As the
"greater than Moses", Jesus has demonstrated his authoritative
teaching of the Way of the Lord, the fulfillment of the Law, which—according to
Psalm 1—the true disciple follows and meditates in day and night, and which
brings him the major beatitude of the Old Covenant (Psalm 1:1-2 "Blessed is the man who does not walk in
the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he
meditates day and night"). In so doing, Jesus has also elucidated what was
meant by his own beatitudes: what kind of behavior characterizes a person who
is "meek" or who "hungers and thirsts after righteousness"?
But Matthew has told us that Jesus is more than the new
Moses. He is also the Messiah ("Christ"), son of David, son of
Abraham (1:1). As the messianic son of David,
he was expected to have powers of healing surpassing those even of Elijah and
Elisha, who you remember performed astounding miracles of healing (2 Kings 5) and even restoring the
dead to life (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:8-37).
Therefore Matthew picks out incidents of Jesus' healing and restoring the dead
to life from various points in his ministry and groups them together topically
in the next two chapters. Whether or not there is also a significance in the
sequence Matthew puts them in we shall see as we go through them.
To
be sure, in these two chapters we see Jesus in action and learn much about him.
But the focus of Matthew is on how others see him, or in many cases fail to see him correctly. When, after finished giving his teachings of chapters 5-7,
Jesus descended from the
"mountain," Matthew tells us that "many[1]
crowds" (Greek okhloi polloi) began to follow him. He has used this
expression already in 4:25, and will again in 13:2 and 15:30 (perhaps also in
12:15). In fact, even without the
addition of "many", Matthew likes to refer to "crowds" (in
the plural) following Jesus. This trait
is significant to his theme throughout the book, but is particularly
appropriate here. In chapters 8-9 we see Jesus interacting with not only a wide
variety of individuals (a leper, a Roman centurion, demon-possessed men, a
woman with hemorrhage, etc.), but also with various groups (disciples
in the boat, scribes, tax collectors), each of which reacts to him in a
different way: faith, hesitant faith ("little faith"),
misunderstanding, disagreement, blasphemy.
The "many crowds" are Matthew's way of stressing this theme
right here at the outset of this section.
Virtually all New Testament scholars regard this as
Matthew's organization of miracles performed by Jesus in a single section. But
this does not exclude the appearance of brief narrative sections with no
miracles in among them (would-be followers of Jesus 8:18-22; the call of
Matthew 9:9-13) as well as teaching sections (on fasting: 9:14-17). What have
these "intrusions" to do with the miracles? It might be argued that
these contain examples of either inadequate understanding of what is meant by
faith and discipleship (8:18-22) or outright opposition and blindness to what
the miracles showed about Jesus (9:3, 34). If so, then that fits with the fact
that embedded in several of the miracle accounts there is mention of those who
were opposed or who criticized Jesus (8:34; 9:3, 11, 14, 24, 31, 34) or at
least had an inadequate assessment of him (8:27; 9:8). The opposition and the
misunderstanding are part and parcel of what this miracle section is intended
to show. Here Jesus was, fulfilling prophecy before their very eyes, and yet
they were for the most part blind to what they saw. In contrast to these who
miss the point of what is happening, there are examples of courageous faith:
the leper (8:1-4), the centurion (8:5-13), the woman with the hemorrhage (9:20-22).
It could be said, then, that Matthew shows us here three groups: the strong in
faith, those of little faith, and those who refuse to believe—all of them
confronted with the same visual evidence. Some interpreters believe that
chapters 8 and 9 are preparing for to the narrative in 11:2-6, where John the
Baptizer sends messengers to inquire if Jesus really is the one he was waiting
for, and Jesus refers to the miracles recorded in chapter 8-9 and concludes
"blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me," that is, blessed are
those who instead of finding fault with the miracles, understand that they
identify him as the messiah.
Among the lessons Jesus conveys by the actions in chapters
8-9 is that he has come not only for those who consider themselves insiders who
think they don't need a physician, but for the outcasts (Matthew the tax farmer
for the Roman oppressors, and the Roman centurion) who know they need one.
Seen from this perspective, the so-called
"intrusions" that involve no miracle fit in beautifully. The call of
Matthew allows Jesus to answer the objection that he wants to heal sinners, and
John's disciples' question about why Jesus' disciples don't fast, which is an
implied criticism of him and implies that he could not be the messiah and not fast.
There is also an obvious link between the dining scene in Matthew's home and
the fasting question by John's disciples.
