Bible Study series: Matthew 8:14-17. Another summary about Jesus’s healing ministry. Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4. He carried our diseases.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 8:14-17
14 When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw (Peter’s) mother-in-law laid up and having a fever. 15 Then he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. 16 When evening came, they brought to him many demonized people, and he expelled the spirits with a word, and he healed all those having sicknesses, 17 so that the word spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled:
He took our diseases,
And he carried our sicknesses [Is. 53:4] (Matthew 8:14-17)
Comments:
Verses 16-17 are summary verses, which we also see in Matt. 4:23-25 and 9:35.
14:
I added the proper noun Peter in the second half, to avoid confusion. It was not Jesus’s mother-in-law!
15:
Jesus again touched the sick person. Luke says he rebuked the fever (4:38). Merely touching or rebuking or doing both resulted in healing. The healing was instant, much like the centurion’s servant’s healing was instant.
“left”: it is the verb meaning to “release” or “let go.” The fever loosed its grip on her, so to speak.
16:
The crowd must have heard about the healing and watched her prepare the food for Jesus. They saw the instant results. Then the news spread like wildfire.
“demonized”: the one verb is translated simply. There are two main ways in the Greek NT to express demonic attacks to varying degrees, from full possession to just attacks: “have a demon” and “demonized.” The latter term is used often in Matthew: 4:24; 8:16, 28, 35; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22, but only once in Luke (8:36), and Mark four times (1:32; 5:15, 16, 18). John uses the term once (10:21). In Luke 8:26-39, Luke uses both “have a demon” and “demonized,” so he sees the terms synonymously. “Demonized” comes from the verb daimonizomai (pronounced dy-mo-nee-zo-my), which just adds the suffix –iz- to the noun daimōn (pronounced dy-moan). It is a very convenient quality about Greek (English has this ability too: modern to modernize). Just add this suffix to a noun or adjective, and it turns into a verb. So it looks like “have a demon” and “be demonized” are synonyms. The context determines how severe the possession was. In this verse it is used generally, without precision as to the depth of possession.
How Does New Testament Define Demonic Control?
The main point is that he tossed out or threw out or cast out or expelled (all possible translations) the demon with a word. He did not have to use incantation or spells or read from a magic book. His word was probably, “Go!” (v. 32). We Renewalists believe deliverances like these happen today, and it is amazing to us that Jesus could accomplish the demon expulsion with a word. I have heard of a powerful minister, now deceased, who could do this. I went to his church for about a decade, though I personally never saw him do this because after the initial surge of demonic activity, things quieted down, which is when I came.
He expelled demons from “many” but healed “all” those having diseases. The “all” and “many” are parallels or synonyms, unless we believe that he did not expel demons from everyone and left some people demonized, a terrible thought. But it is clear that he expelled (all of them) them with a word.
He expelled them with a word: Word is the term Greek noun logos, but it is not a long sermon in this context. He spoke a word of command. In his name, we too have authority to speak a word of command to a demon.
17:
“Matthew links Jesus’s healing of physical illnesses to his substitutionary death for sinners (1:21; 20:28; 26:28). As indications of kingdom authority, the healings are token of the ultimate eschatological results of Jesus’s redemption” (Turner, his comments on 8:17). Jesus not only fulfills quoted verses, in this case Is. 53:4, but also patterns and themes and old Sinai practices. So in this sense the entire OT points to him.
Messianic Prophecies (long table of fulfilled quoted verses)
Now let’s take an excursus into soteriology (doctrine of salvation).
Some interpreters say that vv. 16-17 are about Jesus carrying the people’s disease during his earthly ministry, before he died for our sins on the cross, so healing is not in the atonement on the cross and therefore healing does not happen today. But this adds up to nothing but extra-clever reasoning by the cessationists (those who believe the gifts in 1 Cor. 12:7-11 and signs and wonders, practiced regularly, have ceased). Just the opposite is true. Jesus’s entire ministry, from his baptism to his cross and resurrection and ascension, carries on today. (“Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever,” Heb. 13:8, NIV.) I believe that healing is in the atonement, just like all sorts of other kingdom benefits are in it. It is never a good idea to “limit” his atonement by indirect reasoning.
It is better to look directly at verses covering Christ’s atoning death on the cross—and he died for all. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, NIV, emphasis added). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding off his blood—to be received by faith (Rom. 3:23-25, NIV, emphasis added). This redemption and atonement is received by faith. Therefore, the door is open to anyone and everyone—all—who have faith to receive his grace, which leads to redemption and the atonement being applied to anyone and everyone—all—who have faith! The initiative begins with God, and our faith responds to his freely offered grace—offered to anyone and everyone—all. His grace is efficacious or effective to the everyone who believes or has faith, and Christ’s sacrifice of atonement is received by faith. There is no limited atonement on offer.
So from his healing ministry during his life, to his death on the cross, he carried our diseases. His healing was exhibited throughout his life, even after the ascension. Now the question is: Is healing guaranteed in every case? I have attempted to answer the question in v. 3, though no ultimate answer is available to us on the earthly side of eternity. For a fuller discussion, see this post, once again:
Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time?
We should believe for healing for every person, as our “default setting,” until God tells us otherwise for a specific individual. God has spoken to me twice that he was going to take a person home, to heaven. One was an older woman I did not know and the other one was my half-brother. In all other cases I assume God intends to heal, so far.
“diseases”: literally it means “unstrong.” It means, depending on the context, primarily “weakness”; and secondarily “sickness, disease.” The NIV translates it throughout the NT: weakness (most often), weaknesses, weak, crippled, diseases, illness, illnesses, infirmities, infirmity, invalid, sick, sickness, sicknesses. Here in v. 17 it means illnesses or sicknesses.
“Curing disease with a mere word (8:3, 8) was quite unusual, contrasting with most of the popular magicians of the day” (Keener, p. 272).
GrowApp for Matt. 8:14-17
1. Isaiah 53 is a short chapter. Please read it. Do you see the Messiah Jesus in the chapter? Jot down your ideas.
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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