8:14–17 After describing the healings of two strangers in verses 1–13, Matthew recounts a more personal healing. Peter and Andrew are from Bethsaida (John 1:44), 5 miles (8 km) east of Capernaum, Jesus’ adopted home (Matt. 4:13; 8:5). Peter’s mother-in-law lives with him and falls into a fever (cf. 1 Cor. 9:5). Although rabbinic regulations forbid it, Jesus touches her. The healing is absolute and immediate. She arises and begins to serve him straight away (Luke 4:39).

The reports of Jesus’ early miracles reveal their salient features. They are gracious, therapeutic, and immediately effective (Matt. 8:3, 13, 26). Jesus heals directly, with a touch (vv. 3, 15) or by a word (vv. 8, 13, 16, 26, 32). This contrasts with alleged healers who trafficked in incantations, magical objects, olfactory effects, and sleep deprivation (Tob. 6:7–18). Josephus describes an exorcism in the presence of Vespasian:

He put a ring that had a root . . . to the nostril of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more, making . . . mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which [Solomon] composed. . . . He set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man. (Antiquities 8.46–49)

Jesus does none of this. With rare exceptions grounded in his purposes (Mark 6:5–6; 8:22–26), Jesus heals simply, immediately, effectively. No wonder people flock to him. Matthew 8:16 reports his cure of the demon possessed, who had suffered diseases as a result of the possession.

Verse 17 then cites Isaiah 53:4 to explain Jesus’ mighty deeds. Like John and his signs motif, Matthew believes that these miracles point to the work of the suffering servant of Isaiah 52:13–53:12. In the first Servant Song, corporate Israel is visible, but Isaiah 50:4–9 and 52:13–53:12 increasingly look to an individual servant. He will suffer physical blows and be disfigured by them (Isa. 50:6–7; 52:14; 53:2). He will be a man of sorrows (Isa. 53:3) and will go like a sheep led to slaughter (Isa. 53:7). His death will be a substitutionary atonement for sin, for “with his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5–6). The whole of Isaiah 53 is germane because it is understood that when the NT quotes a line from the OT, the reader should assume that the text’s context is in play. Matthew clearly has all of Isaiah 53 in view, since he draws on it repeatedly. For example, Jesus is silent at his trial (Matt. 27:14; cf. Isa. 53:7). He “made his grave . . . with a rich man” (Isa. 53:9; cf. Matt. 27:57–60). He will justify many so that they are “accounted righteous” (Isa. 53:11; cf. Matt. 20:25–28).

Since substitutionary atonement is prominent in Isaiah 53:5–6, we should place the quotation from Isaiah 53:4, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases,” in that context. Scripture assumes that illness is caused, directly or indirectly, by sin. Although English translations of Matthew 8:17 and Isaiah 53:4 diverge, Matthew works from the Hebrew text, not the LXX. The Hebrew terms have enough range that Delitzsch says that Matthew translates “freely and faithfully.” Isaiah 53:4 considers the evils that follow human sin; Jesus seeks to “relieve this evil in all its forms,” including sin and the griefs and illnesses caused by it.136 Jesus does so, Isaiah 53 foretells, by atoning for the sin that causes grief and disease.

Thus Matthew says that Jesus’ healing ministry is a function of his substitutionary death. This substitution establishes the basis for the healings by removing the sin (not necessarily the sins of the sick, per John 9) causing illness. So Isaiah and Matthew link atonement and healing. When Jesus atones for sin, he gains the right to deliver mankind from its effects, including illness. Later, Matthew 11 will cite Isaiah 35, which also links miracles to the messianic age, when freedom from sin and physical restoration go together (Isa. 29:18–20; 32:1–4; 35:3–10). There is unity to Jesus’ saving work. His atonement covers sin and begins to remove its consequences. So one may say there is healing in the atonement, even if no human has full access to that healing.

8:18–22 Jesus’ miracles always summon a response. When they draw too large a crowd in Capernaum, Jesus orders his disciples to the other side of Galilee (v. 18), where two men present themselves to Jesus as potential disciples. The first, a scribe, respectfully calls Jesus “Teacher” but manifests excessive confidence, declaring, “I will follow you wherever you go” (v. 19). Jesus asks if he knows what he is saying, for foxes with their holes and birds with their nests have more security and comfort than does the Son of Man. With him, any day can end with the question, “Where shall I lay my head?” Matthew chooses not to report the man’s reply. The reader can wonder how the story ends or he can slip into the gap created by silence and determine how he would finish the story.

If the first scribe is too quick to promise, the next man, called “another of the disciples,” is too hesitant (v. 21). He proposes to put discipleship on hiatus, resuming it after attending to the high duty of burying his father. “Disciple” can be a technical term for the Twelve or a loose term for any follower. This “disciple” calls Jesus “Lord” but offers himself conditionally. Knowledge of Jewish custom is essential here. While children were obligated to give their parents an honorable burial, this man’s father is almost certainly alive. Burial occurred less than twenty-four hours after death. Thus a son would be attending to the funeral, not standing outside talking to a teacher, if his father had just died. The man therefore wants to delay, perhaps for years, until his aged father dies.

Jesus brooks no compromise: “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead” (v. 22). In the Greek, “Follow me” is a present imperative, denoting an ongoing obligation, while “leave” is an aorist verb, calling (in this case) for a decisive act. If the verbs pack a punch, the statement “Let the dead bury . . .” doubles it. By definition, the physically dead can do nothing, while the spiritually dead do sundry things. It is apt, Jesus implies, for the spiritually dead to attend to social duties, such as burial of the physically dead. But Jesus’ arrival suspends normal obligations. The burial of parents is perhaps a child’s supreme social responsibility, but true disciples lay down every duty to heed the call of Christ.

Matthew again leaves the story open ended so that the reader cannot rest in a neat resolution. He or she must complete the story.