So the point of this section is not so much that Jesus can
do miracles, as it is about direct evidence from God that—on the one hand—is
ignored, misunderstood, or outright denied, and —on the other hand—is welcomed
and believed.
Although this could be a collection of events
that took place at other times, it is not true, as some claim, that there is no
geographical movement behind the events, that unifies them and gives them a
historical sequence. Jesus descends from the hill country (8:1), where he was
teaching and meets the leper (8:2-4). From there he goes to Capernaum (8:5),
where he heals the centurion's servant (8:5-13), goes into Peter's house and
heals his mother-in-law, then others in the town (8:14-17). Deterred by the
crowds there (8:18), Jesus then crossed by boat to the east side of the lake
(8:18-22). During the crossing he stilled the storm (8:23-27). On the east
side, near Gadara, he drove the demons from the two possessed men (8:28-33).
Rejected by the locals who had investment in the pigs (8:34), he re-crossed the
lake to the west side, returning to Capernaum (9:1). The rest of the events of
ch. 9 appear to take place around Capernaum. So, while Matthew may have
selected these events from a larger set of deeds of Jesus and told them in a
way calculated to teach a particular truth about Jesus, they are not without a
historical and geographical context.
Healing a Leper, 8:1-4 (Mk 1:40-45; Lk 5:12-16)
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
In view of what I have just told you about where Matthew is going in the next two chapters, what do the words "coming down from the mountain" suggest to you symbolically more than the historical fact that Jesus actually came down out of the hill country? What transition is occurring in Matthew's presentation?
Yes, the authoritative teacher of the Law is now coming
down to meet the needs of those who are not perfect, either
spiritually or physically—to those who desperately need his mercy and his
healing. In Exodus 32, after receiving the Law
of God on Mt. Sinai, Moses came down from the mountain to discover apostasy,
the worshiping of the gold calf statue. He came down, saw his people's failure
and interceded successfully with God to forgive them (Exodus 32:7-14). Jesus comes down from a mountain where he has
authoritatively interpreted God's Law, and he finds individuals who are
suffering the consequences of sin, both their own and their nation's, and he
brings with him God's forgiveness and healing. But he also finds
misunderstanding by his disciples, and outright blind opposition by his
enemies.
Why do you think Matthew begins the sequence of healings
with the cleansing of a leper? True leprosy
[Hansen's disease] can result in the entire loss of limbs. The Bible
never describes what it calls "leprosy" in this manner. What the
Bible calls "leprosy" was a kind of chronic skin disease, causing
flaking. It was not life-threatening, but it gave the person's body the outward
appearance of a corpse. The Bible actually says this in the story of Moses'
sister Miriam's punishment for contesting his unique divine authority in Numbers 12. Because this skin
disease ("leprosy") gave someone the appearance of a corpse, it was
an apt symbol of the spiritual death caused by sin. And because it made the
afflicted person look like a dead body, God's law required the isolation of
persons infected by it and their exclusion from the worshiping community.
Touching a dead body rendered one ritually unclean and ineligible to worship at
tabernacle or temple. Sin too isolates a
person from God and cuts him off from fellowship with other believers. And if
not cleansed by the blood of Christ, will exclude him eternally from God's
presence.
For this reason, the very first illness that Jesus heals is
that which is the root cause of all the others: "leprosy." And it is
appropriate that the word for healing this disease that symbolically represents
our sins is "cleanse" (see 1 John 1:5-7,
where the same Greek verb katharizō "cleanse" describes how Jesus'
death makes us clean from our sins).
Notice too how Jesus here responds to a request: the leper
takes the initiative. He shows faith in that he knows Jesus is able
to make him clean, just as Elisha was able to tell the Aramean general Naaman
to go bathe in the Jordan River seven times and he would be cured of his
leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-14). Only Jesus doesn't
need to give this man such a task. The only necessary "tasks" were
his faith and his desire to be healed, which he already expressed. The man
realized that Jesus was under no obligation to heal him. He offered Jesus no
financial inducement, no fee. God was not required to send Jesus to die for us.
The only compulsion he had was within himself, for God is loving and merciful.
This is his nature.
