He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses

 

 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 am also 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 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 laying 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 8:5–17 

 

In yesterday's reading, we read that when Jesus had ended the Sermon on the Mount (His "sayings"), 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, who 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."   In the context of today's reading, it is important to understand that this is a man with worldly authority.  If we look at the reading from yesterday, we understand that St. Matthew has emphasized Jesus' teaching as one having authority, which astonished the people.  My study Bible explains that a centurion (a Gentile) commanded 100 men in a Roman legion.  It says that Christ is the Savior of all, and in Him all ethnic distinctions are void.

 

 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."  My study Bible points out that I will come has been read by many Greek scholars to be a question:  "Shall I come?  Nonetheless, Jesus is ready to deal gracious with this Gentile, even to enter His house.  My study Bible says that to do so would make Him unclean in the eyes of the Jews.  Again, this is pertinent to the reading from yesterday, in which Jesus touched a leper in order to heal him -- touching the unclean was prohibited.

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 am also 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."  My study Bible comments that this centurion is expressing unusual faith, as he calls Jesus, who is a Jew, Lord.  His statement, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof," is often quoted 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!"  There are two places in the Gospels where it is said about Jesus that He marveled.   Once is at the unbelief He finds 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 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 notes that here Jesus nullifies any ideas of ethnic superiority.  Those rejected sons of the kingdom He refers to here are both the Jews who deny Christ, and also those raised in the Church who do not live their faith.  Outer darkness and weeping and gnashing, it explains, are descriptions of the state of the unrighteous dead in Sheol (Hades) in the Jewish tradition (see, for example, Enoch 108).   These are common expressions in St. Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51, 25:30), and appear also in St. Luke's Gospel (Luke 13:28).  

 

 Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother laying 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."  In this passage and in 1 Corinthians 9:5 (in which Peter is called Cephas) tell us that St. Peter was married.  My study Bible comments that our Lord's healing miracles are diverse.  Here, He heals by touch, where in healing the centurion's servant, He healed by a word.  This healing of St. Peter's mother-in-law  is immediate and complete, whereas others are gradual (Mark 8:22-24, or they need the cooperation of the person healed or of that person's loved ones (Luke 8:54-55).  St. Matthew quotes from Isaiah 53:4. 

We must note that, in these first few encounters of Christ just after He completes the Sermon on the Mount, everything is done with the aim of healing.  If Christ speaks with authority, while He possesses no earthly signification of authority (He's not a Levitical priest, and holds no special office nor recognition from the authorities), then that authority is used with a purpose -- and the clear evidence of that, from the two healings done now after completing the Sermon on the Mount, is healing.  Jesus heals.  And I think we can apply this statement, that Jesus heals, to just about everything we know about Christ.  At His Return, we say, will be the final judgment.  But judgment in this case doesn't mean a simple sorting of good and bad, and it doesn't mean only "the end" in the eschatological sense.  It means the healing of all things, putting everything in order, rectifying all and reconciling all.  To heal is to set in good order, to balance all things into the proper balance, to resolve heaven and earth into the place of peace, the New Jerusalem.  All balance and order is restored in Christ and especially in what He does.  Therefore, when we consider His "sayings" in the Sermon on the Mount, and when we think about these individual healings of both the leper and the centurion's servant in the past couple of readings, we should understand that all of these teach us about His effective healing.  His sayings and commands are for our own health and well-being, on every level.  We are given teachings to help us balance and to learn good spiritual healing, which transmits to all other things in life, teaching us what it is to be truly "in order."  He has just given us His commands in the Sermon, but then when He touches the leper, He expresses another aspect of Law, its aim, and the purpose for which He has given us everything -- especially in His role as Lord -- is for healing.  That is, the healing of community, of our world, of our sense of ourselves, of righteousness, all things.  And then we come to the centurion's servant, and the marvelous (literally, for the Lord marveled) understanding and faith of the centurion, who immediately grasps Christ's authority, and receives healing for the one for whom he prayed to the Lord.  Christ heals all the nations and all people, and in this we also find His healing and balance for us.  He is repairing our sense of our world, our sense of ourselves, our understanding of purpose and worship, our understanding of God and where God wants us to go with our lives.  For to understand is also part of faith and healing, for this is the evidence of the centurion's great faith which surpasses even all Israel.  Finally, we also come to the healing of St. Peter's mother-in-law, also found in the gospels of St. Luke and St. Mark.  This woman is unable to fulfill her function, which is her place of honor, in the house, because of fever.  But at Christ's touch, she rises, restored and once again set into order, so that she may fulfill her honor to serve the Lord and His ministry as the senior woman in her home.  If we fail to understand this, it is likely because more modern concerns about the place of women keep us from doing so.  Let us ask always for Christ's healing, because these stories coming on the heels of His preaching the Sermon on the Mount truly give us the message about His authority and purpose, to heal us.  We should recall here His reason He will give for the preaching of parables:  "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed,  lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.' "   Let us note that Jesus here quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10, in which it is given that the ultimate goal of understanding with the heart is to be healed.  Ultimately, as we understand Christ, "He Himself took our infirmities / And bore our sicknesses."