Series on Matthew's Gospel

The King is at Work - A Word brings Healing!

Matthew 8:5-13

The word of God of God, according to Hebrews 4:12 is "alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

The word of God is powerful and transformative as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.”

There is power in the Word of God.

The American Bible Society Record from the early 1990s told of an incident involving the General Secretary of the Bible Society in Zimbabwe and a very disagreeable man. Gaylord Kambarami approached this particular man and tried to give him a New Testament. The man said that he would take the New Testament and roll the pages and use them to make cigarettes. Mr. Kambarami gave the man the New Testament but made him promise that he would read each page of the New Testament before he smoked it. The man agreed and they both went their separate ways. Fifteen years later, the two men met at a Christian conference in Zimbabwe. The man had gone from an unbelieving scripture smoker to a full-time evangelist. He told the audience at the conference, “I smoked Matthew, and I smoked Mark, and I smoked Luke. But when I got to John 3:16, I couldn’t smoke any more. My life was changed from that moment.”

There is power in the Word of God. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. And in our passage today we see a Jew, Jesus, speaking a word to a Gentile, the Centurion and that word brings healing!

We have entitled this part of the series on Matthew as “The King is at Work!” and when he is at work things begin to happen! Changes occur. And one of the ways in which changes ocur is through the speaking and declaring of the word of God. Here the King is at work and a word from Him brings healing!

In Matthew 8 and 9 the main thing that happens is that people experience physical healing - the healings of the leper (Matt 8:1–4), the centurion’s servant (Matt 8:5–13), Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt 8:14–15), ‘all who were sick’ (Matt 8:16), two demon-possessed men (Matt 8:28–34), a paralysed man (Matt 9:1–8), Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the discharge of blood (Matt 9:18–26), two blind men (Matt 9:27–31) and a man who cannot speak (Matt 9:32–34). So the the non-healing miracle in these chapters is that of Jesus calming the storm, which nevertheless was done with a spoken word from Jesus (Matt 8:23–27).

Why does Matthew emphasize the healing miracles?

They serve as a reminder that the kingdom of heaven is not just a matter of words, but also a matter of action.

The Kingdom of God has come; the King o Heaven is here and He is changing things by changing peoples lives.

Jesus speaks the words of the Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount and them comes down from the Mountain to perform miracles. He does not just bring saving words, he also performs saving actions. As Ian Campbell says in his commentary, “There is a doctrinal aspect to his work and there is a practical aspect to his work. He teaches profound truths and he changes lives in profound ways. Indeed, his works authenticate his words and demonstrate him to be the Messiah of God (see Acts 10:38). “

2. They also remind us that the saving activity of Jesus is centred around the healing of the whole person, body, mind, emotioms, soul.

In Matthew 8:17 there is a quotes from Isaiah 53:4 reminding us that Jesus our Messiah would take our illnesses and bear our diseases in His body when he was crucified. because by healing the temporal bodily illnesses and disfunctions that humans endured, Jesus is demonstrating that He has come to deal with a sickness much deeper than the problem of bodily disease, our sin - “He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that bought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed”(Isa 53:5) .

This connection is expressly dealt with in Matthew 9:2 with the healing of the paralytic where Jesus says “Take heart son your sins are forgven” and then when criticised beacuse “only God can forgive sins” says, “which is easier to say, son your sins are forgiven or take up your bed and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”So the Messiah would come in order to deal with the problem at its root and at its heart. (see Matthew 9:2-6) .

3. They also act as a sign as to the true identity of Jesus as the Son of God - so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…”(Matth 9:6) - “Who is this that even the winds and waves obey Him?(Matt 8:27)

God’s Kingdom has come - the King is at work things begin to change and His word brings Healing.

People will never be the same the sick, diseased, demon-possessed relatives are cured, and homes that have been torn apart in physical and emotional distress are now brought to know reconciliation and peace - the “shalom” that comes through wholeness as people are healed, restored and forgiven!

I. The Word that brings Healing offers Hope to the World!

The healing of the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5–13), is a reminder to us of Jesus’ concern to extend the kingdom beyond the Jewish world.

In his encounter with a Roman soldier, Jesus is reaching out beyond the nation of Israel and signaling God’s intention to save the whole world as stated in the the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20

This here in Capernaum(see Matt 4:13) was a junior officer in the Roman auxiliary forces under the command of Herod Antipas. These forces were made up of soldiers largely from Lebanon and Syria, but being non-Jewish they were viewed as a hated occupying force by most Jews.

