43 Why Jesus Chose Healing Miracles, It Wasn't Compassion (Matthew 8:14-17)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word Podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're going to study Matthew chapter 8, verses 14 through 17. This is the 43rd talk in our series on the Gospel of Matthew. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below the podcast, and you can also find those notes at wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew43. I'm so glad you joined us today. We're in a section of the book where Matthew is covering a series of miracles that Jesus performed. And in the last podcast, we talked about how the theme of authority runs through all these miracles. The crowds were amazed that Jesus spoke with authority. Not just that he didn't quote other rabbis, but he claimed to be on a mission from God, like the prophets. Jesus claimed that God had given him the authority to explain God's plans and purposes, and even more profoundly, he claimed that God had given him the authority to rescue or condemn on Judgment Day. Immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew turns our attention to these series of various miracles, where we see that Jesus not only speaks with the authority of God, as we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has the authority of God in his actions. Jesus can touch a leper, and that leper will be healed because God has given him the authority to do so. Jesus can say to the centurion, Your servant is healed and it is done. We talked about how this kind of authority requires a response. These miracles are not just historical events, they're not allegories, these are stories that call on us to respond. Jesus does things only God can do because God has given him authority. The miracles are evidence that God is behind what Jesus teaches, and we are called to recognize and respond to that. But we also see a different kind of response in these stories, and that is faith before the miracle happens. Someone with a problem has already wrestled with the question of whether Jesus is who he says he is. They've reached the conclusion his words are true, and so they come to him in faith and they ask for healing or a miracle. And we saw that kind of prior faith with both the leper and the Gentile centurion. That brings us to Matthew 8, 14 to 15. And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. We also find this story in Mark 1, 29 to 31, and in Luke 4, 38 through 39. And they give us a few more details. They tell us that Jesus was leaving the synagogue when he was approached about Peter's mother-in-law. They tell us she had a high fever, which he rebuked, and that she got up and was well enough to serve him. No one tells us very much about this woman or her faith. I suspect this event was remembered and passed on because of the personal connection and the significance to Peter. Peter was one of the twelve. He saw a lot of strangers receive healing from Jesus, but in this case that healing touched his own family. The fact that she got up and waited on Jesus tells us how fully she recovered. And remember the cultural context. Hospitality in that culture was very important. When a guest entered your house, you had a strong social obligation to serve them. You were required to feed them even if they weren't hungry. And if you did not fulfill your duties as host, it not only dishonored you, it dishonored the whole community. Serving Jesus would have been what she wanted to do under normal circumstances. Hospitality was a duty and an honor, especially since Jesus was not a random traveler who came to her door. He was an important rabbi, he was a prophet, he was a close personal friend of her son-in-law, and you could say he was her son-in-law's boss. She would have wanted to offer him hospitality when he came, but she couldn't because she was too sick. The fact that she got up and waited on him is evidence that he cured her completely and quickly. She could then offer the hospitality that would have been important to her, the hospitality that she couldn't have offered while she was sick. The personal nature of this story helps us remember that these miracle stories are not just flashy supernatural events. These are real people with real lives that were changed. These are acts of mercy and compassion that an individual experienced. These illnesses cause suffering and even death, and Jesus is relieving that suffering. And in this case, it was the suffering of Peter's own family. Now these miracles have meaning, which Matthew goes on to explain. Let's look at it 16 and 17. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. Okay, we're going to spend most of our time talking about what is Matthew doing with Isaiah. What does he mean that this fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah? Way back in the first chapter of Matthew, we talked a lot about the way Matthew uses this word fulfill. And let me just review that briefly. When we see the word fulfill in our English translations today, we expect it to mean predictive prophecy. We expect that the word fulfill means there's an Old Testament passage somewhere that predicts some future event, and now that future event has come to pass. So if something fulfilled a word spoken by a prophet, we expect that now here is this event that the Old Testament prophet was speaking about. This event happening now is the fulfillment of what was claimed in the Old Testament passage. God predicted it, it came true, so the prophecy has been fulfilled. And that's the meaning we tend to assume, but it is not always the case. There is another usage of the word fulfilled, and I have argued this other usage is the one that Matthew more typically has in mind. That second usage is this. In the Old Testament, we find themes and pictures. In the New Testament, we find a