We are returning this morning to the book of Matthew after our break. I did very much enjoy our time in Jonah and I hope you did as well but I have been looking forward to restarting in Matthew’s gospel and continuing our study. If you remember back to when we began our study you will recall that Matthew wrote his account of the life and ministry of Jesus with the primary purpose of presenting Him as the promised messianic king.
Back in chapter 1 we saw the lineage of the King and his legal right to sit on the Davidic throne through his legal father Joseph. That focus was continued with the visit of the Magi and expounded upon by Matthew in the quotations from the Old Testament being applied to Jesus. In chapter 3 we saw the Harold of the King and the official recognition of his ministry by a prophet of God. In chapter 4 we saw the proving of the king with temptation and then the initial followers. Throughout the sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 to 7 we saw the expanded message of the King and His call for Kingdom citizens and what would be expected of them. All of this is very intentional by Matthew and leading into chapters 8 through 12 which highlight the miracles of Jesus.
Miracles are God’s way of the demonstrating his approval of one of His chosen messengers. Groups of miracles only happen a handful of times throughout Scripture and always at points of significant Revelation. This was something that the Jewish people knew, and they were expecting to happen at the coming of the Messiah. Other unexplainable events took place, but they knew that when the Messiah came there would be a clear statement by God through the use of miracles.
We will see this in chapter 11 stated clearly. When John the Baptist is imprisoned and, I think, at a point of weakness he sends his followers to Jesus with the question “are you the expected one, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus responds “go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” It is the miracles that prove who Jesus is.
That is why Matthew moves immediately into giving an account of some of them in chapter 8. He just gave the message of the King and now he is proclaiming the credentials of the King by describing these miracles. In chapters 8-12 Matthew goes through a cycle of 3 miracles and then a response. And in chapter 12 after the Pharisees make it clear they have rejected Jesus by attributing his power to Satan, there is a change in the ministry of Jesus according to Matthew with a focus on His disciples rather than miracles and the crowds.
Matthew’s layout to his gospel is very intentional. It is not chronological, the events and teachings that he chooses to highlight are there to serve his purpose. Chapter 8 does not start the miracles of Jesus as we saw back at the end of chapter 4, and the miracles that we are told about our only a very minor few compared to how many He actually performed. Because of this, we need to be sure to note both the order that they are given in within the gospel structure and the miracles themselves in what lessons they are speaking to us.
Matthew begins to highlight these miracles immediately after the sermon on the Mount for a very important reason. The miracles are the credentials of the King, the proof of His divinity and His authority. Matthew just recorded Jesus is blistering sermon in which he flips the religion of the Pharisees on its head. He is told the people that everything their scholars and religious elites have been telling them is wrong, that their living is wrong, that their attitudes are wrong. Everything they stand for, everything they believe in is all a jumbled mess that is built on the wisdom of man rather than the truth of God’s Word. And He does this in a way that is completely different to any rabbi of His time.
Whenever a rabbi was teaching something, whether it was controversial or not they always cited earlier, revered teachers. “This teacher said so and so, that teacher said whatever.” But Jesus did not cite rabbis for authority. In fact, He only attacks the system of the rabbis. “You have heard it said… but I say to you.” He stood on His own authority and the people recognized it. What was the last verse in chapter 7? “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, not as their scribes.”
So why should people listen to this Jesus fellow? What authority does he have to teach these things? Who is He to question the tradition of the elders? Why does He get to attack the religion of the Pharisees? And in chapters 8 to 12 Matthew makes it very clear in relating His miraculous abilities. He is showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is God. He begins with these first three miracles in chapter 8 focusing on the physical. They are regenerative, they are creation acts. Only God can create, and Jesus does just that in healing the leper, healing a paralytic, and healing disease. Will see in the next set of healings in chapter 9 a focus on the spiritual element. Especially in His authority to forgive sin, spiritual healing.
You only have time this morning to look at the first miracle in chapter 8 but I want to read all the way to verse 17 because there are a few things that I want to point out in all three of these miracles that reveal something of the person and heart of Jesus.
“When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.
When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him. When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”
This morning we are only going to look in more detail at the first healing, the account of the leper. But before we do, I want to point out a couple of things that we see in all three of these miraculous encounters.
