Matthew 8

Division 3. (Matthew 8:1-34; Matthew 9:1-38; Matthew 10:1-42; Matthew 11:1-30; Matthew 12:1-50.)The Manifestation of the King; which manifests also the people’s heart towards Him. The Kingdom thus announced, and its principles declared, we have now in detail the signs that manifest the King. These are not, and could not be, mere works of power, but such as bear the stamp of divinity upon them, the evidence of whence this power is derived. Power alone might accredit what was evil - a thing most necessary to be remembered in the present day: “whose coming is according to the working of Satan; in all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9), is said of Antichrist. But the power manifest now in Israel was displayed in goodness and holiness and truth, and in connection with that which appealed (as just now said) to the whole moral nature. The Lord refused the faith which was built but upon miracles (John 2:23-25), and reproved the craving for them among the people with the words, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). Miracles were not with the Lord the foundation of anything, but what flowed naturally out of what He was, and from the intervention of God in behalf of a sin-ruined world.

They testified to Christ in this way as the One whom nature owned and served, but who, therefore, was above it, and could not be debtor to it for His authentication. They were in place as they put Him in His place, and with all else served and worshiped Him. The characters manifested in them were apart from this. They were His characters. They were impressed upon them as His acts, - were part of His living energy in its operation. And thus they had their inner significance, - as “signs:” they went with all else that He did to declare Him, and did so, acting in a sphere beyond what was merely human; where dull eyes saw better what was in all spheres the same. Faith was at all times in Christ Himself, the Son of the Father, wherever seen - “beheld His glory, the glory of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We are now to see Him in this manifestation of Himself, but to see, alas, that this manifestation did not of necessity bring men to His feet. On the contrary, we are to find Him rejected by His people long taught to anticipate His coming as Messiah as the crown of all their blessings. The more He shows and proves His claim to be this, only the more decisively is He rejected; until grace can no more utter itself, and He turns in spirit from them to own relationship with those only who are doers of His Father’s will. If the national refusal of Him is not yet complete, it is in sight; and the next division shows us anticipatively the Kingdom in its present Gentile form, and the New Testament “mysteries 51 begin to be unrolled to us. Subdivision 1. (Matthew 8:1-34; Matthew 9:1-26.)Divine power in constant grace. The signs themselves occupy the first subdivision; after which, as fully manifested, He sends His messengers through the cities of Israel to proclaim the Kingdom and do the works that confirm their mission; after which we find a remnant separated from the rest, who harden themselves in unbelief and impenitence.

Matthew 8:1-17

Section 1. (Matthew 8:1-17.)His fore-known place. In the first section, one of those dispensational pictures is presented to us such as we have already had in the second chapter. There it was impossible not to see in the Gentile magi coming up to worship a King of the Jews unknown in Jerusalem, the forecast of what was to come. In the present section after the leper has been healed, and sent in testimony to the priests, that they may themselves certify the divine power which is being displayed among them, the faith of a Gentile is declared by the Lord to be greater than any He has found in Israel. And thereupon He announces the coming in of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God, while the sons of the Kingdom are cast out. Here we are left in no uncertainty, then, as to the larger meaning of what is before us. But the significance is not ended here: for in the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law we find Him healing by touch again as in the leper, Himself present therefore, while in the case of the centurion’s servant He heals at a distance, as in the present time.

The touch assures us that here we have Him once more present as when He returns to Israel at a future time; while the healing of the sick of all kinds, with the reference to His human sympathy in the quotation from Isaiah, leads us out into a wider scene beyond. We seem to have Him thus in four different characters: as Son of God in the case of the leper; as Son of Abraham. in that of the centurion; as Israel’s Messiah; and as Son of man. He fills in all this His predicted place. (1) The cure of leprosy seems to have been unknown in Israel. It was a condition that only God could reach. On this account it was the fitting type of the incurable nature of sin; and a fitting case with which to begin the Lord’s manifestation of Himself to Israel. We have seen that He could not take the Kingdom, except as the Son of God; and this was the character in which He was first of all rejected by the leaders of the people. Here He cures by a touch, which would have defiled another, and sends the healed man to the priest that he may certify the cure. But there is no response from this quarter, to which He appeals, as it were, alone, bidding the man tell it to no other.

