Matthew 8
TFGMatthew 8:1-13
(At Capernaum.) M 1, 5-13; L 1-10. [Jesus proceeded from the mountain to Capernaum, which was now his home, or headquarters. The multitudes which are now mentioned for the third time were not wearied by his sermon, and so continued to follow him. Their presence showed the popularity of Jesus, and also emphasized the fact that the miracles which followed the sermon were wrought in the presence of the vast throngs of people.] [The context shows that this centurion or captain of a hundred men was a Gentile, but whether he was in the employ of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, or an officer in the Roman army, is [270] not clear, neither is very important. The army of Antipas, like that of other petty kings, was modeled after that of Rome] [slave boy] [The sequel shows that the centurion had probably heard how Jesus had healed the son of his fellow-townsman– ] [To reconcile Matthew and Luke, we have only to conceive of the centurion as coming to the edge of the crowd about Jesus, but modestly refraining from coming into the Lord’s immediate presence.] [Because palsy is not usually accompanied with suffering, some think that in this case it was combined with tetanus or lockjaw, a combination not infrequent in hot climates. But Sir R. Bennet, M.D., speaks thus: “In this instance we have probably a case of progressive paralysis, attended by muscular spasms, and involving the respiratory movements, where death is manifestly imminent and inevitable.
In such a case there would be symptoms indicative of great distress, as well as immediate danger to life.” As to palsy generally, see ). The elders, little knowing the wideness of our Lord’s vision and sympathy, supposed that Jesus would look upon the splendid synagogue erected for the Jewish people as a sufficient motive for granting their request.
Even the apostles were slow to learn that at heart Jesus knew neither Jew nor Gentile.] [not a soldier, but a household slave] [Having those over him, he knew how to obey, and [272] having those under him, he knew how to be obeyed. He was familiar, therefore, with all the principles of obedience. Knowing from the healing of the nobleman’s son, or from other reports concerning Jesus, that the realm of nature obeyed Jesus, he judged from his knowledge of earthly obedience that Jesus had those who could come and go for him, and who could carry his messages and enforce obedience to them. He felt that the presence of Jesus was not at all necessary to the healing.] [To some it seems strange that Jesus could marvel, but he had all the actual feelings of a man. However, we should note that Jesus is never said to have marveled but twice. In this case it was because of belief, and in the other , it was because of unbelief.
Those who think that Jesus gave or gives faith should note this fact. If Jesus had given the centurion faith, he could not have been surprised to find that he had it; and, if he failed to bestow it upon the people of Nazareth, it would have been inconsistent in him to express surprise at their lack of it.
It would seem, however, irreconcilable with the character and affectionate nature of Christ, to bestow faith in such profusion upon this Gentile stranger, and withhold every spark of it from his near kinsmen and fellow-townsmen. Faith is no miraculous gift. Faith means no more nor less than belief; and a man believes the Scripture facts in the same manner and by the same processes that he believes any other facts.] [Jesus here predicts the conversion of the Gentiles, since that fact is suggested to him by the faith of this centurion. The east and the west represent the extreme points of the compass in the directions in which the world was most thickly inhabited. But Jesus refers rather to spiritual separation than to [273] geographical distances– , , , .] [The child of anything in Hebrew phraseology expressed the idea of special property which one has in the thing specified, as, for instance, children of disobedience . Jesus here means, then, the Jews, to whom the kingdom belonged by hereditary descent– ] [In this paragraph Christ’s kingdom is set forth under the simile of a great feast, a familiar simile with Jesus .
The Jews were accustomed to speak of the delights of the Messianic kingdom as a feast with the patriarchs , but lost sight of the fact that Gentiles should share in its cheer and fellowship . Marriage feasts and other great feasts of the Jews were usually held in the evening.
Inside, therefore, there would be joy and light and gladness, but outside there would be darkness and disappointment, tears and bitter self-reproach . The despised outcasts should be brought in and placed at the festal board, while the long-invited guests–the natural and fleshly heirs of Abraham’s invitation–would be excluded . Hell is absence from spiritual light, separation from the company of the saved, lamentation and impotent rage.] [In the moment when Jesus spoke, the servant was healed–not relieved, but healed.] [The centurion, long before this when he was building the synagogue, had doubtless heard with delight concerning the wonderful works wrought by the mighty prophets in the olden time; he little dreamed that his own eyes should see them all surpassed.] [274] [FFG 270-274]
Matthew 8:2-4
M 2-4; M 40-45; L 12-16. [it was a city of Galilee, but as it was not named, it is idle to conjecture which city it was] [There is much discussion as to what is here meant by leprosy. Two diseases now go by that name; viz., psoriasis and elephantiasis. There are also three varieties of psoriasis, namely, white, black and red. There are also three varieties or modifications of elephantiasis, namely, tubercular, spotted or streaked, and anæsthetic. Elephantiasis is the leprosy found in modern times in Syria, Greece, Spain, Norway and Africa. Now, since ., in determining [176] leprosy, lays great stress on a white or reddish-white depression of the skin, the hairs in which are turned white or yellow, and since it also provides that the leper who is white all over shall be declared clean, and since in the only two cases where lepers are described– , –they are spoken of as “white as snow,” scholars have been led to think that the Biblical leprosy was the white form of psoriasis.
