Healing on Either Side of the Sermon on the Mount
/In the Gospel of Matthew, the first miracles Jesus did were among the crowds immediately before and after the Sermon on the Mount.
These miracles break some traditional views about God's will to heal the sick. These are early lessons for the disciples and for us (21st century disciples) to understand that it is always God's will—for Jesus is the perfect revelation of this—to heal.
"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing EVERY disease and EVERY sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him ALL the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and HE HEALED THEM. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan." (Matthew 4: 23-25)
Jesus fame spread not because He healed a couple, a few, a dozen or a score, but all with every sickness and every disease. He healed them all. The repetition of the absolute terms “every” and “all” is so that we would get it—there were no exceptions.
With Jesus doing as He saw the Father do, there was no, “I pick you, but I don’t choose you.” There was no, “It might not be God's will.” There was no, “Come back again after you have repented” or "Hum…let’s see, maybe later for you. Next…"
The miracles happened then and there to everyone without qualification or exaggeration. This is why the large crowds from every region were following Him and would be open to listen to Him preaching.
After the lengthy Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), immediately Jesus goes back to the healing, refreshing His disciples and the crowds’ memories.
“When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, IF you choose, you can make me clean.’ He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” (Matthew. 8:1-3)
Jesus demonstrates that there are no IF’s when it comes to healing, even when the person asking for healing has IF’s. Jesus’ choice is for everyone to be healed every time.
It does not matter whether it is everyone in a crowd of people or a single person with leprosy. Jesus’ choice is always for all persons to be clean, healed and whole.
Jesus provides no exceptions and—if we are going to be like Him—neither should we.
Later in Matthew 8, after the centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law are healed, Matthew records, “That evening they brought to him MANY who were possessed by demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and HEALED ALL who were SICK. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’
Jesus took our every infirmity and bore our every sickness. If He took and bore them with Him at the whipping post, cross and tomb, then why would we think that He or the Father would give them back to us again after the stone was rolled away? Why would He who gives us His new life, expect us to bear the horrors of our old life?
God’s sovereign will is always healing. Moreover, He sovereignly expects His children to hear and do what His Son told them to do, “follow me” (Matthew 8: 22).
God’s sovereign will revealed in the New Testament is that He heal His afflicted children through His other children and do it every time. God’s sovereign will is to be done on earth— through us in Christ by Holy Spirit—as it is in heaven.
In Christ, we are like Him: “[He] gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness….Jesus sent them out with the following instructions… As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment” (Matthew 10: 1, 5, 7-8).
Every sickness, disease, death, devil, leprosy and tradition has to get out of the Way, Jesus in triumphal procession.
Enjoy His glory and share it with others!
Eric Wilding, Wildking Ministries