Jesus Saves, Jesus Heals

The Gospel of St Mathew initiates a lengthy narrative of the Lord’s miracles by a cursory summary of what he did on one day: “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.” Matthew took this summary pretty much verbatim from Mark.

Matthew goes on to add, however, a note about biblical prophecy: “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and bore our illnesses.’ This addition is sudden and unexpected. In fact, this quotation from Isaiah is the earliest explicit reference to the Lord’s Passion in Matthew’s gospel.

It seems obvious that Matthew inserts this mention of the Passion in order to prepare for Jesus’ summons to discipleship in the verses that follow:

Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8.18-22).

Thus, as Matthew has arranged his sequence, the summons to the difficulties of discipleship are immediately preceded by the first mention of the Lord’s coming Passion. It is a simple way of saying that the cost of discipleship always involves the Cross.

It remains curious, nonetheless, that Matthew should introduce the image of the Lord’s Passion in connection with His healing of the sick and the cleansing of the demon possessed. This perspective is, I believe, proper to Matthew.

There is more to be noted about Matthew’s citation from Isaiah, however. As he quotes the prophetic text, it reads,

He assumed our weaknesses
And carried our illnesses

This is curious, because in the Isaian texts that have come down to us, this is not exactly what the prophet says. For instance, in the extant Hebrew text the passage reads:

Truly our pains He bore
And our sorrows—He carried them

In the ancient Greek translation (LXX), however, the same passage reads,

He bears our sins
And suffers for us.

Thus, counting Matthew, we have within the Bible itself three different readings for this verse.

The whole context—the most quoted of the Suffering Servants songs—is understood to refer to the Lord’s Passion.

So what prompts Matthew to quote this text—even changing the wording of it—in reference to our Lord’s healing of the sick and the purging of the demon-possessed.

This, I think, Matthew perceives no division or separation in the ministry of Christ our Lord. He saves and heals, whether in the sickroom or on the Cross. He carries our pains, but He also carries them away. He removes sickness, because He takes away sins.

Jesus is, in other works, more than a thaumaturge. The power that flows from His person is not free. It has been bought and paid for. Jesus does not merely remove our affliction; He assumes it. He takes it upon Himself.

In what the gospels record of His earthly ministry, we find Him applying to the flesh and minds of His compatriots the power of the Cross. He was already acting as the Savior of the world, when He touched the hand of Peter’s kinswoman. When He raised the daughter of Jairus, He did so by the might of His own Resurrection.

When Jesus heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, and cleanses from infection the leper’s flesh, these wonders serve as prophecies of the complete healing and the final glory of the resurrected body.

The work of Christ is of whole cloth, and it is all Salvation. “Jesus saves” and “Jesus heals” are the same thing.