Miracles and Might: Matthew 8:1-4
The Sermon on the Mount is one of
the great sermons of all history, and it has certainly been a great blessing to
me to have gone through it. But thank
God that our Lord did not just come with words.
We need truth, for it is by the truth that men are set free, but we need
more than truth. For the problem is that
we are not only lacking in understanding, but that we are also sinful. And sin has made us morally blind and
spiritually dead. You can speak to a
dead man until you’re blue in the face, but you aren’t going to get anywhere
until that dead man is made alive. We
need resurrection. We not only need
truth brought to us, but we need power exercised for us and upon us.
Evidently Matthew understood
this, for he now proceeds from the words of Jesus to the works of Jesus, from
the demonstration of the authority of Christ in his teaching (Mt. 7:28-29) to
the demonstration of the authority of Christ in his miracles. In the next two chapters (8-9), Matthew gives
us a tour of at least 10 distinct miracles of Jesus, along with summary
statements that mention his power exercised in the behalf of the multitudes who
followed him. Along with the Sermon on
the Mount, these two chapters summarize for us the works of our Lord. Between chapters 5 and 9, Matthew is giving
us a synopsis of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
In 5-7, we see the teaching and preaching aspect, and in 8-9, we see the
healing aspect of it. This is not an
arbitrary outline of the material, for we know that the Evangelist meant for us
to see it in this way. For in 4:23, we
have this summary statement of the ministry of Jesus in terms of teaching and
preaching and healing, and then in 9:35 you have another summary statement of
his ministry in the same terms. In other
words, these are bookend statements and in between them we are meant to see
this wonderful overview of the ministry of our Lord in terms of preaching,
teaching, and healing.
And tucked between these episodes
of power, we also have two paragraphs that deal with the issue of discipleship
(8:18-22; 9:9-13). In fact, it has been
popular to see the overall structure of these two chapters in terms of three
miracles – discipleship – three more miracles – discipleship – three more
miracles (in this scheme, the two miracles mentioned in 9:18-26 are considered
as one). This is probably too
simplistic, but it does point to an important truth. Remember that immediately before the Sermon
on the Mount, you have the call of the first disciples, Peter and Andrew, and
John and James (4:18-22). Jesus had
called them to follow him, to become his disciples. This call immediately follows the first
mention of the preaching ministry of Jesus and precedes the first exhibition of
the preaching ministry of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 9, on the other hand, you have the
call of Matthew himself that comes in the context of the miracle-working
ministry of Jesus. The truth that all of
this points to is this: that the ministry of Jesus Christ, whether considered
in its aspect of teaching or considered in its aspect of healing and working
wonders, is meant to bring men and women to the obedience of faith. Our Lord’s words are not merely to be
admired, they are to be obeyed. Even so,
our Lord’s works are not merely meant to be wondered at, they are to bring us
to a deep and abiding faith in the one who words can still a storm. Both the words and the works of Jesus are
meant to draw us to be his disciples.
It is clear that the miracles of
Jesus were meant to authenticate his claims to be the Son of God and Savior of
the world, and thus to bring men and women to faith in him as such. This is made explicit in Matthew’s account of
the palsied man in 9:1-8. There Jesus
tells the scribes that the reason he was going to heal the man with palsy was
so “that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins”
(9:6). Here, Christ’s power to heal
authenticated his claim to forgive sins.
And as the scribes themselves put it, “Who can forgive sins but God
only?” (Mk. 2:7). So surely one of
Matthew’s reasons for exhibiting before us the miracle-working power of Christ
is to hold up to faith the authority and the power of Christ.
All this leads to some obvious
questions. How can miracles function in
this way for modern man? It may have
been well and good for a pre-scientific era, but surely we cannot expect
miracles to have the same affect upon us.
And if that is the case, does this mean that the whole point of Matthew
8-9 has been rendered null and void?
What can we say to these
questions? To answer them, we need to
understand why people reject miracles today as a vehicle for conveying truth
about Jesus. Why do people reject the
possibility of miracles? I think the
main reason people do so is because they have bought into the philosophy of
scientism. Scientism is the belief that
knowledge can only be obtained through science.
