Matthew 8
New International Version (NIV)
8 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy[a] came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”The Faith of the Centurion
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
vv.1-8
Jesus often told people not to tell anyone about his
miracles. Why?
In Luke 5:14 he tells the man he healed about leprosy to
show himself to the priest (to be declared clean) but not to tell anyone. “Yet the
news about him spread all the more…so that… people came… to hear him and to be
healed…” Apparently either others simply
found out or the man directly told them.
In Mk 1:44 I think this is the same story. Here we find out the man did immediately
spread the word and talked freely. One
result was that Jesus was so mobbed in towns that he had to stay outside, and
people still came to him.
The same thing happens in Matt 9:31 after Jesus heals two
blind men and mute who can’t stop talking about it. Probably elsewhere too.
This could simply have been a practical matter; that knowing
about his healing prevented preaching.
Yet, there was another thing. In Matt 16, v20, after Peter confesses that
he is the Christ/Anointed, Jesus tells him not to tell this to anyone.
In Mark 1:25 Jesus tells the demons to be quiet after they
recognized him as the Holy One of God.
Some theologians expect that Jesus, far from attempting to
defend his incarnate deity outright took pains to hide the obvious conclusion
that he was far above any angel or human being.
They suggest that this is because if the disciples and others knew who
he was, he would never have been crucified, and if he was there the people
might have at least superficially followed him.
As long as they mistook him for a man, even a great man, he could have a
relationship with his disciples and be a simple threat to be crucified and bear
sins before God.
vv.5-13
When the centurion comes to Jesus to heal his servant, his
logic is very interesting. First, as a
Gentile, he’s not too proud to be angry that Jews did not enter Gentile homes,
but he even accepts it. He calls Jesus “Lord”
and admits he doesn’t deserve Him
under his roof, debasing a normal Roman where the subjugated Jews are concerned.
The centurion himself appeared in person to Jesus, rather than attempting to
summon Him using a servant, highlighting Jesus’ superiority.
He also is comfortable with authority, ordering people
around, but he understands that Jesus has a transcendent authority over things
normal people can’t command. Somehow
ordering people around translates into a belief that Jesus’ orders apply as
easily and naturally to nature itself.
Typically, where miracles and healings are concerned, this
is a local effect where the healer is in proximity with the healed. Most of the Jesus’ healings were like this,
with the woman touching the hem of his robe, Jesus putting salve into a man’s
eyes, telling a man lowered into the same house to rise, or simply commanding
demons to come out of the possessed Gadarene man. Elijah and Elisha had similar healings. So did Paul.
So did Paul’s healer, Ananias.
Jesus even asked if the centurion wished Him to come to his house.
In such case, because proximity is common, we become
familiar with the idea of healing being commonly a transferring of power, of
life essence, something entirely specific and localized. God deals locally.
The centurion, however, assumes that Jesus has the power to
command the same effects from a distance.
This is an admission that Jesus isn’t simply lord over this specific
life or illness, but that he is lord over all life, all illnesses. The centurion acknowledges this in his
statement that, effectively, Jesus can do from afar then same as he has done in
person. This is something that is
unparalleled in Jewish history to date, and even in Jesus’ ministry. The centurion realizes his lack of limitation
and thus a greater mastery of life than others believe.
Unsurprisingly, Jesus is impressed by the man’s faith and
reveals that the “sons of the Kingdom” will be thrown out, and people from all
over the world will sit next to the Jewish patriarchs. In fact, though the word is literally “sons”
of the Kingdom, it is often translated instead as subjects. Sons (used elsewhere) implies a descent from
someone and an inheritance. Subjects
refers to being under someone. The
subjects of the Kingdom (Israel) were subject officially to God even then, or
at least they prided themselves in being subject to God, but of course they
weren’t. This is in contrast with a
Gentile centurion who came to Jesus in humility, acknowledging his superiority
in behavior, and then in words, recognizing him as a higher authority. As much as “son” is the right word, the
translations reflect also a theme of subjection, in contrast that of the
Gentile with those natural born sons of Abraham.
Here, we also get a picture of hell: outside, outer
darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The outer darkness is often a description of the region outside a house,
or city. Houses in those days weren’t
like ours in the States, but in some cases more like some of the better ones in
your country and the Middle East and Asia ,
where you have small compound walls and courtyards and windows face inwardly.
The inner darkness, where there is still light from the building, is in the
courtyard. Outer darkness is outside the
walls, where there would be little light shining out. Further, there is no mention of an end to the
“weeping and gnashing/grinding of teeth”, something associated with great
sorrow and destitution. This doesn’t
prove hell is eternal, but it’s weird if Jesus believed in an end to punishment
when the surrounding society didn’t.
So he orders the Centurion to go and tells him it’s already
taken care of, the way a man of authority would and the way a man with
authority would understand.
Jesus Heals Many
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
vv.14-17
We see Isaiah 53’s prophecy fulfilled partly with Jesus
healing tons and tons of people. In
fact, if you go through the Gospels, it’s not a hard stretch to say that he
pretty much banished sickness and disease from all Israel .
When John the Baptist was in prison (in Matt 11),
discouraged, wondering if Jesus really was the Messiah, Jesus doesn’t directly
answer him, but tells him that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are
cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the Gospel is preached, all this
is according to the prophecies of Messiah and John is reassured without need
for Jesus to say yes and defend himself.
The evidence is obvious.
