Thursday 6 March 2025
This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (v. 17)
Background
Today we read how Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. This is the third act of healing in this chapter of Matthew’s Gospel that we have looked at this week. As with the leper we were considering on Monday, the healing was achieved through touch.
It’s the first time in this chapter that Jesus knew the sufferer; he probably knew her quite well. She was a relative of one of his disciples, suffering from a fever. Matthew does not tell us that anyone asked Jesus to heal her. He simply saw her need and immediately restored her to health. And equally immediately she showed her gratitude to Jesus by getting up and 'serving him' (v. 15). This point is rather lost when Mark and Luke tell the same story; they both say she 'served them’ (Mark 1:31, Luke 4:39).
Leprosy, paralysis, fever. The news of Jesus’ healing spread throughout the village of Capernaum. The next group of people in need of his help were those possessed by demons, people we would describe as suffering from mental illness of some kind (v. 16). Again we see the authority of Christ at work. He has authority over evil spirits. Matthew saves an account of a specific example of this type of healing for later. It is the story of the Gadarene demoniacs, which we will be looking at next week (Matthew 8:28 – 9:1).
Meanwhile Matthew is anxious to point out, as he so often does, that these events in the life of Jesus were in fulfilment of words from the Old Testament prophets (Matthew 8:17). We may feel that he was sometimes stretching a point when he did this, but we need to remember that he was writing primarily for a Jewish readership. One of his main aims in writing his gospel was to stress the link between their scriptures and the story of Jesus Christ. Christ was the Messiah promised by the prophets in their sacred writings.
Matthew quotes from Isaiah: "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases." In doing this he makes a valid point. We do not suffer alone. Jesus suffers with us. And in his love he heals us.
To Ponder:
- Jesus "cured all who were sick." Is that your experience?
- How justifiable is it to use isolated quotes from scripture out of context to make a point?
Prayer
Lord, thank you for being with us in our times of suffering. Amen.
Bible notes author: Alan Sharp
Alan is a retired teacher. He lives in St Albans where he is a member of both his local Methodist church and of his parish church. He has been a local preacher and a church organist and choirmaster for over 60 years and writes a monthly article on hymns for The Methodist Recorder.