Matthew 8:1–17

In these two chapters, eight and nine, we have a series of ten miracles. They begin with the leper and end with the man who had a demon and could not speak... At the bottom of the mountain the Lord now shows that He has the power of the kingdom to carry out everything He had said in word on the mountain. Paul later told the Corinthian believers that the kingdom of God is not a matter of word but of power (1 Cor. 4:20).

It is suggestive that the lofty moral principles were declared from the summit of the mount, while the actual condition of man is set forth (in the leper) at the foot. What we ought to be and what we are are two different things. Grace meets us where and as we are, and brings us into conformity with the purpose of God.

Now the King comes down among the people from the height from which He had given them wise instruction. For He is not only their teacher: He will experience their sorrows, and show His heart of compassion in the middle of adverse circumstances.

Notice that Matthew 8:1-27 shows the Lord's power at work — and this power is truly that of Jehovah on the earth. From verse 28 we see how the world received that power, and what influence ruled the world, whether as power or in the moral state of men's hearts.

As He came down from the mountain with the crowd, a leper came to meet Him. Now only Jehovah healed leprosy... Here was God, able to do everything, with the love and goodwill to do it. Here too was man, in the middle of a polluted race that He touched in His grace. The evil did not drive Him back. The defilement did not stain Him, though He touched it to heal it.

Matthew sets aside the plain order of history here. He brings together facts that took place months apart... Of all the chapters in this Gospel, perhaps none sets aside the order of dates so completely as this one.

It was the Holy Spirit who chose to shape these Gospels in the form best suited to bring out the person, mission, or various relations of Christ.

The crowds still hear Him. Astonished at His teaching, they follow Him. But they have no true faith in His person, and no grasp of where His path would lead. So later the Lord says what following Him involves: as Son of Man, He had "nowhere to lay His head." Then He gets into the boat to cross to "the other side," and none but His disciples follow Him. They had no real attachment to Him, and so no readiness to face danger, or loss, or opposition, for Him and with Him.

It is striking that the lofty moral principles were declared from the top of the mountain, while the leper at the foot shows man's real condition. What we ought to be and what we are, are two different things. Grace meets us where and as we are, and brings us into conformity with the purpose of God.

The Lord is met by a leper. You know what a loathsome thing leprosy was. Everyone knew it was not only deeply offensive, but hopeless, as far as man was concerned. It is true that in Leviticus we have ceremonies for cleansing a leper. But who could give a ceremony for the cure of a leper? … The Spirit of God uses leprosy as a type of sin, in all the loathsomeness that it produces. Palsy brings out the thought of powerlessness. Both are true of the sinner. He is without strength, and he is unclean in the presence of God.

The law decreed his exclusion while he was unclean. It laid down what he was to do once he was healed, before he could return to the camp and to his tent. But the grace displayed in healing was another matter.

The leper knew very well that only God could meet his case. Coming to the Lord Jesus he acknowledged His glory by worshipping Him. By this action he owned the deity of the Lord Jesus. He then spoke of His ability to heal him: "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." The faith of the leper was not lacking in this respect, but he did lack confidence as to the Lord's gracious disposition towards him.

The chosen people were morally what he was physically, but they knew it no more than they bowed to His glory. … Even the leper, who did pay Him homage then, had a feeble grasp of the grace that was in Him — "Lord, if You will." Why question? Why doubt? Why had He come, and come Himself, the Holy One, to live among a people of unclean lips? A man, yet the King, the Lord of Hosts! Prophecy had promised that when the Messiah came the blind would see, the deaf would hear, and the lame would leap like a deer. Was the leper to be an exception? Was he outside the reach of mercy?

The leper was sure of the power, but did not know the love that was there. He carries the love right up to the leper, and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." If a man touched a leper he was unclean and put out of the camp. But He cannot be defiled. … Holiness undefiled and undefilable carries to sinners the love they need.

With them the question is of God's will, not of theirs. In Scripture the question is of man's will, not of God's. "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." "I will; be clean." … So, if we will, there is no difficulty. For lost ones God has provided salvation, through the work of Jesus. If we are that, and would have that salvation, it is ours.

