WHAT DOES VERSE 17 SAY? It tells us that Jesus “received our sicknesses” and that he “bore our diseases.”
- Matthew 8:17.
- We read right past that phrase without thinking about it, but when you pause on it there is a peculiarity to it. What exactly does that mean?
- I want to stop and think about it for a moment.
- In what sense did He receive our sickness? In what sense did He bear our diseases?
- We usually think of the work of Christ on the cross in terms of spiritual impact. We don’t think of it usually as far as sickness and disease.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Jesus apparently not only died for spiritual sin, but also took the physical implications of sin upon Himself.
- Isaiah 53:3-5, 10-12; Matthew 8:17.
- This chapter up to here has focused on physical healings and spiritual healings:
a. vv. 1-4 – Physical healing of leprosy.
b. vv. 5-13 – Physical healing of paralysis.
c. vv. 14-15 – Physical healing of fever.
d. v. 16a – Spiritual healing of demons.
e. v. 16b – Physical healings of “all the sick.”
- The repeated focus has been on physical healing.
- It is following those statements that this verse is quoted, so the focus is clearly on physical healing.
- We also see this as we study the passage that Matthew quotes from.
- Points to consider out of Isaiah 53:
a. v. 4 – This is the quoted verse from the passage in Matthew 8.
b. v. 3 – He was familiar with suffering.
c. v. 5 – This is a more traditional thought, having to do with our sinfulness.
d. v. 12 – He bore the sin of many.
e. v. 10 – This suffering was the Lord’s will. Why? Because it was the only way to bring our healing.
f. v. 10 – His suffering will prolong our lives. How long? Eternal life.
g. v. 11 – After the suffering, He will see the light of life and be satisfied.
h. v. 11 – He justifies many and bears their iniquities.
- Going back to the Matthew 8 idea for a second, it appears that Jesus also took the physical dimensions of the Fall upon Himself as well: disease, sickness, and death.
- This is something we usually don’t think about in that way.
- We think of sin being placed upon Him, but we don’t usually think about the global implications of sin also being something that He had to bear.
- It does make sense, though. For sin to be taken away, all of sin would have to atoned for.
WHAT ARE THE PHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THIS ACT?
1. The first thing to understand is that the healing miracles are signs.
- Matthew 8:14-17; Matthew 9:1-7.
- What’s a sign? It tells you what’s ahead.
- The miracles of healing were obviously valuable to the person who was healed.
- The larger point of the miracles of healing, though, was to point to a larger point: a change had come and Jesus was making a way toward something greater.
- His goal was not merely instructive (although it was that). His goal was not merely to bring comfort (although He did that). His goal was transformative and redemptive. He intended to changed the way things are.
- Matthew 9:1-7 shows Jesus pointing to this truth by saying that the physical healing is just so that they will know that He really does have the power to forgive sin.
2. All of creation was impacted by the entrance of sin into the world.
- Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:19-23.
- The sin of Adam had obvious implications for humanity, but it also had implications for creation itself.
- In Genesis 3, Adam’s punishment includes the ground being cursed and farming becoming a chore.
- In Romans 8, Paul speaks of all of creation longing to see the change that will come with the redemption of mankind.
- The negative impact of the Fall extended to all creation. We continue to see that today when we see all the natural disasters as well as the disease and sickness that is a common part of our lives.
3. Jesus’ death opens the door for the end of disease and death.
- Revelation 21:4.
- This verse is one that we all know but that we don’t really think about too much concerning what it means.
- It points to a cosmic change in the way our world is.
- And, as far as our point for this sermon, that means that there is a physical dimension to the change that Jesus brings. The death of Christ will change the way that our world operates.
- Can you imagine life without disease?
- Can you imagine life without death?
- It’s almost too much to imagine. It’s almost too great a shift in the way we live our lives to be able to comprehend.
- There is a global dimension to the salvation and redemption that Christ brings.
- Jesus didn’t just save our souls and leave all that’s around us tainted by the Fall. He intends to redeem all of creation.
4. We will have new bodies that are not destroyed by disease and death.
- 1 Corinthians 15:42-44.
- Not only is there a global dimension to the death of Christ, but there is also a bodily dimension for each of us as believers.
- 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of how we will have new bodies.
- We spoke a moment ago about living in a world of disease and death, which is something we can hardly imagine being different.
- In a similar way, the diseases that regularly wrack our bodies are what we’re used to. The slow, inexorably slide toward death is also something that we’re used to.
- What would life be like without those things?
- I was talking to one of the boys one night and the idea of eternal life came up. “But it has to end sometime,” was their response. That’s a natural thought since that’s all we know.
HOW THAT INFLUENCES MY DAILY LIFE: We need to quit seeing our world of disease and death as “business as usual.”
- Life is overwhelming sometimes. We look around and things seem to be falling apart everywhere we turn.
- It’s just “the way things are.”
- Well, it is, but it won’t be. Jesus’ death has changed the long-term calculus of how our world is going to work.
- As Christians, we need to have a vision for something greater.
- So much of what we take as “the way things are” is heavily influenced by the sinful Fall.
- We need to grasp the expansive reach of the implications of the death of Christ.
- See how big this redemption is intended to be.
