The Great Physician and the Healing of Man's Infirmities

Table Talks, Synoptic Gospels 5

More on the Mission and Work of Jesus

The Great Physician and the Healing of Man’s Infirmities

 (Matt. 8:17 & 9:1–13)

Matthew 8:17 has another reference to the suffering servant:  “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases” (Is. 53:4). At first we are startled because the words are applied to the healing of the sick and casting out of demons. But in Isaiah the application is clearly to spiritual infirmities, from which we are “healed.”

But sin is the ultimate source of all suffering and grief in the world. When sin entered the world, a host of evils came with it, pain, suffering, death (Gen. 3). We live in a cursed world, a world in rebellion against its Creator. God could not curse man and leave him in a perfect world. So the whole world was affected by the sin of Adam (cf. Rom. 8:18–25). But when Jesus dealt with sin by dying on the cross, he dealt with these consequences of sin. None will be found in the new world (Rev. 21–22). “God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more” (21:4).

To be sure, Jesus did not immediately sweep away all pain and suffering. But perhaps the application of Isaiah 53:4 to the healings of Jesus is intended to say that these healings were a token of what was ultimately to be in that new world because he “bare our sins in his body upon the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).

Matthew’s initial summary of the ministry of Jesus mentions two activities:  (1) Teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and (2) healing all kinds of disease and sickness (Matt. 4:23). As we have seen (Matt. 8:16–17), Isaiah’s description of the vicarious suffering of Jehovah’s servant is applied to this healing activity. But when we come to Matthew 9:2 Jesus points out another, in fact the main purpose for his coming—i. e., to deal with the problem of sin. A man with paralysis was brought to Jesus on his palat. But remarkably, instead of immediately healing him, Jesus spoke to the ultimate problem behind all such ailments: “Child,” he tells the man, “be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.” At that point an undercurrent of criticism began: “This man is blaspheming,” thought certain scribes (v. 3), reasoning that only God could forgive sins (Mark 2:7). The point they were missing (Matt. 9:6–8) is that God can give a man authority to forgive sins. Jesus first asks them to consider whether it was easier to say: “Thy sins are forgiven; or to say: Arise, and walk” (v. 5). Not do, but say! Surely it would be easier to say a person’s sins were forgiven. Who could know whether it was true? But to tell a paralyzed man: “Arise, and walk” would be much more easily detected if he could not do it. So Jesus would be discredited.

Jesus points out a relation between the two: “But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins (then he says to the man who was sick of palsy), Arise, and take up your bed, and go to your house” (v. 6). When the man complied, the crowds “were afraid, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (vv. 7–8). The ability to heal this ailment in the visible world was the proof of his ability to heal spiritual diseases that were invisible.

Then when Jesus called the tax collector, Matthew (called Levi in Mark) this man held a banquet in his house, evidently to introduce his friends to Jesus. But it gave Pharisees reason for another complaint (Matt. 9:9–13; Mark 2:13–18)—namely, that Jesus was eating and drinking with disreputable people, tax collectors and sinners. The complaint gave Jesus occasion for further explaining his mission. “When Jesus heard it, he said to them, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus was not joining with sinners in sin, but was like a physician who goes among the sick to heal, while being careful to avoid contagion himself.

According to Matthew 9:13, Jesus recommended that his critics needed to study Hosea 6:6. God says: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,” and then explained: “for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” If his critics did not understand Hosea 6:6 they would never be able to understand the mission or ministry of Jesus.

The angel had told Joseph that Jesus would “save his people from their sins.” Now two separate incidents confirm this explanation of his mission. When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we remember that he did this work by dying on the cross.