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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapter 8 ch. 8:1-4 ch. 8:5-13 ch. 8:14-17 ch. 8:18-22 The
Man With Leprosy (ch. 8:1 - 4) It
is interesting to note that the first three healings that Matthew records,
which might well be Jesus’ first healings, were performed on people of
lesser estimation in the eyes of the Jewish leadership.
They were, a leper, a Gentile, and a woman. The
first miracle was performed on a man with leprosy.
There’s a few things we should note about those with leprosy in
relation to the Law of Moses. Lev.
13:45 says that the one who has leprosy must dress in a certain way and
yell out to others the fact that he has leprosy.
Num. 5:2 says that the leper must not live among the rest of the
people of In
verse 1 we see a man with leprosy who came to Jesus and knelt before Him
and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean”. There’s
much to be said in this one verse. First
of all, this leper came to Jesus and knelt before Him.
He should not have done that according to the Law of Moses.
He should have screamed out “leper, leper” so everyone could
scatter. But he did just the
opposite. Then
he called Jesus “Lord”. He
was acknowledging who Jesus was. I
don’t know if this man heard the sermon on the mount, but whatever the
case, He knew that Jesus was Lord, meaning, he in the least associated
Jesus with God. There was only
one Lord in the eyes of Jews and that was the Lord God of I
would assume this man knew the Mosaic Laws that prohibited him from coming
to Jesus, but he must have understood who Jesus was enough to ignore that
Law. We do know that Christ is
the end of the Law according to Rom. 10:4.
Surely this man didn’t understand this concept with clarity, but
maybe intuitively he did.
Then
he asks Jesus in all humility that if He was willing Jesus could make him
clean. This leper did
not demand. He simply asks
Jesus to be clean if it was His will.
This should be an example of how we come to the Lord.
We come in humility. We
do not come in pride, demanding what we want from Jesus.
This
man uses the word “clean”. This
is a Hebrew word associated with the Law of Moses.
Certain things were clean and certain other things were unclean.
According to the Law of Moses, this man was unclean.
He had been defiled by his sickness. I
don’t know for sure what this man had in mind.
Was he asking Jesus to heal him of his sickness or was he simply
asking that Jesus make him ceremonially clean, something only priests
could do? I tend to think that
this man wanted to be healed, and in the healing process would become
ceremonially clean. Whatever
the case, in verse 3 Jesus reaches out his hand and touches this man.
This was against the Law of Moses.
There’s a question that comes to my mind as I see Jesus touching
this man. I understand that
Jesus had compassion on him, but in his compassion Jesus broke the Law of
Moses by touching him. We’ve
often heard it said that Jesus never broke the Law.
Yet the Law of love seems to supersede the Law of Moses, and
that’s what Jesus was doing here. Jesus
told the man that He was willing to make him clean.
Jesus more than ceremonially made the man clean. He healed him of
his leprosy. If
Jesus indeed did break the Law of Moses by touching this man, then He
obeyed the Law of Moses by telling him to go to the priest and go through
the proper ceremonial cleaning procedures. This
was the first healing that Jesus performed, or at least the first one that
Matthew tells us about, and it was to a man the Jews understood, and
rightly understood, to be unclean, someone no one should come near to.
But Jesus had compassion on this man. As it says in other places,
Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath. He was also Lord of the leprosy laws. The
Faith Of A Centurion (ch. 8:5 - 13) Please
refer to the last part of this section for notes on the doctrine of
"submission and authority".
This passage of Scripture is always used to support this doctrine.
Verse
8 tells us that Jesus came to Also
in verse 8 we see that Jesus met a centurion
looking for help. A
centurion is an official in the Roman army. He would have at least 100 men
under his authority. This is
the second unusual person that Jesus helps in this chapter, which as I
said in the last section, could well be the first three healings that
Jesus performed. The
reason for the unusual nature of this event is because this man was a
Gentile, as well as a soldier who ruled over the Jews.
Jews normally would not have liked this man and would have done
their best to avoid him, but
here Jesus accepts him into conversation. In
verse 6 we note that this centurion calls Jesus “Lord”.
This Gentile most likely did not understand the nature of the word
“Lord” as we Christians would today.