But the facts hardly warrant us in excluding the other forms of psoriasis, or even elephantiasis; for 1. Leviticus xiii. also declares that any bright spot or scale shall be pronounced leprosy, if it be found to spread abroad over the body; and this indefinite language would let in elephantiasis, cancer and many other skin diseases.
In fact, the law deals with the initial symptoms rather than with the ultimate phases of the fully developed disease. 2. Elephantiasis was a common disease in our Saviour’s time, and has been ever since, and would hardly be called leprosy now, if it had not been popularly so called then. The word “leprosy” comes from "" which means to peel off in scales. It is hereditary for generations, though modern medical authorities hold that it is not contagious. However, the returning Crusaders spread it all over Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries, so that according to Matthew Paris there was no less than nine thousand hospitals set apart for its victims. The facts that the priests had to handle and examine lepers, and that any one who was white all over with leprosy was declared clean, led scholars to think that the laws of Moses, which forbade any one to approach or touch a leper, were not enacted to prevent the spread of a contagion, but for typical and symbolic purposes.
It is thought that God chose the leprosy as the symbol of sin and its consequences, and that the Mosaic legislation was given to carry out this conception. Being the most loathsome and incurable of all diseases, it fitly represents in bodily form the ravages of sin in the soul of a man.
But there must also have been a sanitary principle in God’s laws, since we still deem it wise to separate lepers, and since other people besides the Hebrews (as the Persians) prohibited lepers from mingling with other [177] citizens. Elephantiasis is the most awful disease known. The body of its victim disintegrates joint by joint, until the whole frame crumbles to pieces. Psoriasis is milder, but is very distressing. Mead thus describes a case: The “skin was shining as covered with flakes of snow. And as the furfuraceous or bran-like, scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh appeared quick or raw underneath.” In addition to the scaly symptoms, the skin becomes hard and cracks open, and from the cracks an ichorous humor oozes.
The disease spreads inwardly, and ends in consumption, dropsy, suffocation, and death] [Some have thought that Luke meant to indicate one so completely covered with leprosy as to be clean . But the fact that Jesus sent him to the priest, shows that he was not such a clean leper.
Luke meant to describe a leper in the last stages of the disease–a leper past all hope] [The Jews, in addressing any distinguished person, usually employed the title “Lord.” They were also accustomed to kneel before prophets and kings. It is not likely that the leper knew enough of Jesus to address him as the Son of God. He evidently took Jesus for some great prophet; but he must have had great faith, for he was full of confidence that Jesus had power to heal him, although there was but one case of leper-cleansing in the Scriptures– , ] [The leper believed in the power of Jesus, but doubted his willingness to expend it on one so unworthy and so unclean. In temporal matters we can not always be as sure of God’s willingness as we can be of his power. We should note that the man asked rather for the blessing of cleanness than for health. To the Jew uncleanness was more horrible than disease.
It meant to be an outcast from Israel, and to be classed with swine, dogs and other odious and abhorrent creatures. The leper, therefore, prayed that the Lord would remove his shame [178] and pollution.] [Mark habitually notes the feelings, and hence also the gestures of Jesus.
It was not an accidental, but an intentional, touch. Popular belief so confused and confounded leprosy with the uncleanness and corruption of sin, as to make the leper feel that Jesus might also compromise his purity if he concerned himself to relieve it. The touch of Jesus, therefore, gave the leper a new conception of divine compassion. It is argued that Jesus, by this touch, was made legally unclean until the evening . But we should note the spirit and purpose of this law. Touch was prohibited because it defiled the person touching, and aided not the person touched. In Jesus’ case the reasons for the law were absent, the conditions being reversed. Touching defiled not the toucher, and healed the touched.
In all things Jesus touches and shares our human state, but he so shares it that instead of his being defiled by our uncleanness, we are purified by his righteousness. Moreover, Jesus, as a priest after the order of Melchizedek , possessed the priestly right to touch the leper without defilement– ] [The Lord’s answer is an echo of the man’s prayer. The words, “I will,” express the high authority of Jesus.] [“Luke says, ‘departed’, giving the merely physical view of the event. Matthew says, ‘was cleansed’, using ceremonial language. Mark combines the two forms”–] [The language used indicates that Jesus sternly forbade the man to tell what had been done. The man’s conduct, present and future, shows that he needed severe speech.
