Matthew VIII
i. When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
4. 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.
* “Those who fix their eyes on the Sermon on the Mount, or rather on the naked propositions it contains, and disregard Christ’s life, His cross and His resurrection, commit the same mistake in studying Christianity that the student of Socratic philosophy would commit if he studied only the dramatic story of his death. Both Socrates and Christ uttered remarkable thoughts and lived remarkable lives. But Socrates holds his place in history by his thoughts, and not by his life, Christ by His life and not by His thoughts.” — Ecce Homo, page 96. Is this true? Christ Himself attaches all importance to “these sayings of mine,” and in John’s Gospel (vi. 63) He says, “The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.” They are not “naked propositions” except in the sense that acorns are naked forests. Christ’s “thoughts” were not a philosophic system which He had idealised, but were part of Himself, an expression of his very life; and so perfectly was Christ consistent with Himself that His “life” and His “thoughts” may be regarded as convertible terms. Most men are dualised; Christ was one; while other men’s words gave instruction, Christ’s gave life — Td ptjfuiTa & iyoj lolt3 vfilv, irvtvfia ion icai £w?j ioriv.
“Multitudes,” the same word rendered “multitudes” in chap. v. 1, and “people” in chap. vii. 28.
“Worshipped him:” this term means more than an offering of simple homage to a great character. The verb so translated occurs many times in the New Testament; for example, the wise men “fell down and worshipped” Christ. (Matt. ii. 11.) “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.” (Matt. iv. 10.) “The Father seeketh such to worship him.” “Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Heb. i. 7.) In these cases the same word is used as in the text.
The Great Speaker is here the great Healer, i. Sorrow turns instinctively to the supernatural. Leprosy was known among the Jews as “the finger of God.” The removal of leprosy was always considered a Divine act. “Am I a god, that this man sends to me a man to be cured of his leprosy? “When Christ sent an answer to John, He bade the disciples tell their master that” the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised.” It is less easy to be an atheist in sorrow than in joy. Men are less courageous at midnight than noonday. 2. Christ is never deaf to sorrow’s cry. “I will.” Did His *’ will “ever run counter to the sinner’s welfare? The will of man must concur with the will of God; he who would “”find” must “seek.” The great difficulty is to persuade (not logically but morally) men to have perfect faith in the Divine will, that it is not wise only but infinitely loving. When they feel this they will pray — “Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven.” 3. Christ is superior alike to material contamination and legal restriction. He could “touch “the leper, and yet feel no injury. Others touched, and the touch meant death; but He touched and yet was uncontaminated. This is a type of his relation to sin, &c. The ceremonial law forbade that the leper was to be touched. ““And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare; and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry ‘Unclean, unclean.’ All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled, he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall be his habitation.” “And Uzziah, the king, was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord.” Such passages show how sublimely superior to plague and ceremonial limitation was the healing Christ. Mark the harmony between the Speaker and the Healer; the Speaker set aside much of what was “said by them of old time,” and so did the Healer; Christ was thus consistent with Himself.
“Show thyself to the priest.” Consider the grand moral effect which such an instance of healing was likely to produce upon the priest!
5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6. And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
11. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
1 2. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the self-same hour.
I think that the word translated servant {irals) should be rendered “child.” The same word is variously translated
in the New Testament, “servant,” “child,” “men servants,” and “young man.” The rendering “servant” would show the centurion to be an excellent master, but the rendering “child” would better explain the pathos of the story. The narrative shows that Christ’s sympathy by being fundamental was inclusive. He passes from the leper to the centurion with the utmost ease. In human relations we find that experience is the basis of sympathy; the leper can feel for the leper, the bereaved for the bereaved, the poor for the poor; but Christ feels for all, helps all, blesses all. How so? Because His sympathy arises from moral causes. He stands below the mere incident, and purifies the stream by purifying the fountain. A right view of sin gives a right view of suffering. Christ heals the body that He may heal the soul; where consciousness of want is deepest, Christ begins. This should be the great law of movement now. Men who cannot understand a sermon might well begin their studies by pondering some deed of mercy done to their lower nature. We may miss altogether by aiming too high.
1. The centurion shows a beautiful combination of faith and modesty. 2. The centurion reasons from the lower to the higher: a method of reasoning which would elucidate many a mystery. 3. The centurion’s faith and modesty secure all the blessings required. This is an illustration of the word — “Ask and it shall be given you.” Christ’s method in this, case shows: — 1. His perfect mastery of physical causes;
2. His power to develop the human disposition, His answer to the application brought out the modesty of the appellant;
3. His interest in personal cases — no human want is trivial in his estimation; 4. His appreciation of faith wherever found — He loves man as man, not merely as Jew or Gentile; 5. His desire to turn all circumstances to a moral account.