He was used to calling people “lord”, with a small “l” and
not a capital “L”. He was
a man under authority so he would have called those over him by their
proper title and he would have demanded those under him call him by his
proper title. This man
recognizes that Jesus in one sense of the word is a “lord”, or is a
“master”. I doubt if he
recognized Jesus as the Lord of all there is, as we do..
Still, he had respect for Jesus. Also
in verse 6 we see this man had a sick servant that he was concerned about.
He must have been a kind hearted person to seek Jesus out on behalf
of his paralyzed servant. In
verse 7, without delay or any questions, Jesus simply said that He’d go
and heal the servant. Sometimes we see Jesus asking questions before He
heals someone. He might have
the sick person do something. Jesus
has no set formula for the way He heals people.
This is important to know. There is no Biblical formula for
healing, other than it’s done in the name of Jesus. In
verse 8 we see more of the nature of this centurion.
He was humble. He tells
Jesus that he doesn’t deserve to have Jesus under the roof of his house.
This is true humility, and this is how Christians are to approach
their Lord. We don’t come
demanding. We don’t come
arrogantly, although we can come boldly.
Another
thing we learn of this man is that even though he did not likely
understand the true nature of the Lordship of Jesus, we do know that he
had great respect for Jesus, something we need as well. The
next thing we learn of this man is that he believed that Jesus could make
his servant better, and Jesus didn’t even have to come to his house to
heal his servant. This is real
faith. This is trust. This man
trusted that Jesus’ words alone would heal his servant. In
verse 9 the centurion explains to Jesus that he understands authority
because he has people that he has authority over.
He tells them to do certain things, to go certain places and they
respond to his words. It’s
all about the centurions authority and the words he speaks.
He likens this to Jesus. He
sees Jesus as a man who has authority and therefore when Jesus speaks, He
speaks with authority and things happen. Some
over the years have taken this verse to suggest that this kind of
authority should be implement in the The
only things that is similar between the two worlds is the idea that when a
man speaks from a position of authority, things get done.
Jesus did speak from a place of authority and the servant was
subsequently healed. In
verse 10 we see that Jesus is astonished at this man.
He was exhibiting great faith, so much faith that Jesus hadn’t
even seen such faith in all This
whole incident should be seen as a prelude to what the cross is all about,
and that’s the inclusion of the Gentiles into the In
verse 11 Jesus speaks of a feast where Abraham, Jacob and Isaac will be
eating. I understand this
feast to be the Marriage Feast of the Lamb as seen in the Book of
Revelation. Jesus says that
there will be many from the east and from the west to be at this feast.
The reason why Jesus says this is because of the Gentile centurion.
People from the east and west means that all peoples of the world
will be seated at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, not just Jews. Although
I do believe that the Jewish Christians like Abraham, Jacob and Isaac may
well have a special place at the feast.
Jesus might well be implying this by mentioning these three men. The
words “the subjects of the Kingdom” is a Jewish idiom, and unless you
know this, you will not understand what Jesus is saying here.
Jews felt that they were entitled to be the heirs of the future
Kingdom of God and that Gentiles would be their subjects.
Jesus uses these words to denote those who would be thrown into
outer darkness, or the The
words “outer darkness” means really far out into the darkness, as far
as you could go away from the light of God.
Jesus
says that in this place of outer darkness there will be great anguish as
seen in people weeping and gnashing, or grinding of their teeth. There’s
a movement these days that says that this place of outer darkness is only
temporary punishment for the unbeliever and that’s why Jesus doesn’t
say this is eternal punishment. Yet
there are sufficient Scriptures that tell us that this is in fact eternal
punishment. I understand
eternal punishment to be “always in the process of dyeing but never
being able to die, even thought you want to die”.
In
verse 13 we see that Jesus did not go to the centurions house.
He just spoke the word of healing and the servant was made better.
Jesus said that He healed the servant because of this man’s
faith. We need to understand
what faith means here. Faith
was not something this Gentile had to muster up. Faith is simple trust.
He simply took Jesus at His word and Jesus blessed him for it. The
idea that the more faith one
has the more results you get, as some take from this verse, is not New
Testament thinking. Other than
the divine gift of faith which is one of the gifts of the Spirit in 1
Cor.12, faith is not a commodity that you can get more of.
