Matthew 8:1-4

Illustration

Imagine You’re at the Doctor Receiving a Covid Test

And the Doctor Comes Back in and Says…

“I Don’t Really Know How to Tell You This, But…”

“The Tests Show You Have an Extremely Rare Case of Covid”

“There’s Only a Handful of People in the World Who Have it”

“It’s Called Chronic-Covid-19”

“It’s an Extremely Dangerous and Extremely Contagious Strain of Covid that Will Never Go Away”

You Ask What You Should Do and He Tells You the Government Mandate

For the Rest of Your Life:

You Must Live Alone in a Rural, Secluded Area

You Aren’t Allowed to Go to Any Populated Areas

If Anyone Happens to Come Near You, You Have to Put a Mask On Your Face, Cover Your Mouth with Your Hand and Yell, “I Have Chronic-Covid, I Have Chronic-Covid!”

You Can’t Be Around Your Family or Friends

And Even if You Ignored the Mandate and Went Around People…

They Would Run From You, Even Family and Friends

Out of Fear of Contracting the Chronic-Covid and Then Having to Live a Life of Seclusion as Well

But Also Because it is Against the Law to Be Near a Person Who Has Chronic-Covid

You Can’t Play Sports, Go to Work, Go to Church, Go Grocery Shopping, Etc.

You Have to Be Alone For the Rest of Your Life

How Would That Make You Feel?

Your Life, as You Know it, Has Just Ended!

Don’t Worry, the Chronic-Covid-19 I Just Talked About is Not Real

But in Bible Times, Some People Were Forced to Live a Life Like I’ve Just Described

Why Did Some People Have to Live a Life Like That?

Because They Had Some Sort of Skin Disease

In Hebrew, They Called it ṣā·rǎʹ·ʿǎṯ

In Greek, They Called it lepra

When We Read About it in Our English Translations, We Read “Leprosy”

Leviticus 13:45–46 (NASB)

“As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

Leprosy to the Israelite People Was Not One Specific Skin Condition

Typically, When We Think of Leprosy, We Think of What’s Now Called “Hansen’s Disease”

It’s an Infection Caused By a Certain Slow-Growing Bacteria

If Left Untreated, the Nerve Damage it Causes Can Lead to:

Crippling of the Hands and Feet

Paralysis

And Blindness

That’s What We Think of When We Think of Leprosy Today

But to the Israelite People, a Host of Skin Conditions Were Considered Leprosy

Many of These Skin Conditions Were Believed to Be Highly Contagious

Leviticus 13-14 are 2 Long Chapters Dealing With Leprosy

Chapter 13 Deals With the Specific Skin Conditions that a Person May Have…

And What the Priest is to Tell that Person to Do About it

Chapter 14 Gives the Prescribed Purification Rituals for a Person Who Has Been Healed of Leprosy

Leprosy Was So Dreaded By the Israelite People Because…

It Wasn’t Just a Potentially Harmful or Even Deadly Skin Disease

But It Would Make a Person Unclean

When a Person Was Considered Unclean, They Were Excluded From Society

They Couldn’t Live a Normal Life

There Were Other Ways to Be Made Unclean, Such as:

Touching a Dead Body, Coming in Contact With Certain Bodily Fluids, Etc.

But Leprosy Was Different

The Other Forms of Uncleanness Could Be Dealt With Within a Week’s Time

You Wash Yourself and Complete the Right Ritualistic Practices and You’re Clean Again

But Many Times Leprosy Was Permanent

A Person Would Be Considered Unclean for the Rest of Their Life

No Other Disease Was Looked at With Such Horror as Leprosy

But if a Person’s Leprosy Did Somehow Go Away…

They Were to Go to a Priest and Have it Inspected

If the Priest Finds the Person Healed…

Then the Priest Will Give the Person Orders to Make the Appropriate Sacrificial Offerings and Cleansing Rituals

After They Do That, They Will Then Be Allowed to Re-Enter Society and a Life of Normalcy

But the Only Problem With All of That is:

They Knew of No Cure For Leprosy

We Can Read of a Few Special Cases Where God Would Cure a Leper

But Most People Were Forced to Live With the Horrible Physical and Societal Effects of the Disease

