Jesus Power Over Disease

Jesus Power Over Disease

Matthew 8:1-17

The Sermon on the Mount is recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. That sermon has been called the greatest sermon ever preached. It certainly is. We see the response of the people who heard that sermon in 7:28-29. The people were astonished. Jesus taught with greater authority than any of the religious elite. Matthew establishes the great wisdom of Jesus in chapters 5-7. No one knows the truth of God like Jesus does. Jesus is God in the flesh therefore He is omniscient. He knows everything. His preaching astonished people.

Now the people are going to be astonished at the power of Jesus. In chapters 8-9 Matthew records nine miracles performed by Jesus. These miracles consist of three groups of three. Each group is separated by a short section of teaching by Jesus. In the section we are looking at today Jesus shows His power over disease. He’s going to demonstrate His power in three unlikely types of people: a leper, a slave and a woman. The ultimate point Matthew is making is that Jesus powerful works prove He is the Savior of the world. But there is another point we are going to see as well. We are going to see the compassion of Jesus.

Being sick in our day is nothing like being sick in Matthew’s day. There was no real health care system then. You either endured a disease or you died. There was no healing to speak of. Because of that a few of things were true:

1) People were afraid of getting a disease. We are afraid of getting a disease now and we have a wonderful health care system compared to what they had. Fear of disease was a serious thing. If they contracted a disease there was nowhere to go.

2) Many people had diseases. There were lots of sick people in Matthews day. Even people who recovered from diseases often had to live with serious side effects after the recovery. One of the reasons we see Jesus healing so many people is there were so many people to heal.

3) Those with diseases were marginalized. People didn’t want to risk being around the sick. They didn’t want to get a disease themselves. Those with diseases often became outcast and were even considered by some to be cursed of God.

Jesus begins His ministry in this type of culture.

It’s a culture filled with sick people.

It’s a culture filled with fear of getting a disease.

It’s a culture filled with those who have been marginalized because they are sick.

Because we are such a blessed people when it comes to healthcare it’s hard for us to appreciate how important it was that Jesus came healing the sick.

In Jesus the people finally have someone who can preach the Word to them in a way that gives them spiritual health, unlike the Scribes and Pharisees.

They also have someone who can give them physical health, unlike the doctors in that culture.

You may wonder how this relates to you this morning. If you get sick you go to the doctor. Many of the diseases we see in the Bible are rare today. So, you may wonder how this section of Scripture applies to you. I’ll answer that question for you at the end of this message.

1. Jesus heals a leper (1-4).

A. The man.

He is simply called a leper. When you were a leper you lost your identity. It didn’t matter who you were anymore. You were now a leper. That meant a few things.

You had an incurable disease. It is a skin disease that can affect a person greatly. Lepers were often covered with painful boils filled with puss. In extreme cases one loses feeling in their extremities. Fingers and toes have been known to break off with the person feeling no pain. While leprosy didn’t necessarily kill you it would make you wish you were dead.

You were a social outcast. There are two entire chapters of the bible dedicated to how leprosy was to be handled. Leviticus 13-14 show how serious the people of Israel were to take this disease. Because it was contagious extreme measures were observed to keep it from spreading among the people.

The leper was required to:

Let his hair hang loose (easily identified)

Keep his mouth covered

Live outside of the camp in the wilderness

Shout “Unclean! Unclean!” if anyone approached him.

The Talmud, an important text of mainstream Judaism, forbade a leper from coming within six feet of anyone and 150 feet if the wind was blowing. Talk about social distancing!

You were a religious outcast. You were only allowed to see a priest for him to inspect you and determine if your leprosy had disappeared. Other than that, you had no contact with the Temple at all. In fact, by most you were considered cursed by God.

I could not imagine how difficult the life of a leper was. You were feared & rejected. People looked at you with disgust. Physical deformity often brings out the worst in people. Children have no problem making fun of a child with deformity. Even as adults we often keep our distance from those who have physical deformity. This man had a miserable existence. That is why what we see next is amazing.

He came worshiping Jesus. That’s amazing for a couple of reasons.

1) He recognizes the worth of Jesus. He sees that Jesus is more than a man. He calls Jesus Lord.

2) He worships the Lord even though he hasn’t been healed yet. That’s important folks. He’s going to worship Christ whether he is healed or not.

Even though this man had likely not been to the Temple for years, nor had he been taught by the religious leaders for some time, he knows who Jesus is. He is godlier than many in Jerusalem.

He came with great biblical knowledge.