You don’t get more faith. You
just trust Jesus more than you presently do.
Faith is more passive than active.
Activity that is done is more of the result of your trust, it’s
not the faith itself.
Now
to "submission and authority".
Many people use this text to support their thinking on what is
called "submission and authority".
"Submission and authority" teaching states that
Christians must align themselves under, and submit to,
the authority of one man in their local church group who is over
them in the Lord. There are
variations from place to place to what submission means, but that's it in
its simplest form. I
can't address all aspects of this subject here.
I could right chapters on the topic.
I'll only comment on Matthew 8:5 to 13.
Invariably, those who teach "submission to one man who is over
you in the Lord" will use this passage in their defense.
It was the first Scripture used in the message I recently heard.
This passage has been used in every teaching I've heard on this
subject, and it's always been misinterpreted. In
Matthew 8:6 we see a centurion who has a sick servant.
A centurion was a Roman military officer who had a hundred men
under his authority. It is
important to understand that this man understood "submission and
authority" in a Roman dictatorial context, because that was the
nature of the society in which he lived and worked.
One
day this centurion sees Jesus and says, "Lord, my servant lies at
home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
This military officer called Jesus "Lord".
This doesn't mean he understood Jesus to be God in a human body.
The word "lord" was commonly used in those days as a term
to show respect. This man
respected Jesus as being someone important.
He thought Jesus was a man of authority like himself.
In
verse 7 Jesus replies by saying that He would go to the centurion's home
to heal his servant. Verses
8 and 9 are the key verses that "submission and authority"
teachers use to support their position.
The centurion replies to Jesus by saying, "Lord, I do not
deserve to have you come under my roof.
But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
For I myself am a man under authority and have soldiers under me.
I tell this one, 'go', and he goes, and that one, 'come', and he
comes. I say to my servant,
'do this', and he does it." This
man worked and lived in an authoritative system.
He submitted to a man over him, and those under him submitted to
him. Obedience was key in his
world. He also had slaves that
submitted to him in obedience. Because
of the chain of authority this man lived in, he just had to speak a
command and it would be obeyed without question by those under his
authority. It's important to
know that this is how the man understood submission to authority.
The
obedience to commands based on the centurions place in the chain of
authority is the point he is making to Jesus.
He saw Jesus as having authority as he himself had.
He felt that Jesus could just command the sickness to leave and his
servant would be healed.
In
verse 10 we see that Jesus is amazed at what this Gentile Roman soldier
said. Why was Jesus so amazed?
Was He amazed that the Roman system of submission to authority was
the same system of submission
to authority that was to be found among God's people?
Did Jesus believe in submission and authority in the same way this
military officer believed in? Submission
and authority teachers will tell us that this is exactly why Jesus was
amazed. They state that Jesus
was amazed because this military commander understood the authoritative
system he lived in was the same system that should be seen among God's
people. Submission and
authority teachers actually use the term "chain of command" as I
recently heard from my brother in the Lord's message.
I
see things differently. The above understanding to why Jesus was amazed
clearly misrepresents the text. It
totally ignores Jesus' own statement that tells us why He was amazed at
the Roman commander. The
centurion understood Jesus to be important, being one in authority over
others, as he himself was. Jesus
did have authority, but not the same kind of authority this man had.
We need to be clear on one point here.
It is poor Biblical interpretation to say that this man's thinking
on submission to authority is Biblical truth.
His frame of reference concerning this subject was the Roman
dictatorial system, not the Bible. This
Roman officer was not a student of the Bible.
He didn't know the Biblical perspective on these things.
We will see later that Jesus has a different frame of reference on
this subject which looks nothing like this officers thinking.
Verse
10 makes it clear why Jesus was amazed at this man.
Jesus said that he had not seen "such faith in all of The
centurion wasn't making a statement about submission and authority anyway.
Notice how the text reads. Verse
8 says, "… just say the word and my servant will be healed, for I
myself am a man under authority…"
The word "for" is important because what comes after it
supports the main point to the soldier's statement.
