Healing every sickness and every disease

This verse is taken from:
Matthew 9. 18-38
Thought of the day for:
13 January 2025

Commenting on the ministry of the Lord Jesus as recorded in the latter part of this chapter J. C. RYLE wrote, ‘He was an eyewitness of all the ills that flesh is heir to; He saw ailments of every kind, sort, and description; He was brought into contact with every form of bodily suffering. None were too loathsome for Him to attend to; none were too frightful for Him to cure’. Several Old Testament prophets spoke of the blessings that would attend the coming of Israel’s Messiah, amongst which are the words of Isaiah, ‘The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped . . . the tongue of the dumb [shall] sing’, Isa. 35. 5, 6. This prophecy is looking on to the second advent of the Lord and to millennial days, but the very fact the Lord accomplished such miracles at His first advent bore testimony to His identity as the Messiah.

As the Lord began His public ministry Matthew spoke, in chapter 4 verse 23, of the Lord ‘healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people’. Now in chapter 9, in almost identical words, the same observation is made. But why? Despite the references to the spreading of His fame and the testimony of the people, ‘It was never so seen in Israel’, it is nevertheless evident that on the part of the religious authorities there was a growing animosity towards the Saviour, vv. 26, 31, 33, 34. The reminder of the power of the Lord to heal all demonstrates that even after adequate testimony was given to them, still they rejected Him. Truly He could say, ‘They hated me without a cause’, John 15. 25.

Reviewing the verses before us today, not only is there an emphasis upon the power of the Lord, but also equally upon His compassion. Consider His condescension in agreeing to follow the ruler of the synagogue, His words of comfort and assurance to the woman, His attention to those who cried, ‘Have mercy on us’, His willingness to receive those brought to Him for help. Even the cruel insinuations and false accusations of His enemies produced no change within Him. Still He ‘was moved with compassion’ seeing the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd.

Do the multitudes without Christ similarly move us?

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