Matthew 8

Matthew 8:1-34

VS. Matthew 8:1 to Matthew 9:35 inclusive. Compare Mark 1:40 to Mark 2:14 and Mark 5:22-43; Luke 5:12-39. OF CHRIST’S DEITY THE Sermon on the Mount finished with the conclusion of the seventh chapter, revealing the marvelous ability of Christ as teacher, and left the multitudes in amazement at His doctrine, “for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes”. But Christ was more than Teacher. He was Physician, Friend, and even Life itself, as the Scriptures of the eighth and ninth chapters clearly show. The wisdom in Christ’s teaching was scarcely more wonderful than the power in Christ’s touch. The noble ethics of the mountain-side sermon scarcely surpassed the deeds of sympathy and of love that characterized Him when He came into the plain. The two sides of Christ’s ministry combine to justify His claim of Deity. When He spake, even His enemies had to admit, “Never man spake like this Man”; and when He wrought, a kindred concession was forced upon their lips, “We never saw it on this wise”. These two chapters, eight and nine, show Christ in action. In them, Christ treats disease; Christ determines discipleship, and Christ controls devils. CHRIST TREATS DISEASE “When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; he thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them” (Matthew 8:1-4). This miracle is only a sample of a great series to follow, for in these chapters Christ heals the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13), raises up, from a bed of fever, Peter’s wife’s mother (Matthew 8:14-15); healed all that were sick (Matthew 8:16); restores the man stricken with palsy (Matthew 9:2-8); ends a twelve-year issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22); raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18-19; Matthew 9:23-26); heals the two blind men (Matthew 9:27-31), and makes the dumb to speak (Matthew 9:32-35). In these facts, see three things: He proves His absolute power over disease; He controls it, not by magic, but by command; and in this expression of power, He reveals His compassion. He proves His absolute power over disease. This is a day of quackery and specialization. Doctors are somewhat equally divided between the two. Either they profess cures wholly impossible to them, or they practice in a restricted realm, on the basis that it is quite impossible for one mortal man to make himself familiar with all kinds of diseases, and with all the possible disorders of a body composed of approximately twenty-six trillion cells. In fact, it would seem that the brain specialist would have enough to do to take care of the cerebral cortex with its nine billion, two hundred million cells. The old time doctor used to essay to treat everything, and the present-day physician will tell you that he treated nothing intelligently. But Christ was no specialist. Leprosy went at His word; palsy departed at His command; fever left its victim at His touch; the demon possessed came to right mind at His call; blood staunched at His word; blindness went at His will; dumbness ended at His command, and even death itself, the direst enemy of the body, dared not defy His demand. He who created the body by the word of His power, knows how to correct its evil distempers, and cure its every disease. Leprosy may be incurable with men, but not with the God-man. Palsy may be incurable with a human physician, but not for the Divine Physician. Blindness may baffle the keenest surgeon, but not the Christ. Death may send the ordinary doctor to his home heart-broken and consciously helpless, but even it holds no terrors for the Author of life. “Power belongeth unto the Lord”. These miracles were not by magic, but by His command. Modernists are wont to tell us that Christ effected cures through mental therapeutics; created first of all the spirit of expectancy, and then by well-known laws of psychology, made that expectancy result in physical improvement. There is a power of mental therapeutics that the well-informed do not question. There are cases subject wholly to mental manipulation, as medical men well know, and even casual observers are convinced. The power of the mind over the body is but partially appreciated. In the South recently, I learned from the lips of a most reputable minister of an instance where a farmer going to town was asked by his wife to get some diamond dyes. He bought them and put them on the inside of his vest pocket. The day was hot, perspiration was free, and the dyes ran through and colored his flesh. At night, when he took off his clothes, the blue shirt being practically identical with the dye, showed no discoloration, but all the flesh over the region of his heart was a bluish purple. At sight of it, he was alarmed. The family physician was called at once; a careful investigation was made and a counsel of doctors resulted.

The four of them sat in solemn conclave and declared that it was the fourth case of its kind recorded in the annals of medical history, and that each of the others had died within twenty-four hours, and that there was no hope. They called in the neighbors, therefore, to sit with the man to see the end. His pulse weakened; cold sweat gathered on his brow; death was imminent! The daughter, remembering her mother’s charge to the father when he left, not desiring to lose the dyes, shook the old man up and asked him what he did with them. He said, “In my vest!” They brought the garment, and lo, the whole section that covered this particular part of the heart region, was blue, and the daughter said, “Father, look, there is nothing wrong with you. That discoloration is a diamond dye”.

