Healing and Salvation

#biblestudy #greeknewtestament #whatjesussaid

A common theme though Chapters 8 and 9 of the #gospel of #matthew is healing by faith but not just of physical illnesses.

Chapter 8 A leper is healed and notice Jesus says not to boast about the miracle

then the centurion's servant and Peter's mother in law and various mentally ill "demoniacs"

Chapter 9 the paralytic is healed physically and spiritually.

Then he rebukes the Pharisees after meeting with tax collectors and sinners.

Actually the Greek word used means sinful and may refer to people who had trouble keeping all of the many points of mosaic law however minor.

Jesus states literally

Not need they have the strong of a healer but those who are in a bad condition / state

Again the concern for the anxious and troubled the lowly and poor and children.

Then comes the archon perhaps a Hellenized Jew given his title - archon can mean ruler or magistrate  secular not religious.

By his way to the ruler's house he encounters the woman who had a flowing of blood for 12 years whatever that means ... most people presume a disorder of the uterus or vagina but equally it could be a skin disease or something else?

Like others she asked and prayed to be healed. Literally to be made safe or saved and protected from a recurrence of her illness. Soozoo. Save keep protect

After waking the girl form a deep coma or near death condition Jesus heals two blind men. Now he had recently rebuked the Pharisees by quoting a verse from Hosea about " I desire mercy and not sacrifice" and the blind men called on him to have mercy on them.

The RSV translates the Hosea verse 6:6 as

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.

Salvation is healing. For those of us who can not work miracles by practical acts of compassion not rituals only. Healing has to be for mind body and soul.
For a rich man's daughter or disabled street beggars or the sinful.