The centurion's main point was that Jesus could heal his servant
"because", or, "for", Jesus
had authority over sickness. The
idea that Jesus could heal with a simple command was the main point the
centurion was making. The
submission and authority phrase was only said to support the soldiers main
point. The centurion wasn't
suggesting that Roman authoritarianism was something God's people should
adhere to. It's poor
hermeneutics to suggest that we should follow a Roman soldier's way of
thinking. It's also poor
hermeneutics to suggest that Jesus agreed with this man's thinking about
submission and authority. He
says nothing to suggest such a thing.
Besides
all of this, we know Jesus wasn't excited about the Roman government and
her military. In Luke 22:25
Jesus said, "the kings of the Gentiles 'lord it over them', and those
who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors."
That means the system this Roman soldier lived under was a
dictatorship, and the dictators benefited from those who were compelled to
submit to them. Jesus goes on
to say, "…you are not to be like that…"
The Roman system wasn't, and still isn't, the example for God's
people to follow. Jesus wasn't
impressed with the centurion's authority.
He was impressed with his faith. This
passage of Scripture has nothing to do with Christians submitting their
lives to one man who claims to be over them in the Lord.
This passage is all about the faith of one Gentile man.
We cannot use this passage of Scripture to support a doctrine of
submission and authority, but we can use it to show how important it is to
trust Jesus.
Jesus
Heals Many (ch. 8:14 - 17) Verse
14 tells us something about Peter. Remember
Jesus is in Peter’s
mother-in-law was sick. Here’s
the third person to be healed in this chapter.
So far we’ve seen a leper and a Gentile healed, and now we will
see a woman healed. All three
people were sub-class people as seen by the Jewish leadership. In
verse 15 we see that Jesus simply touched the woman’s hand and she was
healed. We don’t know for
sure if Jesus said anything like, “be healed”.
We can’t argue from silence.
Yet there is a good chance that Jesus said nothing. The touch said
it all. We see here once again
that there is no formula for healing, and since there is no formula for
healing, we shouldn’t try to make formulas. Also
in verse 15 we see that Peter’s mother-in-law’s first response to
Jesus healing her was to get up and attend to His needs.
This should always be the case with us when we experience the grace
of God. So often we take
advantage of God’s grace. Peter’s
mother-in-law understood that she was a servant of the Lord Jesus.
The Greek word “diakonos” is translated as “wait” in this
verse. It’s translated as “minister” in the King James.
Again, “diakonos” means “to serve”.
In
verse 16 we see that “many” people afflicted by demons were healed
with “a word”. Unlike some
modern day deliverance ministries, Jesus did not normally carry on
conversations with demons. The
mere presence of Jesus literally would scare demons away. We
also note that Jesus healed “all the sick”. It is pretty clear that
Jesus did not turn away anyone who trusted Him for healing.
He healed everyone. Some people thus say that it is our right today
to be healed by Jesus. Yet
in my thinking, we’re in a different situation now.
Jesus is not here in person, and there’s many issues involved in
healing that we see in Scripture. There
are things that get in the way between us and Jesus that prevent our
healing at times. 1 Peter 3:7
says that a husband’s prayers can be hindered if he doesn’t treat his
wife respectfully. So there
are other things to deal with in this age when it comes to healing. There’s
been much debate over the centuries concerning what is expressed in verse
17. Matthew says that Jesus casting demons out of people and healing them
fulfills what was written in Isaiah. The
exact verse is Is. 53:4. The
quote from the NIV “he took up our infirmities, and carried away our
diseases”. The
controversy has been over whether healing is part of the work of the
atonement. Those who believe
that healing is part of the atonement say that Jesus’ death on the cross
was more than just about sin. Jesus
died to heal our sick bodies as well as pay for forgiveness of our sins.
I tend to believe this. The other side of the argument is that
Jesus died because of our sin, not because of our sicknesses.
Jesus heals people because He has the power to do so, not because
He paid for it on the cross by becoming sick with our sicknesses as the
other side believes. If
you take this quote from Isa. 53:4 in Matthew’s context you might say
that it backs up the second view point.
There is no mention of the cross here in Matt 8.
The contest is that Jesus healed people, something He did before
the cross, and this healing fulfilled Isa. 54:3.