Luke tells us that this Centurion was a God-fearing man, clearly attracted to and supportive of the Jewish religion for as the Elders of the town stated “he loves our nation and has built our synagogue” (Luke 7:3–5).

Nevertheless for nationalistic zealots this Gentile centurion acts as a challenge to the social taboos of the Jews. Certainly, the centurion was aware that many within Israel would be appaled by him and have a hatred toward him, hence he speaks of being “unworthy” of having Jesus in his home! And this connects us with the previous healing miracle of the Leper - “The leper, excluded from the congregation by his physical condition” and ‘the centurion, excluded by his race”(R T France).

However what Jesus makes clear here is that the coming of the kingdom in its full realization will involve the Gentiles being gathered from east and west to take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The coming kingdom is often portrayed in terms of a feast, particularly a wedding feast (Isa. 25:6; Matt. 22:1–14; Rev. 19:7–10).

The phrase subjects of the kingdom(Matt 8:12) refers to the Jews, who had been given all the covenants and promises, and who should have known how to be heirs of the kingdom. It was used in the Old Testament to foretell how the Jews scattered in exile would be reunited with God’s people in Jerusalem (Ps 107:3; Isa 43:5; Bar 4:37).

However, the way Jesus uses this image would have been surprising to His hearers in two ways. First, Jesus applies this image to a Roman centurion. Now it is the Gentiles—even an officer in the oppressor’s army!—who will come from east and west to participate in this Jewish reunion feast.

Second, many in Israel will be excluded: the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness. This echoes John the Baptist’s message that to be a part of God’s covenant people it is not enough to be a physical descendant of Abraham for as John the Baptist reminded us earlier in this book, one must repent (Matt 3:8–10) and believe in Jesus to be a part of the true Israel.

This statement must have shocked Jesus’ Jewish audience. The idea that Gentiles would even be in the coming kingdom, let alone take their place, was unimaginable to the average Jew.

They had adopted the prejudice and exclusiveness of Israel. In the eyes of many Jews, one of the most significant and appealing things about the feast was that it would be totally free of Gentiles. ‘It was the current belief that no descendant of Abraham could be lost.’(J Jeremias)

But Jesus offers HOPE to the Gentile world by showing his willingness to come and heal the servant for to offer to enter a Gentile’s home was unthinkable for a Jew—especially for a respected Jewish teacher and it took an awful long time for even Christian people like Peter to get this - see (Acts 10:27–29) and the house of Cornelius, another Centurion“You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.”!

Israel never seemed to understand that as God’s chosen people, they were to be a medium of ministry to all nations of earth (Gen. 12:3; Deut. 4:6–8; Ps. 67; Isa. 42:6–7; 49:6). Instead they also held to an elitist attitude, because they were the people to whom God had revealed the law (Rom. 2:17–29). They should have realized that he was revealing the law and his heart to them, but also through them to the world.

The idea of Jews being cast into “Outer darkness”, was unthinkable. Instead of feasting throughout eternity, they would suffer forever in the horror of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jewish tradition taught that sinners—a term synonymous with Gentiles in their thinking—would spend eternity in the outer darkness of gehenna. Jesus concurred with them about the destiny of condemned sinners (see also Matt. 22:13; Matt 24:51), but He declared them totally wrong about the identity of those condemned sinners.

Thus faith, not race, is the criterion for membership of God’s kingdom.

The Countess of Huntingdon used to say, “She thanked God for the wonderful letter M, for it turned ‘any’ into ‘many;’ thus the Word of God reads, ‘Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called’ (1 Cor. 1:26), therefore she could be found amongst the ‘not many.’

The wonderful “M” shows forth the extent of God’s grace. Man does not enter heaven by virtue of his ethicity or his status or his morality but by virtue of the atonement and the shedding of the precious blood of Christ.

II. The Word that brings Healing offers Hope to the Desparate!

But As the Centurion approached Jesus he was desperate! - “There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die.’(Luke 7:1). Matthew tells us he was “paralysed” - "sick of the palsy." Strong's Concordance indicates the phrase as paralytikos, which is the Greek word from which we get paralytic; there was little if any hope that this servant would be well again.

This was not normal - The Greek philosopher Aristotle said there could be no friendship and no justice toward inanimate things, not even toward a horse, an ox, or a slave, because master and slave were considered to have nothing in common. “A slave, is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave” (Ethics, 1161b).