Nothing showed who He was more strikingly than what came out in the leper. He trusts His power more than His heart: "If you will, you can." Yet who could heal the leper but Jehovah? But if He was there with divine power to do so, His action of stretching out His hand to touch him tells of His heart. As Man, the only one who was undefiled and could not be defiled, He touches him in human tenderness; as God He says, "I will; be clean."

Leprosy is a type of sin. People under its terrible power were as unfit for God's dwelling place on earth as sinners whose sins have not been washed away are for His home in heaven. God Himself was the only physician for leprosy, and that same gracious One alone can meet the need of those made unclean by sin.

But He added words, recorded in all three Gospels, of the greatest weight — "I will; be clean." No one on earth but He was free to speak like that. His Person gave Him the right. He who could truly say "I am," had the right to say "I will." In anyone else born of a woman it would have been not only presumption but sin... "Be clean" was followed at once by power that no one could dispute.

Was He the One who had come down low enough to touch this defiled man who defiled everyone else who came near him? Yes, the only One. But it was God who had come down. It was love that had reached so low, and in reaching so low it showed itself mighty for everyone who trusted in it. It was purity that could not be defiled, purity in power, which could therefore serve the vilest in love, and delights to do so. He came to defiled man, not to be defiled by the contact, but to remove the defilement. He touched the leper in grace, but the leprosy was gone.

He does not merely speak. He goes further, and with a touch at once breaks through the barrier of law, and removes what the law could only brand, not remedy.

"And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." People know a great deal about medicine now, but they cannot do this. They cannot bring about a result like this at once. Cure has its stages and its progress, just as disease has stages. Here the whole order of things changed in an instant. That is the mighty power of God.

For such people the question is God's will, not their own. In Scripture the question is of man's will, not of God's. "How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not."... "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." "I will; be clean."... So if we are willing, there is no difficulty. For lost ones God has provided salvation, through the work of Jesus.

Notice how the Lord touches the leper, suggesting how He came to meet our sin and put it away. The command here to tell no one does not seem to come from opposition. It is more that the crowds were treating Him as a mere healer, and that threatened to get in the way of His true service. Miracles themselves were only acted parables. Our Lord came from heaven to do more than cure the ills of the body.

The law made no provision for healing leprosy. It only gave directions for purifying a man, for cleansing him, once he was healed. None but God could heal. So when the healed leper came to the priest with his offering, it was proof that God was there in power and grace. This would force the priest to see that God was there in Christ — above the law, yet not overthrowing the law's authority.

Showing himself to the priest should have raised the question there, if the priest kept knowledge or if his heart sought it: Who has healed him? Faith would have given the answer — Jehovah is here; Jehovah has healed him. For no one knew better than the priest that man is powerless here.

A striking testimony indeed. As far as Scripture tells us, this was the first Israelite leper cleansed since God gave the instructions of Leviticus 13 and 14, nearly 1,500 years before. A cleansed leper standing at the altar with his two birds in his hands was proof that God had come into the land. He was meeting men's need quite apart from priestly service and religious ceremonies. This principle matters greatly for our souls today. Cleansing for the soul is found, not in human doing of any kind, but in the fountain of the Saviour's blood.

He hides Himself from human praise, and tells the man He had healed to go and show himself to the priests according to the law of Moses. Yet this submission to the law was in fact a witness that He was Jehovah. Under the law, Jehovah alone cleansed the leper, by His own sovereign act. The priest was only the witness that it had been done.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, before His death and resurrection, He was careful to acknowledge the priesthood set up by the law. That priesthood belonged to Aaron and his sons. It was in no way His own. And as He respected the Jewish priesthood, so He maintained all the shadows of the law. In other words, He threw His own divine weight into the support of the ritual system until the cross closed it. The time had not yet come for God's grace and glory to displace it.

He mentions several of the writers by name, and gives them an authority that could only belong to someone inspired. To the cleansed leper He says, "offer the gift that Moses commanded."

They would not worship Him as the poor leper did. The testimony to the priest would be disregarded. They become more and more opposed to His claims. God says, as it were: if you Jews will not have My Son, I will send a testimony to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will hear.

Now we hear a different story. Jesus enters Capernaum. When, we are not told. It had no connection with the story of the leper; but the Holy Spirit puts them together, because it brings in the Gentiles. We have had the Jew set before us in the history of the leper and the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to Israel. But now there is a centurion who comes and tells about his servant; and this brings in a new kind of confession of the Lord altogether. Here there is no touching — no contact with Christ in an outward, bodily way. So this is instead the way the Gentile comes to know Christ.