In his uncontrollable eagerness to be healed he had overstepped his privileges, for he was not legally permitted to thus enter cities and draw near to people ; he was to keep at a distance from them, and covering his mouth, was to cry, " [179] –unclean, unclean" . The man evinced a like recklessness in disregarding the command of Jesus] [Several reasons are suggested why the Lord thus commanded silence: 1.
It may have been better for the man not to mention his cure . 2. He required the decision of the priest to make him legally clean; and too much talk might so prejudice the priests as to lead them to refuse to admit his cure. 3. But the best reason is that it accorded with our Lord’s general course, which was to suppress excitement, and thus prevent too great crowds from gathering about him and hindering his work. To take this view is to say that Jesus meant to prevent exactly what happened] [Though healed of his leprosy, the man was not legally clean until declared so by the priest. The priest alone could readmit him to the congregation. The local priest inspected the healed leper, and if he was found clean or cured, he was purified by the use of two birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, razor and bath.
After seven days he was again inspected, and if still cured the priest repaired with him to the temple, where he offered the gift for his cleansing, which was three lambs, with flour and oil; or if the leper was poor, one lamb and two doves or pigeons, with flour and oil ( .). The healed leper was a testimony that Messiah, the great Physician, had come, and that he respected the law of Moses.
This testimony was given both to priests and people.] [from the presence of Jesus and from the city] . [The leper was so elated that he could scarcely refrain from publishing his cure, and he must also have thought that this was what Jesus really [180] wanted–that in commanding him not to publish it he did not mean what he said] [Not a natural or physical inability, but the inability of impropriety. Jesus could not do what he judged not best to do. The excitement cause by such an entry was injurious in several ways: 1. It gave such an emphasis to the miracles of Jesus as to make them overshadow his teaching. 2. It threatened to arouse the jealousy of the government. 3. It rendered the people incapable of calm thought.
Two things constantly threatened the ministry of Jesus, namely, impatience in the multitude, and envious malice in the priests and Pharisees. Jesus wished to add to neither of these elements of opposition.
Thus the disobedience of the leper interrupted Jesus, and thwarted him in his purpose to visit the villages. Disobedience, no matter how well-meaning, always hinders the work of Christ] [That is, the the remote grazing-lands like that desert in which he afterwards fed the five thousand. Such was our Lord’s unexampled meekness that he preferred the silent deserts to the applause of multitudes. His meekness was as high above the capacity of a merely human being as were his miracles] [Luke’s gospel is pre-eminently the gospel of prayer and thanksgiving] [FFG 176-181]
Matthew 8:14-17
(At Capernaum.) M 14-17; M 29-34; L 38-41. [where he had just healed the demoniac] [Peter and Andrew had dwelt at Bethsaida . They may have removed to Capernaum, or Bethsaida, being near by, may be here counted as a part, or suburb, of Capernaum. Its name does not contradict this view, for it means “house of fishing” or “fishery.”] [The Papists, who claim that Peter was the first pope, must confess that he was married at this time, and continued to be so for years afterwards . Celibacy is unauthorized by Scripture . God says it is not good . Luke speaks as a physician; for Galen, the father of medicine, divided fevers into little and great.] [Their interest in her shows the spirit of love and kindness which pervaded the home.] [Though it was an inanimate force, it was still subject to rebuke, as were the winds and waves of Galilee– ] [thus showing the miracle came from him, and that he felt a tender interest in the sufferer] [Her complete recovery emphasized the miracle.
Such fevers invariably leave the patient weak, [170] and the period of convalescence is long and trying, and often full of danger. She showed her gratitude by her ministry.] [Their delay till sundown was unquestionably caused by the traditional law of the Sabbath which forbade men to carry any burden on that day .
The Sabbath closed at sundown . The distinction is drawn between the sick and the demon-possessed. Lightfoot gives two reasons why demoniacal possession was so common at that time, viz.: 1, the intense wickedness of the nation; 2, the addiction of the nation to magic, whereby the people invited evil spirits to be familiar with them.] [ ] [Isaiah’s vision is progressive; he sees, first, a man of sorrows; second, a man sorrowful because he bore the sickness and sorrows of others; third, a man who also bore sin, and healed the souls of others by so doing. Such was the order of Christ’s life. His early years were spent in poverty and obscurity; his days of ministry in bearing, by sympathy and compassion, the sicknesses and sorrows of others ; and in the hour of his crucifixion, he became the world’s sin-bearer– , .] [Those who are disposed to frequent spiritual seances and to seek information from mediums should remember that the Son of God permitted his disciples to receive no information from such sources. He forbade demons to speak in the presence of his own, even on the most important of all topics.] [171] [FFG 169-170]
Matthew 8:18-27
(Sea of Galilee; same day as last section) M 18-27; M 35-41; L 22-25. [about sunset] [Wearied with a day of strenuous toil, Jesus sought rest from the multitude by passing to the thinly settled on the east side of Galilee.] [Literally, one scribe. The number is emphatic; for, so far as the record shows, Jesus had none of this class among his disciples] [caves, dens] [341] [Daniel’s name for the Messiah– ] [This scribe had heard the wonderful parables concerning the kingdom. He, like all others, expected an earthly kingdom and sought to have a place in it. Jesus so replied as to correct his false expectations.] [This disciple must have been one of the twelve, for these only were required to follow Jesus . It may have been James or John, whose father, Zebedee, almost certainly died before Jesus did. He may have just heard of his father’s death. ] [Let the spiritually dead bury the naturally dead.