In each of the miracle vignettes of chapters 8-9 Jesus acts
in different ways. Later, the woman with the hemorrhage will reach out to touch Jesus' robe, knowing that he could communicate his healing power through physical contact. But later also in the story of the centurion, we see that Jesus didn't need to make physical contact. He merely spole the word, and the sick person—miles away—was immediately healed. Here he heals by a touch and a command "Be
cleansed!" (8:3).[2]
There are at least two possible reasons for the touch. One is to show sympathy:
lepers would not be touched by anyone who was not a leper, so that their sense
of detachment or isolation from all society was keenly felt. No one would ever
give them a hug. The second is to symbolize how he would remove our sins by taking them on himself. According to the ritual laws of Moses, by touching this man Jesus himself for a time became ritually unclean and ineligible to enter the temple to worship. But since ritual uncleanness was not a moral offense—a woman's month menstruation or a man's nocturnal emission also rendered a person "unclean"—Jesus was undeterred: he will touch this man in order to comfort him and to show symbolically that he will eventually take upon himself the sins of the world in order to save us. What a beautiful picture of self-sacrificing love!
But there was one additional "task" that Jesus
gave the healed man. The law of Moses required persons whose leprosy had been
healed to have a priest verify the healing and to make a prescribed offering in
the temple (Lev 14). Since Jesus was completely
loyal to God's law, he does not circumvent this requirement. Furthermore, by
showing himself to the priest, the man gives testimony to the priests in the
temple that God has shown his power to heal, and indirectly that Jesus is the
channel of God's healing power and forgiveness. But he also ordered the man not
to tell anyone else about it, lest it attract unwanted attention to Jesus at
this time. In fact, Mark 1:43 tells us that Jesus very
sternly warned him against telling anyone else about it, but that
the man disobeyed Jesus and told everyone he met, making it impossible for
Jesus to minister any longer inside the towns of Galilee (Mark 1:45).
Healing a Centurion's Servant, 8:5-13
5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
Capernaum had become Jesus' own town (9:1), replacing Nazareth. After healing the leper at the foot of the hills where he was teaching, Jesus went to Capernaum. And the first significant deed he did there was to heal the servant of a Roman centurion. Luke tells us in his fuller version that the man was a benefactor of the Jews in Capernaum, having personally financed the building of a synagogue. Luke tells us that the Jews of Capernaum urged Jesus to help the man because "he is worthy." Matthew deletes that part of the story for good reason. What really made this gentile pagan "worthy" of the miracle was not money given for a synagogue, but his faith in Jesus, which was also very humble. He proclaims that he is unworthy for Jesus to enter his home, and begs him to just "say the word" and his servant would be healed. It isn't clear if he was unworthy of any observant Jew entering his home and thus according to Jewish law becoming defiled, or if he was unworthy of the Son of God entering his home. Matthew gives the impression that it was the latter, since he says "I am not worthy that you (the word is singular in Greek) should enter." Luke also tells us that the slave was "dear" to him, which Matthew omits, because the very act of the centurion shows that.
What impressed Jesus was his faith. As a military man, this
centurion understood authority and recognized that Jesus had divine authority.
Unlike the crowds, who after Jesus healed the paralytic and forgave his sins glorified God that such power was given "to men" (notice the plural),
this centurion saw that authority only in Jesus.
Jesus then makes him an object lesson and predicts that many
pagan gentiles like this man will come to faith, while most of his own people
will not (8:11-12).
Healing Many at Peter's House, 8:14-17
14 And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
Meanwhile, Peter's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and Peter never asked what the centurion had asked! so when at the end of the day, they retired to Peter's home, and Jesus saw the woman in bed, he took the initiative and healed her of her fever. Immediately, she arose and served them a meal. That evening many sick people and demon-possessed people were brought to the house, and Jesus healed them At this point Matthew makes a theological point, by quoting an Old Testament prediction about the Suffering Servant, who was the messiah. The passage "he took our infirmities and bore our diseases" is from Isaiah 53:4, and is generally thought to be figurative language for bearing our sins. But Matthew by the Holy Spirit sees a secondary meaning in Isaiah's literal words. Jesus also physically healed people.