Guided by the Spirit of God, Matthew does not follow the order of events. He places the miracle after the Sermon on the Mount, though it happened some time earlier. His aim seems to have been to set the low faith of the Jewish sufferer in sharp contrast with the high faith of the Gentile centurion in the verses that follow.

In Capernaum, a city by the Sea of Galilee, a centurion comes to Jesus. He is a Gentile officer, and he pleads for his servant, who was suffering badly from paralysis. This is a striking picture of the Gentiles in the helplessness of their sin, without hope, without God in the world.

The centurion shows in the most striking way how grace goes out to the Gentile. In him was faith such as there was not in Israel. With this comes the revealed change in God's dealings: many from East and West would sit down with the patriarchs in the kingdom of heaven, while the Jews, the natural heirs of it, would find themselves in outer darkness.

Some have tried to explain these differences by making the two accounts two different miracles. This is not the case at all. Luke explains Matthew's account more fully. The centurion first sent messengers to our Lord, and afterwards he came to speak to Him in person. Matthew relates the personal interview and Luke the message.

Yet the centurion did not present himself to the Lord. He came to Him only in the sense in which we say a man does himself what he does through others.

There was no proud claim of having to do only with God and not with man. On the contrary, he shows by his appeal to and use of the Jewish elders how truly he bowed to the ways and will of God. For God had a people, and this Gentile owned them as God's choice, despite their unworthiness. So when he wanted the blessing for his servant, he sent to the elders of the Jews to plead for him with Jesus. To me there seems far more of faith, and of the lowliness which faith produces, than if he had gone personally and alone.

The centurion assumes the grand truth that Jesus was God (not merely Messiah), and therefore fully able to heal. He looks at Him in a still higher way — not as one whose presence must go with the putting forth of power, but as one who had only to speak the word, and it was done.

The healing of the centurion's servant by His word spoken at a distance shows what is happening at the present time. He is no longer here in person, but His Word is with us, and multitudes of Gentiles are finding blessing through faith in its wonderful message.

pais, "a child," regardless of age, and so used for servant. Matt. 8:6, 8, 13 … The word is applied to Christ in Matt. 12:18; Acts 3:13, 26 (translated "Son"); Acts 4:27, 30 (translated "child"); and to Israel and to David in Luke 1:54, 69.

His slave was dear to him, yes, precious, but sick and about to die. Yet the centurion did not present himself to the Lord. He came to Him only in the sense that people are said to do themselves what they do through others. He was no pagan. He honoured the Jews, low as they had sunk, because God chose them and entrusted them with His oracles, the scriptures.

There is another word I have not yet mentioned: basanizō and basanismos, torment. People say it comes from a Lydian stone used to test gold. Very likely. But it is simply false to conclude that the words meant "to prove" and not "to torment" once they came into common use. So Matthew 8:6: "My servant is lying sick, grievously tormented." What has that to do with the Lydian stone? … Revelation 9:5 uses the verb and the noun for the torment of a scorpion's sting. Matthew 14:24: "tormented by the waves."

In both these cases — the leper and the centurion — there is faith. In the first it is personal faith, but in the case of the centurion it is the faith of one person for another. If leprosy represents sin in its polluting character, paralysis shows man in his helplessness. It is a great point for a sinner to make that discovery. It is more to acknowledge I am helpless than that I am a sinner.

I see this shown in the centurion, in Matt. 8. "I am not worthy," he said. "Only speak the word," he added. And all the while he laid his servant at the feet of Jesus: "My servant is lying paralyzed at home."

Matthew places the leper right before the centurion. This marks the grace ready for the Gentile when the defiled people would reject the Messiah. So the Gospel shows from its beginning to its end. This is why Matthew's account of the centurion, unlike Luke's, records the Lord's declaration. Many would come from east and west and share the feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But the sons of the kingdom, their own descendants, would be thrown out into the outer darkness with its unspeakable anguish.

Here again the power of His word stands out. The centurion himself emphasized it, for he knew the power of an authoritative word as shown in the Roman military system. The rank of a centurion was not a high one, yet those under him obeyed his instructions at once. His faith found in Jesus One whose word could do the miraculous.

