Jesus the Healer
Various passages from Matthew 8-9
October 2, 2005
Introduction
Today’s message is going to be a bit of a departure from my normal pattern as we go through the book of Matthew.
Normally, we look through a passage, and glean the lessons we can learn and apply to our life.
But today, I’m going to reference a few passages from chapters 8-9, all of which demonstrate some facets of Jesus’ ability to heal people.
And don’t worry, we’ll be going back in the future to cover the other events in these two chapters, but wanted to show what we could learn from this collection of events that are sort of grouped together in these two chapters.
We’re not going to read each episode in its entirety, simply for the sake of time, but you will have the references in your note-taking guide so you can look these up over the week and contemplate these things of Jesus.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we find that the people were amazed at the way Jesus taught, because he taught as one who had authority. This authority was sorely lacking among the teachers of the law.
But it wasn’t Jesus’ teaching that had authority. Jesus would soon demonstrate his authority over some other things as well, and that’s what we’re going to explore today.
Jesus is shown in Matthew 8 & 9 healing a number of people. This was nothing new, because he had been healing people before, and had made a habit of doing this even before the Sermon on the Mount, but I think there’s something to be learned in these particular episodes in Jesus’ life, and that is that Jesus had authority from God and that he could and would exercise it.
He would exercise it for the benefit of people and the glory of the Father.
In these events, Jesus exercises authority in three areas that we’re going to look at. And it’s my hope that as we go through these, that not only will you gain a greater sense of how powerful Jesus is, but that your own faith in Jesus will be strengthened, no matter if you’ve walked with Jesus for years or you’re just beginning to know him for yourself.
Well, let’s dive in and look at three areas in which Jesus exercised his authority.
The first is that...
Jesus exercised his authority over illness.
Two main types of illnesses in Scripture: physical and demonic. Let’s start by looking quickly at the physical illnesses addressed in our passages today.
* Peter’s mother-in-law (8:14-15).
She had a fever. Bad enough to keep her in bed. And there is nothing to indicate what caused the fever.
But Jesus walked up to her, touched her hand, and she was able to get up and serve Jesus and his gang.
Now I want you to notice something here: Jesus did not heal her of being a mother-in-law! Scripture doesn’t give us any hint of why that was, either, but anyway...
He also healed a...
* Paralytic (9:1-8).
In this section of Matthew, we find a great story about a guy who had four friends who cared about him so much they carried him to Jesus.
Well, Jesus looks at this guy, has pity on him, and heals him. Then the guy gets up and walks home.
Let’s take a look at a third example of healing a physical illness, as we look at a...
* Bleeding woman (9:20-22).
Now talk about your chronic illnesses. This poor woman had been bleeding for 12 long years. The Scripture doesn’t tell us what was the cause, but obviously it was a major cause of concern, and she now sought out the one she had heard about who could heal the sick.
So reaches out in faith, and she is healed through the power of Jesus. She is cured. And I can only imagine how she must have felt as over the next days and weeks the truth that she was permanently healed dawned on her. Amazing, huh?
* Two blind men (9:27-31)
Jesus asks them if they really believe he can heal them, they answer that they do, and Jesus touches their eyes, healing them.
And then they go and talk about it all over the place, in spite of Jesus’ instructions to keep quiet about it.
Jesus healed all sorts of physical illnesses, but he also healed demonic illnesses.
In the Scriptures, it is very clear that people could be possessed by evil spirits, and sometimes those spirits caused physical maladies like epilepsy, muteness, or any number of other problems that manifested physically.
Other times, these demons gave the impression of mental illness, as we’ll see in one of the examples in our passage.
But in any case, demon possession was real, and it was a very distressing situation. And in case you weren’t aware of it, it’s still real in our day and age, and just as distressing.
Let’s take a look at three that are mentioned in Matthew 8 & 9:
* Various people from the area (8:16-17).
After Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, lots of people come for both physical healing and the removal of evil spirits.
Then he also heals two...
* Men from the Gadarenes (8:28-34).
In Mark and Luke, only one man is mentioned, and that’s no big deal. It’s not uncommon for the gospels to focus the narrative on the more prominent individual. Matthew chooses to mention both.
But the issue here is that these two guys were getting the worst that these demons had to offer.
Mark and Luke tell us that they couldn’t be contained by chains, they were running around naked, and they were also forced by the demons to mutilate themselves by cutting with stones.
Now, I’ve had some tough things in my life. But I don’t think I’ve gone through anything like what these guys were experiencing, how about you?
These guys had no control over what was going on, and in my opinion, the anguish that must have filled them must have been tremendous.
But what does Jesus do? He commands the demons to leave, and they do.
Now what’s interesting here is that the demons knew just who Jesus was, and that he would be the final judge over them.
See what they say in 8:29 -
"What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"
They knew their final end, and they recognized the authority Jesus had over them.
Let’s look quickly now at a third example of someone affected by demons, and that is the...
* Mute man (9:32-34).
In this case, a demon was keeping a man from speaking.
Once again, Jesus steps in and using the authority that was his as the Son of God, drives out the demon, and the man is able to speak.
I love the reactions of the people after this particular healing.
The people were like, "Whoa, baby! We’ve never seen anything like this before. Awesome!"
But the Pharisees’ reaction is a bit less positive:
"It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."
Later, they make the same accusation, and we’re going to see when we get to chapter 12 how Jesus deals with it, and he doesn’t take too kindly to those comments.
I mentioned that demon possession is still going on today. But I also want to say that the authority of Jesus is just as active, if not more so. And we, as his ambassadors, can act on his authority if confronted with that situation.