The Roman law expert Gaius wrote that it was universally accepted that the master possessed the power of life and death over his slave (Institutes, 1:52). Whilst the Roman writer, Varro, maintained that the only difference between a slave, a beast, and a cart was that the slave talked (On Landed Estates, 1:17.1).

Cato the Elder advised those in economic difficulty to look over their livestock and hold a sale. They should sell their worn-out oxen, their blemished cattle, sheep, wool, and hides, their old wagons and tools, their old and sickly slaves, and whatever else was superfluous (On Agriculture, 2.7).

However this Centurion was different. He was a man of compassion.

Yes he was a seasoned and capable fighting man, responsible for a hundred men and undoubtedly having kiled many men but yet he had deep compassion for his dying slave boy, so much so that he regarded him almost as a family member and this is exemplified by the intensity with which he begged Jesus for healing. He knew that he was inadequate to address his need, and he had need of help from Jesus.

The centurion as we have already noted was aware of the Jewish taboo against visiting Gentile homes and risk ceremonial defilement, so he asked the Lord rathet than come in, to simply ‘say the word”. He drew upon an analogy from his military life, explaining that when he commanded men, the men obeyed and thus he was confident that it would be the casw with Jesus! that Jesus could command anything in creation, and it would obey. And so Jesus heals the servant at a distance, rewarding the absolute confidence that the centurion puts in him, rewarding the absolute confidence that the centurion puts in him.

When Jesus came near to his house, the centurion saw Him and sent some friends out to meet Him (Luke 7:3). In his behalf they answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof.” He felt genuinely unworthy for Jesus to go to that much trouble for him, and no doubt also did not want Him to break the Jewish tradition of not entering the house of a Gentile in order to avoid ceremonial contamination

Say the word, he told Jesus. He probably did not understand the full identity of Jesus, but he recognized God’s power working through him. As a Gentile there was much he did not know about the One true God, but what he did know was that he was desperate and God could help him and somehow he also knew that Jesus was the answer to his need.

Not knowing the outcome of the request; not knowing whether or not he might be turned away, he was undeterred, after all, he was helpless

It reminds me of that old hymn, Rock of Ages by Augustus Toplady. Toplady wrote the hymn during a stormy incident in England. While traveling along the gorge in Burrington Combe, he was caught in a fierce storm and took shelter in a gap in the gorge, where he wrote the original lyrics. There is a rock there now marked with a plaque that reads: “Rock of Ages: This rock derives its name from the well known hymn written about 1762 by the Rev A M Toplady who was inspired whilst sheltering in this cleft during a storm.”:

“Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling;

naked come to Thee for dress; helpless look to Thee for grace;

Foul I to the fountain fly; wash me Saviour or I die!”

III. The Word that brings Healing offers Hope to those who exercise Faith!

In one of only two occasions in the Gospels Jesus commends the faith of the Centurion - a Gentile, as was the other, a Syro-Pheoneican woman:

What is interesting here is the centurion’s great faith (v. 10), which contrasts with the disciples’ ‘little faith’ (v. 26). Those whom we would expect to have great faith only have little faith, while those whom we might expect to have no faith at all show great trust in Jesus.

In demonstrating the faith that he did the Centurion was leaving room for Jesus to work!

And note there was no incompatibility between feeling “unworthy” and having “great faith”! This is because “faith” is a gift it is not merit. Faith says, though I am unworthy to expect God to do a miracle for me as I am an undeserving sinner; faith says that because Jesus is compassionate and gracious and is willing to heal and to forgive, I can come to Him, desperate as I am and ask Him for mercy!

Compare this for a momemnt with the healing of the leper. He also was “unworthy” and “unclean” byt he appealed to the “willingness” of Christ to make him clean. It is the same here. The Centurion is “unworthy” but he appeals to Jesus to be merciful.

Unworthiness does not prevent us from receving the mercy and forgivenessness of Jesus! This is so important for some in the Church to hear! So many think there sense of unworthiness should keep them from praying or communion of even coming to church but in fact the reverse is true, it should increase our sense of need and dependence upon Jesus.

So the Centurion’s prayer was answered not because he was worthy but because he had faith! God responds to the “prayer of faith”(James 5:15)!