I Say All of That to Lead Us to Our Text This Morning

Matthew 8:1-4

I’ve Mentioned Before That Matthew Structures His Account of Jesus’ Life Around 5 Major Teaching Discourses of Jesus

And We Have Finished the 1st of Those 5 (Sermon on the Mount)

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Taught a Crowd of People How Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are to Live

And Now Jesus is Going to Prove to Them that the Kingdom of Heaven (Reign and Rule of God) Has Finally Come

And He Will Do That Through Working All Kinds of Miracles

Because When God Reigns, People are Healed, Demons are Cast Out, and the Needy are Helped

I’m Going to Get a Little Nerdy For Just a Minute

I Think This Stuff is Interesting So Maybe Some of You Will Too

Matthew 8-9:35 is the Divider Between Matthew’s 1st and 2nd Discourse

Matthew Will Share 9 Miracle Stories With Us, But He Arranges Them Into 3 Groups of 3 Stories Each

In Between the 3 Triads of Stories are 2 Passages that Deal with Discipleship

Matthew 8:1-17 = 1st Group of 3 Miracles Stories

Matthew 8:18-22 = Discipleship Passage

Matthew 8:23-9:8 = 2nd Group of 3 Miracles Stories

Matthew 9:9-17 = Discipleship Passage

Matthew 9:18-35 = 3rd Group of 3 Miracles

We are Going to Look at the First Miracle of the 1st Group of 3 Miracles

What’s Interesting About This 1st Group of Miracles is:

They are Each Performed for People Who Would Have Been Considered Outcasts or 2nd-Class Citizens

The 1st Miracle Performed On a Leper

The 2nd Miracle is Performed For a Gentile

The 3rd Miracle is Performed On a Woman

In Each Case, Jesus Ignores the Cultural Taboos of His Day…

And Shows Amazing Compassion to the Ostracized and Neglected

If That’s Not a King Worth Serving, Then I Don’t Know Who is!

Matthew 8:1 (NASB)

When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him.

At the End of Chapter 4, We Saw Large Crowds of People Following Jesus

Then He Delivers the Sermon On the Mount to Them

And They Continue Following Him Afterward

Matthew 8:2 (NASB)

And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

First of All, What in the World is This Guy Thinking?

He’s Not Supposed to Be Amongst a Crowd of People Like This!

He’s Supposed to Stay Away From People and Yell, “Unclean, Unclean!”

But He Walks Right Up to Jesus in the Midst of This Crowd

How Selfish!

To Put Everyone in this Crowd at Risk!

The Nerve of Such a Man!

But What the Crowd Thinks About Him is Probably the Last Thing On His Mind

He Confidently But Humbly Walks Up to Jesus and Bows Down to Him

You’ll Find the Greek Word for “Bowed Down” 60 Times in the NT

85% to 95% of the Time, that Word is Translated “Worship”

This Leper Fell at Jesus’ Feet in Worship to Him and Called Him “Lord”

Maybe He’s Just Being Polite…

Or, More Likely, He Believed Something About Jesus That Most Had Not Yet Realized

Then He Asks, “If You are ABLE, You Can Make Me Clean.”

That’s Not What He Said, is it?

He Didn’t Question if Jesus Was Able to Cleanse Him

He Asked if He Was Willing

What Brought This Leper to Jesus This Day?

What Caused Him to Break the Rules By Walking into a Crowd of People?

What Caused Him to Fall at the Feet of a Man He’d Likely Never Met Before?

What Caused Him to Call This Stranger His Lord?

