Jesus' Power over Disease, Part 1
Matthew 8:1-4
We have the privilege this morning of returning to our study of Matthew's Gospel. Take your Bible, if you will, and prepare to look with me at Matthew chapter 8...Matthew chapter 8...The end of our sabbatical this summer, we departed from our study of Matthew to share some things out of 2 Peter chapter 1, and I think it was as the Lord would've had it; but now, with great joy and anticipation, we come back to our ongoing study of the Gospel of Matthew. We've covered the first seven chapters, and now we proceed further in this tremendous and exciting Gospel.
The 8th chapter through the 12th chapter...is really, in many ways, critical to the understanding of the life of Christ and the message of Matthew. For in this section, Matthew records a series of miracles performed by Jesus Christ. There are countless thousands of miracles that are done, nine of which he singles out as examples of the power of Jesus Christ...They are really His credentials as the Messiah. They are those signs which point convincingly to His deity, for only God can do the things that he does. The sad part is that, after the miracles in chapters 8 and 9, after...the preaching that occurs following that, the Jews conclude in chapter 12 that Jesus is of the devil...That was their conclusion. So in many ways, this becomes the heart of Matthew's message. Christ does everything possible to manifest His deity, and they conclude exactly the opposite.
And then in chapter 13, He turns from the Jews...toward the establishment of a Gentile church. This is a monumental section of Scripture. Now you'll notice that it begins with three miracles. Miracle of healing the leper in the first four verses. Healing the man with paralysis, verses 5 to 13; and the woman with fever in verses 14 and 15. This is the opening triad of miracles. There are nine miracles in the these two chapters. They come in three sections of three. Three miracles, then a response. Three miracles, then a response. Three miracles, then a response. All designed to manifest the deity of Jesus Christ.
Miracles, you see, were God's way of attesting...to the deity of His Son. They are creative miracles. They manifest power that is only defined by the essence of God. They are things that man could never do. They are supernatural. Now, this approach of giving credentials to the Messiah through miracles is not only Matthew's approach, but is also John's approach. Look with me for a moment at the Gospel of John; and I just wanna use it as an illustration so that you'll see the import of this issue. John 1:14...In John 1:14, we read this. "And the Word," and, of course, that refers to the...the Deity Himself, to God Himself, "And the Word was made flesh...and dwelt among us...John says. Then this...(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father)." John says, "Deity became Man, and we beheld His deity." That's what he's saying. "We saw His glory. We saw the divine in the human. We saw essential deity. We saw God." How, John? How did you see that? Where was it made manifest?
That's easy for John. John then proceeds from that statement to give a string of miracles in His Gospel performed by Jesus that are the manifestation that He was the fullness of deity Himself; and, throughout the Gospel, the Holy Spirit calls us to make that conclusion.
Turn in John 5 to verse 19. I'm just gonna give you a quick overview of this Gospel. John 5:19, "Then answered Jesus and said unto them...that is, to the Jews...'Truly, truly I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever things He does, these also do the Son in the same manner." In other words, Jesus says, "What you see Me doing is exactly what God can do." Now that is a monumental claim, frankly. Verse 20, "For the Father loveth the Son and showeth Him all things that He Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel." In other words, Jesus says, "Look, what I'm doing is what only God can do."...Should make you marvel.
Verse 36 of the same chapter, "But I have greater witness than that of John. There's a greater testimony than that of John the Baptist, and it is the works which the Father has given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me." How did He manifest deity? Through not only what He said, but even more so through what He did. His miraculous supernatural creative power. Only God can create, and the miracles of Jesus were creative miracles.
In John chapter 10 and verse 25, we find it again. "Jesus answered them...and again it's the Jews...'I told you. That is, I spoke and you believed not. You didn't believe what I said. You didn't believe My words. The works that I do in My Father's name or My Father's power, they bear witness of Me. You deny My sayings, but how can you deny My works?" Verse 32, "Jesus answered them, 'Many good works have I shown you from My Father. For which of these works do you stone Me?'" Sarcasm. "It's obvious these have been supernatural. For which of them do you stone Me?"
