The Healer Revealed (Matthew 8:1-17)

In our last study, we saw that after Jesus taught the people in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ they were astonished.  This week, Matthew switches this around and in the midst of a three-episode healing narrative, it is Jesus’ turn to be astonished!

Episode 1:  In vv. 1-4 Jesus is coming back down from the mountain where he had given His great Sermon on the Mount.  Meanwhile the crowds keep following Him as he journeys along the road back to Capernaum.  And on the way an untouchable leper came and kneeled down before him and said, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”  And Jesus touched him and said, “I will; be clean.”  And immediately, he was clean.  The leprosy was gone.  Jesus told him to show himself to the priest and offer the prescribed sacrifice according to the Law. 

What is this about?  Sicknesses, disfigurement, etc. disqualified a person from going to the temple.  Under Jewish Law and culture such people were a living visible testimony to the curse of sin which now infests the earth.  Furthermore, their presence in a home or in a city or even touching another person transmitted “impurity” to that other person.  It required special ceremonial cleansing and sacrifices to remove the impurity.  All of this was a continual reminder of the need for cleansing from sin.  So, imagine the shock as the people watched this holy rabbi touch this impure untouchable leper.  But seeing the disease melt away from his body, they could see that this rabbi was Someone quite special.  Notice Jesus healed because He was willing.  It was Jesus desire to heal him.  Hopefully, the people would begin to understand that Jesus is coming to deal with far more than sicknesses because He was willing.

Episode 2:  In vv. 5-13 Jesus continues down the road and enters Capernaum which is a fairly good size town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  A Roman centurion was stationed there with his troops and his servant had become paralyzed.  This servant was likely a man who took care to see that the centurion’s affairs were tended to.  He would have been in charge of his financial affairs as well as being his purchasing agent.  This loyal servant was highly esteemed by his master, the centurion, who heard that Jesus had returned to town.  He did not delay but approached Jesus and called Him Lord and appealed for the suffering servant in his home.  Jesus offered to go home with him and heal him!  Another astonishing thing!   A Jew did not even enter a Gentile home lest he become impure.  But the centurion was sensitive to that cultural faux pas as well as to Jesus’ true person.  He was not worthy of having Jesus enter his home!  “Just say the word and heal him because you have authority and I understand authority.”  Now it is Jesus’ turn to be astonished!  A Gentile who gets it!  And He believes it!  He has more faith than these “sons of the kingdom” – these Jews to whom the kingdom promises were made had yet to show faith like this!  So, Jesus said the word and the servant was healed that very moment!  Jesus did not have to touch someone to heal them!  He healed with just a word!  The centurion’s faith was the kind of faith Jesus was looking for among the Jews.  It was what was needed to enter the kingdom.  All he had done was approach Jesus in humility and ask and it was done.

Episode 3:  In vv. 14-17 Jesus enters Peter’s house.  Here we learn that Peter was married and his mother-in-law was living with them but she was sick in bed with a fever.  Jesus touched her hand and she was healed and began to fix dinner.  But the drama doesn’t stop.  All evening people kept coming to the house with sick people needing to be healed or people who were oppressed by demons.  And Jesus cast out the demons with a word and healed all the sick who were brought to Him. 

Now Matthew draws our attention to the prophecy of Isaiah in chapters 52 and 53 about the Messiah, the servant of the Lord, Who would suffer for the sins of us ALL.  And Isaiah notes that He would bear our sicknesses upon Himself and heal us by His wounds.  Notice that this is not just a figure of speech for healing us of our sins only.  Matthew points to these physical healings as a partial fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. 

Isaiah 53:3-9 English Standard Version (ESV) 3 He was despised and rejected by men,     a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces     he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs     and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken,     smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;     he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,     and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray;     we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him     the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,     yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,     and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,     so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;     and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living,     stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked     and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence,     and there was no deceit in his mouth. English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Isaiah’s suffering servant had not yet been revealed, but the healing Messiah had begun to show Himself.  A foreigner actually gets it!  But the people?  Will they see that He doesn’t just speak with authority but he also acts with authority—that He, in fact, has authority?  Who is Jesus to you?  What kind of authority does He have in your life? We will see more and greater examples of this next time.

© 2018 Eric Thimell