seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Matthew 8:1 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.”
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.
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:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”[b]
and bore our diseases.”[b]
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.”
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!”
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes,[c] two demon-possessed men 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.
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 8:2 The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
b. Matthew 8:17 Isaiah 53:4 (see Septuagint)
c. Matthew 8:28 Some manuscripts Gergesenes; other manuscripts Gerasenes
There were a lot of people who saw Jesus as a healer. Peter's mom got up from her sick bed and made dinner after He touched her hand. The wind listened to His rebuke. Demons knew they had to obey Him. He didn't check the credentials of the crowd that gathered. There might have been plenty of pagans among the descendants of Jacob [Israel]. Jesus healed them all. I'm sure plenty of people wanted to join the staff of Jesus. His charisma was magnetic. Jesus warned all of them that the job required they give up everything.... their idols, their wealth, their possessions, their family, their home, the very place they laid their head. Very few could make that commitment. In fact, Jesus said most of the people He came to rescue would turn Him down.
The easy English site had the commentary that was easiest for me to comprehend.
Matthew showed Jesus’ authority by what he taught in chapters 5-7. Now Matthew shows Jesus’ authority by his actions. There are nine incidents. We can divide these miracles into three sets of three with some teaching in between.
The first set of three is:
1. Jesus heals the man who had very bad skin disease 8:1-4
2. Jesus heals the *Roman officer’s servant 8:5-13
3. Jesus heals at the town called Capernaum 8:14-17.
The next set of three is:
1. The storm on the lake 8:23-27
2. The men with evil spirits in Gadara 8:28-34
3. The man who could not walk 9:1-8.
The next set of three is:
1. Jesus raised a girl to life and he healed a woman 9:18-26
2. He caused two blind men to see 9:27-31
3. He healed a man who could not talk 9:32-34.
The word ‘leprosy’ appears in many Bibles and it can mean various skin diseases. It also means Hansen’s disease, which is the disease that we know as ‘leprosy’ nowadays. Anyone with ‘leprosy’ had to stay away from other people. These people with leprosy had to warn people by shouting ‘I am not clean!’ So the sick person suffered both from the disease and from the fact that people avoided him or her.
The man believed that Jesus could heal him. But he was not sure that Jesus wanted to heal him. He was humble in the way that he approached Jesus. He behaved as if he was worshipping Jesus. He was humble as he requested help.
The Law said that a person with ‘leprosy’ must not come closer than 6 feet (2 metres) to another person. They were ‘not clean’ so they might make the other person ‘not clean’ too. But Jesus is very kind. So he touched the man who had this bad skin disease. Then he caused the disease to leave the man.
Jesus ordered the man not to spread this news. Nobody should know that Jesus had healed him. The Jews were already looking for someone to be their leader. They wanted to fight against the Romans, who ruled them. The crowds wanted to make Jesus their king when they heard about these miracles. Jesus had to prevent them. Jesus also ordered the man to go to the priest. The priest also acted as a medical officer at that time. He would examine the person who had been ill. Then that person had to offer certain gifts to God (Leviticus 14:1-32). The priest needed to be sure that the patient was clean. Then that person could return to society. Jesus wanted to show that he respected the Law. That is why he told the man to do this.
This Roman officer was a ‘centurion’. That means that he commanded a hundred soldiers. He was not a Jew. He was in the Roman army or the army of Herod Antipas. In Luke’s account, the Jewish leaders asked Jesus to help this officer. Matthew records that the officer came for help himself. It was unusual for someone to care about his slave. Most people did not care if their slaves suffered. They owned the slaves, so they thought about them as ‘things’ rather than as people. And the slaves had no rights. Their master could easily get another slave if one died. But this officer cared about his slave. He did not want to see the slave suffer.
Jesus was a long way from the slave when he healed him. The Roman officer believed that Jesus could give such an order. So Jesus did it that way.
Mark gives many details about this event that Matthew leaves out. But Matthew writes about evil spirits that possessed two men. Mark mentions only one man. The caves where they buried dead people were in the rocks. (The caves were also called ‘tombs’.) Men could find shelter there. People believed that evil spirits lived among these ‘tombs’. The men were so wild and strong that other people were afraid to come near them.
But Jesus was not afraid. It was the evil spirits who were afraid of him. They called Jesus ‘Son of God’. They knew that God would judge them one day. They knew that God would punish them then. These evil spirits were afraid that Jesus would punish them immediately.
The pigs’ death convinced the men that the evil spirits had gone for ever. People who tried to drive evil spirits out of other people in those days used all kinds of special words and ceremonies. Jesus gave only a brief command and the evil spirits obeyed him. People sometimes blame Jesus for the pigs’ death, but a human being is much more valuable than an animal.
The people from Gadara wanted Jesus to leave. They were afraid of someone with such great power. Jesus never forced people to listen to him. So he left that region.
Apparently we are all suffering through the solidarity of leprosy these days. I live in a retirement community. While walking to the mailbox I use to enjoy seeing people along the way.... now... it's as if each of us is one big potential virus and we discuss the path we will be taking to avoid contact of less than 6' on that narrow side walk. Those people who were suffering from leprosy in the days of Jesus.... they couldn't work... they couldn't be around people.... doesn't that sound familiar these days. In order to go back to work.... the priest had to declare them clean. It's like they had to go into quarantine for life.... leprosy was a skin disease that could obliterate a normal life.
The commentaries all discuss the reason Jesus didn't want people to know He could heal leprosy so easily. The commentaries say that Jesus was trying to avoid getting the attention of the Pharisees and the Sadducees so early in His Ministry. I don't agree. If Jesus didn't want the Pharisees and the Sadducees to know.... He wouldn't have sent the man to the Temple to be declared clean. Jesus told the man not to spread the word because the people with leprosy were under a stay in place order..... the leprous crowds that would have run to the cure would be extremely dangerous to the general population. It was God that gave the order for them to stay away from others. God wanted them to do what we now label "Social Distancing". God's Son wasn't about to go against that order.
The soldier, Peter's mom, the demons.... they all believed. They didn't have to get a second opinion. They simply believed. All the people in those crowds just believed. They could see who He was. They were there for healing and they knew He could and would do it. They had no doubt about the power that Jesus was capable of wielding.
Not everyone was thrilled with having Jesus around chasing out demons. It scared a lot of people. I can imagine the sheer number of people that were being attracted to His services must have affected productivity. When He plopped those demons into the pigs that killed themselves..... He definitely affected the financial stability of those people. They wanted Him to leave.... ingrates!
So in this chapter.... Jesus is really dealing with the crowds. He's using some of that Miraculous Authority. These acts show that Jesus controlled power that the average human will only dream about harnessing. Jesus could control weather, disease, and demonic spirits. He had to keep a lot of His power to Himself if He wanted to finish His Mission.