The clamor of a crowd would not have helped such an appeal, which would better be heard in the conscience as a case quietly submitted for their decision. But there is no response: Israel is dumb until her demon is cast out, and then only will she be a true witness to her glorious King. (2) But here it is that the Gentile comes in; with a faith not found in Israel; and if the contrast with the case of the leper is plain; it is the more striking that in fact they occurred at different times* and are brought together for an evident purpose. Moreover Luke, whose Gospel is the only one that has this story besides Matthew, while giving details omitted by the latter, omits on his part the assurance to the believing Gentile of sitting down in the Kingdom of heaven, and the warning to the Jew of sons of the Kingdom being cast out, which the Jewish Gospel records. Humbling all this was to the pride of those to whom it was addressed; and because humbling, most needful, - the proud must be abased. On the other hand with the centurion there is the most thorough humility. He is not fit for Christ to come under his roof, but in this already we see the faith that animates him. As self is behind the back, the vision becomes unclouded, and thus he realizes in Him One whom all things serve.

Yet Himself is come to serve and to serve such as have no worthiness - no fitness but in their need. Let Him speak the word then: every thing will do His bidding. He, the soldier, a man under authority, has yet his subordinates, the agents of his will, and knows how promptly his commands are executed. So, with a word, his servant shall be healed.
The experience of the Lord’s delight has in it yet what gives rise to much grave question. Why should there be faith outside of Israel greater than any that could be found in Israel? Israel had every advantage in this respect that could have been given her. Do privileges neglected and misused tend to blight even the true faith that exists in the midst of an easy profession? When we speak approvingly of a “child-like” faith, do we not seem to mean that the faith of a man does not fulfil the promise of the child? that hardly it can be expected it should do so? If so, this surely cannot argue that a longer acquaintance with Christ will be unfavorable to development, or that there is inherent a principle of decay in faith that affects this: and if not, what else can it be that does so but the breath of the outside air, the world-atmosphere that is unfavorable to such an exotic as faith is? Yet “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith!” Without meaning to excuse it in this way, it cannot surely be doubted that the atmosphere of what may be truly called a “Christian world” is more detrimental to development than that of a heathen world would be; and that because a Christian world stands as the very ideal of compromise, and compromise has in it as a first element disloyalty to Christ and to His word. Here you are faced, not with what is openly nor even intentionally hostile to Christ, - what would put you on your guard, and rouse up in you all your power of resistance; no, you find in it truth owned, but not taken very seriously; you are to follow it, but not be too extreme about it. And how naturally we grow up just to the stature, morally or spiritually as even mentally, of the company we keep! how we read Scripture itself with such a traditional interpretation put upon it as is in this way acquired, until we lose capacity for taking it simply and straightforwardly, as it would necessarily appear to the faith of a child, or of one outside the current rendering. Who can doubt that the large and miscellaneous Christendom about us also, like the Pharisaic, Sadducean; Herodian Judaism of our Lord’s time, is the greatest hindrance to true faith; and that the gospel is rendered so powerless as it is today, by the dead weight upon it of barren profession and the truth unfollowed and unfelt? The witnesses for Christ are just those who may be most terribly against Him, and who, however little they may mean it, can never be merely negative or neutral in their testimony. I think we can scarcely help such an application of our Lord’s words as to the simple faith of the Gentile centurion in the midst of formal, ritualistic hollow-hearted Judaism. But how great a thing to give refreshment to the heart of Christ as this man did! And by it His soul looks out anticipatively to those gathering multitudes who from opposite quarters should come to sit down at the glad feast of welcome with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven: - then, when “sons of the Kingdom,” the claimants now of title to that for which they had no heart, would he cast into the outer darkness, whence God the Light would be withdrawn; into the awful unavailing weeping and gnashing of teeth. Here the Seed of Abraham is very clearly revealed. (3) The third miracle here, as may be seen by the account of it in both Mark and Luke, is again out of the order of time, and in fact took place before the cleansing of the leper. It must, therefore, be inserted in this place for a purpose, and we have already glanced at its significance in this respect. The Lord in this case once more heals by touch, - is Himself, therefore, personally present where He heals. Natural relationship also is owned, as we see in “Peter’s wife’s mother,” and even in its being in the house, the place of relationship. No doubt, such references will be thought by some too minute and trivial to find meaning in them; but the mistake is in supposing anything in Scripture to have that character. We shall find elsewhere just such things with similar meaning and in important connections (Matthew 13:1; Matthew 13:36).