The nth and 12th verses suggest that there is a vital difference between nominal sonship and true kindred of the soul by faith, i. Some will be saved beyond our expectation; 2. Some will be lost beyond our fear.
Christ’s exclamation gives a distant hint of the joy He will experience when His soul is “satisfied.” There is a tone of rapture in this exclamation — one day the promise shall be redeemed which the prophets spoke, and He shall enter into the gladness of perfect “satisfaction.”
14. And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.
15. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.
Peter was a disciple, yet affliction was permitted to visit his domestic circle. Affliction at home: — 1. Developes social sympathy; 2. Brings out family characteristics;
3. Unites the household circle in devotional exercises;
4. Evokes practical and affectionate gratitude.
16. When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils; and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
The mind and the body are alike under the control of Christ: He “cast out the devils” and He healed the sick. His own twofold nature has a bearing upon man’s compound constitution. In what sense did Christ take our iniquities and bear our sicknesses? Not literally, in the sense of corrupting His own humanity with the plagues of His contemporaries; not merely sympathetically, else He would not differ in nature, though in degree, from ourselves. Peter’s wife (verse 14) no doubt felt sympathetically for her fever-stricken mother; — how then? simply in the sense of removing them entirely out of the body. We never read of any merely partial cures being wrought by Christ. Men speak of physicians doing them “some good,” or “much good,” but in
Christ’s cures there was perfectness. Still the element of sympathy is far from valueless. In a human physician it is highly estimated by the sufferer. As with the body so with the mind, the removal of sickness is entire, the cleansing of guilt is complete. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed” (i Peter ii. 24.) The cured cripple could again break a limb, and the healed sufferer again experience paroxysms of agony; so the sin-healed man might again commit sin. This circumstance does not impair the argument that as Christ literally took away the sickness of the body, so He takes away the sickness of the soul. Did He remove all sickness? No. Only the sickness of such as applied to Him, and only on the condition of faith; He left multitudes of sick people unhealed; so with His spiritual work, He takes away the sin of such only as apply to Him and believe in Him, and He takes it away as completely as He took away the sickness of the body.
Here we have once more a clear indication of Christ’s relation to the physical nature of man. He begins at the dust where He cannot get access to the soul. In the case of Nicodemus, having to deal with a master in Israel, he began at a high point, enunciated an abstruse and a most startling doctrine. Thus he took men according to their characteristics, and served his generation and ultimately the whole world, according as circumstances directed. His supreme object was, of course, to reach the soul, and he availed himself of every entrance to the inner nature.
18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.
19. And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
20. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
The scribe uttered the language of impulse. He may have heard the “sayings” or seen the mighty works, and while he thrilled with wonder he extemporised a resolution which was marked rather by impulse than intelligence. We ourselves have been carried away with such stormy emotions, and as often, probably, have been stranded on some barren or dangerous rock. i. Christ came to call men to follow Him; 2. Christian discipleship is to be founded in intelligence if it is to be permanent; 3. Men are not only to follow Christ the man, but Christ the Gospel. There is a possibility of following the speaker without “doing the sayings.”
Christ’s answer (verse 20), was accordant with the scribe’s spirit. The scribe sought to follow the man, and therefore the mere man told him what to expect; had he prized the doctrine no chilling word would have fallen on his enthusiasm. This is a distinction not to be lightly regarded, forasmuch as its application is very extensive. Many an attendant in the sanctuary “follows” the preacher rather than the Gospel; it is a mere personal attachment; he admires the preacher’s rhetoric, or pathos, or power, without caring as to the doctrine which his favourite orator is promulgating. When a crisis supervenes in the history of the Church such a person cannot be relied upon; he may go in quest of another charmer who can throw the wizard’s spell over his fastidious ear. The scribe, in the text, gave expression to a merely personal attachment, and he was arrested by a merely personal reply.
21. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Here is a variation of feeling — a different type, indeed, of temperament. Christ’s method in this case is perfectly consistent with His method in the other. In the first case His words amount almost to positive discouragement; in the second, they rise to the authority of a command; and the explanation of the difference is to be found in the temperament of the persons spoken to. There is an attachment to Christ which is merely impulsive; there is an attachment which is modified by inferior considerations. Christ will not accept unreasoning impulse; nor will He accept partial consecration. i. This command does not contravene natural affection. 2. This command simply shows that where a distinct choice must be made, everything is to fall before the supremacy of Christ. This can be felt only by those whose Christianity is in the heart as a Divine inspiration; such as have realised the fulness of the blessing that is in Jesus Christ. Properly viewed, all that is strong in fatherliness, all that is tender in maternity, all that is charmful in sisterliness, all that is genial in brotherhood, is to be found in the Redeemer, and found in a degree superior to all earthly manifestations of the same. Christ is the up-gathering and perfect completeness of all that is divinely ideal in man. If, by accepting birth under conditions which are abnormal, He was as “a root out of a dry ground,” yet He was the flower of Jesse and the plant of renown; and though He was “despised and rejected of men,” yet He was “the desire of all nations.” We are to grow up to this idea of Christ, and when we have attained it, we shall take such a view of the death of friends as will bind us to Christ in tenderer love by the very sorrow and tears which tend towards the earth, and the hope and triumph which aspire towards heaven. It will come to be understood, as men advance in spiritual life, that we truly love our departed friends most tenderly when we follow Christ most perseveringly.