The centurion appealed to the Saviour about a slave and no more, but that slave was, for some reason, precious in his sight. Many in Israel did not recognise God in the lowly Carpenter who was travelling through the province. The Roman did. He asked Him straight away, and the answer came: "I will come and heal him."

Jesus declared Himself willing to come and heal him. He, the One who knows the heart of man, knew well that this would bring out the faith of the Gentile.

The very grace of the Lord, which offered to come and heal the servant, awoke a deeper sense of the Lord and of himself in his heart... He recognised in Jesus what made himself nothing, yet what encouraged him to lay at His feet his appeal for a dying slave.

But this divine grace shown in Israel, being divine, could not limit itself to Israel. A Gentile saw the divine power at work far more fully, because he was not shut up in Jewish thinking. He saw that the Lord could dispose of all things, just as he himself sent his soldiers here and there. So he looks for mercy for his servant. But his faith produced true lowliness of heart, as faith always does when it realises the divine presence. He counts himself unworthy that Jesus should come under his roof. A word from the Lord, ready as He was to go to him, was enough.

If leprosy pictures sin in its polluting character, palsy shows man in his helplessness. It is a great point for a sinner to make that discovery. It is more to admit I am helpless than that I am a sinner. To the Gentile centurion the Lord says, "I will come and heal him." But take the nobleman in John 4. To him He says, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The man asked again and again for the Lord to come down. Jesus did not go, though He healed his son.

Here there is no touching — no connection with Christ after the flesh. This is instead the way the Gentile knows Christ. The Jew looked for a Christ who would put out His hand. They wanted a Saviour there among them in person, bringing in this divine power and healing them, as the Scripture had said, "I am the LORD, your healer." And here He had come; but they did not know Him like that.

The healing of the centurion's servant shows what has been going on during the long stretch of time since He went on high. It is the work of grace among the Gentiles on the principle of faith, for an absent Saviour healed the man.

Christ is not here. He has gone up to the Father's throne. But His Word is with us; in the Scriptures we can hear His living voice at any time. We rest on His Word. It is everything to us, since He Himself is no longer with us.

"I am not worthy" (adequate or qualified) "to have you come under my roof." The Lord's own grace, which offered to come and heal the servant, awoke in his heart a deeper sense of the Lord and of himself... He saw in Jesus what made him nothing. Yet he also saw what gave him courage to lay his plea for a dying slave at His feet.

With the centurion there is the most thorough humility. He is not fit for Christ to come under his roof, but in this we already see the faith that moves him. With self behind his back, his view becomes clear, and so he sees in Him One whom all things serve. Yet He Himself has come to serve, and to serve people who have no worthiness — no fitness except their need. Let Him speak the word then: everything will do His bidding.

As for the Gentile, the Lord's offer to go and heal his servant brought out the unusual strength of his faith... He had only to say the word, and his servant would be healed. The bodily presence of the Messiah was not needed. A question of place could not limit God; His word was enough. Disease must obey Him, as the soldier or the servant obeyed the centurion, their superior.

The Gentile centurion rises perhaps highest of all in the words: "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof."

But this divine grace shown in Israel, being divine, could not limit itself to Israel. A Gentile saw the divine power at work far more fully, because Jewish thoughts did not shut him in. He saw that the Lord could dispose of all things, just as he himself sent his soldiers here and there. So he looks for mercy for his servant. But his faith, as faith always does when it realises the divine presence, produced true lowliness of heart, and he counts himself unworthy that Jesus should come under his roof. A word from the Lord, ready as He was to go to him, was enough.

This is what drew out our Lord's praise: his confidence in the power of His word while He was absent in person. Here is a principle vital to us at this hour. Christ is not here, having gone up to the Father's throne. But His Word is with us; in the Scriptures we may at all times hear His living voice... On His Word we rest; it is our all, seeing that He Himself is no longer with us. If anyone could tear His Word out of our hands, we would be left in total darkness.

When Jesus says to him, "I will come and heal him," at once his heart shows itself. He answers, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof." He himself could say to one, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come," and he comes; and to his servant, "Do this," and he does it. How much more, then, could the Lord "only say the word, and my servant will be healed"? Jesus had indeed authority over all diseases; but was it merely a question of His putting His hand on the leper? Not at all. He had only to speak the word, and it was done. The centurion assumes the great truth that Jesus was God, not merely Messiah.

