Jesus Bore our Sin to Heal our Souls

Matthew 8:1-17 

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."

3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

4 And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Jesus Heals a Centurion's Servant

5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."

7 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."

8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.

Peter's Mother-in-Law Healed

14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.

Many Healed in the Evening

16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

"He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses."

Jesus Christ bore our sin to heal our souls, not just our bodies.  In fact, the healing He did was to point back to Isaiah 53:4-5 where we would be healed of our sin by His taking our punishment on Himself in our place.  In Isaiah 53:6 it is further written, “the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  The physical healing Jesus worked was not the pattern nor the goal of His ministry; it was the suffering taken from us on Himself that healed our sin-struck souls and made us whole in atoning forgiveness.  Here are just some examples where He healed various people who all had one thing in common - sin’s wounds needing healing with forgiving grace.  First we see a leper following Jesus and worshiping in faith to be healed of his total condition which sin had devastated his body and soul with.  Jesus answered the question that He was willing to cleanse him and then did so immediately.  He told the man not to spread the news around and show the priest for validation of his cleansing according to the Law (Leviticus 14:3), but likely did so to also test the man’s thankfulness as he went around telling everyone what the Lord had done for him as a witness to the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words as only God could have done.  Secondly a Roman soldier, a centurion, approached Jesus to beg Him to heal his paralyzed and dreadfully tormented servant who was suffering with physical illness and also the spiritual as the effects of sin corrupted both body and soul.  Jesus offered to come and heal the servant but the military man asked only for Jesus to say the word and heal him just as a military leader who had the authority would ask for something to be done and it was made so.  He had great faith in the divine power according to His word from the Son of God.  Jesus pointed out this man’s great faith in the word and work of God.  He told the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  Afterwards Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever so that she could serve them all in their house.  This showed that the healing was to enable service to God and man in thankfulness.  Finally, the Lord went about healing many who were brought by to Him faith to be made whole in body and soul.  They had demons cast out of them to fulfill the passage from Isaiah 53:4 about bearing our sicknesses of the soul’s sin and body’s resulting corruption as their Savior to deliver them from the consequences of their sin inherited from Adam and further committed daily by them.  Jesus Christ came to save us from our sin and the consequences; healing the bodies was to show he makes us whole.  The gospel therefore is not physical but spiritual healing to reconcile us with God by His suffering in our place, wounded and beaten to suffer for our sin (Isaiah 53:8-9) and make us whole in His righteousness (Romans 5:17, 1 Corinthians  1:30, 1 Peter 2:24) and not our own “that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”  The physical healing only shadowed the true healing of the Great Physician.