According to its proponents, everything has to be explained by purely
natural causes. But this is problematic because
such reasoning rests on faulty logic.
Now it is true that scientific knowledge rests on an assumption of
natural causes. And this is because
science can only test for natural causes.
But it is faulty logic to then say that because science can only detect
natural causes that there can be no other kind of causality. The philosopher Alvin Plantinga rightly
says that this “argument . . . is like the drunk who insisted on looking for his
lost car keys only under the streetlight on the grounds that the light was
better there. In fact, it would go the
drunk one better: it would insist that because the keys would be hard to find
in the dark, they must be under the
light.”[1]
Scientism itself cannot be right
because it cannot be tested by the scientific method. Timothy Keller explains, “There would be no
experimental model for testing the statement: ‘No supernatural cause for any
natural phenomenon is possible.’ It is
therefore a philosophical presupposition and not a scientific finding.”[2] The irony is that those who embrace scientism
do so out of a desire to promote true knowledge (as opposed to “religious
fiction”). But the problem is that end
up doing to the opposite because they fail to understand the limitations of
science. And by trying to make science
into something it is not, I believe that they will end up doing disservice to
the scientific program in the long run.
Another reason why people don’t
believe in the miracles of the Bible is because they don’t believe they can
trust the Bible. For example, some
people have rejected any belief in the Biblical miracles because they don’t
think they can trust the text of
Scripture. They’ve been told that our
translations are just translations of translations, and so on. Others think they can’t trust the historicity of the events recounted in
Scripture. They are just legends, passed
on from generation to generation while acquiring more and more fictional
residue that the real accounts have been buried under a mound of mythical
accruements.
To give full answers to these
objections would take me too far afield, but these objections have been
answered again and again with good and sound arguments. For example, F. F. Bruce’s little book The New Testament Documents: Are They
Reliable? deals with the trustworthiness of the text of the NT
documents. He shows that they are
authentic documents that were not written hundreds of years after the fact, but
either by eye-witnesses or by people who got their information from
eye-witnesses. On the other hand, the
historicity of the events of the Bible have been dealt with in numerous books
as well. One recent book that deals with
both objections in a succinct and winsome fashion is Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God. As regards the historicity of the events of
the NT, one argument that has been convincing for me is the fact that the
apostles and early Christians were willing to die for the faith of Christ. Now, some would say that this is not a good
argument because people from other religions are willing to die for their faith
as well. However, there is a
difference. A Muslim may die for
Mohammed because he really believes Islam to be truth. But the apostles and the early Christians
knew that what they were preaching was either a lie or the truth. If it were a lie, you would have an example
of multitudes of people dying for a lie with their eyes wide open. It’s hard for me to believe that so many
would be willing to die for what they knew was a lie.
However, even if we establish
that the text of the Bible is trustworthy, and even if we establish that the
events of the Bible, including the miracles, are historical events, in some
sense this still doesn’t make faith any easier.
In fact, the Bible itself recognizes this. At the end of Matthew, after Jesus has risen
from the dead (one of the greatest of all miracles), and after he had revealed
himself to many in Galilee, we have this sentence: “And when they saw him, they
worshipped him: but some doubted”
(Mt. 28:17). This is amazing. Here you have people who are looking at the
resurrected Christ – and they doubt. If
this text tells us anything, it proves that miracles can’t create faith. One thinks of the Rich Man from Luke 16 who
went to hell, who begged Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers. Do you remember Abraham’s response? He told him, “They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them.” To which
the Rich Man responded, “Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the
dead, they will repent.” And then we
have this damning indictment: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:29-31).
At the end of the day, the
problem of the human heart is so desperate that even a man raised from the dead
will not suffice to turn us from our self-centeredness and orientation away
from God. There is something more
fundamentally wrong with us than merely a failure to believe in the miracles of
the Bible. Now it is good and right to
try to answer objections that are often raised against the Bible – and we need
people to see that we are not theological ostriches who stick their heads in
the sand whenever anyone raises an objection.
We need to be willing to consider their objections and to answer them
with honesty and humility. But we also
need to realize that the main problem with unbelief is not a lack of
miracles. It is a problem of a deep
hostility to God. It is the problem of
sin. Seeing miracles isn’t going to
convert anyone. We don’t need to see a miracle, we need to experience a miracle. That is the problem.