By and by the Lord will thus come back (the fullness of the Gentiles having been brought in) into the sphere of His old relationships, to bring in healing for Israel of a deeper kind. The fever of the old life will then be subdued by His presence: He will say to the tumult of human passion; “Peace,” and it shall be still; and Israel will arise in the strength of a new devotedness, to minister unto Him. That the scene here is a picture of this must be judged by its fitness to represent it and by the connection with all that goes before and follows. So judged, it seems to answer well to such a thought. 4 For Israel’s restoration will, it is certain; bring souls from every part, tormented with Satan’s tyranny to Him who has been her Deliverer; and the casting out of Satan will bring in the blessing of those millennial times, while the sympathizing pity of which Isaiah speaks, and which marks Him as true Son of man; will remove the results of sin of whatever character. The principle here will not allow of blessing limited to Israel, as in fact the Lord never did so limit it; and thus the widest, fullest out-flow may be indicated here. This sketch, then, as a sort of title of all that follows, may well show us the Lord filling all His predicted place: Son of God, Seed of Abraham, Israel’s Messiah, Son of man. Mere picture it is not, but a display of personal characters that are found in Him, and this comes naturally in the first place, as the foundation of all else. The characters of the deliverance He brings come next, and in place as suited, and then, briefly, what is exceptional in Matthew, but needed for the full display of what He is, the presence of God is shown to be open to man; and His grace welcomes freely, the restrictions of the law set aside: the new wine is to be put into new bottles.

Matthew 8:18-9

Section 2. (Matthew 8:18-34; Matthew 9:1-8.)The various deliverances. The various features of the deliverance are now, then; briefly but sufficiently shown to us. We begin with what is more external, and end with what is deepest and most personal, the heart of the whole matter. Circumstances are in His hands; the power of the enemy is prostrate before Him; sins are remitted, and the helpless and impotent one rises up in strength: such is the power and such the grace of our Redeemer. And yet, beyond this there is blessing for which all this is but the necessary preparation. To be with God: that is the complete and innermost joy of all; without which all else would be but vanity, and the soul’s hunger wholly unappeased.

1. We begin with the first lesson first. Creation is in His hand: He has made it and He is Lord of it; full of disorder as it may appear and is, the rod of power has not slipped out of His hand: faith’s triumph is in owning Him amid what is real disorder, compelling even this to work out His purposes. So in the beginning of such a record of faith as we have in the catalogue of witnesses in the epistle to the Hebrews, the first thing of all is this, that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Thus the scene of all our trials is in its whole framework and constitution His before whom faith walks. Whatever may be for the moment in the front, behind it rise the everlasting hills founded by divine strength, and bearing testimony to immutable faithfulness. The frost has riven them; the torrents have swept their shattered fragments into the valleys below; they seem to be the prey of every destructive agency which has license to work its will upon their passive forms.

