Matthew Chapter 8
Matthew 7 was the third of three chapters about the Sermon on the Mount. That came to a close at the close of 7.
Jesus had been up on a mountain. He comes down and there are great crowds following him. A leper asks to be healed, and Jesus heals him and tells him to show himself to the priests - that is, to follow the Law as to the healing - and to tell no one. How can he be expected to tell no one if a great crowd was present when it happened? This miracle was mentioned elsewhere, without the crowds. Perhaps a quiet moment along the way? Early in the morning maybe, before the crowds had gathered? MSB note is about why Jesus would want to keep publicity down. Says Mark records that this leper's exuberance after being healed ultimately pushed Jesus' ministry into the desolate places. This is in Mark 1:45. The story is there, and in Luke 5:15-16. So it is just that Matthew doesn't give us every detail of this incident. Matthew is focused on a leper being healed. Mark records the tactical consequences of the healing. Jesus couldn't just enter towns anymore without being thronged. Healers today don't have to worry about such things.
2022 - This little story has only four verses dedicated to it. But in them, we see an incurable disease get cured. There were witnesses - at least the apostles would have been there, and likely quite a few others. We see that this leper believed that Jesus was able to heal leprosy. He says "if you will..." as in you can, you have the ability and the authority, and the decision is yours and yours alone. Perhaps that is an important aspect to healing that we rarely notice. In this day of science and medicine, it is never really about the doctor's benevolence. Today, if the doctor CAN heal us, he does. But Jesus always COULD, but only DID when it was what he decided. Think of how faith healers manipulate these ideas. They want us to believe that they can. But they make success dependent on our faith, not on their ability. Even so, even though our own faith is crucial to healing, it also depends on their willingness to heal. It also possibly depends on the size of our love offering to their ministry. And when success is apparent, a faith healer wants it proclaimed, with TV coverage and testimonial. Faith healers heal what does not show. Leprosy was obvious to all. I've never seen a faith healer fix a broken leg. Perhaps a bad back...but I've never seen them saw a cast off a broken leg on live TV. Jesus could and did heal observable disease, lameness, deafness, the mute...Faith healers don't do any of that. So very many contrasts with how Jesus did things. Jesus received no pay.
A centurion comes to Jesus asking that his servant be healed. Jesus offers to come take care of it, but the Centurion says that he understands authority, and knows that Jesus can heal from where he is, and that he does not feel worthy to have Jesus under his roof. Jesus says he hasn't seen such faith anywhere in Israel.
Then Jesus goes on to say that many from east and west (the world outside of Israel) will join Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, while the descendants of these men wind up in hell. These two verses:
11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." [Mat 8:11-12 ESV]
Jesus is being very clear that what he offers will be accepted and taken up by the Gentiles, while the Jews themselves will reject it. He is "shaming" the Jews standing around who are there for the miracles and the sensationalism, but do not really believe. And here is this Gentile soldier who has such faith, even without being taught by the Pharisees and scribes for his whole life. Jesus says plainly that the Jews are going to reject him and the Gentiles are going to embrace him. The bigger picture, as we know, is that the Age of the Gentiles began essentially when God divorced Israel as a chosen nation. He has already closed their ears to the truth. Now, as this progresses, the Law is about to be set aside completely, and the New Covenant of belief in the Savior - based on the kind of faith this centurion demonstrates - put into place as the ONLY way! Matthew and Luke both relate this story about the centurion with the sick servant. This is separate from the official who's child was sick and Jesus heals the child from far away. In the official's case, he wasn't sure he believed. This centurion believes so completely that he doesn't want Jesus to leave his work just to help the servant, when he could do it from here. Very different kind of story.
This chapter is miracle after miracle and looking back at 7, it was much the same - though it hasn't come up chronologically yet. Interesting that 8 comes before 5-7 in the chronological Bible. Matthew recorded some events by topic rather than chronologically. Perhaps these miracles are also grouped by type..............No....Looking more closely, chapter 7 groups some of Jesus' teaching together, and 8 groups miracles.