So why did Matthew write these
chapters? If seeing a miracle by itself
won’t do anything, what’s the point?
Well, there are several reasons why the content of these chapters are
still important.
First, they are important
because, although seeing miracles doesn’t (by itself) create faith in the
unbelieving, it does build up the faith of those who do believe. An example of this is John the Baptist. In chapter 11 of Matthew we find John the
Baptist in prison because of his bold witness to the truth. However, as he languished in prison doubts
began to creep in. Perhaps he thought,
along with many of his contemporaries, that the Christ was supposed to be a
conquering hero. But here he was in
prison while Jesus just went around and preached. So we read this: “Now when John had heard in
the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto
him, ‘Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?’” (11:2-3). Do you remember the response of Jesus? He replied, “Go and shew John again those
things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and
the poor have the gospel preached unto them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me” (11:4-6). It’s obvious that the miracles of Jesus were meant
to strengthen the faith of this great man of God. Even so, as the Holy Spirit inspired these
words to be written and preserved for the church of today, we should remind
ourselves of the power of Christ and let that be an encouragement to our
faith. We do not serve a weak Lord but
the Son of God who has all power in heaven and earth.
This leads to the second use of
the record of our Lord’s works of power.
They not only build up our faith, they lead us to worship. We see this in Matthew 28:17. Those who saw Christ fell into two
categories: those who worshipped and those who doubted. The miracles of Jesus beg us to consider who
Jesus is. He is not only the one who
made all things (Jn. 1:3), and who upholds all things by the word of his power
(Heb. 1:3), but he is also the one who puts things right. He brings healing and life to a sick and dead
world. He did not come to do a magic
act, and his miracles were not just performed to dazzle and wow. They each had a purpose. He came to heal the sick, to put back to
rights what sin and evil and disease had made wrong. He came to give a preview of what he will do
when he comes again, when we will hear the words: “Behold, I make all things
new” (Rev. 21:5). And if we really
believe these things, how can we not worship him?
All of this is illustrated in the
first miracle recorded in Matthew 8. Evidently,
Matthew did not record his miracles in chronological order. This becomes especially apparent when you
compare the various miracles recorded in these two chapters with the parallel
texts in Mark and Luke. Really, verse 1
goes with the previous verses in chapter 7, and notes the great crowds that
followed him throughout his ministry.
The miracle in verses 2-4 doesn’t necessarily happen right after
this. The fact that Jesus wants to keep
it a secret (v. 4) indicates that he didn’t do it in the presence of the great
multitudes mentioned in verse 1. But as
we’ve already noted, the structure of Matthew’s text is not governed by
chronological as by thematic concerns.
The point is not to tell us in what order things happened, as to display
the power of our Lord through several examples of miracles in this chapter and
the next.
The first example of healing is
given in verse 2-4. It is noteworthy that
Matthew begins here; it is the healing of a leper. R. C. Sproul explains that, “In the ancient
world, there were seventy-two diseases of the skin under the broad heading of
leprosy.”[3] Today, when people refer to leprosy they
usually mean Hansen’s disease, which in Jesus’ day the Greeks called elephantiasis. We don’t know what particular version of
leprosy this man had. But whatever he
had, it was a terrible thing in Jesus’ day to be a leper.
To be officially categorized as a
leper, you had to have been diagnosed by the priest. Once you were diagnosed, you were ostracized
from society, unable to enter Jerusalem, and unable to participate in the
religious life of the Jews. You had to
cover your face and warn people of your uncleanness. You were not allowed to come within fifty
paces of another person.[4] Leprosy in that time was also incurable, and
was considered a death sentence. For
example, when Naaman came to the King of Israel to be cured of his leprosy, the
king cried out, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send
unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?” (2 Kings 5:7).
This man had seen the
priest. The sore had turned white (cf.
Lev. 13:3), and so he had been declared a leper. From that point on, he had lived the painful
and tragic and lonely and hopeless life of a leper.