Yet the Hand that made them at first is still unseen raising them and sustaining them, while their very dust, spread out over the lower lands, is maintaining these also, and renewing their surface by its ministry. Death and destruction are in the hands of the God of resurrection; amid all the waste is nothing wasted; death ministers to life, and life springs out of it. And here is the Master of all, in meekest surrender to circumstances in a path where all seems against Him, yet maintaining His absolute title untouched, as He must, or all were given up. Where would we be, if He resigned His authority? As to circumstances, the foxes in their holes and the birds of heaven are better provided; and this He urges to test the zeal of a too ready disciple. On the other hand, if one would put even a father’s claim before His own, He in the plainest manner refuses this. From Luke we learn that the Lord had called this man to follow Him, but there seemed no duty which could take precedence of burying a dead father. The man who is called is not fully ready; the one not called is more than ready. We may be sure that the state of enthusiasm in the one case was genuine enough; and he was one of a class not given to it in regard to Christ. The enthusiasm was all well, but there was in it a dangerous self-confidence, like that which we find in Simon Peter afterwards, and which we know betrayed him into a terrible fall.

It was not that sincerity or love was wanting in him, but the consciousness of his own weakness: and this is why so much of early promise is apt to fail, and backwardness succeed, it may be, to confident energy. When Christ’s call is heard distinctly in the soul, then it is as dangerous to be reckoning up difficulties, as in mere enthusiasm to lose sight of them. It is for Him who calls us to the path to reckon with the difficulties, and faith for the path also is found as we travel it. Assuredly, if we have not faith for the Lord’s path, we shall not find it for any other. In the second case, therefore, the Lord insists upon promptitude of devotedness. “Let the dead bury their dead” is distinct exhortation to lay aside every thing that would, under the idea of duty itself, delay compliance with what He has called to. Even Abraham suffered his father to lead in obedience to a word addressed to himself; and so we read that “Terah took Abraham his son, . . . and went forth with them . . . to go into the land of Canaan.” What came of it? “And they came unto Haran; and dwelt there.” While Terah was alive, they never got to the place for which they had set out: “Terah died in Haran.” In the case before us it was only a dead father needing to be buried; and here the living disciple, the messenger of life, was not to be detained in the region of death, from the delivery of his gracious message. Let the dead attend to death, is the Lord’s word; and, although the two deaths spoken of here are not the same, yet there is simple and evident connection between them. If the Lord maintain His authority as Master, it is soon made manifest that Master He is, and able to ensure the safety of those that are with Him. On the stormy sea, He is asleep until, roused by their unbelieving appeal to Him, - and how much unbelief is expressed in our prayers! - He hushes with a word the winds and the sea. The application of this is familiar to us all, and made by every one: a pregnant example of how naturally these histories speak to us all of spiritual realities in the way of exhortation and comfort, - how truly they are meant to do so. And the unbelief of disciples, how constantly has it been repeated since, and how often does the Lord shame us by coming in for us as here. How much is it all in contrast with that faith of the centurion; which we have so lately seen winning the Lord’s wonderment, as here their unbelief does. This restless sea of Galilee, so often lashed with storms, is indeed a vivid picture of the world of our pilgrimage, much vexed, soon traversed; and we find it more than once again in this way, and human feet taught to walk in peace upon it, not without His help who Himself walked there and still walks, for faith, in the like fashion. 2. They come to the other side of the sea, only to find there the enemy’s power rampant. Two possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs, stop the way against all comers. Matthew does not go into detail here, as Mark and Luke do. His object is just to show the power of the Lord as manifested in these various deliverances, and details have not for him the same importance. The ghastly horror of the dwelling of these living men in the abodes of death, and their insane fury before which men quailed, are given to put in contrast the absolute surrender of their prey by those who held them captive, when the Lord appears.