Therefore healing has nothing to do with the cross.
. The
verb “took up”, as in “Jesus took up our infirmities” can be
translated many ways, which doesn’t help solve the debate.
The verb “took up” can rightfully be thought of as “took up
in one’s hand to throw away”, which would support theory number two.
The words can also be translated as “bore in one’s body”, as
in “Jesus bore or became sick” for us, which would support theory one.
So there are good arguments to both
view points. I tend to
believe that Jesus had the power to heal before the cross, which is
obvious, yet at the same time became sick with our sickness on the cross.
I see this because Isaiah 53 appears to be mostly about the cross of
Christ, and not His life. Besides, sickness is a result of original sin.
It’s not necessarily a result of any individual sin, but due to Adam’s
original sin we get sick The
Cost Of Following Jesus (ch.8:18 - 22) In
verse 18 we see that Jesus saw a great crowd beginning to gathering around
Him, as a result He ordered those close to him to take Him across the
lake. The Lake would have been
the Some
people might wonder why Jesus wanted to avoid this crowd.
The simple answer would be that the crowds were beginning to
constantly follow Him. He was
fast becoming a moving healing hospital.
He needed to take the time for quietness and rest.
In
verse 19 Jesus meets up with “a teacher of the Law”.
We now assume that Jesus and some of His disciples have now crossed
the lake. Within the Jewish
elite were teachers of the Law. They were somewhat like lawyers.
They’d interpret the Law of Moses to the masses.
This
teacher calls Jesus a teacher. We have two uses of the word teacher here
as I see it. The man who came
to Jesus was an official, or a recognized teacher of the Law.
He recognized Jesus as being somewhat of a teacher as well,
although we don’t really know the motives of this man. Many saw Jesus as
a teacher because He taught, but many did not accept His teaching. To
place Jesus as a teacher in the Jewish tradition, on par with this teacher
of the Law is a mistake in my opinion. This
teacher of the Law told Jesus that he wanted to follow Jesus,
implying that he wanted to be Jesus’ disciple.
It’s my thinking, along with many others, especially because of
Jesus’ answer, is that this man didn’t really know what he was asking.
He was probably like many others who were impressed with the
miracles and the healings, and for this reason he wanted to follow Jesus.
Jesus in fact at this time was beginning to become a superstar in
the eyes of the common people. This man could have easily wanted to be
close to the superstar. In
verse 20 Jesus calls Himself the “Son of Man” as He often does.
He calls Himself the Son of Man more than the Son of God,
especially in the first part of His ministry.
This changed a bit when He got closer to the end of His ministry.
The
“Son of Man” should be understood as a somewhat disguised Messianic
term. Jesus didn’t really want to come right out and say that He was the
Messiah, at least not in these early days. Son of man implies that He was
born into humanity as a man.
It’s also seen as a term of humiliation.
Jesus was totally divine and totally human at the same time.
The term “Son of Man” speaks to His humanity. It’s
quite possible that this teacher of the Law might have understood what
Jesus was telling him when He used the words “Son of Man”.
If this man really wanted to follow Jesus this term would not have
turned him off, yet if he had wrong motives in mind, the term “Son of
Man” might have greatly upset him, as it did with most of the Jewish
leadership. Jesus
tells the teacher that foxes have holes to live in, and the birds have
nests to live in, but He has no place to lay His head.
Jesus is thus telling this man that if he wants to follow Him,
he’d have to leave his life of luxury.
Does
this mean that Jesus never had a place to lay his head, as in a nice
place? This isn’t really so.
It’s just that Jesus seldom slept in the same place for more than
one night at a time. We
don’t have any written response from the teacher of the Law.
We don’t know what he said or how he felt.
There’s a good chance that he just walked away. In
verse 21 another disciple told Jesus that he had to go and bury his
father. We should note the
word “disciple” here. When
we see this word in the New Testament we often think of the “Twelve”,
but the word disciple is applied to many people.
Many people found in the crowds were called disciples because they
followed Jesus from place to place. This
doesn’t mean that they were real committed to Jesus because many left
Jesus when things got tough. Those
on the “band wagon” so to speak were called disciples as also was the
“Twelve”. This
particular disciple needed to go and bury his dead father.