The first is that all three of these miracles are simply done to heal those who are suffering. In chapter 9 we will see more spiritual meaning brought out in the miracles themselves as they are used as examples or jumping off points for further teachings. But in these three miracles we simply see the compassion of Jesus responding to the suffering of others. All healings are a response to a plea for help. The leper comes to Jesus and asks, the centurion implores Him and though Matthew does not state it here, in Luke’s account of this event we read “now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to help her.” We see the compassion of Jesus in these miracles. He is sympathetic, He is deeply compassionate and at the same time He is sovereign and able to do something, so He does.
We all know that physical touch is important, but I never understood the aversion to or the impact that a mere touch could have until I got just a glimpse while in Madagascar. When we first arrived at the church/school where we would be holding a conference for the local pastors there was something of a greeting line of a few pastors who arrived early and some of the people from the area who would be helping with the event. Myself and CJ, and the other American couple who were with us thought nothing of going down the line and giving the traditional greeting of shaking hands and kissing on each cheek. It was a little closer than what we are accustomed to, but we were happy to do it. Though we did not speak the language, we could tell that after this greeting there was something of an added excitement to these people we had just met. Our friend from Madagascar explained to us later that evening after we had gone to our hotel that for us to physically greet them in that way was to them an honor beyond what we understood. He told us that even the leadership of their denomination would often times not even shake their hand let alone greet them that intimately because of their “high status.” If you have an education you are above everyone else, if you have money or a position of authority even more so, and they would not lower themselves to touching the help or even the pastors of these little village churches. He went on to explain that for us to greet them in the way we did was in their eyes were the most humbling things we could do and a great honor to them to even touch the educated, rich, white foreigners. After that I made it a point to give handshakes and hugs as often as possible without looking creepy.
I want you to see something even more beautiful and meaningful in these three healings. More than just healing them, though He could have with a word alone, in each case Jesus touches them. We might not think anything of that. But it would have had a profound impact to both the individual healed and all those who saw it because of who Jesus touched. Jesus touches, reaches out and makes contact with the lowest level people in the minds of the Pharisees and the religious Jews. People who buy the slightest contact with the defile them. The first is a leper, a diseased and contagious abomination, then a Gentile, a foreigner and enemy, and then finally a woman. In just making contact with them there is a subtle attack launched against the Jewish pride. Matthew is emphasizing the humility and compassion of Jesus in mentioning that touch in a way that we will probably never fully understand.
The last thing that I want you to see in all three of these healings is the power of Jesus acting in His own will. Though He is sympathetic, though He is compassionate and humble, He is also sovereign. He acts out of his own volition and authority. The Trinity works in unison in all things. Remember “emphasis not exclusion,” and we see here the power and the will of Jesus to heal in miraculous ways.
But let us look now a little deeper at the first account in the healing of the leper in verses 1-4. I am sure you have all heard of leprosy and know something of it. The word itself, both the Greek and the Hebrew come from the root word for “scaly.” It was a vicious disease that was agonizing both physically and psychologically. It primarily attacked the nerves and skin of the individual so it was a disease that could take years to finally kill its victim. It was not uncommon for someone to live 5-10 even 15 years after contracting this disease and that whole time they would be required to be separated from everyone they knew and loved and live in growing agony with no relief to look forward to but death itself.
To give you a better picture of this disease I want to read you a description of this terrible affliction. “The disease which we call leprosy today generally begins with pain in certain areas of the body; numbness follows. Soon the skin in such spots loses original color; gets to be thick, glossy, and scaly. As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply… Fingers drop off and are absorbed back into the body. Toes are affected similarly. Eyebrows and eyelashes dropout. And by this time, you can see the person in this pitiable condition is a leper. By the touch of the finger, you can feel it. You can even smell it, for the leper admits a very unpleasant odor. Moreover, in view of the fact that the disease produces agents that attack the larynx, the leper’s voice assumes a grating quality; his throat becomes horse. You cannot only see, feel, and smell the leper, you can even hear the leper. And if you stay with him for some time, you will find a particular taste in your mouth. All the human senses repulsed at a leper.”