Then Matthew relates the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, which he places after the leper and the centurion, and tells how Jesus healed many that night in that town. Matthew ties this to prophecy also, with this verse:
17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." [Mat 8:17 ESV] This is Isaiah 53:4, which actually says this:
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [Isa 53:4 ESV] This does not seem to be about illness and disease in Isaiah. More about the cares of this world. Matthew translates it into sickness. The Hebrew word translated "grief" is "choliy", and is used 24 times in the KJV. 20 of those it is translated as some form of sickness, rather than as grief. The word translated "sorrows" is the Hebrew word "mak'ob", and is used 16 times in the KJV. It is translated sorrow 12 of those times, pain twice and grief twice. In the NT, which is in Greek, the word for illnesses is "asthenia", and is most often translated "infirmity", which is the word used in the KJV...but ESV uses illnesses. "Nosos" is the Greek word translated "diseases" in both KJV and ESV. So is Matthew right in quoting the verse from Isaiah? I think so. Matthew was not trying to be literal, he was being general. Surely disease brings sorrow, death, and grief, so that fits. This just shows the difficulty of an OT in Hebrew, and a NT in Greek, where both languages are translated into English. You have to ask if the "sense" of it is the same if you want to question the wording. Most of what I find says Isaiah was written in Ancient, or Biblical Hebrew.
Here is something interesting to watch for:
14 And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. [Mat 8:14-16 ESV]
Fever goes away with a touch from Jesus. Demons are spoken away. A touch for bacterial infection, but the word of God for demons. If medicine does not work, maybe it is not a "fallen world" problem, but a "doctrine of demons" problem. Not ready to jump right off here, but it will be an interesting study to see how specific healings are carried out, and see if this little hypothesis is borne out. Note also that it says Jesus healed ALL who were sick, not the ones able to come forward, not just the ones with bad backs, poor hearing and such. Jesus healed all. So did Paul. What about today's so-called healers? Surely this is a test of their authenticity. Do they heal all who come? Do they heal covid?
2025 - In light of Grudem's chapter on Satan and demons, it is interesting that the implication here is that even Jesus spoke aloud to banish demons. Disease was cured - sometimes, not always - with a touch, and demons were cast out with A word.
2025 - Here is something interesting I found as I looked at the Greek word translated "cast out". In this verse: 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." [Mat 8:12 ESV]. "thrown into" is the same word translated "cast out" above. Expelled is, I think, a good equivalent word for this. Sons of the kingdom does not mean saved people. It cannot, because the saved are not expelled - not in the sense of the Greek word "ekballo". Outer darkness? Weeping and gnashing? That is not what happens ever to believers. I think this is about the sons of Abraham - about Israel - and about those who still today reject the Messiah sent to them. I don't think even these, even Israel, can return from outer darkness. That exile is permanent.
ESV titles the next section "The Cost of Following Jesus". It tells of a scribe who said he'd follow Jesus where ever he went. But Jesus tells the scribe that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Here is the verse:
20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." [Mat 8:20 ESV]
I saw an interesting video from Ligonier Ministries about the phrase "Son of Man". Ezekiel is addressed many many times as "son of man". Always in lower case. But this verse:
13 "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. [Dan 7:13 ESV]
In this vision of Daniel, a son of man - a vision of the coming incarnate Christ - is seen in heaven. He came from there. So when Jesus refers to himself as the "Son of Man", he is referencing that vision. He is claiming to be that person, who looked not like an angel or spiritual being in heaven, but like a human being already in heaven, in the presence of the Ancient of Days. Ligonier says that Jesus is talking about where he's from when he uses this term. Surely there is a huge contrast in what he says in this verse, in that he came from the splendor of heaven, and now hasn't even got bed to sleep in.
Perhaps this scribe was very attached to going home at night and was in fact unwilling to give up all. Then another wants to leave Jesus and go bury his dead father. Jesus tells him to follow right now...again likely driving home the point that this man also has things he won't give up for Christ. MSB says "let me wait until I bury my father" really meant "until I get my inheritance", and not that the man's father was dead but not yet buried.
Jesus and his disciples get into a boat and set off, to put some distance between them and the crowd. A storm blows up, and the disciples are afraid they'll drown. Jesus calms the sea. They obviously did not yet quite comprehend that Jesus was both God and man, or they would have understood that they were safe as long as they stayed with him. Or maybe they didn't understand that His purpose would be fulfilled, and that he at least would be preserved alive even if the boat did sink. So in that case, they didn't understand the role they had been chosen for.
The ship arrives on the other side where Jesus and his disciples are confronted by two men, made fierce by demons and kind of the scourge of that area. MSB note says that Mark and Luke mention only one man, possibly because he was far more dominant than the other. This would make some sense. Matthew was likely there, and saw both men, and put them both in. Mark and Luke only heard the story told, and perhaps had a lot more details about the incident than they choose to relate. Maybe they were both fascinated by what they knew of one of these men, and the other man was just sort of "meh". The demons recognize Jesus. This verse:
29 And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" [Mat 8:29 ESV]
Note the difference in how they refer to Jesus, and how he had referred to himself just a few verses before. Jesus wanted them to know where he was from, the demons recognized him for who he was - for the authority that he had as the Son of God. Jesus says he is homeless. These demons know he is the Son of God, and that his homelessness - his circumstances in this world - have nothing at all to do with who he is or the power that he has or his position in the eternal scheme of things. This might be a good FB post.