fuller expression of those themes and pictures. So we see a spiritual theme or we see a principle in the Old Testament, and then later in history or in the New Testament, that spiritual principle is shown in its fullness or completeness. We might say it is the epitome, it's an analogous reality. So for example, I could say, just as Moses led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, God through Jesus leads us out of captivity to sin. In that sense, Jesus is a fulfillment of Moses. The life of Jesus, what he does, fills up the Old Testament passage in some way. Now I'm not saying that Moses' actions were somehow a prediction of Jesus' actions. I'm making a comparison, an analogous reality. What Moses did in his day, Jesus did to the fullest, even more so in his day. Jesus is the epitome of the principle or the moral truth that you see in the story of Moses. So Jesus' life or what some particular event is the fullest picture of that principle or the culmination of it. And quite often when you see the scripture was fulfilled, especially in the Gospel of Matthew, it means this. This is what he's talking about. So as good Bible students, when we see Matthew say something is fulfilled, we have to figure out which meaning he's talking about. Which meaning does he have in mind? So here's that word fulfilled again, and that's what we're going to wrestle with. And we read the text again. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. Is Matthew saying that Isaiah predicted that Jesus would do healing miracles? Or is he saying something else? Why is Matthew pointing to this verse? The passage from Isaiah that Matthew is quoting is, in fact, I think, a prediction of the coming Messiah, and it does pertain to Jesus. But what exactly is Matthew doing with this verse? That gets a little tricky. Matthew's quoting from Isaiah 53. This is one of the passages in Isaiah about the suffering servant. Now I don't want to argue for it here, but I'll just tell you I believe that suffering servant is the Messiah, and that this passage refers to Jesus. But different scholars are going to debate that. I have a podcast series on the servant songs of Isaiah where I go into that question in more detail, and I'm not going to go into it here. But just so you know where I'm coming from, I do believe Isaiah is describing the Messiah, and I believe Jesus Christ to be that Messiah. Now, before we look at the passage, I have to mention a translation issue. As you probably know, Isaiah was written in Biblical Hebrew and Matthew was written in Koine Greek. Both languages use particular words to talk about illness and disease. Words like weak or suffer or burdened. And in both languages, all the words can refer to both physical bodily problems and to emotional or spiritual problems. If they are used in a context where the situation is a physical problem, they are translated things like sick or disease or ill. If they are used in a context where they are talking about spiritual problems or emotional problems, they are translated weak or griefs or sorrows or something like that. One question then we have to sort out is which does Isaiah mean and which does Matthew mean? Are we talking about a physical illness only or something broader? Notice that in Matthew, he tells us Jesus is healing many who were oppressed by demons, casting out the spirits, and healing all who were sick. Peter's mother-in-law is an example of someone who was physically sick. She had a fever. But those who are possessed by demons are not sick in the same way. Still, they're burdened, they're suffering from the effects of the demon. And we see in Matthew, Jesus is doing both types of healing. He was releasing people from physical illness and from demonic possession. So the context then in Matthew, I think, suggests that Matthew is dealing with something broader than only disease. And when he says Jesus is healing all kinds of afflictions, he means to include both physical and emotional and spiritual. Okay, let's look at Isaiah. If you're not familiar with the book of Isaiah, let me just briefly set the stage for you. Isaiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom. All right, what's the southern kingdom? Well, after the time of King David and his son Solomon, the nation of Israel fell into a kind of civil war over who was going to be the next king, and the nation split with ten of the tribes forming what we call the northern kingdom around one king, and two tribes in the south forming a different kingdom around a different son. Isaiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah, but he was writing to the Jews from the northern kingdom who were already in exile at this point, and then he's writing to Jews in the southern kingdom who are about to go into exile. But in the section we're looking at, he is writing as if the exile of the southern kingdom has already happened. It has not when he's writing it, but he's writing from the perspective that it has. It would be easy for folks in exile to fall into despair. If you're living in a foreign land and you think your God has been defeated, it would be easy to think something like God has reneged on his promises, or maybe God isn't able to keep his promises. It would be easy to think that maybe his promises were all empty and he's not able to fulfill them, or even conclude that they went so far into rebellion that God has abandoned them. And all of that would lead to despair. And throughout his book, Isaiah says, yes, the exile is hard. The exile is disciplined from your God, and you are in exile because you turned away from him and worshipped other gods. That discipline is going to hurt, but it's not going to destroy you. Rather, it's going to redeem you as a people and teach you to return to God. God has a purpose for this exile. Now, in talking about all of