The King Restores

Date: 2022-03-27

Audience: Grass Valley Corps

Title: The King Restores

Text: Matthew 8:1-22

Proposition: Jesus brought people to wellness

Purpose: We should do the same, but it costs

Grace and peace to you!

Matthew just finished telling us about Jesus teaching the Sermon on the Mount – the instructions he gave to those following him about what it means to live in the Kingdom of God – what their responsibilities are and how they can trust the King to support them.

Now he’s going to show that Jesus is a person who has the authority to lay out those kind of instructions. And he’s going to do it in a way that is particularly meaningful to his audience – those of the Jewish faith in the First Century who have recently come to follow the teaching of Jesus and those who are considering whether they should.

For us, this presents a couple of challenges.

First, we aren’t – and I know I’m speaking generally here and that some of you who hear or see this may very well be, but in general it is true that we aren’t – religiously observant, ethnically included members of the Jewish population. We are Gentiles – people whose ancestors abandoned the LORD and followed other gods and other ways while the People of God, at least sometimes, followed him.

What does it mean that we aren’t part of that group? Well, we’ve already seen Matthew explain, both on his own and in the words of Jesus, that God has a place for us in his Kingdom and that we are invited to accept that place.

But it also means that there are things which will be harder for us to understand because we didn’t grow up in the culture and with the understanding that Mathew’s main audience did. So, we need to do a little extra work to understand what’s going on in some of these stories in the Bible. That’s all right. We have working brains and we have easy access to the tools needed to figure stuff out. We just need to use them.

Second, we are living in a time two-thousand years down the road of history! Can or should any of these old thing, old ways apply to us in the here and now? If so, what? And if not, why are we wasting our time with it?

Also, being separated for these events by so much time, can we trust the stories we’re being told? What was it Matthew’s original audience found so compelling that they were willing to change EVERYTHING after they heard it? And is there anything we can hang onto from these ancient tales which will inspire us the same way?

Here’s what Matthew is going to give us: Three sections of signs that Jesus is who and what Matthew claims: The long-awaited Messiah who is also, somehow, God himself. Each of the three sections has three unusual events – things that we call miracles nowadays. Things that can not happen in the usual course of events as we understand them. And for each of these signs, he supplies witnesses. People that we could go ask if we were skeptical about what happened. Now, for us, that’s a little more problematic because the witnesses are long-dead. But at the time, most of these folks would have still been around to ask, either directly or through their immediate descendants and friends.

Matthew has thrown some narrative in around these stories, filling them out, giving more shape to the circumstances around the unexpected signs that Jesus was giving. But, as we go along, you’ll see that this only adds to the story and its credibility, as remarkable as it seems.

And just as we have done through the first several sections of this biography, we’re going to try to ignore the chapters and verses and little added headings as much as we can while we look at the story. We don’t want to break up a narrative that should be flowing like a river instead of going and stopping like rush hour traffic.

Start in Matthew chapter 8 today, beginning at verse 1. I’m reading from the Lexham English Bible, so if you are using a different translation the word might be different, but the meaning should be the same.

And when* he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper approached and* worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”[1]

Leprosy wasn’t what we think of now. Now there is a thing called Hansen’s Disease which is a bacterial infection that eats your nerves, leaving you susceptible to injury and infection. It often presents with symptoms like spots on your skin or uncontrolled inflammation. The long-term effects are horrific and memorable. This is modern leprosy.

Biblical leprosy could be that, but it was really a catch-all term for infectious skin diseases of all sorts. It was even applied to homes with mold that couldn’t be controlled. Those homes would be burned if they couldn’t be cured. Human beings were shunned – sent out of the camp or city to keep from spreading their ailment to their neighbors.

It was assumed God had cursed them and so lepers were considered unclean – they couldn’t perform the rituals that were necessary to communal living and worship. Others who encountered them could be tarred with the same epithet – “Unclean, unclean!” – and rejected until they went through the process to demonstrate they had been restored to health. The only close human contact allowed was with others of their kind – the other infected and rejected people scavenging to live in the fringes.

This man choosing to approach Jesus about his leprosy had to overcome his cultural training and experience to get near enough to ask for help, and he had to do it knowing that Jesus could very well have had him run off and beaten (or more likely had stones thrown at him) for risking the health of others. But he gathered his courage and approached and said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

3 And extending his hand he touched him, saying, “I am willing, be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.” [2]

They were surrounded by a crowd here, so I think Jesus was trying to calm the man’s excitement at being healed. “Take it easy. There’s still some steps you need to take.”

That was the law – to be restored to the community when you had survived your disease, if you did, you needed to present yourself to the local priest to be examined. Once you were declared physically clean, an offering of thanksgiving was expected, and then you could become spiritually clean. And then you could return to your life, your family, your work, and your place in society. It was a conversion from outcast to accepted.