Verse 37, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. If I can't do what God can do, don't believe Me. If I can't show you that I'm God, then don't believe it. But if I do, though you believe not Me, that is, what I say, believe the works...that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." Chapter 14 verse 10, essentially says the same thing. "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" In other words, in John 14:10, He is saying, "You don't believe that I and God are One? You have a problem with that? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself, and the Father that dwells in me, he doeth the works. Believe... literally...My words that I'm in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very works' sake."...
Chapter 15, you have the same thing in verse 24. "If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin, that is, the sin of rejection; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. They saw it. They couldn't deny it was God, and they have manifested that they not only hate Me, but they hate God." See, that's the issue of the Gospel of John. See the miracles? Conclude that He's God, and that is even stated as the purpose of the book in chapter 20 verse 30. John 20 verse 30, key statement, "And many other signs or wonders or miracles truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book." John says, "I've only give you a sampling, like Matthew. It's just a sampling. Many others were done. Why? These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ." These what are written? These signs, these miracles, and that you, "believing, might have life through His name." You see.
John's whole thesis is to present the miracles of Jesus as the affirmation of His deity, so that men might know and believe and be redeemed. Now go back to Matthew 8 and find that is exactly Matthew's purpose, as well. These are the credentials of the King. This is the proof that He is divine. Now, by the way, it comes at a very strategic point in the Gospel of Matthew, because Jesus has just delivered a blistering sermon in chapters 5, 6, and 7. He has literally turned their religious world topsy-turvy. He has told them, in effect, that their teaching is wrong, and their living is wrong. Their attitude is wrong... everything they stand for, believe in, and hope for is wrong; and He never bothered to quote any rabbis or any of their well-known sources. He just repeatedly says, matter of factly, absolutely, dogmatically, "This is the truth." In fact, repeatedly, He said, "You have heard it said, but I say. You have heard it said, but I say." And over and over and over, He kept saying that, and when He was all finished, in verse 28, "It came to pass...chapter 7 verse 28...that when He ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching...Why? Verse 29...for He taught them as one having authority, not like the scribes."
I mean He just said these things dogmatically. How did the scribes to it? They quoted other rabbis. They were infallible, so they needed a whole bunch of other fallible sources to support their material. Jesus just said it. Unbelievable authority, and He overturned their entire religious system. He stripped them naked. He unmasked them as the spiritual phonies that they were; and, obviously, this brings up a very dramatic question. A first century Jew is gonna say this. "Who is this saying these things? By what authority does He speak? Why should we hear this? Why should we listen to this? Why should we believe this? What gives Him the right to say these things and to affirm that they are true?"...
And chapter 8 and 9 is the answer to that question. I'll tell you what gives Him the right. He is God. That's what does it, and that is what Matthew is saying in chapter 8 and chapter 9. He is showing beyond shadow of doubt that Jesus is God, and how do you know He's God? Because only God can create, and for two chapters, nine examples, Jesus creates situations, circumstances that do not exist, even physical limbs, and we see God at work. It presents the answer to the question, "By what authority does He say this?"
Now, let's look, first of all, at the beginning. The first three miracles. I wanna give you some general thoughts about them. There are three: the healing of one with leprosy; the healing of one it says has the palsy. That's paralysis; and it could've been caused by many things; and then one of a woman with a fever. Those three.
And there are several key things to note about these first three miracles. No. 1, they begin at the lowest level of human need -- the physical. Life is more than physical, yes; but Jesus is also sympathetic about the physical. It's wonderful that the miracles of Jesus were not only miracles that dealt with spiritual things, or that dealt with comfort or riches or circumstances or providence; but that they touched man at the lowest level of need -- the physical. He goes to the depths of human disease.