Faith

He’d Obviously Heard of Jesus’ Abilities

Maybe He Had Even Been Amongst the Crowd During the Sermon on the Mount

Whatever He Had Heard or Knew About Jesus…

He Trusted Him

And Now, All of His Hopes and Dreams That Were as Low as the Ground He was Lying On…

Hopes and Dreams of Being Healed

Hopes and Dreams of Being Cleansed

Hopes and Dreams of Getting to See His Family Again

Hugging His Wife and Holding His Children in His Arms (If He Had Them)

Hopes and Dreams of Worshipping at the Temple Once Again

Hopes and Dreams of Being a Part of Society

Hopes and Dreams of No Longer Being Alone

These Hopes and Dreams are Layed at Jesus’ Feet

And Whether or Not They Become a Reality Completely Depends Upon Whether or Not He is a Compassionate King

Matthew 8:3 (NASB)

Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

A Leper Walking Through a Crowd of People Would Have Been Shocking

But Just as Shocking Would Have Been the Sight of Jesus Reaching Out His Hand Toward the Leper

It was Against the Law to Touch an Unclean Person

But it was Especially Outrageous to Touch a Leper

Can You Imagine the Sensation?

We Don’t Know How Long This Man Had Been a Leper

But We Can Assume that He Hadn’t Been Touched By Another Human Hand Since Becoming One

But That’s Not Even the Most Beautiful Part

We Find Out Later in Matthew that Jesus is Able to Heal People Even When He’s Nowhere Near Them

So Why Touch This Man?

Because Jesus Wasn’t Concerned With the Cultural Taboos of His People

He Was Showing Us All That His Compassionate Touch Extends to Most Untouchable

And, I Believe, He Touched This Man Because He Knew He Was Desperately in Need of Someone Who Wasn’t Afraid to Touch Him

So Was Jesus a Law-Breaker for Touching a Leper?

Was He Now Unclean for Touching an Unclean Person?

That’s the Interesting and Amazingly Wonderful Thing About Jesus

When He Touches the Unclean, He Doesn’t Become Unclean

The Unclean Become Clean

Jesus Was and Is the Ultimate Source of Holiness

When He Touches You, Your Uncleanness Doesn’t Make Him Unclean

His Cleanness Makes You Clean

Your Sin Doesn’t Rub Off On Him

His Perfect Righteousness Perfectly Covers You

Matthew 8:4 (NASB)

And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Why Does Jesus Tell the Man Not to Tell Anyone?

Lots of People Have Lots of Opinions, But I Think the Text Tells Us

According to the Law, the Man Could Not Rejoin Society…

And Be Publicly Pronounced as Clean…

Until He Visited the Priest and Completed the Cleansing Rituals

Any Person Who Has Just Been Given His Life Back By the Generosity of Another is Going to Want to Tell Everyone About it

But Jesus Tells Him to Obey the Law First

And if He Did, His Story/Testimony Will Be Made Public to Everyone

Everyone Would Eventually Know the Story Because He Will Be Declared Clean By the Priest

This Would Accomplish What This Man Wanted to Accomplish

But Jesus’ Concern Was for the Man to Obey God’s Law

Because Only Then Could He Rightly Be Welcomed Back into Society

But, Mark Tells Us the Man Didn’t Obey Jesus’ Instructions (Mark 1:45)

He Went Around Telling Everyone About What Had Happened

And this Made it to Where Jesus Couldn’t Enter the Cities

Application

Matthew Shows Us a Beautiful Picture of King Jesus

He is a King Who Reaches Out to Those Who No One Else Would Dare Touch

He is a King Who is Known For His Compassion, Mercy, and Love

He is a King Who is Not Afraid Our Uncleanness

He Sees Us in Our Sin…

Desperately in Need of Someone to Rescue Us From Our Misery and Imminent Death

If We Would Only Fall at His Feet and Trust His Ability to Save Us…

He Will Reach Out His Hand and Touch Us

He Able and Willing to Make Us Clean

Jesus’ First Discourse and the Following Miracles Make Up the First Major Section of Matthew’s Account of Jesus’ Ministry

We Know This Because Matthew Makes it Obvious With an Inclusio

An Inclusio Consists of 2 Similar Bookends That Summarize What Takes Place in Between Them

Our 2 Bookends For This 1st Major Section of Matthew’s Account Are:

Matthew 4:23 (NASB)

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

Matthew 9:35 (NASB)

Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

It’s So Interesting to Me to Know that the Bible Wasn’t Just a Bunch of Facts Thrown Together

It Was Carefully Structured to Teach Us What the Writers Felt is Important For Us to Learn