TBR Bible Study -- Matthew 8

Matthew 8

The Man With Leprosy

1When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2A man with leprosy[a] came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."


3Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said.

"Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 4Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

The Faith of the Centurion

5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

7Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

8The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

10When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

13Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Jesus Heals Many

14When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

16When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

"He took up our infirmities ​

and carried our diseases."​

The Cost of Following Jesus

18When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

20Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

21Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

22But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Jesus Calms the Storm

23Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

26He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

27The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

The Healing of Two Demon-possessed Men

28When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29"What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"

30Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."

32He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

34Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.



Footnotes:

1. Matthew 8:2 The Greek word was used for various diseases affecting the skin—not necessarily leprosy.

 

What strikes me about this passage is that Jesus tells the healed man not to tell anyone else but the local priest. Even though Jesus knows it'll be the priests who ultimately betray Him, He's still using His power and opportunities to witness to them.

 

This is the first real departure we've seen so far from the idea that Israel has exclusive rights to God's favor. This Roman, who has no claim whatsoever to God's blessing -- and probably doesn't even know Israel's history with God -- still recognizes power and authority in Jesus, even though he doesn't understand it. And for Jesus, that's all it took. The same is true with us today. We don't have to understand everything there is to know about Jesus. It's not about having a specific ancestry or geographic location. All that He requires is that we recognize Him for who He is, and submit to Him.

 

Why would He do that?

I think He's implementing a kind of 'screening process' to see who is really interested in following (or at least hearing) Him, and who isn't. As His ministry continues to draw crowds, He does this kind of thing more and more.

 

Case in point, here is a teacher of the law (a.k.a. Saducees) telling Jesus he's willing to follow Him. But the Saducees were among the societal and cultural elite. They were not poor, not wanting for much of anything. Jesus knew that, and with His reply, I think He's saying, "If you want to follow Me, you have to leave your life of comfort and favor behind you."

As there is no follow up, I think the implication is that the man simply turned and walked away.

 

Sounds pretty harsh, doesn't it? It definitely did to me the first time I read it. Still does. But Jesus doesn't make statements like that without a good reason, so what message is He trying to convey here?

I think the caption the NIV writers inserted above this passage is right on. It's about the cost of being a follower of Jesus -- a Christian. To be a Christian, we have to be willing to put Him before everything else in our lives -- even our families. That's a tall order that raises the bar WAY above what too many people think it means to be a Christian.

Far too many people in our culture today call themselves Christians as sort of a default setting. They think something along the lines of, "Well, I'm an American, I believe in God and I'm not anything else, so I must be a Christian." That's the equivalent of saying, "Well, I'm not dating anyone else, so I must be married." It just doesn't work that way.

Being a follower of Christ is about being close to Him. It's about having a relationship with Him. It's not about where we live, what our families believe, or how we've been brought up. It's a choice, and a serious one at that. Each of us has to make that choice for ourselves, and whatever we choose, there will be a price to pay.

 

There are a couple of things about this passage that stand out for me. One, the demons who possessed those men were among the first to acknowledge Jesus for who He really was. Two, they were afraid. I can only surmise that "the appointed time" refers to the final judgment of the world that is described in Revelation.

Jesus' half-brother James referred to the demonic fear of Jesus in his general letter to Jewish Christians throughout the Middle East:

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." --James 2:19

 

Wouldn't one good leper healing have made a huge following?

It doesn't really sound harsh to me. Dead's dead, the soul is gone and who cares about the shell?

 

It was/is a sign of familial respect to perform this one last duty for your parents. I know it would seem harsh and cruel if I were told that I couldn't leave to handle those arrangements.

HB, what are your thoughts on them asking to be released into the herd of pigs?

 

What ever became of these bible studies?