Written by: Revd Sue Hope
Matthew 8 v 1-4
When Jesus came down from the hill, great crowds followed him. Then a man with
a skin disease came to Jesus. The man bowed down before him and said, “Lord,
you can heal me if you will.”
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!”
And immediately the man was healed of his disease. Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t
tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest and offer the
gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people
what I have done.”
Notes
We don’t know how this man managed to get close to Jesus, but it must have taken
some courage. We can be pretty sure that the skin disease from which he was
suffering was leprosy – because the word used for “healing” in the account is
actually the Greek word katharizo, which means “to cleanse” (in Judaism leprosy
was a condition which rendered the sufferer “unclean”). In fact, the Old Testament
describes how the person having such a disease must “live alone outside the
camp” (Leviticus 13 v 46). Obviously, this was to prevent the spread of the
disease, but the knock-on effect must have been that the person carried a great
sense of shame, of loneliness, of being an outcast.
Sometimes we do have to press through obstacles, through our own natural inhibitions, our fears and our apathy, when we want Jesus to do something for us. We have to put our faith into action – real action. So the man came to Jesus and he “bowed down”. He recognised who Jesus was. He humbled himself. And then he cried out to him with faith. “You can heal me,” he said. And then he added: “if you will”. The man had faith. He knew that Jesus could heal him. But it wasn’t an arrogant or presumptive kind of faith. There was a humble recognition that healing for him was solely dependent on the will of the Lord, on his grace and mercy.
And what did the Lord do? He touched him. You know, Jesus is not afraid to “touch” the deepest, most unclean, shame-bearing parts of ourselves. And his touch, and his word, brings us cleansing, healing and life.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I come to you today needing your healing and your cleansing. Thank
you for your welcoming touch and for your word of power. Amen
Matthew 8 v 5-9
When Jesus entered the city of Capernaum, an army officer came to him, begging
for help. The officer said, “Lord, my servant is at home in bed. He can’t move
his body and is in much pain.”
Jesus said to the officer, “I will go and heal him.”
The officer answered, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to come into my house.
You only need to command it, and my servant will be healed. I, too, am a man
under the authority of others, and I have soldiers under my command. I tell
one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes. I tell another soldier, ‘Come,’ and he comes.
I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and my servant does it.”
Notes
It’s not stated whether the quick-witted answer from the army officer was
the result of a sudden moment of revelation or the fruit of many years of pondering
about the nature of authority – but he saw two things very clearly.
First, he saw that Jesus, like him, was “under authority”. The Roman officer was under the authority of the imperial power – and that gave him both his right to act in a certain way, and the security of knowing the immense back-up of power behind him. He was not a soldier by virtue of any power of his own, but by the authority of Rome. And he could see that Jesus too was acting under the authority of a greater power – that of God. Being “under authority” meant obedience – for the soldier to his superiors and for Jesus to his Father, and it was this obedience that meant each was able to harness the power available to them.
Secondly, he saw clearly how the chain of command worked. Taking his own understanding from his life as a soldier, he understood the way sickness and disease must obey the word of the one who, because he was under authority, was able to exercise that same authority over them.
But he didn’t just see. He took the lessons of his working experience and harnessed them to faith – and that opened up an opportunity for Jesus to heal!
The lessons of being under authority are some of the toughest that God has to teach us, particularly if he sets us “under” another human being whom we find difficult. But it’s one of the toughest, because it’s one of the most important if we want to learn how to minister in his name and in the power of the kingdom of God.
Prayer
Lord, help me to learn the lesson of being under authority. Make me pliable,
flexible and obedient, so that I may learn how to be a servant of your kingdom.
Amen
Matthew 8 v 10-13
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. He said to those who were following him,
“I tell you the truth, this is the greatest faith I have found, even in Israel.
Many people will come from the east and from the west and will sit and eat with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But those people who should
be in the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness, where people will
cry and grind their teeth with pain.”
Then Jesus said to the officer, “Go home. Your servant will be healed just as
you believed he would.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
Notes
Some medieval theologians thought that, because the earthly Jesus was also God,
he knew everything – and therefore while he was lying in the manger as a baby,
he was probably solving complex logarithms! Well, I don’t know what you think
of that – but here’s a nice instance of Jesus actually making a discovery, being
surprised by something. We read that “he was amazed” at the display of faith
by a Roman soldier.
