Apr 10, 2014
Matthew 8:1-17
Several weeks ago we read these opening words from Matthew chapter
5: “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up
on the mountain”. That was the start of the Sermon on the
Mount. Now, three chapters later, Jesus finally comes back down the
mountain.
When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds
followed Him. 2 And a leper came to Him
and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are
willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Jesus stretched out
His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be
cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you
tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and
present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to
them.”
Back in chapter 4,
verse 23, we read this:
“Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing every kind of
disease and every kind of sickness among the
people.”
So the earthly ministry of Jesus is summed up with these three
action verbs - teaching, proclaiming, and healing.
For the last three chapters Jesus has been teaching and proclaiming
the gospel of the kingdom. The last few verses of chapter 7 were
“28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were
amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them
as one having
authority, and not as their scribes.”
Jesus’ teaching was filled with authority; now He is going to focus
on healing as a demonstration of that same
authority.
The first healing that Jesus performs is cleansing a man of
leprosy. Fortunately for us, leprosy as a disease has been pretty
much eradicated, but back then it was a horrible disfiguring
disease for which the only cure was a miracle.
According to the Law of Moses the key to identifying whether a skin
disease was “unclean” was whether the skin seemed to be rotting
away, The person afflicted with a serious skin disease behaved was
excluded from the camp, essentially banished from society to live
in the fringe areas with other lepers. This was not only to protect
the health of the rest of the people, but because the presence of
God was in the camp and anything unclean had to be separated from
the presence of God. Numbers 5:1-4 says; Then
the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the
sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper
and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean
because of a dead person. 3 You
shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside
the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I
dwell in their midst.” 4 The sons of Israel did so
and sent them outside the camp; just as the Lord had
spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did.
This exclusion from the community was a complete separation, even
from close family members, because
touching a leper also made the person who touched them temporarily
unclean, even though that person didn’t actually have the
disease.
Leviticus 15:7says
“Also whoever touches the person with the discharge shall wash
his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until
evening.”
That’s what makes Jesus’ choice to TOUCH this leper so incredible,
because the moment Jesus touched him, Jesus could have been
declared UNCLEAN! But of course Jesus is acting with AUTHORITY, so
in this case the leper becomes clean rather than Jesus becoming
unclean.
His command to the leper to keep silent may seem surprising to us,
but it was apparently meant to prevent a crowd of miracle seekers
from gathering and hindering Jesus from continuing on His main
mission.
The account of this same miracle in Mark
1:40-45 gives
us a little more detail as to why this was a reason for
concern:
“And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his
knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me
clean.” 41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His
hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be
cleansed.” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was
cleansed. 43 And He sternly warned him and immediately
sent him away, 44 and He said to him, “See that you
say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a
testimony to them.” 45 But he went out and began
to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to
such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a
city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were
coming to Him from everywhere”.
Rather than running out and blabbing about his healing, Jesus
wanted the leper to go and be seen the priest, because by showing
himself to the priest, the cleansed leper would be able to rejoin
Jewish society.
Leviticus 14:2-3 says “This shall be the law of the leper in the
day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the
priest, 3 and the priest shall go out to the outside
of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of
leprosy has been healed in the leper”.
Now Jesus demonstrates an even greater level of healing
authority:
5 And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came
to Him, imploring Him, 6 and saying, “Lord,
my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully
tormented.” 7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and
heal him.” 8 But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not
worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word,
and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man
under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this
one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and
to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 Now
when Jesus heard this,
He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say
to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in
Israel. 11 I say to you that many will come from
east and west, and recline at
the table with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast
out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And Jesus said to the
centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have
believed.” And the servant was healed
that very moment.
Centurions were Roman military officers in charge of one hundred
soldiers. They weren’t generally liked by the people of Israel
but according to Luke’s account of this miracle in Luke 7, this
centurion was different from most, causing some of the Jewish
elders to speak on his behalf:
4 When
they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is
worthy for You to grant this to him; 5 for
he loves our nation and it was he who built us our
synagogue.”
Jesus actually uses the faith of this centurion, who is obviously a
Gentile, to prophesy that the gospel will be extended past Israel
to reach the Gentiles.
When Jesus says in verse 11 that
“many will come from east and west and recline at the
table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” He is making a reference
to the messianic banquet described in Isaiah
25:6–9
“The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet
for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with
marrow,
And refined,
aged wine.
7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering
which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all
nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all
faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the
earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited
that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have
waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”.
In these same verses, Jesus also points out that the people of
Israel will harden their hearts towards the gospel while the
Gentiles are embracing it.
It’s the same thing that the Apostle Paul talks about
in Romans
9:30–32
30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue
righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness
which is by faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing a
law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Why?
Because they
did not pursue
it by
faith, but as though it
were by
works. They stumbled over the stumbling
stone.”
Because the people of Israel try to pursue righteousness by their
own works they don’t obtain it, but the Gentiles, who know they
deserve only condemnation, seek God for His mercy and therefore
they obtain it.
The final individual healing miracle in this section is one that
was a little closer to home:
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his
mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. 15 He
touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up
and waited on Him.
Luke’s account in chapter 4 adds a few details:
38 Then
He got up and left the
synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law
was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to
help her. 39 And
standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and
she immediately got up and waited on them.
One of the interesting things about Luke’s account is that he says
Jesus left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Archeologists
have actually found the site of Simon Peter’s house in Capernaum
and it was right next door to the synagogue! Luke, who was a
doctor, also mentions that she had a “High” fever, and that Jesus
“rebuked” the fever, showing again that He was operating with
authority.
After these three individual healings, Jesus begins to bring forth
the authority of heaven against all sorts of
infirmities:
16 When evening came, they brought to Him many who were
demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word,
and healed all who were ill. 17 This
was to
fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself
took our infirmities and carried away our
diseases.”
This is a quote from Isaiah
53:4-5
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our
transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon
Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.”
When it says that Jesus bore our “griefs”, that represents our sins
AND our physical suffering as well. I like the wording of verse 5
that says “The chastening for
our well-being fell upon
Him”.
Our “well-being” – Jesus wants us to BE WELL, spiritually,
emotionally, mentally, and physically. And He has the AUTHORITY to
MAKE us well!
Here’s one last thought from these healings that I want you to
consider: Does Jesus want to make YOU well?
In other words, you may accept that fact that Jesus saves, heals
and delivers people, but are you certain that He wants to save,
heal and deliver YOU?
Because sometimes we feel as though we aren’t WORTHY of what Jesus
wants to give us, so we RULE OUT from our lives the possibility of
receiving the very things that Jesus is desiring to bless us
with!
So think about this: In Jewish society, three groups of people that
were considered the least valuable, the least important, the least
worthy of ANYTHING, were lepers, Romans, and
women.
And who does Jesus come to bring divine healing to as he
demonstrates the authority of the Kingdom of God? He chooses a
leper, a Roman, and a woman!
Let me assure you today that you are NOT disqualified from
receiving ANY of the things that God wants to pour into your life,
no matter who you are or what kind of background you have, or how
much other people look down on you, GOD wants to bless you today,
and more than that, He wants to USE you to be a blessing to
others!