CALLING ALL OUTSIDERS
Matthew 8:1-17
CHCC: January 2, 2011
INTRODUCTION:
Years back when I was a Youth Minister in the Houston area, we used to take musicals on the road every year. (In fact, one year our youth group performed here. I had no idea at that time that this would be our church one day!) These musicals always included funny skits.
I remember one about a Sunday School class where a little kid named Mikey always came up with funny comments. When they asked him who Jesus was, he said, “Well, Jesus was a nice man with long hair … and he held lambs a lot.” (picture on screen)
A lot of people think of Jesus like this poem of Charles Wesley: Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild, Look upon this little child … Loving Jesus, gentle lamb, in thy gracious hands I am.
Of course, this is all true of Jesus. Jesus is gentle, meek, and mild … but Jesus is also the Ruler of the Universe … with absolute power over all the elements – weather, disease, even death. The next 13 weeks we’re going to focus on the Power of Jesus. We’ll look at some of the miracles that showed His POWER … and 13 weeks won’t be nearly enough time to cover the subject!
A total of 37 of Jesus’ miracles are recorded in the gospels:
• Matthew: 21 (3 appear only in Matthew)
• Mark: 19 (2 only in Mark)
• Luke: 22 (7 only in Luke)
• John: 8 (6 only in John)
These recorded miracles represent just a small sampling of the hundreds … perhaps thousands … of miracles that Jesus performed during the 3 short years of his earthly ministry. Matthew records 12 different occasions where Jesus performed multiple miracles. Matthew 15:30 is an example: “Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.”
Today we’ll look at 3 miracles that Matthew grouped together in chapter 8 of his Gospel: the healing of a leper, a centurion’s servant, and Peter’s mother-in-law. At first glance this just looks like 3 random miracles out of hundreds that Jesus performed in a few days. But they belong together because the leper, centurion and sick woman had something in common. All 3 were OUTSIDERS in the Jewish culture of that time.
1. The Leper – the despicable
Any leper was seen as MOST despicable of all people. A leper was literally an “untouchable.” People didn’t understand bacteria back then, but they saw from experience that … if you touched a leper, you had a good chance of coming down with the same disgusting, fatal condition. Not only did the disease make him “unclean” (in other words someone you didn’t dare touch.) It made him really unattractive (someone you didn’t WANT to touch.)
Matthew 8:2 says, A man with leprosy came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” It took a nerve for a leper to approach Jesus … or to even be out in public. The word used for leprosy literally means “to peal.”
(When I was in India I observed many lepers in the medical clinics and hospitals. I even saw toes and fingers removed by the nurses after they became full of gangrene. It wasn't a pretty sight.)
More than anyone else, lepers were the UNTOUCHABLES in Israel. So what was the first thing Jesus did? Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 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.” Matthew 8:3-4
The instructions Jesus gave are very significant. The Law had strict requirements for verification that a leper had been healed. (Leviticus 13&14) Since that Law had been given in Leviticus, no real “leper” had been pronounced as healed … except for a Syrian Official named Naaman who washed 7 times in the Jordan River (2 Kings 5:8-14).
The Prophet Elijah had healed Naaman 700 years before … and many in Israel believed that no one except the Messiah would have the POWER to heal leprosy. (Jesuswalk.com Marshall Cites Strack and Billerbeck, I, 593-596; IV:2, 747-750)
The fact that the leper approached Jesus may indicate that he believed Jesus truly WAS the Messiah. Certainly the fact that Jesus healed him was seen as proof of his identity as the long-awaited Messiah.
It’s significant that one of Jesus’ first miracles was to heal this leper. And near the end of His 3-year-ministry, one of Jesus’ last miracles was to heal TEN lepers. (Luke 17:11-19)
Leprosy, more than other sicknesses, was seen as a picture of sin. Many believed this was a curse that came because of sinful behavior. The curing of leprosy was a symbol of the power to forgive sin. This miracle proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah … with the power to heal disease AND the power to forgive sin.
And this miracle showed that the Kingdom of Jesus would bring a new kind of World Order. ALL types of people would be called into the Kingdom of God. Everyone is invited: even the despicable … the untouchables… the diseased –-- criminals – addicts - the immoral – the destitute –the mentally ill.
ALL types of people are welcomed. And not only are they welcomed, they will be transformed and healed by the POWER of Jesus.