Why? Because “without faith it is impossible to pelase God; because the one who comes to God must beleive that He exisits and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him”(Heb 11:6)

When he heals the two blind men in Matthew 9:29, he says: “According to your faith will it be done to you”;

Here he says to the Centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.”

“God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing” (Martin Luther).

However it is important to note that though the healing power of Jesus was in response to the faith of the Centurion this is not the ultimate reason for it - the ultimate reason is the mercy of Jesus.

It is the faith that made him receptive to the mercy of Jesus! And it is faith placed in Jesus that makes a difference to our lives not faith alone. Faith must be directed toward a worthy object, Jesus the Messiah! This is why the Bible says we are “saved through faith”(Eph 2;8). “The N.T. never says that a man is saved on account of his faith, but always that he is saved through his faith, or by means of his faith; faith is merely the means which the Holy Spirit uses to apply to the individual soul the benefits of Christ's death." (J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith, p. 180).

But faith alone will nout guarantee the answer, it must be the willignness and the readiness of Jesus to respond to our faith-filled request and this is dependent upon His sovereign will. Indeed just to prove this proposition for a momnet; Paul the Aposlte was a man of deep and profouund faith; He had experienced miracles and performed miracles in the name of Jesus but when he neeeded a miracle to heal the thorn in his flesh, he was told no, though he pleased with the Lord “three times” as he discovered that it was not teh will of God for him to find healing; it was the will of God that he should discover that God’s “grace was suffcient for “ him; “for my power is made perfect in your weakness(2 Cor 12:7-9).

Having faith alone will not make a difference!

In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute.

It wasn't until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was freefalling without a parachute. Until that point, the jump probably seemed exciting and fun. But tragically, he had acted with thoughtless haste and deadly foolishness. Nothing could save him, for his faith was in a parachute never buckled on. Faith in anything but an all-sufficient God can be just as tragic spiritually.

“Faith is not merely your holding on to God--it is God holding on to you. He will not let you go!” (E. Stanley Jones).

“My faith has found a resting place, Not in device or creed; I trust the ever living One, His wounds for me shall plead.

“I need no other argument; I need no other plea;

It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me!”

(Eliza Edmunds Hewitt)

But even though this miracle happened because of the mercy of Jesus and not because of his faith; he commended his faith nonehteless!

Indeed this was a rare case of faith and Jesus was “astonished” by it! This word is used in only one other place to express Jesus’ astonishment at a lack of faith of the people of his hometown of Nazareth in Mark 6:6. This faith is “great” because he believed that Christ had absolute power over disease. That He could heal his servant at a distance and by His word. Faith here is an absolute practical reliance upon Jesus!

The development of this faith is intriguing. It must have grown gradually as he a pagan, must have settled among the Jews; observed their lifestyles and taken am interest in their religion.

It would have been further kindled as he heard stories about Jesus from the nieghboiring town of Nazareth and his curiousity to hear him andfind out more must have been developing and indeed compunded by the near fatal sickness of his dearly beloved servant. of the Jews and heard about Jesus.

And this faith was characterized by humility, accepting his unworthiness; perhaps troubled by questions and doubts and certainly, deficient in orthodoxy but enough to cast himself upon the mercy of God.

His faith beleives the impossible! That a word from Jesus would bring about healing and a healing not taking palce over time or due to medication or down to the powers of natural receovery or medical intervention, but one He expected “at once”

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.” (George Muller).

His faith means he is willing to take Jesus at his word!

When William, Prince of Orange, was invited to come to England to be king, he promised the man who was to be his Lord Chamberlain certain benefits if he would come with him from Holland and serve. The man responded , “Your Majesty’s word is sufficient. I would not serve a king if I could not trust in his word.” This is to be the attitude of the servants of Christ, we are willing to take the word of the King of kings..

And his faith was wonderfully rewarded - His servant was healed and he himself was received as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

You can trust the word of your Lord. Jesus is King! He speaks a word and healing is sent. He speaks a word and sins are forgiven! He speaks a word and salvation is yours. He speaks a word and barriers are broken down; and rough ways are made smooth.

He will speak a word one day and your grave will be opened and your body will rise again and you will be changed in a “twinkling of an eye” and given a resurrection body and live forever in the presence of your King!

“My heart is leaning on the Word The written Word of God Salvation by my Savior's name Salvation through His blood

I need no other argument I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died And that He died for me.”

(Eliza Edmunds Hewitt)