matthew 8

Read Matthew 8 at Bible Gateway.

The last few chapters recorded the beginning of the teaching ministry of Jesus. Now this chapter begins recording the healing ministry of Jesus. We should keep in mind that most of the Gospel writers did not arrange their material in chronological order as it is common for us to do. Only Luke claimed to have put everything down "in order," (Luk 1:1-3). Matthew seems to have arranged his material around themes.

The very first healing recorded in the Gospels is the leper who comes to kneel before Jesus, and asks Him, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Boy, that is the 64,000 dollar question, isn't it? We all know that God is able to heal anyone of anything, but is He willing to do so?

"Willing" in Greek is thelo, and it means, "to will, have in mind, intend, as in, to be resolved or determined, to purpose, to desire, to wish, or even to love; to like to do a thing, be fond of doing; to take delight in, have pleasure in doing."

The leper is asking Jesus, in essence, "Do You want to heal me? Do You desire to heal me? Or is this something You might be doing begrudgingly, out of obligation or some sense of duty, but You could really care less whether I have leprosy or not?"

And Jesus answered him, "I am willing." -- I am resolved to heal you, I am determined to heal you, I want to heal you, and it even gives Me pleasure to do so. This is such a key to understanding the character of God!

Pter says of Jesus:

"... how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." Act 10:38

It is in the Lord's nature to alleviate the suffering of others, to lift the oppression of the devil off of those who are afflicted, to make them clean and to set them free. That is the first thing we are to understand about Jesus as Matthew begins to reveal His healing ministry. So I believe it is no accident that this story of the leper is the first one Matthew chose to tell about Jesus. He wanted to lay the foundation right off the bat that it is the Lord's will to heal people.

We find from this chapter Jesus healing Jews and Romans, men and women, slaves and free, the clean and the unclean (leprosy was considered a disease indicating impurity or uncleanness as defined by Torah), diseases affecting the body, as well as afflictions affecting the mind or soul; temporary illnesses (fever) as well as permanent conditions (leprosy), those illnesses which were momentary inconveniences as well as those illnesses which led to death's doorstep.

In verse 16-17, it says that Jesus healed all who were sick, in fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah 53.

"He took our infirmities, He bore our sicknesses," (vs. 17).

The Hebrew for "took" means "to take away completely, to lift off, to carry away, as well as to support, to sustain, and to endure." The fact of the matter is, in these days, some people get healed when they pray, and some don't. I cannot even begin to explain why. My own mother died of cancer, even though I prayed for her, while my son was completely and instantly healed of a life-threatening skull fracture and brain damage with absolutely no side effects whatsoever. For my son, Jesus took away completely his infirmity, and for my mother, He supported her and sustained her while she endured that illness. For both, He took their infirmity.

Now I tend to believe that it is the Lord's will to heal every sickness of every person. Why some people don't get healed is a puzzle that we talked about yesterday. I know the faith teachers teach that it is because the person did not have enough faith (suggested by verse 13), while the Calvinists teach it is all in the hands of a sovereign God. I tend to think the answers might be less trite.

If someone desires something from the Lord, and they have not received it yet, what should their response be? I think it should be, get on their face before God night and day and ask Him what is going on and what must be done. Daniel was a righteous man who began seeking God for something, and he fasted 21 days in tears before he received his answer (Dan 10). The reason it was not immediately given him did not having anything to do with God not wanting to answer him, or him not deserving an answer. It just required persistence on Daniel's part.

As Jesus taught us yesterday, "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened," (Mat 7:7). The Greek tense of those verbs (which does not come through in the English translation), is, ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. God wants to alleviate our suffering, so keep on seeking Him until we have an answer from Him!