He says, "I am a man" — not in but under authority. A Roman captain over 200 men, he was a long way from being the head of the Imperial army. Even so, he had this power to order the soldiers under him. There is something very sweet about that. His argument is that the Lord had all the authority in Himself.

His faith owned that Jesus had the very same power, and indeed more. The centurion was only a man under authority. Jesus, the perfectly dependent and obedient Man, could command all, always to the glory of God the Father. Even the centurion, under authority as he was, still had authority himself to order this one and that one, and his own servant most of all. All things were but servants to Jesus — all served God's glory by Him. He had only to speak the word: disease itself must obey.

A Gentile owned the divine power at work far more fully, since he was not shut up in Jewish thoughts. He saw that the Lord could dispose of all things, just as he himself sent his soldiers here and there. So he looks for mercy for his servant. Yet his faith, as always when it realises the divine presence, produced true lowliness of heart: he counts himself unworthy that Jesus should come under his roof.

It was this that drew out our Lord's commendation — his confidence in the power of His word when He was not there in person. Here is a principle that is vital to us at the present hour. Christ is not here, having gone up to the Father's throne. But His Word is with us; in the Scriptures we may at all times hear His living voice.

This is the beautiful way in which we are here shown the different bearing of the Lord on the Jew and on the Gentile. But we learn more: Israel would refuse the blessing, and the Gentiles would become the objects of mercy. As it says here, "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" — that is, many Gentiles will come. "But the sons of the kingdom" were the natural children, the seed, but not the true children according to Abraham's faith. These would be "thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Jesus had come to bless men, and unbelief could not altogether stop this work. It might reduce the stream of blessing for a time, or turn it into other channels, because faith is essential to its outflow... The unbelief of Nazareth was as striking as the faith of the Roman centurion. Jesus marvelled at both.

Great faith was marked by two things seen in verse 8. He said, "I am not worthy," condemning himself, and so ruling himself out of the question. He also said, "only say the word," when addressing the Lord. He had no opinion of himself, but he had a great opinion of Him. It was so great that he was ready to trust His word with no support from outside. Some people want the word of the Lord backed up by feelings, or by reason, or by experience. But great faith comes from discovering in Jesus so great a Person that His bare word is enough.

He recognised the honour God had put on His people. Though they were despised and failing badly, he still loved His nation and had built them a synagogue. His humility was genuine, for his faith went far beyond the people he honoured. So he had a very high grasp of the power and glory of Christ's Person as divine, reaching beyond Jewish thoughts altogether... Faith always makes humble, because it lifts up the object of faith. And note, his faith came by report, by hearing.

Can we wonder that the gracious Lord wondered? It was faith simple and strong, the fruit of divine grace. The word of God was read and heard in the synagogue, and it taught the centurion about God's nature and ways. None of the Jews learned this. They listened with no such sense of need, and claimed instead that the word was theirs alone. Not even in Israel, the Lord said, had He found so great faith.

Such is our position. Jesus is away and unseen. We hear His word, take hold of it, and are saved. This is the beautiful way in which we are shown here how the Lord dealt differently with the Jew and with the Gentile. But we learn more. Israel would refuse the blessing, and the Gentiles would become the objects of mercy. Many Gentiles will come from east and west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Rejecting their Messiah, the Jews as a nation were going to be rejected.

Our acceptance does not depend for its value on how great or how feeble our faith in Him is. It is the same for all. (What we enjoy from it does depend on that.)... Our faith may be defective, like that of the leper who said, "If you will, you can." He admitted the power but doubted the will. Or it may be strong, like the faith the Lord said was greater than any He had found in Israel. In each case deliverance was sought, and it did not depend on the faith of the men asking but on the love and power of the Lord.

In the next case we see a Gentile who, by faith, enjoys the full effect of the power his faith credited to Jesus. This gave the Lord the occasion to bring out a solemn truth. Many of these poor Gentiles would come and sit down in the kingdom of heaven with the fathers, whom the Jewish nation honoured as the first parents of the heirs of promise.