Later on, in the second set of miracles, He deals more with the spiritual; and in the third set of miracles, He even touches on the ultimate enemy of man, death itself, as He raises the dead. But in this point, He's dealing with that low level of human need, which shows us, not only the power of Christ, but the sympathy of Christ.
Second thing I see in just kind of an overview is that He responds in all three cases to appeals, to appeals. This shows us His compassion. In the first case, the leper says to Him, "If You will, You can make me clean." In the second case, the friends of the centurion say, "The servant is in the house, sick of paralysis," and He says, "I'll come." In the third case, according to what Luke adds in the parallel passage, the friends of the family of Peter say to Jesus, "You know, his mother-in-law is sick, and sure would be wonderful if you could go over there and take care of her." In all three cases, He responds to the appeal of the heart of people.
The third thing to note in these three miracles is, in every case, He Acts on His own will. Though He is sympathetic and though He is at the same time deeply compassionate, He is also sovereign; and that is an important thing. In each case, He acts on His own volition. "I will be thou clean. I will come down and heal him. He reached His hand and touched her, and the fever left."
And, fourthly, and this is beautiful. In each of these miracles, He touches someone who, in the terms of the understanding of the Pharisees and the Jews, was at the lowest level of human existence. First a leper, the scum of the earth. Second, a Gentile; and third, a woman...In just that alone, there is a subtlety here that devastates the Jewish pride, the Pharisees' pride, and you see where Jesus really...puts His emphasis - on the humble and the meek and the outcast. You know that the first person He ever revealed His Messiahship to was a harlot in Samaria who wasn't even a Jew? That says something to the Jewish society of His day. So from the very start, He makes it clear that He is gonna establish His authority by miracle power; but He's also gonna show His sympathy for those who are hurting at the lowest level of human need. He is compassionately gonna respond to the cries of their friends and those who have those needs; and, yet, He is going to act sovereignly as the Lord that He is.
And the...the sad thing, the thing that just breaks your heart is that with all of this, they turned their backs on Him; and they conclude, in chapter 12, that what He does, He does by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. They hated Him. In fact, they had to kill Him; because he upset their religious security.
In this section, His power is awesome, people. It's awesome. He cleanses a leper, heals a servant, raises up a woman, controls the sea, casts out demons, makes the blind to see, makes crippled people walk, makes dumb people speak, heals every single sickness that's brought to Him. Incredible display of power, and if you look backwards in Matthew, and go back and start at the beginning, you can see that this is just one more great category of affirmation of the Messiahship of Christ.
First chapter, genealogy. That attested to the legal qualifications of the Messiah. Second chapter, birth, and all of the fulfillment of prophecy attested to the prophetic qualifications of the Messiah. And then you come to His baptism, attested to the divine approval of His Messiahship. Then you come to the temptation, attested to His spiritual qualifications to be the Messiah. Then you come to the sermon, His theological qualifications; and now you come to the miracles, the most essential qualification of all, the proof that He is God. He's God...
By the way, chapter 8 begins where chapter 4 left off. The sermon is stuck in the middle; but when we closed chapter 4, do you remember what He was doing?...Verse 23? "And Jesus went all about Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto Him all the sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those who were possessed with demons, those who were epileptic, those who had paralysis, and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and beyond the Jordan."
You see, this is right where He left off, isn't it? He went up in a mountain, preached a sermon, came down, and started it all over again. Thousands, uncounted numbers of healings, and He healed all who came to Him...And the first three we've kind of introduced to you. For this morning, we're just gonna look at the first one. Beautiful, beautiful story. Lemme read it to you, verses 1 to 4, just a short one.
"When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, there came a leper and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.' And Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, saying, "I will: be thou clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, 'See thou tell no man; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.'"
