Our passage today immediately follows on from the Sermon on the Mount. Our reading gives us a single day’s events, after Jesus came down from teaching atop the mountain.[1] And Jesus’ teaching is described in this way. Matthew chapter 7 verses 28 and 29:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (NIV)
Jesus’ teaching has authority. OK, maybe Jesus just had the gift of the gab. Hitler likewise was a powerful rhetorician and orator. But we know that powerful rhetoric, the ability to mobilise people with their words, can be used for evil, as well as good. In fact, that is why we have democracy and a free media, to have at least two sides who will throw convincing words at each other.
The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him (Proverbs 18:17 NASB)
Because in our society, we recognize that everyone is sinful. Our society doesn’t say it that way. It has maxims like ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Or more crudely, ‘keep the bastards honest’.
Greek culture saw the ability to move people by words as true power.[2] And we see it, too. We recognize that when someone in politics or religion is a good speaker, we are much more likely to like and follow them if they are. That’s why we are warned on a Current Affair about false religious teachers. And we know that true power and authority in our society is to gain people to your cause, to have people hang on your every word, to become their leader, and to make sure you have lots of friends on facebook who like your posts.
Is that all Jesus is? An empty bag of wind, who has a charismatic personality, who can speak well, but has nothing behind it?
Our passage today tells us, ‘What Jesus is in his words, he also is in his works’. Jesus’ works have all the authority that Jesus’ words have. Jesus words are arresting and authoritative, not just because he is a skillful rhetorical manipulator, but because he is the Christ, the promised Son of David, God with us, the beloved Son who pleases the Father, the one who will save his people from their sins, the ruler from Judah, who will shepherd Israel, who will gain the worship of Israel and the nations, who is the more powerful one than the greatest among men, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, who resisted Satan and all the temptation he could muster.
Jesus Christ is Lord. And just as Jesus Christ showed his mastery of God’s law in the Sermon on the Mount, understanding what God’s law truly means (internal obedience, not external compliance), and just has he showed mastery in his understanding of God’s world, and how to live in a fallen world wisely (secretly serving God, not worrying about this life, seeking first the kingdom), and all this is described in the expression ‘he taught as one who had authority’, so Jesus Christ has authority over one key area of brokenness in our broken world --- sickness. Jesus’ authority over sickness is closely linked with his authoritative teaching.[3]
We have already been told this in Matthew chapter 4 verse 23 and 24:
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases … (NIV)
So when Jesus comes down the mountain, back into the harsh reality of brokenness, we see him likewise have authority. And these three accounts read for us today give us three instances of Christ’s authority over sickness.
It is good for us to remember what sickness is. Sickness is slow death. Sickness is death while you live, telling you that you are dying. Sickness, together with aging, is the process of death working through our dying world. Aging in our broken world brings death in a predictable way to all. Sickness brings the threat of death nearer to some, impairs life now, and sometimes becomes so bad that some people long for death under sickness’ harsh hand.
In the face of our enemy sickness, Jesus shows himself with complete authority. Jesus authority in his teaching on the mountain is reflected in his healing on the plain.
Our first example as Jesus descends down the mountain is of a man with leprosy. Now, when you see a leper and a large crowd, you must understand that this should never be under Israel’s law in Leviticus. Just as oil and water don’t mix, so leprosy and a crowd don’t mix. Here is what was commanded for the leper to do. Leviticus chapter 13 verse 45 and 46:
The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp. (NIV)
The leper was to be segregated, and warn crowds if he was coming. Because he must not touch the crowd and taint them with his infection. And that is why verse 3 is so important.
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing”, he said. “Be clean?” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. (NIV)
Jesus will touch the untouchable. Jesus does not fear the contagion, because he is holy, and his holiness cleanses. A normal man would be unclean when he touched the leper (Leviticus 5:3). But Jesus Christ touches the unclean man and makes him clean.
And here we see the superiority of Jesus Christ to the law of Moses. The law of Moses cannot cleanse. The law condemns people. The law condemns people, either of their sin, which leads to death, or, in the case of skin diseases, of their uncleanness which leads to exclusion. But Jesus can do what the law of Moses could never do. Jesus brings cleansing with a touch of his sinless human hand. For he is God with us, who will save us from our sins. And later, Jesus will point to his cleansing of lepers to show that he is indeed the Messiah (Matthew 11:5).
Jesus Christ is as superior to the law of Moses in the same way that giving life is superior to killing. The law kills us because of our sin, and excludes us because of our uncleanness. But Jesus Christ brings the excluded in, and cleanses us from our sin.