Matthew sets the leper right before the centurion, to mark the grace ready for the Gentile when the defiled people would reject the Messiah. The Gospel shows this from its beginning to its end. So in its account of the centurion (not in Luke's matching account), the Lord declares that many would come from east and west and share the feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Jesus speaks as the Messiah. In that character He warns the unbelieving Jews that their descent from the patriarchs will do them no good. They were children of the men God made the promises to. Yet if they rejected Him, they would be thrown out. The centurion, whose servant He had healed, had pressed by faith into the possession of blessing. In the same way, numbers of people from every quarter would press into the kingdom when God set it up. By faith they would gain the blessed privilege that these Jews were now despising.

This must have been a solemn and startling announcement to Jewish ears. It plainly foretells that Gentiles will be let into the privileges of the kingdom, while the natural heirs are shut out.

His soul looks ahead to those gathering crowds who would come from opposite quarters to sit down at the glad feast of welcome with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

God will then fulfil every promise to the fathers. Yes, no doubt, when the Lord reigns, the fathers will be raised from the dead and will appear in the kingdom... To apply this text to the Church would completely overturn the present gospel of the grace of God. But the Lord is speaking about the kingdom, and so this text throws great light on that reign.

Right now, while the kingdom of heaven exists in a hidden form, God is bringing these Gentile strangers in from the east and from the west. But later on... these strangers will be seen sitting down with the patriarchs in the heavenly part of that glorious kingdom. Israel, pardoned and restored, will occupy the earth, together with the nations that are spared.

It is certain that we will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But that in no way conflicts with the place of the church as the body and bride of Christ. What is there to stop us enjoying other spheres of glory besides the ones that are our own in a special way?

He had only to speak the word, and his servant would be healed. The bodily presence of the Messiah was not needed. God could not be limited by a question of place; His word was enough. Disease must obey Him, as the soldier or the servant obeyed the centurion, their superior.

When the Lord was on earth, He surrendered Himself to faith. When faith was great, He acted according to its measure: "let it be done for you as you have believed" (Matt. 8:13). "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire" (Matt. 15:28). When faith was small, He acted according to Himself — see Matt. 8:26, where He answered the disciples' "little faith" with "a great calm."

The great principle of the divine life is faith. It is simple, earnest, wholehearted faith that takes and enjoys all that God has given. It puts the soul in possession of eternal realities and keeps it there as a habit. This is true of the people of God in every age. "According to your faith be it done to you," is always the divine motto. There is no limit. All that God reveals, faith may have. All that faith can grasp, the soul may enjoy continually.

The centurion's servant was paralysed — a picture of the helpless and hopeless condition of the Gentiles… His simple faith is the fullest confession that Jesus is God. It confesses that He is able to heal by His Word, though He is away from the sick man. What a grand foreshadowing of the age in which we live and of the mercy shown to the Gentiles! It is the character of the age. Jesus is absent, yet in childlike faith we know Him, and by His Word He shows His power. It is not healing by touch, but by His Word… Here, after the failure of Abraham's descendants, the Gentile refreshes the heart of the Lord… Are you refreshing and comforting His heart — Him who is unseen now? Surely it is by simple faith in Himself and in His power that we refresh Him.

This is what drew out our Lord's praise: his confidence in the power of His word while He was not there in person. We have here a principle that is vital to us at the present hour. Christ is not here, having gone up to the Father's throne. But His Word is with us. In the Scriptures we may hear His living voice at any time… We rest on His Word. It is our all, since He Himself is no longer here with us. If His Word could be wrested from our hands, our darkness would be impenetrable.

The slave was healed. Such faith as his master showed could not be denied. Nor will faith in the Word of the absent Saviour ever fail to receive fullest acknowledgment from God.

The Lord rewards the Gentile centurion's faith at once by healing the servant without being present Himself. Today also Gentiles who have not seen Him and yet have believed are the special objects of His great favour.

The Gentile centurion appealed in faith to that gracious power, which had only to speak the word and healing followed. Even so, the Lord in no way turned from Israel. His heart went out to His favoured but guilty people. And Peter's wife's mother lying down in fever lets us see it clearly. Here He does enter the house, and touch her hand. Luke tells us that she was seized with a great fever, since fevers differ a lot. Luke adds that they asked Him for her, and Mark says they told Him about her at once.

The third case is that of Peter's mother-in-law. Here His touch instantly cured her; there is no record of His having spoken a word. It might be His touch and His word, as with the leper. It might be His word only, as with the centurion's servant. Or it might be His touch only. The result was the same each time — instant deliverance. There was no slow recovery after the fever; she got up at once and served others. Sin brings on a fevered state of mind and soul, but His touch drives it away.

