#16: Thursday, 12 March, 2020
**Thursday, 12 March — Seeking the Messiah. Matthew 8:1–17**
This passage opens with crowds following Jesus and closes similarly, with many brought seeking healing. Three distinct healing accounts occupy the middle section, serving Matthew's theological purpose.
The three healings showcase diverse circumstances:
1. An anonymous man with leprosy — rendered unclean and excluded from community and temple worship under Jewish Law 2. A Roman Centurion requesting healing for his servant, representing a Gentile perspective 3. Peter's mother-in-law, healed on the Sabbath (confirmed in Mark 1:21–32)
Matthew deliberately selected these cases from available accounts. Mark's parallel account reveals they occurred separately rather than simultaneously.
Divine Healing: A Contemporary Question
Church traditions diverge on whether miraculous healing remains available today. Some argue cessation occurred post-Pentecost; others maintain healing remains accessible through sufficient faith. Rather than exhaustive analysis, this reflection offers one perspective: Jesus performed frequent miracles during his incarnation to demonstrate kingdom arrival in power. His healing ministry fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy regarding the Suffering Servant bearing our infirmities.
Matthew's narrative demonstrates that "healing of infirmities and diseases was a sign of Jesus' Messiahship" across all peoples and times — not a formula for contemporary living.
Living With Suffering Now
This question carries personal weight. My wife has battled incurable cancer for seven years while undergoing chemotherapy. Many readers face comparable losses through cancer, Alzheimer's, Motor Neurone disease, and other devastating illnesses. Academic theory proves insufficient; sufferers need Gospel truth offering genuine comfort.
The Time-Between-Times
Jesus healed abundantly while present because he inaugurated his kingdom, offering foretasting of the future Great Banquet where all illness and sorrow cease. You and I do not live in that time. Instead, we inhabit the "now-but-not-yet" era where faith, hope and love are our currency.
Observable reality demonstrates that most Christians remain unhealed. All Christians eventually die, typically from illness or accident. Healing remains certain but arrives only upon entering his presence beyond death.
Offering Suffering as Gift
During suffering, we identify with Christ's sufferings by enduring our own. Rather than offering the problem itself, we offer our suffering — the lived experience of navigating failure, sin, and sorrow. This gift, mingled with faith, represents our service, distinct from salvation achieved through grace.
Our best way of dealing with suffering is to offer it up to him as our gift to him. Paul encourages handling both suffering and joy with rejoicing.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, I find it so difficult to offer up my suffering. I can nearly, just about, grasp this idea of offering up my suffering to you – but I really need you to imprint that idea on my soul. Help me to be faithful to you in the middle of suffering and to look forward to its own fruits – perseverance, patience, character, and hope. Amen.