look like what we expected or wanted, but Christ is there with His compassion to show us the way if we start with even a tiny seed  of faith.  He continues to carry us and bears our infirmities, as do the saints who hear our prayers.