(additional reading Mark 1:29-34, Luke 4:38-41, 5:12-14, 7:1-10)
Matthew 8:1-17 (NIV)
1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
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My Notes:
Authority. The word of God.
Jesus words contain a command to be obeyed, but also the enabling power by God's Spirit to carry out that command.
He is willing.
He touched a man with leprosy. This is forbidden in the law of Moses, because according to the law, to touch an unclean man would make Jesus unclean. But it this case, it is the cleanness of Jesus that makes the leprous man clean.
He is willing to go to the Gentile Roman Centurion's house to heal his servant. He is not so offended by the occupation of the Roman empire that he cannot help this man. For him to enter the home of a Gentile is also forbidden in the law of Moses. If this is the same as the leprous man, the righteousness in Jesus would cleanse this home of uncleanness (as the law would describe it).
Jesus does not become unclean by touching the unclean or the dead. The unclean becomes clean at his touch; the dead, alive.
This is no ordinary centurion. He knows that he is unworthy to have Jesus come to his home. He respects the law of Moses, and believes that Jesus is the Messiah. This is even more clear in the more detailed parallel passages in Luke 7:1-10. He has faith.
Like light displaces and dispels darkness, and is never overcome by it, with a word, all circumstances contrary to the will of God for his people are subject to change, and without resistance.
His kingdom come.
His will be done.
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