The old man sat up in bed; shooed the neighbors and family out of the room instantly; dressed himself and went to the barn to take care of the cattle. The daughter’s timely word kept her father from an untimely grave. Diamond dyes are a long removal from leprosy. The slight discoloration of the flesh from an external application of dyes is no such disease as palsy; has no such permanence as blindness, and no such agony as demon possession. Magic may work when sickness is a product of imagination, but it utterly fails when a true fever burns; when a hemorrhage drains veins and weakens arteries, and it is impotent in the presence of death. In the language of Joseph Parker, what can we say in the face of the facts here recorded, save “Lord, increase our faith. We are full of questioning and speculation, and cleverness and metaphysics, and we are keen at suggesting difficulties, and clever in the creation and piling of obstacles. I would God I could say always, right in the devil’s very face when he is grinding at my weakness most, ‘Lord, I believe’”. This whole series of miracles is the sure revelation of His compassion. “When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16-17). It is the custom of all those who call the modern miracle into question to emphasize the fact that miracles attested the Deity of Jesus, and added authority or weight to His words; but the most of them are silent touching the fact that miracles were ever wrought for their own sake; that miracles were ever wrought because the sight of suffering or distress so appealed to the Son of God that He could no more withhold His beneficent power than He could restrain Himself from tender pity. The glory of Jesus Christ consisted not alone in exhibitions of His Deity, but was equally manifested in the ebullitions of His humanity. At the grave of Lazarus, He “wept”. No man need be surprised therefore when He cried to His friend, fallen under the fierce assault of the last enemy—“Come forth”. He who will may believe that that miracle was meant only to attest the Divinity of Jesus, or add weight to His spoken words, but I am compelled to think that it was the cry of His humane heart calling back to His arms His bosom friend, and causing the hearts of those beautiful sisters—Mary and Martha—to lose their sorrow and leap for joy. Victor Hugo makes Jean Val Jean as watchful, as the hunted ever are, against possible detection on the part of his adversary; but when a driver’s wagon is mired, this same man crawls beneath it, and by his Herculean strength, releases its wheels, and in the very process publishes his own name. Did Jean Val Jean lift that wagon to exhibit his power? Never! but because his tender human heart could not “pass by on the other side”, seeing the distress of the stalled man! The Samaritan who ministered to the man on the way to Jericho, binding up his wounds, carrying him to an inn, paying his bills, providing against the future—did he do that that Samaria might have a good name, or that anybody might believe in him? Nay, verily, but because in his breast there beat the heart of a brother. And, if I know the Christ at all, He healed sick men, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised the dead, primarily because His heart was as humane as His character was Divine; His Spirit as compassionate as His Word was potent. Is it not written, “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14). No wonder John wrote, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace”, and that glory was never better manifested than in the miracles that Jesus wrought for the help, health and happiness of men. It is while studying this side of His character we realize that “our High Priest can he touched with the feeling of our infirmities”, and are encouraged to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”.But we pass to the second suggestion: Christ determines discipleship. “Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came, and said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head. And another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead” (Matthew 8:18-22). How strange a method of making disciples: He presents no alluring prospects or promises. This is a strange and unwonted way to secure followers. It is far removed from the method of the smooth modernist, as the latter paints rosy prospects and makes abounding promises. Christ, on the other hand, presents difficulties, erects barriers, names certain hardships, and then says, “Now, will you come?” In this as in all other matters, “Never man spake like this Man”. His appeal was not to softness, but to steadfastness instead; it was not to ease-loving, but to the heroic. Evidently, he was not “enamored of numbers”.

He did not care to pile up disciples, increase His church, to be able to claim His thousands. A few whose steadfastness would never fail were better. The wisdom in this method is known to the most observant men. Gideon’s three hundred were valuable above the thousands. The man who serves God for a price is no fit disciple of His Son. True disciples are not bribed.

They do not even demand softness, but willingly submit themselves to severe discipline. They are not “asking a pillow of down and a bed of ease”, but are content to share with their Master His pillowless estate. The present difficulty with the Church of God is at this point. We are more anxious to multiply our numbers than we are to make true soldiers of the Cross; to have heads to count and report through newspapers, than to make soldiers who will endure hardness and report to the “Captain of our salvation”. He demonstrates His professed possession of power. “And when He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves; but he was asleep. And his disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us; we perish. And He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” (Matthew 8:23-27). It is encouraging to behold our Christ at work at another realm. One might imagine that He had, through some good fortune, found the key to health and the way to conquest of disease, but that He was limited to that single realm. Such would be a sufficient fame and fortune for any physician of earth, but Christ was more than “Lord of the body”. He was also the “captain of winds and waves”. All nature was subject to His control, and though it could not be said of the man Christ, as it is written of God, that “He never slumbered nor slept”, it can with all assurance be said of the man Christ, that the moment His disciples need Him, He is awake, and once awake, He is adequate. To many of us, Christ is asleep. The reason is that we ourselves are in the calm; peace is our portion, prosperity our estate, and we feel no need of Him. In fact, we are very well content to let Him alone, to leave Him to His rest. But let the storm arise; let sickness smite| let the black angel of death flap his wings through the room where wife, husband or child is burning with fever or gasping for breath, and then we instinctively turn to Him, tug at His garment, and cry, “Lord, save”, and the blessed fact is that He is instantly alert, ever sympathetic and always capable. I am a light sleeper, and when my children were babies and their cradles were nigh at hand at night, I relieved the dear mother of any concern or care through that time. Their faintest cry never once failed to enter my ear and bring me to be wide awake. Mrs. Riley used to say, “Those babies don’t need you half the time. They simply call you because they want to visit with you. It’s fun for them to get father up in the night under the pretense of thirst or other whim”.

