NOTES for Mat 8:16-17

The evangelist Matthew chooses an astonishing quotation from the Old Testament to explain the countless miraculous healings performed by the Lord Jesus Christ. From the whole broad "victory" tradition of the Old Testament, which tells of the coming kingdom of the Messiah, he recalls Isaiah's strangest and most difficult prophecy about the rejection of the Messiah, the prophecy of the Cross. All these healings, according to the evangelist's thought, take place because Christ "took our infirmities upon Himself and bore our diseases."

The human mind is arranged in such a way that we picture the healing God as a good doctor, differing from Doctor Aybolit only in that He can treat everything. But this is far from an exact and full idea. Christ heals because on the Cross He takes upon Himself our infirmities and diseases. The instrument of healing is the Cross of Christ, on which He shares our sufferings. The apostle Paul writes in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God..." (1 Cor. 6:20). It is necessary to remember this price so as not to remain ungrateful.