Look what he said to Jesus in verse two. He says, if You want to You can heal me. He recognizes two things about Jesus.

1) He recognizes the sovereign power of Jesus. He knows Jesus can heal him.

2) He recognizes the sovereign will of Jesus. He says, “if You will”.

He didn’t know if Jesus WOULD heal him, but he knew He COULD heal him. And the fact is he was going to worship Jesus either way. This is a great truth for any of us suffering with disease. We should know that Jesus can heal us. Sometimes He does. Sometimes it’s His will to heal us in this world. But it’s not always His will to heal us in this world. We know that ultimately healing waits for us regardless.

B. The Lord (3).

Jesus loves this man. Jesus’ heart is broken over human suffering. The people in that culture would have grown desensitized to it. Like we do with addicts, homeless, drunks, whoremongers, etc. We become judgmental, critical. We see them so often we are no longer broken over them.

Jesus touches the leper. Unheard of.

Some loved them.

Some fed them.

Some spoke to them.

But no one touched them!

The leper knew this. That’s why Jesus had to reach out and touch him. Jesus could have healed him without touching him. He heals the next person without even being in the same room with them. Why did Jesus touch him?

Lepers were used to being inspected and rejected. That’s all they knew. They went to the priest for inspection, the priest would look at them and send them home. Inspected, rejected. Inspected, rejected. Jesus touches this man. That’s the ultimate proof this man is clean!

By the way, could you imagine how that must have felt to that man. It had probably been a very long time since he felt the touch of another person.

C. The instructions (4).

This man was no doubt overwhelmed with joy. To us it’s a story, but to this man it was reality. His life was changed. That’s why Jesus command is so difficult. He tells him not to tell anyone but to go and observe the rituals Moses prescribed in the law.

This included a sacrifice, ceremonial cleansing, a pronouncement of “clean” by the priest, washing of clothes, shaving of hair and a bath. This guy knew he was clean and probably didn’t want to do all of that. So why did Jesus tell him to do it. Look at the end of verse four. The healing of this leper was to be a testimony to the priests. This was God’s grace toward them. This was to prove that Jesus is the Messiah.

If the priests knew beforehand that Jesus healed him, they might find someway to cast doubt upon the reality of the healing. Once they pronounce him cleansed, they have admitted that Jesus healed this man.

Jesus demonstrates his power over disease by healing a leper, something no one could do or deny.

2. Jesus heals a slave (5-13).

A. The centurion.

Here we’re introduced to a man who is completely different from the leper. I’m going to include some information from Luke’s gospel in my explanation because he tells us a few things Matthew doesn’t.

This man was a centurion. That means he was captain over 100 Roman troops.

This man was a Gentile. The Jewish people would not have respected him. Rome was occupying Jewish territory and this man was working for the enemy.

This man was wealthy. With his wealth Luke tells us he had built a synagogue for the Jewish people. Luke also tells us this man loved the Jewish people.

This man was compassionate. He had a slave that he deeply cared for. The slave was paralyzed. We don’t know what caused it. It didn’t appear the slave was going to get any better and the centurion believed the slave was about to die. Verse six says the slave was grievously tormented. In other words, he was suffering greatly.

He was a humble man. We see that in verse eight. The centurion said he was not worthy to be under the same roof as Jesus. Luke tells us that the centurion wasn’t present when this exchange happened. He sent a Jewish delegation to ask Jesus to come and heal his slave.

The centurion is like the leper in that both saw themselves as unworthy before the Lord.

B. The centurion’s faith (8-12).

He says something very surprising to Jesus. He tells Jesus that He knows that He can heal his salve without even being in his slave’s presence. Look at his logic. It really is amazing.

He tells the Lord that because he is a man of great power and authority, he can accomplish things without being present. In fact, in the text, he is talking to the Lord without being present. This delegation is doing the work for him. If he, a lowly sinner can accomplish things in places he is not physically present then certainly the Lord can as well.

This amazes Jesus. In verse ten Jesus says this man has greater faith than any Jew He has met! What Jesus says next would upset many Jewish people. He says that many Gentiles will come from around the globe and sit down in heaven with great Jewish men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Many Jewish people wouldn’t let Gentiles in their home, but Jesus says He’s going to let the Gentiles into heaven!

In verse twelve Jesus says many of the Jewish people will not make it to heaven. Because they reject Him they will be cast into hell.

Let’s think about this man’s faith for a moment

1) He was a Gentile. He had limited knowledge about the Messiah. He was not raised on the Word of God like Jews.