The Roman was, of course, a Gentile and that meant he was, in Jewish terms, outside the community of God’s chosen people. He shouldn’t have known anything about God! What excited Jesus was the discovery that this man was exhibiting more faith than he’d found among his own people, the very people who were supposed to be way out front when it came to the things of God.
Why were they supposed to be way out front? Well, because at the very foundation of their nation was a great man of faith – Abraham. It’s recorded that Abraham’s faith pleased God and that it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15 v 6). The energy that kick-started the whole project, the project that came to be known as Israel, was faith in the living God. The people of Israel were called to be a people who lived by faith - a people called to adventurous and risky living. Sadly, that living faith had become hardened into a nod at God when it suited, and a set of religious rules for those who liked that kind of thing. What a long way they’d fallen from the Maker’s intentions!
It’s easy for any of us to lose that simple, dependent, expectant faith in God. So keep close, and let him make today into an adventure with him!
Prayer
Lord, I choose today to walk by faith with you. Open my eyes to see you, and
my ears to hear you – and let today be an adventure with you! Amen
Matthew 8 v 14-17
When Jesus went to Peter’s house, he saw that Peter’s mother-in-law was sick
in bed with a fever. Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she
stood up and began to serve Jesus.
That evening people brought to Jesus many who had demons. Jesus spoke and the
demons left them, and he healed all the sick. He did these things to bring about
what Isaiah the prophet had said:
“He took our suffering on him and carried our diseases.”
Notes
We aren’t told whether the fever Peter’s mother-in-law was suffering from
was life-threatening, but it was severe enough to have put her out of action.
I wonder how it felt to have Jesus take her by the hand, and to realise that
the fever was actually leaving her body?
The sense of illness and affliction departing or fleeing is very strong in this passage. It was originally written in Greek, where it says that the sickness “departs from her” and later the demons were “thrown out” by a word from Jesus. Have you ever had an unwelcome guest? Or even a burglar? Or seen a house taken over by squatters who haven’t really the right to be there? Well, the images used in this passage of Jesus healing the sick and delivering people from the power of the demonic are powerful pictures of Jesus throwing out what should not be there! And what these actions of Jesus tell us is that he has authority over all sickness and over evil – and the power to deal with them.
Casting out sickness and evil is a costly and demanding ministry - Matthew links it to the cost of the cross by quoting the prophecy from Isaiah 53. Jesus can’t just leave things as they are; he doesn’t accept “the world’s settled arrangements”, as the theologian Stanley Hauerwas describes it. Jesus has come to proclaim the kingdom of God, and to advance it – and that means pushing out the darkness, wherever he finds it.
And he invites us to share in this with him. As he sets us free by his word, he calls us to be freedom fighters with him wherever he has placed us. How do you think he might want you to act today in the cause of the kingdom?
Prayer
Lord, help me to let your kingdom come in my life so that I can speak freedom
to others in your name. Amen
Matthew 8 v 18-22
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he told his followers to go to the other
side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to Jesus and said, “Teacher,
I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes to live in, and the birds have nests,
but the Son of Man has no place to rest his head.”
Another man, one of Jesus’ followers, said to him, “Lord, first let me go and
bury my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the people who are dead bury their own
dead.”
Notes
There’s a marked difference in the passage today between “the crowd” and “his
followers”. Even though the crowd were all around Jesus, he knew the ones who
were following. What makes the difference between being one of the crowd and
a follower? The two pictures of these two men highlight the contrast.
The teacher of the law was a professionally religious man – a scribe. He’d be well-versed in the scriptures and would be reckoned to be able to interpret those scriptures to others anxious to know they were following the way of God. He recognised Jesus’ teaching ministry by addressing him as “Teacher”, but what he failed to understand was that the way of God is not about keeping the rules but about a risky relationship – an adventure where everything is up for grabs and nothing is secure. In a moment of enthusiasm he said he would follow any place he went … and Jesus gently warned him that “any place” may mean “no place”.
The second man wanted to delay following. “Bury my father” did not mean that his father had just died, but meant waiting until such time as he had – when the man would be free to follow. While Jesus was clear that we need to honour family responsibilities, perhaps he knew that for this man the delaying tactic was an excuse!
