Matthew 8

http://www.esvbible.org/Matthew+8/

The sermon on the mount ends, and Jesus begins to descend the mountain. On His way down, a man with leprosy asks Jesus to heal him because the man believes that Jesus has the power to do so if He's willing. Jesus tells the man He's willing, and the man is suddenly cured. After this miracle, Jesus tells the man not to tell anyone but to go to the temple and show himself to the priest, and make the sacrifice Moses commands to prove to the people that he really is clean. HUGE foreshadowing. This man came scarred by a terrible disease, and according to Moses, he could not participate in things with the Jewish people or participate in what was holy. Jesus washed away the hideous disease and the man could be clean again. The whole reason Jesus came to Earth in the first place was to clean our hideous sins away. Christ tells the man to go to the temple first so that the people will know that this miracle truly happened. The priest will tell them that the man had leprosy and now he doesn't. That way, people will know Jesus isn't trying to trick them with supposed miracles but truly healing the sick who come to Him.

A Roman soldier came to Jesus and asked Him to heal a servant who was in extreme pain. When Jesus offers to go to the soldier's house, the soldier declares that he is not worthy of Jesus' presence. How unworthy are we all of Jesus' presence inside of our hearts? The man tells Jesus that he knows Jesus can just command it from where He is and it will happen. Matthew reports that Jesus was amazed by this faith! Jesus tells His followers that He has not seen faith so strong in all of Israel, and it was coming from a gentile. Jesus commands that the servant be healed, and at that moment, it was so. We don't need to go to Jesus to start healing. Jesus can give the command to the Spirit wherever we are and we are cured of sin just like that. Also, no matter who we are, Jesus is willing to heal us if we just ask. The healed man in this story was a servant to a Roman soldier. The Roman soldiers were terrible to the Jewish people, and a servant is a lowly position, yet Jesus healed Him. After the display of great faith, Jesus also talks about what He knows from Heaven. One day, people from all over the world will eat with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the ancestors of all Jewish people, in Heaven. He prophesied that gentiles could be saved by His actions as well as the Jewish people. He proceeds to say that some of the citizens of the kingdom of Israel will be thrown out of Heaven. Not all Jewish people have a guaranteed spot in Heaven just because they were born Jewish. That used to be the only qualification needed. Finally, Jesus says that when they are cast into darkness, they will be in extreme pain. This description sounds like more description of Hell.

Jesus goes to Peter's house and sees that his mother-in-law is sick. This is, I believe, the only time we hear about wives of any of the apostles. She had a terrible fever, but when Jesus touched her hand, the fever went away. Immediately, the woman got up and served Jesus. Once Jesus heals us of our former mistakes, we don't have to wait until we gain experience or "become better Christians" to serve Him. He can use us whenever and wherever we are in faith, time, and geography. He has a plan for you to glorify His name. Later, the people begin to bring Jesus all of the sick or demon possessed people. Jesus casts out the demons and heals the sick, making another prophesy in Isaiah come true that Jesus would take away weakness and heal illness. When Jesus saw a crowd, He ordered His disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

A scribe came to Jesus and said that he would follow Him wherever He went, and Jesus responded that He has no permanent place to live. Jesus was never heading to a final destination on Earth where He would do His work. He traveled around and spoke to all people until He died. We can use this as an example of Jesus never askin us to do something He hasn't first done Himself. Later in Matthew, Jesus issues the Great Commission that tells us to go and make disciples of all the nations. Jesus does this deed Himself throughout His entire life. Then, a man says that He will follow Jesus if He can just bury His father first. It is so easy to make excuses. We can say that we'll follow Him as soon as we do blank or He allows us to do blank. I can do it tomorrow. I can do it next week. I can do it next year. We're running out of tomorrow's. Jesus can come back anytime, and we need to be ready for it. Jesus tells this man to follow Him and let the dead bury the dead. This statement doesn't have the same meaning it has today. What Jesus was saying I read as two-fold. First, lay down the excuses and follow Him today. Let the dead, all the non-believers, bury themselves in their unwillingness to accept the truth. Secondly, the dead need nothing from us. The soul is gone and all that's left is the body. There's no person in there.

While the disciples headed across the sea in a boat with Jesus, a huge storm hit. Waves crashed over the edge of the boat, yet Jesus slept through it. Finally, the disciples woke Him up and asked Him to save them. Jesus scolds them for their lack of faith and calms the sea. The disciples are amazed and ask what kind of man can do that. After spending so much time listening to Him, the disciples still can't figure out Jesus. In a similar way, we still can never completely know who Jesus is while we live. Also, despite them calling Him Lord and asking Him to save them, the disciples don't yet believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So many people come to God when they are in trouble or want something, but they don't truly believe in who He is. Sometimes, He still gives them safety in what they ask.

When Jesus and the disciples arrive at the other side of the Sea of Galilee, two demon possessed men meet them in the road. These men were so dangerous that people could not travel on that road because they would be harmed. Jesus walked right up to them. He has nothing to fear because He can take down any enemy in His path, and if we follow Him, we have nothing to fear because He's rid the path of enemies. The demons shout at Jesus and tell Him He can't torture them before the appointed day. The demons know who Jesus is. They believe what He came to do. They have better theology than anyone currently living on Earth because they were angels and lived side-by-side with God. What sets Christians apart from demons? They believe the "saving principles." What makes us different is that we lived in sin and death, but God let us glimpse the beauty of Jesus. Then, we can ask Jesus to resurrect us from the dead, and He will bring us into His saving grace. He rescues us from the bondage of sin, and we make sacrifices of love for Him. The key of the sacrifices is that they are not painful to give up but that we love Him so much that we want to give up things that distract us from Him in order to spend more time with Him. The demons see a herd of pigs nearby and ask Jesus to cast them there. Jesus tells them to go, and the whole herd of pigs runs off a cliff and dies in the sea. The men watching the pigs run into the city and report everything. Then, the whole town goes to meet Him and begs Him to leave. Jesus just saved two people from demons. Everyone should ask Him to heal them and worship Him for His awesome power. But He didn't do things the way they would have done things, so they wanted Him to leave them alone. We have all done this. Jesus did something great that helped us a lot, but He did it in His way instead of our way. We didn't like that, so we tried to get Him to go. Jesus' way is perfect. His way is far superior than ours. If things happen our way, the world will be so messed up. Trust His way because it is the way. In the end, things were better. The men were cured of their demons.