I half admitted the fact, but mother didn’t seem to know that it was fun for father to get up also, and the fellowship of the dark-ness is better than the fellowship of day. So, Christ’s coming when the storm is on, when the mantle of night is wrapped around the earth, when the lightning flash brings alarm, when the foam-capped waves threaten the craft—aye, that is comfort, and that also is Christ. But when my babies were frightened, the best I could do was to ease them with my presence. I could not still a storm. He can! I could not banish the darkness and bring the day.

He does! I could not rebuke the fever and bring health. He wrought both. I could not still the waves and bring the boat to land, but the “Captain of our salvation” has “all power in heaven and on earth” and under every condition, His Deity is demonstrated. He defends the course and conduct of His own disciples. Read the ninth chapter from verses 9 to 17. “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, bid they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Then came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved”. (Matthew 9:9-17) He called Matthew; he was a publican. How marvelous to make a disciple out of one with no social standing; and, such was the custom of Christ. Even His Apostles came from lowly station. “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). He did more than call; He defended. His disciples were subject to criticism on account of His own conduct, but He reminded their critics of the great fundamental of His earth-ministry, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”. The disciples of John came demanding to know why Jesus did not impose fasting upon His own disciples, and Jesus answered them, “Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” and declared that their attempt to keep both the traditions of the fathers and the truth of God was like the foolish who “put a new piece of cloth into an old garment, or new wine into old bottles”. Truly, as Joseph Parker says, “There are many people whose virtue consists in abstention from vice’: it is a kind of minus quantity; it is the mere negation of wrong. They will not eat, they will not drink, they will not pursue this pleasure, nor will they follow after that delight, they will not be seen in such and such company—that is their lean and most puny virtue. It is necessary, it is part of the education, but a man ought not always to rest there. Virtue is positive, religion is emphatic; the true spirit is one of liberty!” Finally, CHRIST DEVILS. “And when He was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time” (Matthew 8:28-29)? “As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 9:32-35). We have seen Him work in the realm of human flesh and bring it from sickness to health. We have seen Him work in the realm of the first heaven and quiet wind and wave. Now we behold Him work in a third environment, namely that of spirits. He discovers the same ministry there that He has shown elsewhere, and yet, as a matter of fact, these three realms are not so far apart as one might imagine, for sickness is of Satan; disease is of the devil! Storms may come from the same source, for He is the “prince of the power of the air”. Why should surprise then take us on the discovery of demon possession! Rather let us rejoice in some facts! First, the demons admit His authority against them! “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?”Men seem to think that unbelief is a minor matter, a small sin, if a sin at all. The Scriptures teach us, on the contrary, that it is “the sin of sins”, “the root of all iniquities”. Men resent being compared with devils at any point, but let it be forever understood that even demons are not guilty of infidelity. “They believe and tremble”. They have felt the hand of God in judgment once already in “the loss of their first estate”, their “former habitation, and the binding of the chains that reserve them in everlasting darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). In memory of that fact, they are not foolish enough to doubt God, nor sufficiently forgetful of Christ’s authority and power to deny or decry Him. They have a day of judgment back of them. They consciously face another to come. They believe and fear. Oh, that men, if they will not learn from angels, might at least take suggestions from devils, and quit their skepticism forever. They unwillingly yield to His lightest word. “And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought Him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And He said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine; and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they besought Him that He would depart out of their coasts” (Matthew 8:30-34). They will resist men. They will refuse their commands. Witness the instance of the “vagabond Jews, exorcists, [who] took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:13-16). There are a great many demons that refuse the word of man. The demon of strong drink will not down at man’s word. The demon of lust will not depart at man’s command. The demon of greed will conquer the very one who seeks to control and utilize him. But all demons flee at the Word of God. This is the explanation of truly reformed drunkards, truly regenerated gamblers, and truly saved whoremongers. God’s Son came, and with His word, He banished the evil one, redeemed the body and cleansed it, and made it a temple of the Holy Ghost, and sent the Holy Spirit in to sit in authority and exercise control. Oh, demonized man! Oh, woman with unclean spirit! There is no hope in yourself; there is no possible reclamation through the power of your fellows; but “there is salvation, and it is of the Lord”. The darkest demons departed at His pleasure. “As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake; and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and-preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 9:32-35). Devils depart; disease absconds; sickness subsides; salvation comes when He who “went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom”, has arrived. What is Jesus then,—a Teacher? Yes, the world never knew His like. What is Jesus then,—a Physician? Yes, no sickness can resist His speech, His word, His will, even His wish. What is Jesus then? Finally and forever, a Saviour. He is the enemy of all evil spirits, the end of all satanic influences. He is the Saviour of the soul. Lost men, look up! Lost women, hope! Christ is come, and Christ is God!