2025 - Interesting that it is the demons that begin this conversation. Jesus doesn't show up and start shouting at them, nor does he go looking for them. They know he is there, and come out to confront him. Note also that they are ignorant of his intentions. They don't "read his mind" and know he's going to send them to the pit, not at all. They are afraid and trying to determine his intentions. And they start to bargain with Jesus before they know what he plans. But I do note this:
12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." ... 32 And he said to them, "Go." So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. [Mat 8:12, 32 ESV]. Even though they volunteered, they DO NOT GO until Jesus speaks to them, commands them. Find out if that holds for all cases, even post-ascension. Is sound, is voice, required to command them? Why would that be? Touch won't do it...well, so far as the cases we're looking at here it doesn't...they don't know what he wants them to do until he speaks aloud.
2025 - I don't see that the demons purposely possessed the swine and drover them into the sea to drown them. Why would they, since they had requested the swine as an alternate host after being driven out of the two men. Did Jesus make the swine - unclean animals - kill themselves? That also seems unlikely. Which only leaves us with the swine recognizing that that they had within themselves something intent on their harm. Demons hurt people - either the people in whom they reside or those who come walking by the tombs. But these demons were all about hurting. The swine could not resist them - however they work, whatever it is they do to a person or a pig - these swine could not resist them, even to their own demise. Hmm...but if I go here, and I equate how demons influence swine with how they influence men, AND I stick with the spirit communicates with spirit, THEN I have to say that swine have spirits, as men do. And I don't think that is so. Hmm...perhaps it is the spirit within us that filters out the intentions of demons. Our spirit, our image of God, is our protection against demons. We resist with our spirit, not with our minds.
They make clear that they know where history is leading, and ask that instead of being thrown into the pit until the end, they go into pigs. Jesus allows this, but then the pigs drown. So the demons likely end up in the pit anyway. Then the people of the region ask Jesus to leave. They must surely have recognized what it meant that Jesus was able to expel these demons from men that no one else could even approach. Likely, the presence of the pigs also indicates that there were mostly Gentiles in this area, and the kingdom was not yet being offered to them. In any case, they thoroughly rejected Jesus in spite of this demonstration of his power.
2023 - I still wonder why we don't hear more about demons today - about possession in the way that we read about in the Bible. (2025 - See my notes at the end of Grudem 19. Several paragraphs there address this, and I think rightly so.) People do some awful things these days - but read the OT, read what the Romans did to people. What Hitler did to the Jews. Thing is, people have always done horrendous things to each other and the Bible never indicates that the fault lies with the demons that possessed them. It just never does. Demons in the Bible mostly seem to make people do things to their own harm. They thrown their charges into the fire or into the water to try and drown them. They make them run around naked and wild, abandoning all semblance of decent behavior. Where are these people today? What happened to the demons that caused such outward, observable behavior? You just about have to say that with Jesus' triumph over death, many many demons were sent straight to the pit, removed from the world, prevented from doing further harm. Do Peter or Paul ever throw out a demon? Are demons thrown out in Acts? Hmm...just checked. That word demon, singular, is only used in the gospels. Never after that. BUT, if you put an "s" at the end, you find all these:
20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. [1Co 10:20-21 ESV]. This one could be interpreted as being offered to ancient demons who are no longer in the world. It does not make them "active", though it does seem to make them "alive".
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, [1Ti 4:1 ESV]. Deceitful spirits are shown as separate from demons. Here again, it does not say precisely that these spirits are alive and active in the world. And it is not demons, but their teachings to which some are devoted.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder! [Jas 2:19 ESV]. Certainly does not say these demons are walking around on earth.
Note that none of the verses above speak of anything like possession. So where do we get this idea that demons - that followers of Satan - are loose in the world and stirring up trouble for us. You know, I would really like to have an annotated presentation about this question.
"Possessed" is only used in the gospels. What about that girl, with the silversmiths...
Ahh...there is this....
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. ... 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour. [Act 16:16, 18 NKJV]. It does not say demon. Why would that be? Is their a hierarchy that we know nothing about? Shouldn't we know???
These two in Revelation are likely after the bottomless pit is opened and millions of demons are freed from that imprisonment:
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, [Rev 9:20 ESV]
2 And he called out with a mighty voice, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. [Rev 18:2 ESV]
Here's another angle, seemingly equating spirits and demons - pre-resurrection though:
16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, [Mat 8:16 NKJV] Demon and spirit are very different words in Greek. Not an "interpretation" kind of distinction, but different words entirely.