2. The Centurion – the up-and-outer
The leper was an OUTSIDER because of his disease. The Centurion was an OUTSIDER because he was a Gentile. Worse than that, he was a “lieutenant” in the army of the occupying forces. He would never expect to be welcomed by a Jewish Rabbi. He was a complete outsider … someone who could not even enter past the outer court of the Temple.
Matthew 8:5 says, When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
Like the leper, it took nerve for this outsider to even approach Jesus. He must have cared deeply for his servant to ask this Jewish Rabbi for help. It would have been normal for Jesus to turn away without even answering him. Instead Jesus actually offered to come to his home. That was unheard of! It was strange enough for a Jewish Rabbi to talk to a Gentile, but he certainly wouldn’t want to enter a Gentile’s home.
The Centurion told Jesus, “I don’t expect you to come to my house! After all, I know how authority works. When I give a command, it is instantly obeyed. If you just say the word, my servant will be healed!” And Jesus said, “This Roman OUTSIDER has shown more faith than all you religious INSIDERS combined.”
Then he told the Centurion, “Go. What you believed has come true.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Skidmore paraphrase)
Jesus didn’t perform His signs and wonders to impress the crowds. He wasn’t like a MAGICIAN … putting on Mr. Messiah’s Magical Mystery Tour.
One reason Jesus performed miracles was to give EVIDENCE that He truly was the Son of God. But an equally important purpose was to TEACH us something about this new Kingdom that Jesus brought to earth.
These Miracles showed that His Kingdom was going to turn the values of the world upside down. In the Kingdom of God the first would be last, the weak would become strong, the poor would be made rich … the sick would be made well …and OUTSIDERS would become INSIDERS.
That’s they way the Church is meant to be. People from every nation and ethnicity … from all types of jobs and careers … from different political persuasions … the religious types and the secular types … the wealthy and the poor … the successful and the utter failures … the down-and-outers and the up-and-outers --- ALL are invited to be part of the Kingdom of God.
3. The Mother-in Law – insignificant
The last miracle we’re going to look at today is the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. This woman was also an OUTSIDER … simply because she was … a woman. If she had been the mother of an important person, she might have been seen as a significant person. But she wasn’t even the mother of Peter … she was just his wife’s mom. She was an insignificant woman … someone that would tend to be completely overlooked.
The miracle itself only takes up two verses of text: When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. Matthew 8:14-15
(Notice that this was the kind of mother-in-law any guy would want … it sounds like as soon as she was healed, she got up and made supper!)
There was nothing remarkable about this woman or her situation. For an older woman to be down with a fever was nothing out of the ordinary. The person wasn’t important … and the illness wasn’t unusual. In fact, it doesn’t seem that anyone even ASKED Jesus to heal her.
There was nothing to draw anyone’s attention. But she received Jesus’ attention. And his healing of an INSIGNIFICANT lady set off a big revival of healings. Matthew 8:16-17 says, 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. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Some people try to explain away the miracles of Jesus. They prefer to see Jesus as nothing more than a mild-mannered teacher … the unobtrusive gentle Jesus, meek and mild. But these miracles of Jesus are an indispensable part of who Jesus is.
Unger’s Bible Dictionary defined miracles as “supernatural manifestations of divine power in the external world, in themselves special revelations of the presence and the power of God.” If you first believe that there is a God who CREATED the external world, then it’s not a problem to believe God can intervene in the world He created.
Look at it this way: We all accept the fact that the Laws of Nature can be altered or suspended if a greater power intervenes. We know that the law of gravity holds a rock to the ground. But that law can be counteracted by outside intervention. For example, a boy could come around, pick up that rock, and throw it. That boy has the power to counteract the law of gravity temporarily when he exerts a greater physical force (by picking up the rock and throwing it.)
The same logic applies to the miracles of Jesus. Once we establish the possibility of a God who created the visible world, we can see the rationale for miracles. The Creator can alter the Laws He Created. In His miracles, Jesus showed that He is the Son of God … the one with POWER over the Laws of the Universe.
CONCLUSION:
Jesus did not use His amazing POWER to build a Kingdom by FORCE. He used His POWER to offer an open INVITATION into the Kingdom of God. Jesus chose to heal the OUTSIDERS --- The one considered despicable and untouchable; the secular up-and-outer; the one who is insignificant and overlooked?
Jesus is calling all OUTSIDERS to come into His Kingdom --- where you will be welcomed, healed, and transformed.