In verse 22 Jesus gives a somewhat surprising response and for some
a response that was not so loving. It’s
important here to understand that Jesus is speaking to one particular
person. He might well say
something altogether different to someone else.
I don’t think that Jesus was so unloving that he did not care
about grieving people. We know
He grieved Himself when Lazarus died.
But for some reason this man needed to hear what Jesus said.
He needed to understand the importance of following Jesus,
something that most of His disciples didn’t understand.
Following Jesus was more important than burying your dead father. Jesus
said, “let the dead bury their own dead’.
Or, “let the spiritually dead, bury the own physically dead”.
While showing this disciple the importance of following Him, Jesus
was also showing His disgust with the spiritually dead found in Jesus
Calms The Storm (ch. 8:23 - 28)
In
verse 23 we see Jesus getting into a boat and some of His disciples
following Him. If you pay attention as you read through the gospels you
will note that Jesus spent a good amount time in boats, crossing back and
forth across the Verse
24 tells us that a “furious storm came up” as they were in the boat,
and all the while Jesus was asleep. Now
either Jesus was a deep sleeper or else He was at total peace with His
surroundings. The storm did
not wake Him. There is the
possibility that Jesus purposely kept sleeping to test the trust of His
disciples. This
was a bad storm because Matthew tells us that the waves “swept over”
the sides of the boat. Water
was getting into the boat and most likely people were getting wet.
How could Jesus possibly sleep through this storm other than He had
no fear and He wanted to test His disciples. Verse
25 tells us the seriousness of this storm.
We don’t know who was in the boat with Jesus, but it could have
well been some of the fishermen that Jesus called to be His disciples.
If this is the case, these men understood the sea and knew about
bad storms. They woke Jesus
and begged for help or else they would be drowned, as they put it.
These sea worthy men felt that they’d drown if Jesus couldn’t
help them. That shows how bad
this storm was. We
note that they call Jesus “Lord”.
They understood Jesus to be Lord, that is, someone far above them,
but did they understand Jesus as being Lord of all there is?
Did they understand that Jesus should be Lord of their personal
lives? I am sure they were in
the process of both understanding the Lordship of Jesus and making Him
Lord of their lives, and thus we have the reason for this test of trust.
This
is the nature of the Lordship of Christ concerning Christians.
Upon coming to Jesus in salvation, we acknowledge that Jesus is
Lord, and we tell Him that we want Him to be Lord of our lives.
This is what salvation is all about.
But making Jesus Lord of our lives is a process.
The process involves tests of trust.
As we trust Jesus in one area of our lives, He becomes our Lord in
that area, and then He moves on to test us in another area of our lives.
We
have Jesus’ response to their request in verse 26.
He says, “you of little faith, why are you so afraid”.
The word “faith” is one of the most misunderstood words in the
Christian vocabulary even though it is one of the most used words and one
of the most important words. What
Jesus was saying here was, “you of little trust”, or “can’t you
trust me”. Faith is
trust. Fear entered the
disciples hearts because they did not trust that Jesus could pull them
through this storm. You
might say then that the more we trust Jesus, the less we fear.
This is the case in any relationship.
The more we trust someone, the less we will fear him, or fear what
he might do. This
test is all about trusting Jesus. It’s
all about making Jesus Lord over such situations.
This is the nature of most of the tests our Lord puts us through.
The test is to cause us to trust Him more.
We shouldn’t look at tests as a means to get “more faith”,
because for the most part, faith is not something you can get more of.
Faith is trust, and the tests come our way to help us trust more
than we presently do. Jesus
then gets up and rebukes the wind and the waves and everything becomes
calm again. I don’t see Jesus as in a big hurry to rebuke the storm, or
else He would have woken earlier than He did.
He would not have needed the disciples to wake Him.
Even after He woke I don’t see Him as being in a big hurry.
He did not fear the storm. I
see Him slowly getting up, rubbing the sleep from His eyes, and after a
few moments rebuking the storm from a posture of peace and not anxiety. This
is where we get our term “the storms of life”.
Storms will come our way as seen in the last chapter when Jesus
taught about building our house on a rock and not on the sand.