General Note.
The two men (verses 19, 21) suggest reflections upon the true place of Feeling in the Christian life. Feeling may be a mere sentiment, or it may be the attendant and exponent of intense intellectual persuasion. We are to love the Lord our God with all our mind. Sensibility is exposed to many perils. Frequent excitement, unbalanced by practical service, destroys the nerve on which it operates. The emotional nature may be well-nigh annihilated by excessive excitement, but where sensibility is associated with practical philanthropy, it becomes acuter and profounder, and yields a joy which is often unspeakable. We must establish a balance in our nature. Overindulged sensibility becomes fanaticism; repressed feeling degenerates into the basest utilitarianism.
23. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea; insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves; but he was asleep.
25. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
26. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith. Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?
The time at which Christ answered the two men should be marked, — “He gave commandment to depart unto the other side.” The scribe said, “I will follow;” the disciple said, “Suffer me first to go and bury my father:” — the one was ready, the other had family business on hand; the one was warned of consequences; the other was commanded to follow. Having treated both cases on their merits, Christ entered the ship, and sank into the oblivion of sleep. It was well-merited repose. It was the sleep of a philanthropist. Men may go down to sleep either (a) wearied by evil works, or (b) exhausted by services of mercy.
The scene tin the water may be accommodated homiletically to show the perils of the Church, and how they may be controlled: — I. There are perils which are external, — storms, &c. 2. There are perils which are internal, — fear, misgiving, false interpretations of circumstances, &c. 3. The perils which beset the Church can be controlled by Christ alone. Or the scene on the water may be accommodated so as to suggest lessons of a wider range: — i. Here is an illustration of Christ’s compound nature, — as man He sleeps, as God He commands. 2. Here is special appeal to Christ for aid: (a) Christ’s life a proof of His benignity, — misery never appealed in vain to His compassion; (b) Christ is ever present to the prayer of faith. 3. Here is a type of men who invoke the aid of Christ at troublous times. 4. Here is an interposition of Divine assistance just where human power failed (refer to many crises for illustration). 5. Here is a proof that trials may arise, even in the discharge of duty, — the men went upon the sea in obedience to Christ’s command! The whole subject may be applied thus: —
I. Undertake no enterprise in which Christ does not accompany you. Be sure that Christ is in the vessel.
II. Distinguish between the storms which yon have provoked, and the storms which God has appointed. Trials are either punitive, or disciplinary.
III. Be assured that all forces are under the control of Divine beneficence.
28. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
29. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
30. And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
31. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.
33. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
34. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.
I. A picture of what all men would become under Satanic dominion. 2. The agony which the bad experience in the presence of the good. 3. A prophecy of the universal empire of the Son of God; the devils cringe when he approaches.
I shall not add to the innumerable speculations respecting the entrance of the devils into the herd of swine, but shall regard the circumstance as showing most impressively: — The iniolerableness of life in hell. — The petition of the devils may be regarded as equivalent to, — “Send us anywhere, anywhere but to perdition; send us to the most shattered man; send us to the lowest creature, into man or beast, bird or reptile, anywhere but into hell!”
The answer of Christ shows, in its results, that ruin always attends the presence of devils, — what they touch they destroy! The devil in trade, in amusement, in sensuous gratification, anywhere, simply means ruin!
The conduct of the people shows how secular considerations may be set against philanthropic service. The men were saved, but the swine were lost! When society values its swine more than its children, it is enslaved by the spirit of secularism.
The expression, — “When he was come to the other side,” is suggestive of the fact that on both sides, and on all sides, there are traces of diabolic malignity which Christ alone can obliterate.
GENERAL NOTE ON THE EIGHTH CHAPTER.
In this narrative the deeds outnumber the “sayings.” We have just concluded a sermon of words, and now we have a sermon of actions. These two sermons make up the sphere of Christian life. “As he was, so are we in the world.” To-day, the Christian may be called to oral exposition of Divine things; he may stand on the mountain as the messenger of God, and pour his words to the flying wind that they may be borne everywhere: to-morrow he may be comforting a solitary heart, addressing himself to one poor ’ leprous soul, or bringing the hope of heaven into the chamber of the dying. The work is one. A sermon of “sayings” is nothing, if it stir not the hand to noble effort on behalf of afflicted and perishing humanity.