Well, we’ve spent a good bit of time discussing how Jesus was able to heal illness, whether the illness was from physical or demonic sources.
Now let’s turn the corner to look at the fact that...
Jesus exercised his authority over sin.
* Paralytic (9:1-8).
Take a look back at this passage, in the first part of chapter 9.
What was the first thing Jesus says to this guy?
"Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
Well, the teachers of the law had a cow over that one, didn’t they! "This fellow is blaspheming!"
And you know why they said that? Because only God has the authority to forgive sins. And if Jesus was just another man, then they would have been absolutely right to make this comment.
But Jesus, being the Son of God, being God in the flesh, had the authority, and he exercised it.
But why would Jesus address the man’s sin before he addressed the man’s physical problem?
Well I think his soul needed to be cleansed even more than his body needed to be healed.
Now I’m just speculating about that, but that’s what I think. But in any case, this man had sins that needed to be forgiven, and Jesus took care of that need.
It’s very possible that the man’s paralysis was the result of some sin. We don’t know. But we do know that Jesus had the authority to forgive sin.
And lastly...
Jesus exercised his authority over death.
* The ruler’s daughter (9:18-26).
Boy, I’d hate to be in the position of this ruler, who was probably a ruler in the local synagogue.
His daughter has died, and the heartache must have been immeasurable. But he’s heard about this Jesus guy, and that he’s powerful enough to bring a miracle.
So he goes and finds Jesus and Jesus goes with him.
And then, just as they’re getting going, this woman comes and touches Jesus and gets healed from her bleeding.
And so Jesus stops to find out who touched him, according to Mark, and then speaks to her regarding the healing.
Meanwhile, the ruler must be freaking out: "Let’s go, Jesus! My daughter’s life is in your hands. Let’s get a move on, here!"
And after what must have seemed like an eternity, Jesus continues to the man’s house, where he tries to console the crowd by saying the girl was just sleeping. But they laugh at him.
On arriving, he finds things just as was described. A young girl, dead in the house. So Jesus, with the insults of the people still in his ears, takes the girl by the hand and brings her back to life.
You know, it’s hard for me to imagine the power that it takes for a person to be brought back to life.
But Jesus, the Son of God, had the authority over death, and he exercised it. And he did it a number of times.
But here’s something I want to note before we move on:
Jesus’ authority over the death of others would find it’s ultimate fulfillment when he exercised that same authority over his own.
Four lessons we can learn from Jesus the healer:
1. Not all illnesses are caused by the devil.
It’s true that because of sin and the fact that we live in a broken world, we face illness. Our bodies are breaking down, and sin is to blame for that - not just our sin, but Adam’s as well.
But my point here is that not all illnesses are directly caused by the devil or his demons.
As we saw in our passages today, some people are simply sick. Peter’s mother-in-law had a fever, others were blind.
Sometimes, people just get sick or injured.
The second lesson we can learn is that...
2. Jesus’ power to heal doesn’t obligate him to use it.
This isn’t spelled out specifically in our passages today, but I think it needs to be said, in light of how many people feel Jesus works, or rather, how many people feel Jesus is "supposed" to work.
But you have to understand something: just because Jesus can heal doesn’t necessarily mean that he will.
If you pray for healing, and Jesus doesn’t grant it, it’s not necessarily because your faith is weak, or you’re in sin, nor is it because Jesus is powerless to heal your particular need.
It may simply be a case of God wanting to work in your life in a way that couldn’t be accomplished any other way.
We need to remember that God is sovereign, and we’re not! And when healing doesn’t seem to be coming like we’d like it, we learn to trust God.
Easy? I sure didn’t say that. But necessary? Yup.
Jesus’ power to heal doesn’t obligate him to use it. Here’s the third lesson:
3. Healing doesn’t always end (or begin) with the physical aspect.
As we saw in the life of the paralytic, there was another issue that needed to be dealt with - the man’s sin.
And it could be that a person’s physical healing may be tied to that person’s spiritual healing.
This won’t always be the case, but it certainly may be the case for some.
And here’s the last lesson, and you’ve probably already figured out what is going in the blank.
4. No matter what, Jesus is Lord.
Listen - Jesus can heal, whether your need is physical, spiritual, or whatever. Sometimes he heals, sometimes he doesn’t.
But the bottom line is that no matter what, Jesus is Lord.
And that’s not always easy to see when we’re in the midst of something we wish Jesus would take care of.
So I just want to ask you something: can you believe that Jesus is Lord, no matter the circumstance?
If you can’t then ask him for that kind of faith. He’ll give it to you, I guarantee it.
Conclusion
Well, let’s wrap this up, shall we?
I’ve kind of skimmed over these events in the life of Jesus, and we could probably take every one of them and learn something different.
But I hope that what I’ve talked about today communicates the basic message of these passages: Jesus has authority over illness, sin, and death.
Folks, that’s the Jesus of the Bible, and that’s the Jesus we worship. We don’t come to celebrate a nice holy man, a good teacher.
We come to worship and celebrate the powerful Son of God, whom the Bible describes as God in the flesh.
Boy, I hope that’s who you worship today. Because that’s the Jesus worth believing in.
But before we go, let me just ask this: does he have authority over you? Does he have control over every area of your life, so that when others look at you they see your love and devotion to him? Or are there some areas of your life that you’re still trying to control?
Let me just encourage you to let him have it. He created you and he knows what’s best for you. And believe me, he’ll take good care of you. Let’s pray.