Some storms come as a result of Jesus testing us, meaning, He might
create the storm. Other storms
come because we live in a fallen world.
Then at times, we create our own storms.
No matter how or why the storms come, they test our trust in Jesus
and they require a response from us. In
verse 27 we see that the men in the boat were “amazed” because even
the storm obeyed Jesus. One
lesson to learn from this test is that Jesus is indeed Lord, and when we
say He is Lord, that means He is Lord over all things, both physical and
spiritual. There is absolutely
nothing He isn’t Lord over. The
Healing Of Two Demon Possessed Men (ch.
8:28 - 34) Matthew
tells us that Jesus and the
others come to the area called the Gadarenes.
Mark and Luke call it the area of the Garasens.
It has been discovered that there was actually a village called We
also want to note that Matthew speaks of two demon possessed men while
Mark and Luke speak of one. There
doesn’t have to be a discrepancy here.
Mark and Luke most likely only refer to the man who does the
talking. The other man
probably remained silent. These
men lived in tombs and were very violent.
No one was able to go through this area without being hurt by these
men. Tombs
were mostly built into the sides of hills.
Many were pre-existing caves. Along
the shore line here there were cliffs of limestone where caves would have
been found. These caves were
often used as burial places. Verse
29 sheds some light on some things. We are not told that Jesus said
anything to these men. My
guess, and it is a guess, is that He said nothing.
The demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God. So we know that
demons know who Jesus is. One demon spoke through one of the men on behalf
of the other demons because it appears there is a chain of authority with
demons. This demon may well
have been the demon in charge. The
demons were afraid of Jesus. They
shouted at Jesus asking if He’d come to punish them “before the
appointed times”. This also
tells us something. It tells
us that demons know they will be punished, and they know there is an
appointed time. And that is
so. Throughout Scripture it is
clear that there are appointed times.
This means that God has pre-set certain things to happen at certain
times. They just don’t
happen whenever God feels like it. They
don’t happen spontaneously. There
is a specific time. One
specific time is for demons to be punished, and these demons knew better
than the disciples about these things.
They knew it was not time for them to be punished.
That will come at the end of the thousand years of peace as seen in
the book of Revelation. It
thus appears to me that the angelic world, which demons are a part of,
know more than we know sometimes.
In
verses 30 and 31 we note that there is a herd of pigs and that the demons
requested that “if” Jesus was going to cast them out of these men that
He’d send them into the pigs. In
verse 32 Jesus simply said one word, and that was, “go”.
They left the two men and went into the pigs.
Jesus doesn’t have to say much.
He doesn’t have to say anything.
He could have simply pointed to the pigs and they would have left.
These demons had no other choice than to do what Jesus wanted them
to do. We
also see that the pigs immediately went crazy and ran over the cliff and
killed the pigs as a result of the demons entering them.
Demons are destructive by nature.
They are like the one they follow.
The devil comes to kill, steel and destroy as Jesus says in John
10. In
verse 33 we see that there
were men tending these pigs.
They immediately ran into town and reported what happened.
I’m sure they were terrified.
The
question is often raised, “why did Jesus let these demons go into these
pigs”? His actions caused
someone’s lively-hood to be destroyed.
We don’t know the answer to this for sure.
It’s possible that these pigs were owned by Jews and that would
have been in contradiction to the Law of Moses and so Jesus wouldn’t
have had any trouble with killing the pigs. Verse
34 is a little ironic and even humorous to me.
The whole village came out to meet Jesus.
Most people were so over taken with Jesus that they followed Him
all around. It was mostly
because of the miracle of healings He performed.
But this miracle was different.
It destroyed someone’s living and the town’s people were
probably not very happy about that so “they pleaded” with Jesus to
leave their region and go somewhere else.
We
often see the love of Jesus and the love and comfort that comes to people
from meeting Jesus. But
here’s another side of Jesus. He
is someone to be feared, which we all will see at the end of this age.
It also shows us that Jesus is not only Lord over storms as seen in
the last section, but Lord over demons, and Lord over people’s
occupations. He’s simply
Lord. These people saw
Jesus’ Lordship over their occupations and wanted nothing to do with
Him.
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