But then he heard of Jesus. Mark says that he came “beseeching him, and
kneeling down to him” (Mk. 1:40); Matthew says that he came “and worshipped
him” (v.2). The word for “worship” can
mean nothing more than to show respect, as in kneeling. We don’t know how much this leper understood
about the person of Jesus, but he did at least know one thing: this man Jesus,
whoever he was, could heal lepers. And
so he came to Jesus with the request: “Lord [Sir], if thou wilt, that canst
make me clean.”
I think the manner of his request
is instructive to all of us. He came
with faith for he said, “thou canst make me clean.” There was no doubt in his mind that he could
be healed. He did not doubt for a
second. But coupled with faith was real humility, for he prefaced his request
with, “if thou wilt.” This is the way we
need to bring our needs before God. It
is not faith to demand anything of God just as it is not doubt to submit our
wishes to God’s wise and loving providence.
“If thou wilt” ought to preface all our requests.
To this Jesus responded in two
ways, both full of meaning. First of
all, he touched him. Now it was unlawful
to touch a leper, for to do so was to make yourself ceremonially unclean. But Jesus “put forth his hand, and touched
him.” Can you imagine how this made the
leper feel? He had never been touched by
anyone since he had been diagnosed as a leper.
Jesus did not have to touch him, as the next miracle makes abundantly
clear (8:5-13), so he did this for a reason: to not only to show compassion by
bringing physical healing to the man but also to show compassion by letting him
know that he was accepted and befriended by none other than Jesus himself. Mark brings this out more clearly by saying,
“And Jesus, moved with compassion,
put forth his hand, and touched him” (Mk. 1:41).
Second, Jesus said, “I will; be
thou clean.” He healed the man with a
word and a touch: “And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” This disease which was deemed incurable was completely
healed. This disease which was looked
upon as a death sentence was revoked by the Great Physician. He was not just made a little better, he
didn’t just reduce the symptoms. He
fully healed the man.
Jesus then told the man to go to
Jerusalem and perform the rites necessary to be officially cleansed (v.4). According to the Law of Moses, to be cleansed
you had to go to the priest and offer a sacrifice, so our Lord tells him to do
this. His presenting himself to the
priests would be “a testimony unto them” that he had in fact been cleansed. After a period of time, when it was clear
that the symptoms were gone, the priest would pronounce him clean. But many have been baffled as to why Jesus
also told the man to tell no one else about the healing. I think the reason is quite simple: to spread
the fame of Jesus far and wide, especially when many people had misconceptions
about the ministry of the Messiah, would only hamper his ministry with the
curious thrill seekers who would get in the way of ministering to those who had
real needs. Mark’s comment makes this
clear: “But he went out, and began to publish it much, insomuch that Jesus
could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and
they came to him from every quarter” (Mk. 1:45). Zeal for the Lord that is contrary to his
word is disobedience nonetheless.
Now all this has a great lesson
for us. For we, too, are lepers. We are infected with a disease that no one
can cure and which cuts us off from fellowship with God and his people. It’s not a physical disease, although
sometimes it has physical manifestations.
It’s called sin. The ugly
selfishness that is inherent in sin separates us from others, from family and
friends and co-workers. But ultimately
it separates us from God.
How can we be cured? We cannot cure ourselves. Others can only declare us clean or unclean,
but they cannot cure us, either. Nor can
we be cured by merely seeing a cure take place in someone else. We need to experience a miracle. The only one who can produce that miracle in
us is Jesus Christ. And he came to do
precisely that. He could have stayed in
heaven, but he did not. Instead, He came
down, became flesh, and touched us with his hand. He took our uncleanness upon himself and by
doing so heals our spiritual leprosy. Is
this not a mighty miracle? As Calvin
rightly put it, in his comment on this text, “What we indolently read, and
coldly pass by, cannot be duly weighed without great astonishment. The Son of God was so far from disdaining to
talk to a leper, that he even stretched out his hand to touch that
uncleanness.”
What then should we do? My friend, the Son of God passes by. He is able to cure you of your leprosy. He can take away your sin. He can purge your guilt and unloosen the
shackles that it has placed upon your heart.
Call out to him, ask him to heal you.
And don’t be surprised if you hear him say, “I will, be thou clean!”
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