This was a very exceptional prohibition, intended to show not that it was ordinarily wrong to stop for burying the dead, but wrong when in conflict with a command from Jesus. God bids us recognize the claims of filial duty, but rightfully insists that our duties toward him are superior to those due our parents.] [They took Jesus without any preparation for the journey.
The crowd, doubtless, made it inconvenient to go ashore to get provisions.] [The owners of these boats had probably been using them to get near to Jesus as he preached. They are probably mentioned to show that a large number witnessed the miracle when Jesus stilled the tempest.] [knowing his labors during the day, we can not wonder at this] [342] [These storms come with great suddenness. See McGarvey’s “Lands of the Bible,” page 519. [The cushion was the seat-cover, which, as Smith remarks, was probably “a sheepskin with the fleece, which, when rolled up, served as a pillow.” The stern was the most commodious place for passengers. The tossing ship has been accepted in all ages as a type of the church in seasons of peril] [There was a babble of confused voices, betraying the extreme agitation of the disciples.] [In addressing the winds and waves Jesus personified them to give emphasis to his authority over them. The calm showed the perfection of the miracle, for the waves of such a lake continue to roll long after the winds have ceased.] [They had little faith or they would not have been so frightened; but they had some faith, else they would not have appealed to Jesus.] [Jesus’ complete lordship over the realm of nature made his disciples very certain of his divinity.] [343]
[FFG 341-343]
Matthew 8:28-200
(Gergesa, now called Khersa.) M 28-34; 1; M 1-21; L 26-40. [They left in the “even,” an elastic expression. If they left in the middle of the afternoon and were driven forward by the storm, they would have reached the far shore several hours before dark] [Midway between the north and south ends of the lake, and directly east across the lake from Magdala, was the little city of Gergesa. In front and somewhat to the south of this city Jesus landed. Some sixteen miles away and to the southeast, and seven miles back from the lake, was the well-known city of Gadara. Further on to the southeast, on the borders of Arabia, and at least fifty miles from Gergesa, was the city of Gerasa. The name Gerasenes is, therefore, probably an error of the transcribers for Gergesenes, as Origen suggested.
The region is properly called “country of the Gadarenes,” for Gadara was an important city, and the stamp of a ship on its coins suggests that its territory extended to the Lake of Galilee] [Gergesa] [The sides of the mountain near the ruins of Gergesa are studded with natural and artificial caves which were used as tombs.] [344] [The natural spirit of the man seeking to throw off the dominion of the demons would cry out in agony, and the demons themselves, in their own misery, would use him as a vehicle to express their own grief. It would be hard to imagine a more horrible state] [on this phrase, see , , , , , , , .
How these demons escaped from the abyss is one of the unsolved mysteries of the spirit world; but we have a parallel in the releasing of Satan– .] [Matthew tells of two, while Mark and Luke describe only one. They tell of the principal one–the one who was the fiercer. In order to tell of two, Matthew had to omit the name “legion,” which belonged to one; and conversely, Mark and Luke, to give the conversation with one, did not confuse us by telling of two.] [The judgment-day, the time of punishment and torment– , , .] [About a mile south of Khersa a spur of the mountain thrusts itself out toward the lake so that its foot is within forty feet of the water line. This is the only spot on that side of the lake where the mountains come near the water. The slope is so steep and the ledge at its foot so narrow that a herd rushing down could not check itself before tumbling into the water. [346] Skeptics have censured Jesus for permitting this loss of property. God may recognize our property rights as against each other, but he nowhere recognizes them in the realm of nature.
What was done to the swine was done by the demons, and the owners had no more right to complain than they would have had if the herd had been carried off by murrain, by flood, or by any other natural cause. All animals have a right to die, either singly or in numbers.
The demons evidently did not intend to destroy the swine. Their desire to have live bodies to dwell in shows that they did not. But the presence of the demons in their bodies made the hogs crazy, as it had the demoniac, and they ran the way their noses were pointed at the moment. For discussion of demoniacal possession, see .] [Gergesa] [for the cities which constituted Decapolis, see ] [They could see the sail of his boat as he started back.] [Capernaum.] [348] [FFG 344-348]