Matt 8:14–17 — He Took Our Illnesses

The title of this sermon comes from Matthew 8:17: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” This is a startling statement. It might initially sound as though faith in Jesus guarantees freedom from sickness, but that is not what Matthew teaches. We must therefore ask what these words mean.

The prominence of healing miracles in the four Gospels can raise a similar question. Why do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John devote so much attention to Jesus healing physical diseases? Some readers may wonder whether these passages support the claim that miraculous physical healing should characterize Christian experience in the present age.

Matthew 8:17 helps us understand their theological significance. Matthew does not merely narrate the healings; he interprets them through the Old Testament. After recording several miracles, he says, “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” Jesus’ healings visibly demonstrate his power to save, and that saving power is inseparably tied to his atoning death. Healing flows from the cross.

The Healing Ministry of Jesus

Matthew 8–9 contains ten miracles. The first was the cleansing of a leper. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the unclean man. He then healed the servant of a Roman centurion from a distance, merely by speaking a word.

The third miracle occurs when Jesus enters Peter’s house and sees his mother-in-law lying ill with a fever. “He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.” That evening, the healing ministry expands: “They brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.”

Matthew concludes this series with one of his characteristic fulfillment formulas: “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.” Similar formulas appear throughout the Gospel. For example, Matthew interprets the virgin birth by quoting Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” Such quotations show that the events of Jesus’ life possess theological significance as the fulfillment of Scripture.

The healing miracles demonstrate Christ’s power to save. The angel had said that Mary’s son would be called Jesus because “he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus corresponds to Joshua and means “the Lord saves.” Jesus is Savior, and his work as healer gives visible expression to that saving identity.

Physical healing, however, is a sign of a deeper salvation from sin. Jesus displays his saving power outwardly by restoring the sick, but the power to heal and save flows from his death as the suffering servant foretold in Isaiah 53.

Sickness as a Consequence of Sin

To understand Matthew’s interpretation, we must consider the Old Testament relationship between sickness and sin.

In the broadest sense, all sickness is a consequence of Adam’s fall. Romans 5:12 says, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.” Even infants, who have not personally committed conscious acts of sin, can suffer and die because the whole human race exists under the reign of death introduced through Adam. Every experience of mortality, including sickness as a precursor of death, belongs to this fallen condition.

Under the old covenant, God also used sickness more specifically as a covenantal punishment for sin. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 list the curses that would fall upon Israel for disobedience and apostasy. Among these curses are wasting disease and fever (Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:22). This is particularly relevant to the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law.

The Psalms sometimes describe individuals experiencing sickness under God’s disciplinary hand. Psalm 32:4 says, “Day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” The imagery resembles the draining weakness of a fever. Psalm 41:4 directly connects a plea for healing with confession: “Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

This does not mean that every illness resulted from a particular sin committed by the suffering person. The general consequences of Adam’s fall remain sufficient to explain why human beings become sick and die. Nevertheless, under the old covenant God sometimes used disease to impress upon his people the connection between sin, judgment, sickness, and death. This pattern prepared the way for Christ.

Visible Healing and Invisible Forgiveness

Because sickness is a consequence of sin, Christ’s healing of the sick becomes a visible sign of the invisible forgiveness of sins. Matthew makes this connection explicit in the healing of the paralytic in chapter 9.

When friends bring the paralyzed man to Jesus, he first says, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” The scribes accuse him of blasphemy because only God can forgive sin. Jesus then asks, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” He heals the man “that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” The paralytic rises, takes up his bed, and goes home.

The visible miracle confirms the invisible reality. Jesus’ authority to heal the body testifies to his authority to forgive the soul. As the eternal Son made man and anointed by the Spirit, he brings the kingdom of God in saving power. His healings make the kingdom’s forgiveness visible.

“He Took Our Illnesses”

What prompted Matthew to quote Isaiah 53:4? The repeated emphasis on Jesus touching the sick is significant. He “stretched out his hand and touched” the leper, and he “touched” the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law.

The touch does not merely suggest healing power flowing from Jesus’ fingers into the sick person. Matthew presents the movement in the opposite direction. By touching the sick, Jesus symbolically takes their sickness and death upon himself. The four Gospels are passion narratives with extended introductions: the entire ministry of Christ moves toward the cross, where he becomes accursed and suffers unto death in the place of his people.

As Jesus touches the sick, he gathers their sicknesses to himself. This action calls Isaiah 53 to mind because the suffering servant bears the afflictions and sins of God’s people.