The sick mother-in-law of Peter rises up at His word and serves them, and the evil spirits leave those they controlled at once, and He heals all the sick. But it was not merely power. His heart was in it and felt it all. "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." His miracles were miracles of goodness.

His power did not only send the disease away with a word. Against all nature, it also gave her strength. A "great" fever leaves a person very weak even after it has gone, and a long time must pass before normal strength returns. But here the healing came from divine power, so Peter's wife's mother not only got up — she served them at once.

We have had man in his polluted condition, and we have had man in his helpless condition, and now we have man in his ungovernable passions — the fever. The Old Testament looks at idolatry as adultery, and it speaks of those who go after idols as inflaming themselves. So here we have One who can deal with what is ungovernable. We also see that while the fire of sinful passions is burning you are unfit for service. The fever had to be subdued before she served.

When Jesus healed the leper by His touch, it pictured the time when our Lord was here on earth in person… When He healed the centurion's servant by a word spoken at a distance, that shows what is happening now. He is no longer here among us in person. But His Word is with us, and crowds of Gentiles are finding blessing through faith in its wonderful message. The raising up of Peter's wife's mother pictures in advance what He will do when His present gracious work among the nations ends. He will turn once more in His goodness to Israel — the people Peter's mother-in-law stood for.

In 1 Corinthians 9:5 Paul the apostle insists that he had the same right to a wife as to eat and drink. He points to the example of "the other apostles," and names Cephas (Peter) outright. In his first letter to Timothy (1 Tim. 3), which deals mostly with church order, he lays it down with authority that both overseers and deacons should be married men.

The third case is Peter's mother-in-law. Here His touch cured her at once; there is no record that He spoke a word at all. It might be His touch and His word, as with the leper. It might be His word only, as with the centurion's servant. Or it might be His touch only. The result was the same in every case — instant deliverance. There was no slow recovery from the fever; she got up at once and served others. Sin induces a fevered state of mind and soul, but His touch dispels it.

There was power here to send the disease away with a word. But there was more: against everything natural, He also gave her strength. A "great" fever leaves a person very weak even after it has gone, and a long time usually passes before normal energy returns. Here, though, the healing came from divine power, so Peter's mother-in-law did not simply get up — she served them at once.

We have seen man unclean, and man helpless, and now we see man with his passions out of control — the fever… So here we have One who can deal with what cannot be controlled. We also see that while the fire of sinful passions is burning, you are unfit for service. The fever had to be put down before she served. In one Gospel, she got up and served Him. We are set free to serve both the Lord and those who are precious to Him.

The Gentile centurion appealed in faith to that gracious power, which had only to speak the word and healing followed. Even so, the Lord in no way turned away from Israel. His heart still longed over that chosen but guilty people. Peter's mother-in-law, laid low with fever, lets us see it plainly. Here He does go into the house and touch her hand… And it was not only that the fever left her at once; she was serving them (Mark and Luke) as well as Him (Matthew).

There was urgency but not panic, because the people in that home already knew the Lord and trusted Him with it. Their speaking to Him is a picture of prayer. How natural it should be to turn to Him for the help and guidance we need in our families, and in every part of our lives.

The healed woman used her new strength to serve the One who gave it, and those with Him. This is an example for all time. What do we have that we did not receive? So let everything be given back to Him who is the Giver.

The Lord of glory held a great reception that night. But the crowd was not the kind found in the courts of the world's great ones. He was greater than Solomon, yet no Queen of Sheba was there with her gifts. The day is coming when all nations will fall down before Him. Those who honoured Him that night were only a company of invalids. Nor did they seek His face in vain.

The demons had entered these people and left them morally and spiritually defiled. They were brought into the presence of the Son of God, "and He cast out the spirits with a word." The foul spirits that brought such distress to men could not defile the Son of God. More than that, they could not stay in His presence once He spoke the word.

When Scripture notes the power of Jesus in casting out the evil spirits, it links that power to the kingdom and to Himself as the anointed One. He could do it with a word. The Jewish system, meanwhile, could not free its children from this terrible affliction at all.