2) He was rich and powerful. We know that Jesus said it is difficult for a rich man to go to heaven. The rich and powerful don’t normally see their need for the Lord.

3) He had absolute faith in Jesus. He didn’t need Jesus to come to His home. He didn’t need to see a miracle performed by Jesus in order to strengthen his faith.

C. The centurion’s slave was healed (13).

The text says in that very hour the slave was healed. This is amazing because it shows the Deity of Christ.

Jesus knew who this slave was even though He had never met Him.

Jesus knew where this slave was even though He had never met Him.

Jesus knew this request was legitimate even though He didn’t know the centurion at all. For all we know this could have been a ploy by the Jewish religious leaders. They often set traps to try and prove Jesus was a fake.

Jesus knew the slave was healed even though He was not there to see him get up and start walking.

What we see in this text is the omniscience and omnipotence of Jesus on full display. He is all knowing, and He is all powerful.

3. Jesus heals a woman (14-17).

A. The woman (14).

This woman was an aged woman. She was the mother in law to Peter. It appears she lived with them. This probably means she was a widow. She was dear to Peter because she was dear to his wife.

She had a serious fever and was confined to the bed. We don’t know what caused the fever. She obviously had some sort of serious infection in her body. In our day if we have an infection, we have medication we can take for it. If we didn’t far more people would die. A fever in Matthew’s day could mean death.

As an old sick widow this woman would not have had much value in the eyes of many in that day. In fact, women in general were considered lower in value. There is a well-known Jewish prayer made famous by a Rabbi in the second century. It was said that all Jewish men should start their day with the prayer. The prayer is:

“Lord I thank Thee that I was not born a slave, a Gentile or a woman.”

I think that’s interesting because what we see Jesus do in this section is heal a leper, heal a slave, commend a Gentile and heal a woman. Jesus is breaking all the barriers that tradition and false teaching had created in that day.

B. Jesus healed the woman.

He touched her. When He did the fever immediately left her. Notice how immediate the healing was. She got out of the bed and immediately began serving Jesus and the disciples. I get the idea that she was one of those ladies who couldn’t sit still. She wanted to make sure everyone had something to eat and drink.

C. Many more people were healed.

When you look at verse sixteen you see that the fame of Jesus was spreading quickly. People began bringing sick and demon possessed people to the Lord. Look at the end of verse sixteen. It says He healed them all.

Remember earlier I said that there were many sick people in Matthew’s day. I want to show you something else now. The Bible teaches that Jesus virtually wiped out diseases in certain villages and cities for a period of time.

Matthew 9:25 says:

“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.”

Jesus would walk into an area filled with sick people and when He left there wouldn’t be a single sick person. That’s hard for us to imagine. What was His purpose in doing this? Look at verse 17.

Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4. That verse is talking about the earthly ministry of the Messiah. It says that one of the proofs of the Messiah is He will heal disease and infirmity. The fact that Jesus healed so many people should have been proof to the Jewish people that Jesus is the Savior of the world. They didn’t deny that Jesus was healing people. They simply said He was healing people by the power of the devil (Matthew 12:24).

There are some who say this verse means that because Jesus dies on the cross, we can all be healed of any disease on this earth. That’s not the case. God sometimes heals us on this earth. Sometimes He does not. None of these people came to Jesus demanding to be healed. We shouldn’t either.

The healing ministry of Jesus does give hope to all who know Jesus. It points toward a day in which we will dwell with Christ and He will ultimately heal every disease. Those cities that were wiped clean of sickness by Jesus were symbolic of a greater city that believers are looking for. There will not be a single sick person in heaven!

It is very likely if you live long enough you will find yourself in similar circumstances of one of the people we have considered today.

You may have a dreadful disease that isolates you from those you love.

You may become paralyzed, unable to do things for yourself.

You may be confined to a bed with a fever, living in someone else’s home.

It’s likely in those days you will long for heaven like you have never longed for it before. You may long for healing, but the reality is if the Lord heals us, we know it’s inevitable we will find our selves in similar circumstances again. So eventually rather than long for healing you will long for heaven.

As your pastor I want to encourage you. If you know Christ one day your body will be made perfectly whole. There will be no more suffering. All the healings Jesus performs points toward the day when Jesus makes us all new and all perfect. Jesus has power over all diseases. One day He will wipe them all out. You have just read the stories of three people who were miraculously healed by Jesus. One day that will be your story if you know Christ.