Isaiah writes:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. . . . Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. . . . The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Sickness, Sin, and Substitution

The Hebrew words translated griefs and sorrows can refer broadly to suffering and are somewhat ambiguous. The context allows both physical sickness and spiritual guilt to come into view. In the Greek translation of Isaiah, the servant “bears sickness” and “carries our sins.” Matthew renders the words, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

Isaiah himself explains the metaphor in verse 5. The servant is “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities.” His wounds bring healing because he bears the punishment that belongs to others. The verbs take, carry, and bear express substitution: the servant takes the guilt and suffering of his people upon himself.

Matthew’s fulfillment formula therefore identifies Jesus as Isaiah’s suffering servant and interprets Isaiah 53 as a prophecy of the Messiah’s atoning death. Physical sickness is not the passage’s final concern. It portrays the deeper affliction of sin and the substitutionary work by which Christ bears it away.

Israel’s Spiritual Exile

Isaiah 53 looks toward Israel’s restoration from exile. Because the nation had broken the covenant through idolatry, Babylon would destroy the temple and carry the people away. Isaiah nevertheless looked beyond judgment to a new deliverance and covenant accomplished through the suffering servant.

At times Isaiah’s servant appears to be Israel corporately. At other times he is distinct from Israel because he bears Israel’s sins. He identifies with the people in their exile, takes their guilt upon himself, and restores them.

Matthew is deeply concerned with this pattern of exile and restoration. His genealogy highlights the deportation to Babylon, and the angel announces that Jesus “will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Although the people had returned geographically after seventy years and rebuilt the temple, they remained in spiritual exile because they still needed deliverance from sin.

Matthew surveys the suffering around Jesus—lepers, fever, paralysis, disease, and demonic oppression—and sees evidence of this underlying spiritual condition. Israel remains harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. The people need a deliverer, not merely from Babylon or Rome, but from their sins. Jesus comes as the suffering servant who bears their iniquities and ends their spiritual exile.

Healing Flows from the Cross

According to Matthew, Jesus’ healing ministry is possible only because of his atoning death. The cross is the source of every healing. Isaiah 53 ultimately describes Christ becoming a curse, being crushed, and making his soul an offering for guilt.

Matthew sees that prophecy fulfilled not only at the historical moment of crucifixion but also in the healings that precede it. The saving power of Christ’s future death and resurrection reaches backward to heal, forgive, deliver, and bring people into the kingdom. These miracles are the retroactive fruit of the cross.

Jesus’ entire public ministry moves toward this climax. He teaches, proclaims the gospel, heals the sick, and casts out demons while gathering the burdens of his people to himself. At the cross, he bears those sins away so that his people may be forgiven and healed.

Matthew’s brief quotation is therefore not an isolated proof text. By citing one line from Isaiah 53, he invokes the entire chapter and its theology of the suffering servant. The healing ministry foreshadows and depends upon the substitutionary death of Christ.

Peter interprets Isaiah in the same way:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

Peter applies the healing metaphor to atonement for sin rather than promising immediate physical health. Christ’s wounds heal us by securing forgiveness and enabling us to die to sin and live to righteousness.

Sickness in the Christian Life

How, then, should Christians understand sickness under the new covenant? Generally, we should not assume that an illness is punishment for a particular sin. A diagnosis of cancer or a severe fever does not by itself indicate some specific transgression for which God is judging us.

There can be direct connections between behavior and physical consequences. Persistent drunkenness, for example, can damage the liver. Such consequences may properly lead us to repentance. Yet we should not ordinarily treat every sickness as a coded message pointing to a particular sin.

Sickness does provide an opportunity to reflect upon our fallen condition and the guilt inherited from Adam. It reminds us that we live under the shadow of death and directs us to cling more closely to Christ, the Great Physician.

The greatest healing that flows from the cross is the invisible healing of the soul: the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. We may also ask God for physical healing. Scripture gives us freedom to bring prolonged illness, cancer, fever, and every bodily need before him. There is, however, no guarantee that he will heal us physically in this life.

God sometimes permits suffering to draw us nearer to Christ. He may use illness to deepen our longing for the resurrection, when he will finally deliver his people from every form of bodily suffering.

The cross guarantees that final physical healing, though we may have to wait for it. Because the suffering servant bore our sins and satisfied God’s wrath, God will raise our bodies from death and conform them to Christ’s glorious resurrection body. Jesus heals us in soul now through forgiveness, and he will heal our bodies at the last day.

He Saved Others

The mockery directed at Jesus during the crucifixion reveals a final irony. The passersby say, “He saved others; he cannot save himself” (Matthew 27:42). They know that Jesus healed the sick and delivered the oppressed. They have heard that he saved others, but they do not understand what he is accomplishing upon the cross.

If Jesus had saved himself from crucifixion, he could not have saved others from sin. He saves others precisely by refusing to save himself. The cross is not the interruption or defeat of his healing ministry; it is its climax and source. All of Christ’s power to forgive, heal, restore, and raise the dead flows from the cross.