that, Isaiah also talks about a servant who's going to come and suffer for his people. Matthew quotes from the third servant song, which is Isaiah 52, verse 13 to chapter 53, verse 12. And that passage is the most frequently quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament. This third servant song gives us a detailed look at the suffering required of the servant and how he willingly went through it for the sake of his people. I'm going to start in the middle in Isaiah 53.1. Who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Okay, that's Isaiah 53.1. And in this passage, I think the arm of the Lord is the suffering servant that Isaiah has been describing since 52.13. God is going to act, God is going to deliver and rescue, and the image he uses is of the arm of the Lord reaching out to grasp someone to rescue them or pull them back from harm. Only here in this case, the poetic arm is the servant that Isaiah has been talking about. God has delegated this rescue to the servant. Now I'm not going to take the time to argue for it here, but I do think the arm of God is the suffering servant, and the suffering servant is the Messiah, and the Messiah is Jesus. Now he goes on to describe the arm. This is 53.2, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. Right away we see the surprising fact that the servant doesn't look divine or like he came from God. He isn't shining with radiant glory, he's not standing in his mighty chariot with the host of heaven, he doesn't wear kingly clothes, he doesn't have a crown on his head or a scepter in his hand. He doesn't look or act like kings are expected to act. He's not particularly impressive, and he's not a particularly attractive man. Isaiah goes on in fifty three and four, and verse four is the one that Matthew quotes. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Now notice the repetition of the word despised here in fifty-three. I think it's repeated for emphasis. The servant's lack of impressive physical appearance led the children of Israel to despise him, to esteem him of no value. They judged him to be of no particular significance, held him in contempt, and treated him as an outcast. Matthew quotes verse four, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. And notice here in Isaiah, the translators did not translate this phrase using the terms for physical illness, they translated griefs and sorrows, which refer to emotional or spiritual suffering. These words do have that range of meaning. Sometimes they refer to physical sickness, and sometimes they refer to a more metaphorical sickness, like griefs or sorrows, and it's easy to see why the translators go for that broader direction. The same two words are used in verse three. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Then they're repeated in verse four. The context suggests that the servant is acquainted with troubles, not just physical disease. He's acquainted with all kinds of grief, all kinds of sorrow, not just sickness and disease, because he's rejected, outcast, and despised. But as it turns out, it is our suffering, our troubles that the servant is ultimately carrying, even though we failed to recognize it. How can that be? Isaiah explains in five and six, but he was pierced for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So Isaiah continues the theme. We're not just people who suffer troubles, we're transgressors. We have committed iniquity, we have gone astray, we have turned our own way, we've abandoned God. It's our fault that we suffer in this life, because we have turned away from God and become slaves to sin. We are an evil, rebellious people who have brought all this trouble upon ourselves, and yet the servant has willingly taken upon himself the suffering that we deserve, and he's done this so that we might be healed and have peace, or shalom, well being. The servant has taken our guilt upon himself so that we might be redeemed and healed and ultimately find peace, or shalom. The passage concludes, this is seven through twelve. Yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied, by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted for righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Now we could spend a lot of time on Isaiah 53. As I said earlier, I did a podcast series on the servant's songs, which I'll put a link to in the lecture notes. This is a wonderful passage, but for our purposes, we're really here to understand what Matthew's doing with it. So we're just going to get the big picture and the main points. Isaiah tells us that the servant is an unimpressive man who is acquainted with sorrows and griefs. But in fact, it is our sorrow and our grief that He has taken upon Himself. Going to offer his life as a guilt offering so that we can be healed and forgiven, and so that we can find well-being and peace. Now, in a nutshell, that's what I think is going on in Isaiah 53. Now let's go back to Matthew. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. Now notice the translators in Matthew have chosen the physical aspects of these words, illnesses and disease. The English doesn't use words sorrow or griefs, but in Isaiah, the English translators went for sorrows and griefs rather than illnesses or diseases. I don't think that's a problem in the sense that these words do have that range of meaning. It's up to us to figure out what's going on. We could argue maybe these translations are misleading or they could be a better one, but the point is they're not wrong. Now, as I said, I think the suffering servant is a prediction of the Messiah who is Jesus. And I also think Matthew knows that the suffering servant is the Messiah who is Jesus. As a thought experiment, Matthew could have used this passage later on when he describes the crucifixion. He could have said of the cross, this was to fulfill