This was a horrifying disease that was highly contagious and completely untreatable. In Leviticus 13, the Mosaic law defined clearly the steps that were to be taken in identifying this disease and when they were identified the way in which the victim would be separated, ostracized from the community. They were required by law to stay roughly 15 feet away from everyone, 150 feet on a windy day. When they came near anyone uninfected, they were required to rasp out as loud as they could, “unclean, unclean” to warn others.
In addition to the disease they had to suffer, they were classified as ceremonially unclean. They could not be touched, they could not participate in worship, and they became the very symbol of sin. Leprosy was the most graphic illustration of sin available in the Old Testament. Sin defiles the whole body, it is ugly, it is loathsome, it is incurable, it is contaminating. Sin separates and alienates and makes outcasts of man. Leper’s not only lived with the stigma of their disease, but they lived with being a walking illustration of sin; ceremonially unclean, wretched. Lepers were feared and they were hated because of what they represented.
This is the first miracle that Matthew chooses to highlight and though he only takes four verses. To a Jew of the first century this would have been an astounding story. This would have been talked about far and wide and used as ammunition by Christ’s enemies with an added animosity. Jesus does not give any direct teachings here. There are not commands that can be directly applied to us but there is a lot in these four verses, really just three after the introduction to the chapter and verse one. Though there are not any direct statements, we can learn several lessons from the leper.
After coming down the mountain with these crowds following Him, we read in verse two, “a leper came to him and bow down before him.” If you have a New King James or an ESV verse 2 starts with “and behold, a leper came to him.” The word in the Greek there was a common expression used to continue a story but mark something of great significance or to liven up the narrative. “Jesus came down the mountain and large crowds followed Him and you will never believe this but a leper approached him, came right up to him like it was nothing.” Lepers do not approach, it is unthinkable, he could be put to death. He was smelly, gross, even if he was not saying “unclean, unclean” as he walked up I am pretty sure that crowd separated quick. There might have been a few objections mumbled but nobody got in his way to stop him.
The first lesson from the leper is that he came boldly. “And behold, there came a leper.” He did not crawl or sneak around, he just came right up to Jesus. What you see there is a man who senses so desperately his need that he does not care what anybody else might think. He has no sense of shame, he has lost that social stigma. He knew how deep his need was and he knew the only person who could fill it.
The second thing we can learn from this leper is that he came with reverence. “A leper came to him and bow down before him.” Again, if you have the New King James it says “and behold, a leper came and worshiped him.” The Greek word there is Prosekeno which is always used in a religious, worshiping sense. It is to prostrate oneself in worship. This leper came to Jesus and lowered himself, bow down in a position of worship and addresses Jesus as “Lord.” We talked quite a bit about this title so I will not repeat all of that, but it is clear from this verse that this leper knew exactly who it was that he was talking to.
There were all the Pharisees around Jesus in their fancy robes and perfect religious exterior who were dead, rotten on the inside. Whitewashed tombs as Jesus will call them later. And here comes this leper, defiled on the outside, wretched filthy and diseased but on the inside comes with a heart of reverence, worshiping his Lord.
I do not know where he got this information. If he had stood off and heard Jesus teaching the sermon on the Mount or if he had had other friends who had been healed but he came worshiping, he came in exulting Jesus as God and before he began his plea for healing, before he sought anything for himself, he prostrated himself before Jesus and worshiped.
The third lesson from the leper is that he came with humility. It is in the way he phrases his question. If your parent, you know that there is significance in how your child asks for something. We tried to teach them to say “please” not just because it is polite but because they should ask humbly for someone else’s help. Look at how this leper presents his request, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He did not and list the reasons why Jesus should heal them, he did not try to guilt trip Jesus will or complain how unfair God is by giving him this disease. He did not try to affirm his own worthiness. He did not demand that Jesus act. Something you see all the time in the charismatic movement; demanding, cajoling, trying to force God’s hand into healing. There is none of that. He did not even state it as a desire, “I would like to be healed. All he says is “Lord, if you are willing,” “if you wanted, you could.” You are Lord, you are God, you can if you want.