Following Jesus may mean following to a nowhere place – I may find myself living in a place I would not have chosen for myself, or doing a piece of work that doesn’t satisfy my quest for glamour. It may mean responding today with my money or my time – letting go of my agenda, and surrendering to his! But I’m sure of this: when I dare to live life this way, it feels like really living!
Prayer
Lord, I trust that you want me to be where I am at present. Help me to accept
it and to be willing to move on when you direct me. And help me to take some
risks. Amen
Matthew 8 v 23-27
Jesus got into a boat, and his followers went with him. A great storm arose
on the lake so that waves covered the boat, but Jesus was sleeping. His followers
went to him and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We will drown!”
Jesus answered, “Why are you afraid? You don’t have enough faith.” Then Jesus
got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely
calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the
waves obey him!”
Notes
The Sea of Galilee is a peaceful and beautiful lake – in fact, the word “Galilee”
means “tranquillity”. But just above the town which used to be known as Magdala
is a deep cleft formed by mountains and from time to time a high wind funnels
down through the gap and onto the lake, whipping up a storm – taking everyone
by surprise.
It was a particularly fierce storm that day on the lake – with the waves coming right up over the sides of the boat. All the more amazing that Jesus remained asleep! He was shaken awake by the disciples: “Lord, do something!” And, of course, he did - but not before questioning them about why they were so afraid.
Storms can blow up suddenly in our lives, and in our churches too, “just like that”. One minute, everything seems to be going fine – the next: Bang! And like the disciples we panic and turn and shake Jesus agitatedly – “Lord, sort it! Help! What’s going on?” And before he does, he often searches our hearts with the question: “What is it that you really fear?”
Finding out what we are really afraid of is an important part of our spiritual journey. We can have all sorts of nameless fears swilling about in us - fears which attach themselves to more tangible events; fears which exert a hidden pressure on us: pressure to succeed, pressure to look good, pressure to always be in control. As we walk with Jesus, he helps us to face our fears rather than run away from them, and as we face them with his help we find them gradually dissolving – for “Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4 v 18).
Prayer
Lord, help me to face my fears – especially my fear of ………………. Give me strength
not to run away but to turn and look at it, knowing that you are by my side,
and that your love overcomes all fear. Amen
Matthew 8 v 28-34
When Jesus arrived at the other side of the lake in the area of the Gadarene
people, two men who had demons in them met him. These men lived in the burial
caves and were so dangerous that people could not use the road by those caves.
They shouted, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Did you come here to torture
us before the right time?”
Near that place there was a large herd of pigs feeding. The demons begged Jesus,
“If you make us leave these men, please send us into that herd of pigs.”
Jesus said to them, “Go!” So the demons left the men and went into the pigs.
Then the whole herd rushed down the hill into the lake and were drowned. The
herdsmen ran away and went into the town, where they told about all of this
and what had happened to the men who had demons. Then the whole town went out
to see Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their area.
Notes
The aftermath of this story might not have been pretty. A walker along the lake
might have come across a group of angry herdsmen, pulling the bodies of hundreds
of pigs from the water. To his questions, they might have replied bitterly:
“Jesus of Nazareth did this.” The walker would have been surprised. “Jesus of
Nazareth? But I know him. He blesses little children. He wouldn’t do a thing
like this!” “Well, he did this all right – and we sent him packing.”
The fact that two men had been freed from terrible affliction would have seemed irrelevant to them. Of course, there may have been some kind of connection between the demonised men and the pig-keepers - things are often more interconnected than we realise. But as someone has put it: “All down the ages, the world has been refusing Jesus because it prefers the pigs!”
When God confronts evil there can be great turmoil and disturbance. Jesus is a divine disturber of the way things are – sometimes when the Holy Spirit is at work things may look more messy for a while. That can be true in our own lives, and in the lives of our churches. It’s a bit like lancing a boil: poison can come out and it’s not very pleasant – but it’s better out than in!
“But what about the pigs?” animal lovers will ask. Clearly, Jesus’ primary concern is to save men and women - but this is in order to save the whole creation. The creation “is waiting with excitement for God to show his children’s glory completely” (Romans 8 v 19) – its welfare is tied up with the salvation of those who have been given stewardship of it. As we have seen, things are a great deal more interconnected than we realise!
Prayer
Lord, help me to trust you when things seem messy - seem to be getting worse
not better. You are my Lord, and you know what you are doing! Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken
from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993
by Word Publishing Milton Keynes