Jelly Bean :: Can Text Message Infect Android

Can Android be infected by a simple text message?

I'm not necessarily referring to the content of the message. I'm referring to the actual raw text message itself, being sent from someone like a relative (assuming they have an infected device)?

How does the message travel? Does it visit the carrier first, then travel to the recipient in a different format? Is the message being sent as a file or plain text? Could any of the above apply to multimedia/picture messages or phone calls?

I'm assuming if any of this were true, there would have to be an executable involved to perform anything, and I'm not sure if any of that is possible with a text.