In this man’s case, he had already been accepted by Jesus. We could tell that because Jesus touched him. That isn’t the action of a man towards an unclean leper – it’s the hand of a compassionate friend or empathetic neighbor. It’s love in action, a reaching out to make a connection that had been denied to this man. It was a touch that said he was already restored, even before he knew he was healed. The rest of the process was simply a formality.

This miracle is so much more than just clearing up a skin condition.

This wasn’t the only healing Jesus would do, not by a long shot. As Matthew tells it, just after this, as Jesus headed towards home, he was approached by another man.

5 Now when* he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him, appealing to him 6 and saying, “Lord, my slave is lying paralyzed in my house, terribly tormented!” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and* heal him.”[3]

A centurion was a Roman military commander, a position that was at the head of a hundred men, give or take. His appearance in a crowd of Israelites would have been startling. The Romans weren’t friends or neighbors. They were the overlords. They were the enemy who held Israel captive. They were hated, they were feared; they were never taken lightly or ignored.

When this Centurion addressed Jesus as “Lord”, it would have been startling. It wasn’t just polite. It was humble from someone people never would have associated with the ability to be humble. They would have been confused and uncertain about what he might be up to.

But Jesus simply said he would come and heal the sick slave.

8 And the centurion answered and* said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come in under my roof. But only say the word and my slave will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority who has soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another one, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”[4]

There is again – Lord. Kyrios – one who has authority over me. The Roman Centurion is giving public respect to a Jewish peasant and referring to him as if he was Someone, not a Galilean preacher, not a member of a subject people. This would have been more than startling. In fact, even Jesus couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

10 Now when* Jesus heard this,* he was astonished, and said to those who were following him,* “Truly I say to you, I have found such great faith with no one in Israel.[5]

Jesus was ASTONISHED/AMAZED – Something that we are only told about happening twice. This is one. The other is in Mark’s story of Jesus teaching in his hometown and being soundly rejected by his own. That also AMAZED him. It was a hard thing to believe, not unlike a Roman overlord coming to ask for help instead of simply demanding what he wanted.

And Jesus commends the man’s faith, calling it greater than that he has seen in Israel. And he calls that out as a step towards Gentiles swarming into the family of God they haven’t been permitted to be a part of before now.

11 But I say to you that many will come from east and west and ⌊be seated at the banquet⌋ with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” 13 And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go, as you have believed it will be done for you.” And the slave was healed at that hour. [6]

This warning, that the people God had chosen would be rejected while those who chose God would be admitted, wouldn’t have sat well with the crowd, especially the Pharisees, who believed that their holy living was the key to their people’s ability to enter the presence of the Lord at the end of time. Was Jesus blowing smoke, kissing up to a Centurion out of fear or to obtain some favor?

But there is no advantage for Jesus here. He was simply responding to the faith of the man who stood before him. The slave is healed at the word of Jesus from where he was outside of town and the Centurion, commended for his faithfulness, is sent home to see his slave restored to his household and to usefulness.

Jesus isn’t done yet. Look at the next piece of the story.

14 And when* Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying down and suffering with a fever. 15 And he touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. [7]

This short story is important. It tells us about something MUCH bigger than healing. Or perhaps I should say that it teaches us the purpose of healing.

We’ve seen it in each of the stories. It’s assumed in the tale of the leper. It’s expected in the narrative of the Centurion and his slave. And it is explicitly spelled out here. Matthew didn’t want us to miss the point.

Think you’ve got it?

While you think on it, let me tell you how I came to be a part of The Salvation Army.

My wife and I were church shopping. Nowhere we’d been had felt quite right. Something was missing.

One Sunday morning a coworker of my wife’s had badgered us into going to church with her and her husband. It was a small Salvation Army corps that met in a local college classroom. The service was nice enough. The teaching was about being a stretcher bearer, which is a story we’ll get to next week. The officer teaching said we needed to help carry each other towards Jesus.

We had some vague interaction with the officers there and at lunch with a group of people after church. They seemed nice enough. We went home, thinking we might come back in a few months. Maybe.

That night, I had a diabetic coronary and ended up in the ER. The next morning, when my wife’s friend heard why she wasn’t at work, she called that officer to ask for prayer. And he came to sit with us for a few minutes and ended up staying for hours, keeping us company while we waited for test results.

That someone who had just met us – I mean, we barely traded two sentences on Sunday! – someone who had just met us was willing to come and be present with us when we needed it told me something about him. It told me that he knew Jesus. To me, that meant I wanted to be part of the church he pastored.

As we learned more about him and his wife over the coming weeks and years, they showed the same spirit as Peter’s mother-in-law here in our passage. It was the message they tried to foster in those who were part of our church family there. Hopefully, it is the message Bridget and I foster wherever we are privileged to serve.