The next lesson can be seen in that same statement, that he came in faith. “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” He uses the word Dunamai, power, it is where we get the word dynamite. You have the power, you are able. There is no question in that verb. There is no doubt. This is a tremendous moment, an amazing show of worship and faith. “If you are willing you can make me clean.” This leper knows that Jesus is able, and he submits to Jesus’ sovereignty. There are a lot of people who claim to believe, they say that he is able, but they do not submit to his authority or they do not trust his willingness and so they try to force him or question whether he can. But true faith says “I know that you can even if I do not know that you will.”
He came boldly, he came with reverence, he came with humility, he came in faith. And in reaction, in verse three there is the beautiful response of a gracious and loving Savior. “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.”
Try to place yourself in the crowd. Just think about the emotions in this scene. There is this massive crowd following Jesus after His sermon at the foot of the hill and here comes this leper. The crowd gasps in horror, before quickly holding their breaths, pulling whatever cloth they can in front of their face to save themselves from the stench. Reeling in anger and in disgust at this impertinent and vile leper. When the man reaches Jesus, he throws himself to the ground in a posture of worship and makes his simple plea, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” The crowd still too shocked to move, holding their breath, anger and confusion plastered on their face as their eyes dart to Jesus who gently and purposely repositions His body and kneels to the ground over this symbol of uncleanliness and sin lying before Him. The focus of the disgust on the faces of the Pharisees shifts away from the leper and onto Jesus who did not immediately react in revulsion at this gesture, did not immediately rebuked this man. But then gently and intentionally stretches out his hand and touches him.
Can you imagine the sound that crowd would make? The sound of surprise, the sound of confusion. The gasping breath. Confused whether they should be surprised, amazed, disgusted. “Did he just touch them?” Someone whispers a row back, “can he do that?”
And then Jesus says, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And before the crowd can fully react to the touch, their breath is taken away again as they watch this leper become a new man before their eyes. In a moment the boils and scabs are replaced by clear healthy skin. The ulcers and blood from his sores disappear. Life returns to his eyes; his lost fingers appear back on his now youthful looking hands. His breathing is no longer raspy and shallow, and the stench disappears on the wind.
This is made for movies. There should be a crescendo of inspiring music playing. This is an awesome, and I mean that in the fullest sense of the word, an awe-inspiring scene. And Matthew gives us three verses.
Now this next bit is a little confusing, Jesus then tells him “see that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the temple and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Why? Why would Jesus say this?
I am convinced that Jesus had 2 main reasons. The first reason was obedience to God’s command. Jesus wanted this man to be obedient as well as worshipful. We worship Jesus for who he is, but we also are required to obey the law of God.
The second reason that Jesus wanted this man to wait and tell everyone how he had been healed was so that he would be unquestionable testimony to Jesus’s power. Jesus wanted this ex-leper to go to the temple and be declared clean by the priests before they knew how he was healed. They would go through the process, declare him healed and clean with their own stamp of approval and then afterword when they asked how he was healed they would not be able to deny the power of Jesus.
I do not think there is much of a better picture, a better analogy than the healing of this leper to lead us into our time around the Lord’s table. We are to come to the Table in the same way the leper came to Jesus. We can come boldly, Paul says in Hebrews that we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We come with confidence because of who Jesus is and is continuing work as our great high priest and advocate before the Father. We come with Reverence, beginning with an attitude of worship before we even come to ask for forgiveness. We come with humility, recognizing our position as undeserving sinners, fully reliant upon the grace of God. And we come in faith, trusting in the promises of God, that if we confess our sins, He is Faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The celebration of communion is a constant reminder of the extent God has gone to in order to fulfill his promises. And it is a reminder that should propel us forward in absolute faith. Not in our own power and ability but because of the sovereignty of God and the completed work of Christ upon the cross.
Celebrating the Lord’s table is only for those who are in a right relationship with God. It is only for those who have come to recognize their spiritual poverty, who have come to a state of mourning over their sin and repented of the sin that dominated their life and accepted the forgiveness that Jesus our Lord has granted. We practice open communion which means if you are visiting our church today and you have experienced God’s provision of your ultimate spiritual needs then we welcome you to join in this celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus.
I will ask the Elders to come up and pass out the elements, and while they do that, take this time to reflect on the Forgiveness that you have been granted, and any sin that you are continuing to struggle with. Especially the sin of the lack of faith in the promises of God.