That's it. At first thought, you say, "Well, isn't that nice?" Wonderful little story. Lemme see if I can take you deep enough in it to see what it's really saying. Verse 1. "When He was come down from the mountain." What mountain? Well, the mountain where He had just been teaching the sermon. Near the village of Capernaum, "great multitudes followed Him." Why? Wanna know something? Wasn't because they loved Him. Wasn't because they adored Him. Wasn't because they believed in Him. It was because they were curious, first of all. Because they'd never heard anybody speak with such authority, and they had never seen anybody who could go around healing people. He attracted a huge crowd, and they came down the mountain after Him; and they're all ready to see what happens; and it happens in verse 2.
"And behold, there came...or literally in the Greek, there approached, and that's kind of an interesting word...there approached a leper." Now what's interesting is, lepers don't approach...This one did. Do you know anything about leprosy, what a leper is in the Bible? It's from the Greek word lepros, which comes from the root word leppus, which means scale or scaly. And, basically, leprosy, as it's translated in the English, reflects this Greek word lepros. In the Old Testament, you have another Hebrew word that is also translated leprosy that comes from the Hebrew word that means scale or scaly also. So in both cases, it had reference to some kind of a manifest, visible, scaly skin -- at least the skin was part of the...the disease, skin visible disease. A scaly skin disease. It could go much deeper than that, as Leviticus 13 indicates; but that is the term they used.
Now, there's a lot of argument and a lot of debate about whether this leprosy, as it's called, and the Old Testament leprosy was the same as we know today, which is called Hanson's disease, which is the leprosy that we know about. There's a lot of people who argue about the words that are used and is it or isn't it the same as that kind of leprosy. Well, we can't be sure, because over the period of the centuries, diseases may take on new forms, for whatever reasons, people building up immunities, or for whatever happens in human society and whatever particular germs exist and bacteria and so forth. Diseases can take different form. Some can be eliminated altogether; and so we don't really know if it was exactly the same; but it seems best to assume, from the description of Leviticus 13, which we'll see in a moment, that it was extremely similar; and the only real comparison that we can draw to whatever this disease was will come from our understanding of the disease of leprosy. Throughout the history of study of these things, most people have drawn that parallel, and so I'll continue to do that as we look at it this morning.
A horrible disease found its way into the children of Israel's life. This disease, leprosy, as it's called in the Bible, was no doubt picked up in Egypt. Most of the classic writers feel that leprosy originated in Egypt and, by the way, it is caused, they now know in medical science, by a bacillus or a bacteria called microbacterium lepra. And this disease has been found in at least one mummy that's been uncovered in Egypt; and it's manifest on the physical body, because of the mummification that this particular person did have leprosy; so we know it stretches way back into ancient times. This disease, then, of course, as the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt, was transmitted to them; and when they came into the Promised Land, they carried this disease with them.
Now, it was a problem, because of a...the horror of the disease itself; and so God, as he built in many laws to the life of Israel to protect them from plagues and things, gave them laws to deal with leprosy, so they would not contract this disease. Now, modern day leprosy is only really communicable to less than 10 percent of the people. In other words, 90 percent plus of people in our day today cannot get leprosy, even if you got all of the bacilli in you, because it's just the way we're made today. We don't know whether the disease then was more communicable. There is a statement made in Luke 4:27 that there were many lepers in Israel of whom only Naaman was cleansed. So it may have been highly communicable then, when it's less communicable today.
By the way, you might also be interested to note that it is on the rise in the United States of America; and the state that leads America in incidents of leprosy is California. Ten years ago, we had 30 to 40 new cases a year; and now we're over 300. So it can be controlled also today by what is called DDS Depron, I think it's called. It's some kind of a drug that is used, and it can only control the superficial elements of leprosy. It can't eliminate it altogether, because it's one disease that you can't kill. It's there till you die, as far as they can tell. There may be some cases, but, normally, that's the way it runs.
