the Lord Who healeth thee" (Exod. 15: 26). Later on God repeated this promise, "I will

take sickness away from the midst of thee" (Exod. 23: 25), and this was repeated when

Israel came to the borders of the promised land, "the Lord will take away from thee all

sickness" (Deut. 7: 15).

We must not so stress spiritual realities that we forget how rich is the blessing of good

health, both in this life and in the Kingdom yet to be on this earth. Hence the reason why

healing miracles have such prominence in Christ's earthly ministry, for this is one of the

characteristics of the Kingdom of heaven when it is finally realized.  Then "the

knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea

(Habakkuk 2: 14).

The next miracle recorded by Matthew is the healing of the centurion's servant at a

distance. This is not included by Mark, but is found in Luke 7: 2-10, where the

centurion sends first elders and friends to plead for his servant. In Matthew he comes

himself. This need not be regarded as a discrepancy. Neither Evangelist sets out to give

every detail.

It has been noted that in the N.T. centurions have a good character (Matt. 27: 54;

Acts 10: 22; 22: 26; 23: 17, 23, 24; 27: 43).  Roman training, with its stress on

order, often produced excellent individuals such as this one recorded in Matthew. Luke

tells us that he had built a synagogue for the Jews, because he loved them, which

certainly indicates that he was of a generous character.

His faith was such that it did not need the Lord to be present in person to accomplish

the healing. "You have only to speak the word", he said to Christ, which exhibited the

quality and strength of his faith. This made the Lord marvel (8: 10), so much so that

He said "I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith", which was praise

indeed. The Lord made a similar comment concerning the Canaanitish woman (15: 28).

This was all the more remarkable because both of these people were outsiders and not

Jews. But this did not hinder them from being subjects of the Messianic Kingdom,

whereas many Jews who did not comply with the divine conditions for entering that

kingdom would be shut out (verses 11, 12) even though they were "sons of the kingdom".

This is a Hebrew idiom like "son of hell" (23: 15), or "sons of this age" (Luke 16: 8).

The Lord's words must have been a severe shock to Jews who considered that they

had a natural right to the kingdom of heaven because they were descended from

Abraham. John the Baptist had warned them in a similar way that physical descent alone

was not sufficient. Their intense disappointment is expressed by the phrase "weeping and

gnashing of teeth".

Now follows the third of Matthew's triplet of miraculous healings, that of Peter's

mother-in-law, who was in bed with a fever. We are not told what kind of fever it was,

but whatever was the cause the Lord Jesus touched her hand and she was cured at once,

for Matthew goes on to say that she got up and began to wait on the Lord. The verb