what Isaiah said. He himself took our sorrows and carried our grief. And in that context, Matthew could have quoted Isaiah as a direct prediction that Jesus would offer himself as a guilt offering so that he could take on the sorrows and griefs of his people and restore them to health and life. I think Isaiah did give us a predictive prophecy of the cross in that song. I think Isaiah predicted a servant who would suffer to release people from their sorrows by taking them upon himself and dying for their sins as a guilt offering. And that servant is Jesus. Matthew could have quoted this passage in that context of Jesus offering his life on the cross. At the time Matthew wrote this gospel, I think we can safely assume Matthew clearly knows the cross has happened. Both the cross and the resurrection are in his past, and he has had teaching from the risen Lord. He knows what Jesus accomplished on the cross. He reports later in the gospel what Jesus said at the Last Supper. This is chapter 26, 27, and 28. He took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins. There Jesus says directly that he's going to give his life for his people, which is essentially what Isaiah is describing. Matthew was present when Jesus said this. But that's not what he does. He says that when Jesus heals people and casts out demons, that fulfills Isaiah 53 in some sense. So I would argue that Isaiah 53 is not a prediction that when the Messiah comes, he will perform miraculous healings. That's not what the passage is about. It is a prediction that he will offer himself on the cross. But once again, Matthew is using this word fulfilled in the thematic, analogous reality sense. I think what Matthew intends to highlight here is what these miraculous healings mean. Miracles of healing send a kind of symbolic message to us. The supernatural signs that the Messiah performs are often merciful acts of deliverance. And I think God chose supernatural acts of deliverance to testify to the authority of his Messiah for a reason. Now God could have chosen all kinds of impressive acts. If you read through the Old Testament and look at how God confirms the words of his prophets, you can see plagues, you can see God withholding rain, you can see God bringing rain, you can see all kinds of events that are impressive and authenticate the words of his prophets. And God could have chosen all those kinds of things, plagues and whatnot, to authenticate his Messiah. He could have had Jesus cast a mountain into the sea. He could have made the earth stand still. He could have withheld the rain or multiplied the crops. But he chose supernatural acts of deliverance, deliverance from disease, deliverance from unclean spirits, deliverance from disability. The most common miracle that Jesus performs is a merciful act of deliverance. He heals and he makes whole. I don't think Matthew is saying that Isaiah 53 predicted Jesus would do miracles of healing. I think Matthew is saying Isaiah 53 predicted the Messiah would die as a guilt offering for his people so that they could be mercifully rescued from their sorrows and suffering. And that is the symbolic significance of these healings Jesus was doing. Through these miraculous healings, Jesus is giving us a physical demonstration that he came to rescue and redeem us from all our sorrows and sufferings, which are rooted in our sin and our guilt. These temporal physical healings point us to the ultimate reason that He came. He heals physical disease and disability and casts out demons now to remind us that he came to heal us of our biggest problem, all the guilt and consequences of sin. So to summarize, when Jesus heals someone miraculously, several things are happening at once. First, these miracles are an opportunity for an individual to exercise faith in Jesus. That's what we saw with the leper and the centurion. Before the miracle happens, they seek Jesus out because they have recognized that Jesus has the authority from God. God can heal, and Jesus has been given authority by God to perform miraculous healings. They had to wrestle with who Jesus was, decide they believed his words to be true, and then they go to him in faith because they believe he's the Messiah. Second, the healing is a supernatural event that demonstrates that God is with Jesus. It testifies to the authority Jesus has. Jesus claims to be the Messiah, and he can back that claim up by demonstrating he has power over demons and disease because God has given him that power. Miracles are a strong confirmation that Jesus is indeed the Messiah as he claims. Third, these miracles provoke a response from others. Everyone who hears about them or sees them or experiences them has to decide what to do with this information. We have to decide do I believe that Jesus is the Messiah or not? Do I believe the evidence before my eyes? And do I trust and believe that this man is acting and speaking with the authority of God? Fourth, a miracle of healing is also an act of mercy for a specific individual. God is being merciful to the leper, the centurion and his servant, to Peter's mother-in-law, and so forth. Each individual can thank God for rescuing them from their suffering. And finally, these miracles symbolically remind us why Jesus came. These temporal physical healings point us to the ultimate reason that God sent his Messiah, his suffering servant. Jesus heals disease now to remind us that he came to heal us of our biggest problem and give us the gift we really need, rescue from guilt and the consequences of sin. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen. And most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician, Reggie Coates. You can find all of his music at heartfilmusic.org. Thank you for listening today. I pray that this podcast has blessed you. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.