So in Israel came this disease; and God, wanting to protect them, gave them a very clear direction as to how to treat it. I'm gonna read from the 13th chapter of Leviticus. I'll read it outta the NAS, because it clarifies some of the terms. You can listen, or you can look at it, if you have that version. But I'm gonna read some...some lengthy passages here just to point it out. You'll find it fascinating how God directed them.
"The Lord spoke to Moses...Leviticus 13:1...and Aaron, saying, 'When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or a rash...that's a better word than scab...a rash or a bright spot, and it becomes an infection of leprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or one of the sons of the priest." In other words, anybody who gets leprosy, bring 'em in to the priest.
"And the priest shall look at the mark on the skin of the body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and if the infection appears to be deeper than just the skin," in other words, it's more than a superficial skin disease as indicated by the hair turning white down from the roots being infected, and if it looks to be deeper, "it is then an infection of leprosy; and the priest shall look at him and pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body and doesn't appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, the priest shall isolate him who has the infection for seven days." This is just to keep him isolated to give him the test to watch what happens.
"The priest shall look at him on the seventh day, and if in his eyes the infection has not changed, the infection has not spread, then the priest shall isolate him for seven more days." Two weeks. "Priest shall look at him again on the seventh day, and if the infection has faded and the mark has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It's only a rash." And that could stand for psoriasis, eczema, what's called petiligo, lots of things. Just not a serious thing. "But if the rash spreads farther on the skin after he's shown himself to the priest for the cleansing, he shall appear again to the priest. Priest shall look, and if the rash spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It's leprosy." It keeps getting worse.
Now, there were some obvious cases where you didn't really need a two-week test, and in verse 9, he talks about them. "When the infection of leprosy is on a man, then he shall be brought to the priest. The priest shall look, and if there is a white swelling in the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is raw flesh...then it's chronic leprosy, and the priest shall pronounce him clean." And don't bother to isolate him for a week, because it's already very clear what he's got.
"If the leprosy breaks out further on the skin, and the leprosy covers all the skin of him who has the infection from his head even to his feet, as far as the priest can see, then the priest shall look, and behold, if this skin disease or leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean. If it's all turned white." In other words, if all he does is get a white thing all over him, and it doesn't break out in oozing, open, raw sores, then it isn't the leprosy that's serious. Herodotus and Hippocrates in ancient writings wrote about a disease known as leucodermia, which was something that attacked the pigmentation of the skin and turned the person kind of a white patchy color; and it could've been that. Or it could've been eczema or psoriasis or petiligo or any of these other things that were harmless, less than serious skin disorders.
In other words, if all he got was this stuff all over him of a very limited nature, just a turning white or a patchy pale color, then it wasn't the real thing, and you could pronounce him okay. In fact, if you look at leprosy today, and it could refer to this here. There are two kinds. There's one called leprotomas, which is severe serious; and then there's called tuberculoid leprosy, which is a harmless kind that just turns the skin patchy, and is gone in one to three years...
So these are the tests that were given; and they had to be examined very carefully. Now, if he's got the severe kind, the rest of the 13th chapter deals with him. What do you with this person? Well, verse 38, "When a man or woman has bright spots on the skin of the body, even white bright spots, priests look; and if the bright spots on the skin of their bodies are a faint white, if it's just a faint white thing all over him, it's eczema." That's the way they translated that Hebrew word, just something less than the serious disease. "He's clean. Now, if he loses the hair of his head, he's bald; but he's clean." Some of you are sighing a great sigh. "But if on the bald head or the bald forehead, there occurs a reddish-white infection, and the leprosy breaks out on the bald head, and you look at him; and it swells...and so forth...then it's leprous." In other words, another examination.
Now verse 45 is the key. "As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache...that is, his mouth...and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!'" Leprosy is passed, and I read this just in an up-to-date LA Times Journal thing on...on the...on the medical analysis of Hanson's disease, leprosy is passed when it is inhaled through the air. It comes from the mouth into the mouth. That's one way it is passed, and that's why, when he goes around, he covers his mouth. Also, they found th