Healing with Matthew 8.17 - Part 1
He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with sickness: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5, RV, marg.)
In attempting to refute healing in redemption, many preachers have limited Isaiah 53:4 to sin only. They say that since Isaiah 53:4 is couched in the “Yahweh’s Suffering Servant” chapter, “sicknesses” and “sorrows” contextually speak only to sin and that New Testament believers cannot rely upon the plain meaning of sickness and disease for physical healing in redemption (atonement). That argument is squelched by Matthew 8:17:
When the even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses (diseases - RV)” (Matthew 8:16, 17, KJV)
In these verses, Matthew cites Isaiah 53:4 as the grounds for Jesus casting out demons and healing the sick. The context undeniably applies to physical healing as sin is not mentioned nor even implied. Matthew’s Greek vocabulary of astheneias (“infirmities”) and nosous (“diseases”) also decisively refers to physical ailments.
What is sensational is that Matthew, inspired by the Holy Ghost, did not copy the Septuagint, but instead composed his own Greek translation of Isaiah 53:4. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament that was completed approximately 300 to 100 years prior to Jesus and many of the New Testament writers quote from it in New Testament Scripture. For instance, the Hebrews writer quotes Psalm 40 in Hebrews 10:5-8 from the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew text. Matthew, himself, also quotes directly from the Septuagint in several verses, e.g., Matthew 21:16; 21:42, which makes his Greek translation in verse 17 so remarkable. The Septuagint’s translation of Isaiah 53:4, has substituted “sins” for “sicknesses,” but apparently the Holy Ghost sought to maintain “sicknesses” from the original Hebrew text to demonstrate the believers’ redemptive rights concerning physical healing.
Even in the face of Matthew’s God-breathed Greek, some ministers resort to the bare-knuckled argument that Matthew 8:17 only applies to Jesus’s earthly ministry. They say that the verse stands as “an evidence and proof of Christ’s Messianic claim.” At first glance that sounds plausible, but it’s logical conclusion violates Sola scriptura. If Matthew 8:17 stands as proof of Jesus’s Messianic claim, then He could go anywhere and everywhere demonstrating those powers. He could cast out devils and heal the sick at His own whim. In his hometown of Nazareth, the Word says:
and he could not there do so much as a single mighty work, - save on a few sick he laid his hands and cured them. (Mark 6:5, Rotherham)
By Mark 6:5, if Jesus was indeed providing proof of His Messiahship in His healing ministry, we’d understand that there were some “hard” cases that even God couldn’t heal. Thankfully, that is not the case. In His healing ministry, Jesus functioned as a prophet under the Old Testament, see e.g.:
And Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. (Mark 6:4, RV)
God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will. (Hebrews 2:4, RV)
even Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38, RV)
and Matthew’s verse can be taken at its God-breathed plain meaning: there is healing in redemption.