Peter's sick mother-in-law rises up at His word. The evil spirits leave the people they had entered, at once. All the sick are healed. But it was not merely power. His heart was in it and felt it all. "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." His miracles were miracles of goodness. They were not merely a few miracles given as a testimony. They were deliverance from all the effect of sin and Satan's power.

In what sense did Jesus, our Lord, take their infirmities and bear their sicknesses? In this, I believe: He never used the power that was in Him to meet sickness or infirmity as a matter of mere power. In deep compassionate feeling He entered into the whole reality of the case. He healed, and He bore its burden on His heart before God as truly as He took it away from men. Sickness and infirmity could not touch Him, and that is exactly why He was free to take up each consequence of sin in this way.

In Matthew we see the Lord taking away the sicknesses and the infirmities of His people. But look at the passage in Isaiah that this act fulfils, and you will see that He first took these burdens on His own shoulders. In His own tender grace and unspeakable compassion, He went down in spirit under the load of the sorrow of those who sought His aid. Then He carried it on His own heart before God, and last of all He took it away.

It is well known that good and learned men have laboured in vain over Isaiah 53:4. The reason is that they have not paid attention to the Holy Spirit's use of it in Matthew 8:17. There the Holy Spirit applies it to the grace with which Christ used His power to remove infirmities and sicknesses in His ministry among the Jews… If any inspired writer applied Isaiah 53:4 to the atonement, that would settle it. But Scripture applies it only to Christ's ministry, or at least His miracles. When His dying for our sins is meant, the Spirit points to Isaiah 53:11-12, in 1 Peter 2:24 and Hebrews 9:28.

This is how Jesus was "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." This is how He qualified Himself to be our sympathising High Priest on high. He did not take these physical infirmities on His own body; He bore them on His spirit. His acts of healing were not acts of power only. They were acts of sympathy as well.

Here we are told very clearly how and when the Scripture in Isaiah was fulfilled. It was NOT fulfilled on the cross. It WAS fulfilled in the actual deeds of healing that He performed when He was here on earth. The Scripture just quoted says this as plainly as possible.

Some have used these words wrongly. They take them to mean that He bore our sicknesses on the cross, and so a believer ought never to be ill. The right application is found here. He did not relieve men without feeling their sorrows and sicknesses. He bore in His spirit the weight of the very evils that He dismissed by His power.

I do not doubt that His whole soul entered into our infirmities and sicknesses. He felt their whole sorrow and burden before God, in the full sense of what they were. He did so to set them aside and to bar Satan's power over them. But was He sick and infirm because He Himself took our infirmities? Clearly not. In a word, it is not being Himself in the state He sympathises with that gives the sympathy.

This was entirely sympathetic — the power of fellow-feeling, which in Him was perfect. He had no sicknesses or infirmities of His own... But by sympathy — by perfect fellow-feeling — "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." Only a perfect man could have done this. We may feel for one another and with one another; but only Jesus could make human infirmity and sickness His own.

It is well known that good and learned men have laboured in vain over Isaiah 53:4. They did not pay attention to how the Holy Spirit uses it in Matthew 8:17. There the Spirit applies it to the grace with which He used His power to remove infirmities and sicknesses in His ministry among the Jews... Isaiah 53:4 is applied only to Christ's ministry, or at least to His miracles. When His dying for our sins is meant, the Spirit in 1 Peter 2:24 and Hebrews 9:28 refers to Isaiah 53:11-12.

He does not yet forsake Israel... Jesus put Himself in heart under the weight of all the sorrows that oppressed Israel, in order to relieve and heal them. He is still Emmanuel. He feels for their misery and is afflicted in all their affliction. Yet He has come in with power that shows He is able to deliver them.

This is how Jesus came to "sympathize with our weaknesses" (Heb. 4:15). This is how He qualified Himself to be our sympathising High Priest on high. Not that He took these physical infirmities on His own body, but He bore them on His spirit. His acts of healing were not acts of power only, but acts of sympathy as well... When the deaf man who could not speak stood before Him, He looked up to heaven and sighed (Mark 7:34). At the grave of Lazarus He groaned in spirit, was troubled, and wept (John 11:33-38).

How wonderfully He entered into our sorrows at every step of His path, and served us in love. We read, "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases" (Matt. 8:17). Following in His steps, we shall serve one another in love. In doing so we display something of the excellencies of Christ.