After the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew shares several encounters that Jesus has with people in the Galilee. You would think, as Jesus is beginning to launch out in his formal ministry that he would focus on the rich and powerful. But Matthew and Mark are both clear to emphasize that his GPS was not off—he intentionally reached out to those whom society rejected.
A Super Unclean Dude!
The first is a leper, someone that society had long pushed out. Scholar Craig Blomberg writes:
The reader is struck immediately by the sudden appearance of a leper, one who epitomized physical and ritual uncleanness. Lepers were ostracized from society and lived in “colonies.” 1
The leper wants be clean. In the Markan account, he asked, “If you are willing” (Mark 1:40) And then, it says that Jesus was angry. So much concern over this comment has been made that some began to wrongly interpret that Jesus was filled with compassion, but the Greek orgizo, does mean he became angry. Certainly not at the leper, but more likely at the leper’s question.
James Brooks suggests, “Jesus was perhaps angered that the leper doubted that the God active in Jesus’ ministry desired his cleansing.”2 It would be like one of my daughters asking me if it was my will that she have dinner. I might become annoyed that she would suggest that as a loving father, I would deprive her of dinner. This is in line with Luke 11:11-13, where Jesus says that evil fathers do good things for their children—how much more would the perfect Father do good for those who ask? God loves us and desires to bless us. The very first words in the famous Hebrew prayer that God gave to Moses and Aaron to bless the people begins with, “May the Lord bless you…” (Num 6:24).
But let’s not stray too far from our main point. Matthew’s first recorded miracle of Jesus after the Sermon on the Mount reveals Jesus’s love for the least among us—the most rejected.
A Russian Soldier in Ukraine
His second miracle in Matthew 8 is for a Roman soldier. A centurion is someone with, as you might guess, authority over 100. A Roman soldier in the Galilee, would be like Jesus approaching a Russian soldier in eastern Ukraine. In other words, not somebody beloved by the local people. But yet, a human being made in the image of God. This enemy combatant requests that Jesus heal his paralyzed servant and the Messiah says, “I will come and heal him.” (v. 7).
But then there’s a twist. The soldier says that he’s not worthy for the Messiah to come to his house and he understands how authority works even in the spirit. In the same way that he commands his soldiers, Jesus can just speak the word and the servant will be healed (v. 8-9).
Yeshua is blown away by such faith. He charges the people of Israel for not having the same faith in their very own God as this pagan has.
Jesus is setting an example that he honors humility. A leper comes begging for healing. A Roman soldier approaches a Jewish healer and submits himself to him, demonstrating unparalleled faith in the God of Israel. It was no small thing for this soldier to refer to this rabbi as Lord (v. 8).
Mother in Law!
It would be too easy here to make a joke about mother-in-law’s. You can pray for mine, as she is blind, can barely walk and is now dealing with dementia. She is 85 and definitely in need of healing. But this is Peter’s mother-in-law. Women did not have the place in society that men did in the Ancient Near East. Blomberg adds.
But the only point that concerns Matthew is Jesus’ compassion for yet a third category of people who were viewed as second-class citizens within Judaism, namely, women.3
Matthew is purposely using examples of those who were not at the top of the societal food chain to show Jesus’s concern for all humanity—including women, foreigners, and outcasts. And now he’s going to turn his attention to two people that nobody wants to hang out with.
Two Demon-Possessed Dudes
Matthew tells us that these guys were so violent that people would not pass by. Mark refers to one of them like this:
For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones (Mk 5:4–5).
But Jesus is not afraid. We already know that he controls nature with his words and can heal with his words. But can he cast out a demon? Yes. This man was so grateful to Jesus he wanted to follow him, but Jesus sent him out as an evangelist to the people around him. Everybody knew his former condition, and he would be a powerful herald to the Gentiles living in the Decapolis (an area of five cities in the lower Galilee).
The chapter ends here but Mark adds two stories. I won’t unpack them here—you are familiar with them both. One is a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years and the other is the daughter of synagogue leader, Jarius. His daughter actually dies because Jesus is delayed by the bleeding woman. No problem. The same Jesus who commands the elements to obey him, to whom demons bow and submit, can call life back into the dead body. And he does!
Jesus’ Humility
Yeshua’s brother many years later warned against showing favoritism to the rich and powerful. He taught us that true religion is to take care of widows and orphans (Jam 1:27) and to honor the poor when they comes to our meetings (Jam 2:1-7).
Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him (Jam 2:5).
God would have us follow Yeshua’s example of humility. How to find humility as considering others better than yourself (Phil 2:3). As someone who travels around the world preaching with a certain degree of authority, it is very easy to convince myself that those people should consider me better than them. Are they aware of how much I’ve studied? Prayed? Traveled just to get to them?
But as the song says, he came from heaven to Earth. He was equal to God, but he laid that down. He presented himself to us as a servant, and even allowed us to kill him because his death would purchase our salvation (Phil 2:5-9). That is humility.
1.Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 138.
2.James A. Brooks, Mark, vol. 23, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 55.
3.Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 143.
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