As Jesus has done for me, so I will do for others.

That’s what I see in this story. Reciprocal service. Jesus served her and so she served others. This is the point that Matthew is bringing us to understand.

This kind of service always seems to grow. From that one visit to my hospital room, I’ve been inspired to make dozens of similar visits. At least some of those I’ve visited have gone on to visit others as well. That’s not because I’m a great hospital guy or brilliant about sharing the love of Jesus. It’s because Jesus did it for me and so I do for others. What they see isn’t me – It’s who I represent – Jesus. Just as that Salvation Army officer who came to my hospital room wasn’t there because he loved going to hospitals. He was there because Jesus. Do you get it?

The people in Capernaum got it. They saw Jesus healing bodies, restoring people to society, and those people returning to or finding new purpose in using their health to serve others around them. And the people who saw this said, “We want that too.”

16 Now when it* was evening, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he expelled the spirits with a word. And he healed all ⌊those who were sick⌋, 17 in order that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled, who said,

“He himself took away our sicknesses,

and carried away our diseases.” [8]

The passage Matthew is quoting from is Isaiah 53, a part of the prophetic web of promises about the Messiah. As he tells us the individual stories of Jesus, he is also making sure he is explaining why he believes Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. He’s given us three individual witnesses to Jesus having the authority to restore human bodies to health – a miraculous power! And he’s given us crowds of witnesses to those events and then a whole town of people who would be able to remember and tell us about what they saw, heard, and felt when Jesus was among them.

Now, it’s harder for us. When this was written there still would have been people alive who remembered these events and could support or debunk what Matthew wrote. No so any more! So we have to evaluate what we read the same way we would evaluate any ancient story from history. Are there other accounts from the same time that agree with what is being said? Are there any witnesses AGAINST it? Was it accepted by the people of its time, the people who COULD have sought out witnesses? Because if the people of the time identified this to be true, we should add that to our evidence in favor.

I’m not saying that we should take any of these individual stories as absolute proof that Jesus is who Matthew claimed him to be. I am saying that we need to understand the evidence and collect it all together so that we can reach a reasonable conclusion.

I’ve read ahead. I can tell you that this isn’t the only set of carefully witnessed evidence. While it may not be described in the terms I would use or presented in the way I would explain it, I find it credible, both the small pieces and the whole claim of Matthew that Jesus somehow brought real healing to people who needed it, physical and spiritual healing. I accept that his doing so can be said to fulfil these ancient prophecies of the Messiah. And I fully believe that as he has done for me, I should do for others.

It seems that the same was true of people at the time, also. One last passage for today.

18 Now when* Jesus saw many crowds around him, he gave orders to depart to the other side. 19 And a scribe approached and* said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go!” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21 And another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead!” [9]

As people began to embrace who Jesus might be, they wanted to go and be part of what he was doing. As the crowds around him grew, Jesus would stay on the move, breaking them up. Too many bodies in one place at one time began to look like rebellion to the Romans. It wasn’t time for him to be arrested yet.

Some people think that this passage is Jesus discouraging people from joining his band of disciples. I suppose it could be, but I read it as something more important to him, something that he said on other occasions too.

Count the cost before you do it.

He wanted people to understand that following him wasn’t just the glamour show of healing and having people say how great it all is.

Life on the road was hard. Especially the road Jesus was on. There might be times of comfort, but for the most part those who followed him were likely to envy the wild animals and their simple lives.

There might be days when following the glorious destiny of Jesus seem like all you need, but what will you do when that heavenly plan calls you one way and your earthly obligations call you another? Are you prepared to put Jesus ahead of family responsibilities? Because if you really believe he is who Matthew claims, then his priorities need to take precedence. When you live in a Kingdom, the King’s will must be done.

As we’ll see as we continue in Matthew’s story, Jesus promises us that he will keep our burden light, but there are times it may not feel like it in the moment.

So count the cost and weigh it against the end result.

Hopefully you’ve realized by now that any earthly cost is worth it when your reward is a place in the royal family of the Kingdom of God.

Next week, we’ll look at proofs that Jesus has the authority to make the offers he does. For today, I think it is enough that we understand that Jesus brought people to wellness and restored them to community, because we all need that. We all crave that.

LORD, heal me! LORD, make me part of the whole.

But we also need to remember that because he has done this for us, we need to be his agents, bringing his healing and wholeness to others. All it takes is a willing spirit and your presence. God will direct the rest through you or around you.

You never know. That few minutes you spend with someone might just change their life.

Let’s close this time together in prayer.

[1] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:1–2. [2] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:3–4. [3] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:5–7. [4] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:8–9. [5] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:10. [6] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:11–13. [7] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:14–15. [8] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:16–17. [9] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 8:18–22.