The Cost of Being Jesus' Disciple, 8:18-22
18 Now when Jesus saw a great crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
This small section has nothing directly to do with a healing miracle, although it might have been prompted by the man's witnessing the healing miracles. It is told here in order to illustrate, along with other actions, the inadequacy of the understanding of the people who witnessed Jesus' teaching and deeds. In the verse immediately preceding Isa 53:4 which Matthew just quoted about Jesus, it says "we [the Jewish people} esteemed him not" (Isa 53:3). Matthew may have used this verse as a springboard to show in the following two vignettes how even those well-disposed to Jesus still failed to properly understand who he was and why he had come. This man wanted to identify himself with Jesus, but not to leave all, as the Twelve had done, at least not right now. The words "let me first go and bury my father" meant, "let me wait until my parents die and all my obligations to them are discharged." This was an inadequate response. Not because Jesus expected everyone who believed in him to travel with the Twelve, but because the man was putting something else first in his life. Even care for elderly parents—considered so important a virtue in ancient society, especially among the Jews—could not come before following Jesus as his disciple. Jesus' reply seems almost cruel: "Let the dead bury their own dead." Matthew has not modified the wording here, since it is identical in Luke's version (Lk 9:60). Although this reply may seem insensitive, if not cruel, to us today, the priority that gives the man—"you follow me" in Matthew; "but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God" in Luke—is one of giving life to solemnizing death. Which should be more important?
This highly trained expert in the law of Moses who wished to
become a disciple approached Jesus, calling him "teacher" (8;18),
which in the original Hebrew would have been "rabbi." The leper and
the centurion had called him "Lord." There is a significant
difference in the two estimates of Jesus' identity here. Even having witnessed
the miracles, in the words of Isa 53:3, this scribe failed to
"esteem" Jesus.
Stilling the Storm, 8:23-27
23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
In the next episode Matthew shows us a group who, though having only "little faith", properly "esteemed" Jesus as "Lord" (8:55),[3] and expected that in their mortal danger he could "save" them.
But they failed to believe that the mere presence of Jesus with them in the boat—even sleeping!—was guarantee that they would not perish.
Matthew uses all these episodes to show the gradations
of proper understanding of Jesus and faith in him. So although the disciples in
the boat do
recognize him as "Lord" with power to save, they fail to truly trust
his presence with them to keep them safe.[4] The very fact that they didn't have this trust earns them a rebuke from Jesus:
"O you
of so little faith,[5]
why are you so afraid?"
The scribe who wished to be a disciple showed too little
commitment; the disciples in the boat failed to apply their little
faith. Both of these examples are placed in the midst of the stories of the
miracles that were Jesus' messianic credentials in order to show inadequate
responses.
In this episode, as with the leper and the centurion, Jesus
exerts his powers by a mere word: "he rebuked the wind and the sea".
Mark (4:39) quotes Jesus' words to the wind and sea: "Be quiet! Be
still!" Those words would have been fitting advice to his disciples as
well.
Healing Two Demon-possessed Men, 8:28-34
And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” 30 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” 32 And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. 33 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
In this story we see a recognition that Jesus is the "Son of God" (8:29) and the one who will have the power and authority to punish demons and wicked humans in eternity. But ironically, this correct estimation of Jesus doesn't come from humans, but from demons speaking out of the mouths of two human victims or "hosts" whose bodies they inhabit. In Matthew's version of the incident the human victims are not the focus of attention. Jesus isn't said to have compassion on them, and nothing is said about their state after the demons left them. In this respect, this story differs sharply from the stories of the leper, the paralytic, the dead girl, and the woman with the hemorrhage. The entire focus of Matthew's version is on the demons and on the ungrateful residents of the area. Instead of focusing on remarkable faith (as with the centurion), or inadequate faith (as with the scribe and the disciples in the boat), here Matthew focuses on knowledge of Jesus' identity by the demons who have no love for him or faith in him, and on ignoring the miracle by the towns folk who are preoccupied with the loss of a herd of pigs! Both the demons and the towns folk are negative examples.
[1] Many translations render
this "large (or great) crowds," but the normal meaning of Greek polloi of "many."
[2] All three synoptic gospels
record both of these actions.
[3] Actually, only Matthew has
them use the word kurie
"Lord!" Mark has "teacher" (Greek didaskale), while Luke has
"master" (Greek epistata). So, if Matthew and Luke were consciously following Mark,
then the more elevated term was a deliberate change on their part, to show that
they didn't just see him as a rabbi.
[4] And although in the next
episode the disciples in the boat do call Jesus "Lord" (8:55), their
final statement, "What kind of individual is this? Even the winds and the
waves obey him!" Even having witnessed his control over nature, they fail
to see that the "kind" of individual Jesus is, is the all-powerful
Son of God. Mark and Luke word their question as: "Who then is this, that even the
winds and waves obey him?" Matthew's "what kind/sort of person"
opens the door for more possible answers than simply "God."
[5] Instead of "O you of
little faith!" Mark has here: "Don't you have faith yet?" Luke
has: ""Where is your faith?" (i.e., "Don't you have any
faith?")
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