16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. (Matthew 8:16-17 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
It was very common about the time of our Saviour’s coming in the flesh, for the devil bodily to possess persons, and very grievously to torment them. This is one of the sad and dismal evils which sin had made us liable an obnoxious to, to be bodily possessed by Satan; whan we give Satan the power of our hearts, it is a just and righteous thing wiah God, to give him the possession of bodies.
But who is the person that dispossesses Satan? Christ Jesus; it is a stronger than the strong man that must cast out Satan: our Jesus in whom we trust, by his powerful word alone can deliver us from Satan’s power, and all the sad effects and consequences thereof.
But observe, with what condolency and sympathizing piety he exercises these acts of mercy and compassion towards poor creatures: he is said to take our infirmities upon himself, and to bare our sicknesses: he bare the guilt, which was the cause of these griefs and sorrows; and he bare the sorrows themselves, by a tender sympathy with us under the burden of them. Christ considers our sufferings as his own: he was afflicted in all our afflictions, and pained with all our pains; in this sense, he took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.