But the law also will testify to Jesus Christ. Just as our righteousness is apart from the law, though the Law of Moses testifies to the righteousness of faith in Christ (Romans 3:21), so Jesus Christ’s healing of this man is apart from the law, though the law of Moses will testify to the healing of the man by faith in Christ. Verse 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”. (NIV)
The law of Moses will testify and witness to Jesus Christ to the people, that Jesus brings cleansing from uncleanness. The Law says, Jesus cleans the unclean. And the proof is the cleansed man. Leviticus required that the reality of the cleansing be officially verified by the priests So Jesus wanted the official channels that God set up to testify to the cleansing Christ brings, not the man himself. Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. But as Jesus Christ fulfills the law, the law itself will testify that Jesus is the Christ. And as the man held up his certificate given to him from the priest, and waved it around in joy, the law proclaimed that the Christ has come with power to cleanse with a touch. What the law could not do, Jesus did, and the law testifies to it.
The second example of Christ’s view of sickness on that memorable day of the sermon on the mount was on entering Capernaum. Capernaum was Jesus’ base of operations in Galilee (Matt 4:12-13). Capernaum, in Galilee of the gentiles, brings Jesus in contact with, surprise, surprise, gentiles.
And this time, as he is about to enter Capernaum, it is not an Israelite, but a gentile, and a military man, a Roman centurion. We must not think that military men cannot be men of faith, or that being a soldier is necessarily opposed to being a Christian. It need not be, any more than serving as a minister, doctor or a pharmacist or police officer is necessarily opposed to Christianity.
The centurion usually would have ordered people around. But he doesn’t do that with Jesus. He asks, or appeals to Jesus, for help (Matt 8:5), and twice he calls this itinerant preacher of the people he is meant to subjugate ‘Lord’. The centurion realizes that Jesus has authority in his own realm. The centurion, in coming to Jesus, has stepped into a sphere in which Christ is the master, not someone to be ordered around, and he is the humble supplicant, the needy person who asks for mercy.
This time, it is clear that Jesus is willing, in fact, so willing that Jesus merely hears the situation. Jesus says, verse 7, “I will go and heal him.”
Jesus showed his willingness to touch the leper and heal. He also is willing to touch the servant of a Gentile Roman Centurion to restore him to his master. Jesus Christ is prepared to go into the gentile’s house, just as he would later encourage and persuade and cajole Peter to do in Acts chapter 10 and 11. Jesus is willing to save life, whether it is Jewish or gentile.
But the centurion does not believe getting Jesus to actually attend on the patient is necessary. He considers himself unworthy to have Christ over to his house. He believes Jesus can heal ‘remotely’, from a distance. For this Roman centurion, Jesus has long distance power over sickness. For the long strong arm of Jesus Christ and his word, spacial separation is no problem. Verse 8b:
But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. (NIV)
The power of Christ is seen in his word. His word has authority over humans. They are called to follow Christ, and they do. And Christ’s word has authority over sickness.
Now the extent of the centurion’s faith is firstly seen in that Jesus is amazed at it. The centurion has faith that surprises the saviour. Never has the incarnate Christ seen such faith, even among his own people.
The centurion, however, knows he is looking at a man of authority. Just as the centurion, even as a commanding officer, obeys those above him, so the centurion reasons that Christ is following the commands and instructions of God his Father, who Jesus seeks to please. And just as the centurion has soldiers and servants under him who do his will and wish, so Christ Jesus has sickness and disease under his authority. In the realm of sickness, Christ has authority, just as in the military realm, the centurion has authority. Jesus has command over sickness just like the centurion has command over his men. Verse 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.” (NIV)
Jesus has authority over sickness. The centurion recognizes this. And so he applies to the one who can save his much loved servant.
And of course, Jesus heals the servant with his word. The servant never gets to see his saviour. And in this, the servant is like us. Our savior heals and saves us from a distance, by his word. And we do not get to see our saviour, though we are just as certainly saved.
And this centurion is the foretaste of the salvation of the gentiles. Like the government official in John 4:43-54 before him[4], and Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10 after him[5], Matthew gives us this account of the centurion to ensure we know that Jesus Christ is saviour of the whole world, not just Israel. Jesus is for the gentiles as well as the Jews. The centurion’s faith is greater than any Israelite Jesus has heretofore seen. And so Jesus turns to his disciples, whom he will send into all the world, says, verse 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. (NIV)
Good news for gentiles like you and me. We can be included in God’s people too, by faith in Israel’s Messiah. We have a part and share in what God has promised Israel by faith. "It will be done just as you believed it would." The servant is saved by faith. And so are we.