Men; blinded of Satan, may dispute His right, not they. Striking it is that they give Him at once the title, which men deny Him, of Son of God, and recognize Him as their future Judge. But they plead that the day of judgment has not come, and can He be come to torment them before the time? The story of the swine that follows seems as if it were designed to make manifest the reality of these demoniac possessions, than which nothing can be plainer, indeed, in the whole account of them. The demons, speaking with the voice of the possessed, recognize the Lord (always, as already said, with intelligence as to His Person), address and are addressed by Him, their testimony to Him being necessarily refused. They ask permission to go into the herd of swine, (“all the demons,” according to Mark, taking part in this) and are granted it; and thereupon the whole herd of swine (about 2,000 in number) rush down the steep bank into the sea, and perish in the waters. Matthew, again; gives us no after-picture of these delivered men. He is occupied with the deliverance itself, the manifestation of the glorious King, and along with this but with the shadow that creeps after it, His rejection; as already showing itself, at the hands of an unbelieving and impenitent people. They are more afraid of the Deliverer than of the awful power from which He would have delivered them, and imitate, in effect, the prayer of the demons themselves, in begging Him to depart out of their coasts. The Lord accepts His rejection and returns across the lake to His own city. 3. The jarring elements have owned Him; the power of the enemy has been broken before Him; the strong man’s captives are delivered: we are next to see what is the stronghold of the enemy yield, and man’s condition met in its innermost reality; the burden of guilt is lifted from the soul, and the paralysis which sin induces removed in consequence. We are surely to take in widest, fullest application what is given us here, just as we do instinctively, and not the less surely, the hushing of the storm upon the lake. All through these divine narratives, that which is manifested to the senses is but a parable of spiritual realities. The external facts are, none the less as that, a veil of the unseen, a manifestation in flesh of the divine. The miracles are not wonders merely but signs, - through and through significant. The miracle that follows here is again taken out of the order of time, but all the more should it be manifest, with such purpose as we have already seen. Morally and spiritually it is here perfectly in its place; and again we find features that are dwelt upon in the other gospels omitted in order to bring into prominence the central fact. They bring to the Lord a paralytic, lying upon a bed; and He, seeing their faith, goes beyond the apparent need, and down to that in which all the distress that is in the world has its root: “He said unto the paralytic, Son; be of good courage, thy sins are forgiven thee.” He who spoke knew perfectly the state of soul to which He was addressing Himself, and the weight of his sins, which might hinder even bodily healing, was certainly pressing upon him. But the miracle of healing which was to follow was thus also to be a witness to that which in itself the senses could not realize or confirm. The sufferer was to have the assurance of this; but also the most unsympathetic and unbelieving there were to find openly the seal of divine power put upon His claim to forgive sins. As Son of man He claims it: but that was itself a Messianic title, and (as we have seen) implied in itself One higher than man; even while it assured them of the tender truth of that humanity. But why the need of assuring any one that He who was in their midst as man really was that? It was in fact the sweetest assurance, as it could only have arisen out of the most absolute conviction of His highest glory. Even the accusation of Him in their thoughts, by the proof given of His knowledge of them, is made to turn to their conviction; and if none could forgive sins but God alone - and they were surely right in that - what, then, was He who could thus so completely prove His authority to do this? How sweet and wonderful the assurance of sins forgiven; His word certifying it after this manner! Not that it was new that God met men in His grace upon the simple confession of their sins to Him. The psalmist had found it so, and published his experience for the help of others (Psalms 32:1-11), and in this way David had described, as the apostle says, “the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works” (Romans 4:6). This had been thickly overlaid with ritualistic practices and rabbinical prescriptions, and could scarcely have been understood by any with the simplicity which it appears to us to have. But who could have undertaken to apply this grace on God’s part definitely to the individual, to pronounce him forgiven in this authoritative manner? Thus we see that all this is part of the manifestation of the Deliverer. It is not the doctrine of forgiveness that is declared, nor would this have aroused opposition in the form we find it here, but that the Son of man had authority to forgive sins. The order of blessing is, however, pregnant with meaning. First, “thy sins be forgiven thee,” and then “arise and walk.” The load of unforgiven sin is too great for any one to lift and yet find power to walk in a way acceptable to God. Pardon assured from Him, the soul arises with the strength found in this new joy in Him. All is changed for it. The path is a path with Him, not to find Him. It is a path given of Him who is now known.

Thus the limbs just now paralyzed with guilt and fear receive, as in a moment, life and energy. The impracticable legal principle, “do and live,” has given way to the evangelical one, “live and do.” Here is a change of order how significant: “arise and walk” speaks first of the wondrous gift bestowed; then, as the flush and vigor of health are felt, the “walk” becomes but prolonged ecstasy. Salvation in its fullness is not found till this is attained.