The Cost of Following Jesus
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
vv.18-22
Unlike many, Jesus didn’t have to encourage and convince
others to follow him. By the time he
called the Twelve they knew him and pretty much came without question. Many others followed (John 6). Jesus told them the truth about following
him. When a teacher of the law
(respected; if a Pharisee, probably moderately well off if he could afford time
to study; if a scribe, he had a lucrative profession; perhaps a priest, but the
priests weren’t very spiritual) asks to follow him, Jesus tells him that he
doesn’t even have what the animals have: a modest home or place to lay his
head.
Another disciple wants to go home and bury his father. It’s possible his father had just died. Then again, if his father had died and burial
was so important, he would likely already be burying his father, taking care of
the estate and family, etc. Jesus
probably could wait a day for that.
More likely his father is old but alive, and the man is
waiting to finish his son’s duties or maybe for the inheritance. Jesus can thus respond let the (living) dead
bury the (living) dead, and tell the man to follow him. He turns a statement about expectant physical
death into a metaphor for spiritual death.
Adam died the day he ate the fruit – God didn’t lie – but it took him
many years more to get to the grave. We
make it so complicated trying to simplify the texts so that all death is really
physical death.
But if we’re to fear God who can destroy the body and soul
in hell (Matt 10:28, above the man who can destroy the body but cannot kill the
soul, then there’s something God can kill that man can’t. Even my dad grudgingly admits that something
continues to exist though he strips it of any thought, will or
consciousness. It’s not as simple as a
loss of “breath” means a loss of that same life breathed in.
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
vv.23-27
The interesting thing is that the disciples, most of them
trained sailors who’d seen the worst the weather could offer to a boat, were
afraid of such a storm. Yet, when the
storm was instantly calmed by Jesus, Luke 8:24 records that, beyond amazement
they were afraid! They were now less afraid of that great storm than they were
of a man who controlled such weather as if it were an easy thing.
And we often forget that when the disciples are rebuked for
lack of faith, it’s not necessarily a lack of faith in themselves (as many like
to speculate; as if simply by believing we won’t be touched by any danger, we
won’t be). Was it Peter’s lack of faith
in his ability to walk on water, or that (as Matt 14:28-29 reads) he’d boldly
placed his belief in Christ telling him to walk on water and when he saw the
water he doubted?
Matt 17’s “faith the size of a mustard seed” doesn’t refer
to some Zen-like command over mountains.
The disciples asked why they couldn’t drive out a demon, surprised
because they likely expected and believed they could. Jesus called them, the disciples, an
unbelieving and perverse generation. How
long will he stay around (how long had he already been with them)? In fact they’d been with him a few years
already.
Mark 9 gives a more detailed account of the exorcism. When the disciples ask Jesus, Jesus tells
them that this demon only comes out by prayer.
You’re praying to God. God is the
source of the exorcism. If they thought
somehow that suddenly they had the power to do such things, they’d missed the
point all along. The power isn’t
transferred; it is always coming from God.
The faith they were to have wasn’t in themselves but a faith in God. And if they had even the smallest bit of it,
they could move mountains. Nothing will
be impossible.
Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do
shall he do also and GREATER works than these shall he do; because I go
unto my Father. And whatsoever
ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. If ye ask anything in My Name I
will do it. (John 14:15)
At
that day ye shall ask in MY NAME: and I
say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father Himself
loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from
Him. (John 16:27)
Jesus Restores Two Demon-Possessed Men
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes,[c] two demon-possessedmen coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
vv.28-34
It’s interesting that the demons recognized exactly who
Jesus was, unlike most people. It’s also
interesting, their view of eschatology.
They expected “torture” at “the appointed time”. They also expected Jesus was the one who’d be
doing the torturing. They knew it was
coming and they also knew that this time wasn’t it, so they were surprised that
Jesus was there.
They begged Jesus to be sent into a herd of pigs. This is reminiscent of Jesus’s words in Luke
8 and Matt 12. When a demon is exorcised
(why else would he leave? And when else did one leave in the Bible?) it roams
about, discontent, remembers “home”, returns and finds it put in order (i.e.
the man’s life is back together). He
then brings seven other demons more wicked and the man’s condition is worse
than in the beginning. Jesus says that
is how it will be with this wicked generation (the same that keeps asking for a
sign). In a sense, Jesus has been
performing an exorcism on a large scale throughout the nation of Israel ,
ridding it of illness, disease, lies about God, false religion. Who in their right mind asks for still more
signs? But he didn’t conform to the
image they had of the Messiah and they didn’t want to believe his miracles because
it would force them to believe him. Israel ’s
condition would be worse after Jesus (and it was) than before. They would lose their nation and their
temple. The house that had been swept in
order by Jesus recently, that had for hundreds of years been reconstituted as a
nation, had only 40 years more life left in it.
Tragically, but fittingly, the inhabitants of the nearby
town were more afraid of Jesus, that he cast out the demons than the man who
had been so horribly violent while possessed that no one could pass in his
area, that they begged him to leave.
Nevermind that he is the Son of God come to rescue sinners, they want
him gone.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. The man, after the exorcism, got dressed and
had sat down with Jesus and apparently was conversant enough with him to be
recognized as being “in his right mind”.
He begged Jesus to be allowed to follow him but Jesus sent him away to
proclaim how much God did for him.
Interestingly enough, he returns home and tells how much Jesus did for
him. According to Mark 5 he told more
than his family, and began preaching to the Decapolis (Ten Cities region east
of the Jordan )
so in a sense, he’s Jesus’ first Gentile evangelist.
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