Jesus gets home to where he is most probably staying, at Simon Peter’s house. But there is more healing work to do today. Verse 14:
When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. (NIV)
Now for us, fever means a day or two in bed. But in the ancient world, fever was the biggest killer. But again, Jesus’ touch is saving. Verse 15:
He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. (NIV)
Out of thankfulness to Jesus, Peter’s mother-in-law waits on Jesus. And that is the way it always is, those saved by Jesus serve Jesus. How can we do anything else, but from now on live for the one who lived and died for us.
But even then, Jesus’ work is not done. For as the shadows lengthen, and when evening descends, verse 16, so also the needy and the sick descend on Peter’s house:
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. (NIV)
Again, we see the power of Jesus’ word and the authority of Jesus over sickness.
This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” (NIV)
Jesus was already declared to be the Son of God in his baptism. He is the servant who pleases God. And Matthew quotes from Isaiah 53. Jesus’ healing ministry is part of his work of taking our sins in his body. Jesus is doing so, as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, who was pierced for our transgression and crushed for our iniquities, that the punishment of our peace was on him, and by his stripes we are healed.
The one named Jesus, who will save his people from their sins, will do so by not only carrying our diseases, but by dying on the cross for our sins.
Sickness is slow death. And Jesus, by taking on our sicknesses, is slowly heading to his death on the cross. Jesus took on our sicknesses and diseases as he headed to the cross. He bore our experience of sickness and disease in his body, not that Jesus Christ got sick, but that he compassionately looked on our condition of sickness, and he was willing to heal. In some way Christ bore these sicknesses in himself, as part of his bearing the curse of the law. The reason sickness came among the people of Israel was that they endured the covenant curses. And Christ bore them, carried them, and went to the cross died for them.
When Jesus Christ enters his world, the King enters his domain, and the King has healing in his hands. He has authority. His teaching shows his authority. His healing shows his authority. Jesus Christ heals showing his authority over sickness.
Jesus Christ still heals long distance. He says, ‘Ask and you shall receive’. And we find we still do receive healing from Jesus. I have not yet died of my various sicknesses, and neither have you. Jesus has answered our prayers.
But each of these accounts, these healings, has a tragic sequel not recorded by Matthew. That is, the leper, the Centurion servant, and Peter’s mother-in-law, eventually succumbed to death. They eventually became sick and died, because sickness is part of the wages of sin.
Because Jesus’ healing of these three needy humans in his first coming was the bandaid, the plaster cast, the crutch, not the final cure. As we sung in our first song this morning, ‘He walked on earth showing glimpses of heaven’. We see glimpses, in the person of Christ, not the fulfillment of his kingdom. For the final cure only comes through Christ’s death, resurrection and second coming. We are not yet in the place where there is ‘no more death or mourning or crying or pain’, where ‘the old order of things has passed away’, and ‘he who was seated on the throne’ has made all things new. We still live in the present evil age, where death reigns. We are not yet in that wonderful city with the river of the water of life, with the tree of life on each side, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2-3).
Yes, Jesus still dispenses band aids from his throne in heaven, like stents, and medicines, and weight loss plans, and blood pressure tablets, and chemotherapy, and those healings that doctors would call ‘miracles’ together with those healings that are considered quite unmiraculous, but are just Jesus’ normal and gracious way of dealing with disease. It is only when Jesus Christ returns that he will finally deal with death, and it’s prequel and prelude, sickness. But in the gospels, we see Christ’s mastery. We do not yet see everything under our feet. Death that last enemy, has not been finally destroyed. But we see Jesus Christ, risen and ascended, crowned with glory and honour, who during his short sojourn on earth with us had authority over sickness, and who by the grace of God carried our sicknesses all the way to death, and by the cross tasted death for everyone. Only when he comes will sickness be completely done away with. Which is why we cry, ‘Come Lord Jesus’.
Let’s pray.
[1] So Nolland, Matthew: NIGTC, 347.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric and compare the article by Dr John Dickson, which seeks to apply this reality to the advice he provides all groups in the promotion of their ideology, and not just Christians': http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/art-of-persuasion-not-so-simple-20110708-1h6m9.html. His take away message is ‘What environmental campaigners, refugee advocates, gay rights lobbyists, atheist evangelists and churches need if they are to be persuasive are not just more facts but a narrative that stirs our hearts and a social movement that wins our trust.’
[3] Nolland, Matthew: NIGTC, 348.
[4] https://sites.google.com/site/mattolliffe/sermon-scripts-index/john-sermons/john-443-54-second-sign-in-cana-a-sick-son-saved-by-the-son-of-god
[5] https://sites.google.com/site/mattolliffe/sermon-scripts-index/acts-series/peter-pushed-to-preach-peace-to-gentiles-upright-cornelius-receives-the-testimony-of-salvation-and-the-spirit--acts-101-1118