1714 | Matthew 8:3
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.“ I am will ing,” he said.“ Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him,“ See that you don’ t tell anyone. b
But go, show your self to the priest and of fer the gift Mo ses com manded, c as a testimony to them.”
The Faith of the Centurion
8:5-13pp— Lk 7:1-10
5 When Jesus had en tered Ca per naum, a cen tu rion came to him, ask ing for help. 6“ Lord,” he said,“ my ser vant lies at home par a lyzed, suf fer ing ter ri bly.” 7 Jesus said to him,“ Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The cen tu rion re plied,“ Lord, I do not de serve to have you come un der my roof. But just say the word, and my ser vant will be healed. d 9 For I my self am a man un der au thority, with sol diers un der me. I tell this one,‘ Go,’ and he goes; and that one,‘ Come,’ and he comes. I say to my ser vant,‘ Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those fol low ing him,“ Truly I tell you, I have not found any one in Is rael with such great faith. e 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, f and will take their places at the feast with Abra ham, Isaac and Ja cob in the king dom of heaven. g 12 But the sub jects of the king dom h will be thrown out side, into the dark ness, where there will be weep ing and gnash ing of teeth.” i
13 Then Jesus said to the cen tu rion,“ Go! Let it be done just as you be lieved it would.” j And his ser vant was healed at that mo ment.
8:4 b Mt 9:30; Mk 5:43; 7:36; 8:30 c Lev 14:2‐32
8:8 d Ps 107:20 8:10 e Mt 15:28
8:11 f Ps 107:3; Isa 49:12; 59:19; Mal 1:11 g Lk 13:29
8:12 h Mt 13:38 i Mt 13:42, 50; 22:13;
24:51; 25:30; Lk 13:28 8:13 j Mt 9:22 8:16 k Mt 4:23, 24
8:17 l Mt 1:22 m Isa 53:4
8:18 n Mk 4:35
Jesus Heals Many
8:14-16pp— Mk 1:29-34; Lk 4:38-41
14 When Jesus came into Pe ter’ s house, he saw Pe ter’ s mother-in-law ly ing in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fe ver left her, and she got up and be gan to wait on him.
16 When eve ning came, many who were de mon-pos sessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spir its with a word and healed all the sick. k 17 This was to ful fill l what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“ He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” a m
The Cost of Following Jesus
8:19-22pp— Lk 9:57-60
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave or ders to cross to the other side of the lake. n 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said,“ Teacher, I will fol low you wherever you go.”
a 17 Isaiah 53:4( see Septuagint)
verses. Most of chs. 8 – 9 illustrate his authoritative healing( and other miracles), which these two verses likewise highlight. 8:1 – 17 The first three miracles Matthew narrates in this section show Jesus healing the ritually outcast: a leper, a centurion’ s servant, and Peter’ s mother-in-law. The highly defiling sickness, the probable Gentile background of the commander of the hated occupying army, and the symptoms of Peter’ s mother-in-law’ s fever make all three individuals ritually impure. The section ends with Jesus’ broader ministry of healing, which Matthew indicates is another fulfillment of prophecy( v. 17). 8:4 See that you don’ t tell anyone. The first of several occurrences in Matthew of the“ Messianic secret,” a phenomenon even more common in Mark. Jesus frequently tells people not to talk about him, even in contexts in which it is highly unlikely he will be obeyed, probably to avoid stirring up even more hope for a militaristic and royal Messiah who would rid the land of the Romans. as a testimony to them. Could mean showing that Jesus follows the law of sacrifice after a leper has been cleansed( Lev 13 – 14). But fresh on the heels of a sermon that stresses Jesus’ distinctive approach to the law, the testimony is more likely to Jesus’ power and identity. 8:5 centurion. A commanding officer of up to 100 soldiers. 8:7 Shall I come and heal him? Most translations treat this as a statement:“ I shall come and heal him.” But Jesus makes no similar declarations elsewhere, while the emphatic Greek pronoun egō(“ I”) may make better sense in a question. In other words, Jesus is asking if he, a Jew, should go to the home of a Gentile and risk ritual impurity. In so doing he draws out the man’ s extraordinary belief that Jesus can heal from a distance. 8:10 – 12 Jesus doubtless enrages the Jewish crowd in Capernaum( v. 5) by claiming( 1) that this foreign officer of the hated occupying Roman forces has greater faith than anyone in Israel( v. 10), and( 2) that many will come from the ends of the earth to partake in the heavenly banquet of all God’ s redeemed people, while many Israelites will be excluded( vv. 11 – 12). 8:12 darkness... weeping and gnashing of teeth. Whether or not the darkness or gnashing is literal, Jesus’ words powerfully depict hell as exclusion from God and all things good. As recently as 5:22, Jesus speaks of the“ fire of hell,” which does conflict with darkness if taken literally. The agony, however, remains very real. 8:14 – 17 Matthew generalizes from the final specific example of healing to large numbers of other sick who were brought to Christ. Peter’ s house. See photo, p. 1831. 8:16 Jesus did not heal every sick person he encountered( cf. John 5:1 – 15), but on this occasion, he heals“ all” who were brought to him. 8:17 This fulfills Isa 53:4, part of the most famous suffering servant passage. Isaiah has primarily forgiveness of sin in mind, and Matthew applies it to physical diseases as well. There is healing in the atonement, but in this life it is only partial and on God’ s terms and when he desires. The death rate remains 100 percent. Given vv. 1 – 16, cleansing from ritual impurity may also be in view. 8:18 – 22 Two brief exchanges between Jesus and would-be disciples interrupt the succession of miracles to highlight the cost of following Jesus. Apparently, in each case Jesus’ commands prove too demanding for the inquirers. First, a scribe promises more than he can actually deliver( vv. 19 – 20); then another person refuses to follow wholeheartedly( vv. 21 – 22).