Part 7 - Matthew 8:17 -I PRAYED FOR HIM, LORD, AND HE DIED! WHY?
I have prayed for a sick lady who had cancer, and she died. In fact more than one person I have prayed for has died and not been healed. Do you want someone like me to pray for you? Why weren't they healed? Not enough faith? I prayed for a wonderful Pastor who had cancer who was involved in doing the most amazing things for God. He had enough faith for both of us, and we really thought he would be healed. He was not healed and died soon after. He had a wife and children. I can't imagine watching your Husband and your Father die slowly and all you could do was to pray, and later to grieve his loss. It didn't seem like anything particularly good came from his death from a human point of view.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I have seen some of the most amazing healings and God has even used me to pray. But why doesn't God choose to heal ALL who come to Him? I'm not talking about non-Christians who have rejected Him. I mean those who love Him and yet die of cancer. And not only the big diseases. Why aren't we healed of the common cold? It seems everyone I know spends about fortnight getting over it no matter how hard I pray?
The POSB commentary says "Disease- Sickness- Corruption: the ultimate cause of corruption is sin and evil in the world (Genesis 2:15-3:7). An imperfect and corruptible world produces the seed of imperfection and incompleteness. It produces the seed of aging and deterioration until finally all waste away. Imperfection, sin, and disease are just the way of a world that is imperfect. The seed of corruption eats away until all become diseased and sick and ready for the grave."
After Peter's Mother-in-law was healed by Jesus, Matthew 8:16-17 (NLT) says that "That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, AND HE HEALED ALL THE SICK. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, "He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.""
So I notice that casting out demons and healing ALL the sick was to fulfil a prophecy in Isaiah about how Jesus "...took our sicknesses and removed our diseases."" (Matthew 8:17).
This passage is always used to speak of the Cross, and how when Jesus died, He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases. But do you notice something? Matthew said this about Jesus WHEN HE WAS STILL ALIVE! He said this passage had to do with Jesus' healing ministry BEFORE THE CROSS. Now was Matthew just looking back and saying this was retro-active healing?
Matthew wrote His gospel after the Cross and so is he just making a comment about the Cross? No! It doesn't appear that way to me. Does it to you? JESUS IS STILL ALIVE IN THIS PASSAGE. He heals people and casts out demons and then Matthew says that these acts of healing were to fulfil Isaiah's prophecy - while He was still alive. HE LITERALLY TOOK OUR SICKNESSES UPON HIMSELF AS HE HEALED PEOPLE. He also forgave sin before He bore the consequences and curse of our sin on the Cross. Was it just that each sin He forgave and each sickness He healed was like a downpayment and the rest was paid at the Cross?
Isaiah 53:4 (NASB) says, "Surely our griefs (another translation is "OUR SICKNESSES") He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted." It certainly appears that this passage that Matthew quotes in relation to Jesus' healing ministry refers to the Cross. How do I explain this?
Of course Jesus in His deity (He was God) is not subject to time. Was He applying what would happen in the future to heal someone in the present? Possibly, but this seems to me to be reading into this passage that isn't there. No matter how I look at it, Matthew applies the prophecy from Isaiah to Jesus and His healing ministry WHILE HE WAS STILL ON EARTH AND BEFORE THE CROSS.
Now I believe with all my heart that Jesus bore the consequences of both my sin and the curse of sin on the Cross. That means that physical healing and victory over death itself are guaranteed by Christ's work on the Cross. And I realise that these will NOT BE FULLY REALISED until the very end. So I see evidence of Jesus healing in the world today. And I see that He chooses not to heal everyone for some unknown reason to me. All I can do is trust that He knows what He is doing. He is God, afterall.
Romans 8:19-23 says we have to wait for God to finalise things and when He has wrapped things up, then we'll be totally released from the impact of sin and it's by-products such as disease and sickness. It says "For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us."
That indicates we won't be totally free of sin and sickness until then. Even those who are healed when I pray for them in Jesus name, may get sick again, and of course everyone will eventually wear out and die. That too is a consequence of sin. ONE DAY, LORD, I WILL BE TOTALLY FREE OF THE EFFECTS OF SIN AND SICKNESS IN MY LIFE.
But I am still left with some questions. Jesus brought the realities and health of heaven to earth. What is different now to when Jesus was on the earth? - Why did He choose to heal ALL those who came to Him then and not now as I pray for people? Part of the answer is what I have said above, but this subject is certainly worth exploring further, Lord.
God bless you Church as you pray to bring the realities and freedom of what is in heaven to the circumstances we face on earth.
Pastor Ross
