A Bigger, Better King (Matthew 8:1-4)
Today’s an exciting day. It’s Child Dedication Sunday. At the end of today’s gathering, some parents will come up here, with their children, and stand before us and the Lord, committing them and their care to Him. But before we do that, we’re going to spend a few minutes in these opening verses in Matthew chapter 8.
Now almost a year and a half ago, we began this walk through this gospel book. And I began by saying that there were two important questions we needed to answer. Who am I? And why am I here?
Put another way, what’s our identity? And what’s our purpose? And I argued that we’re His people. We’re citizens of heaven. We’re subjects of King Jesus. That’s who we are. That’s our identity. And we’re about His mission. About building His kingdom. Not others. Certainly not our own. That’s our purpose. Why we’re here. In a world that’s so confused - particularly about these two things - we need to be rooted in them ourselves. And we need to pour them into our kids. He is our King. We’re about His kingdom. Those are the two big themes in Matthew I shared that first day. And they’re very much what we still need to hear today.
Now in this gospel, we read an introduction in chapters 1 and 2. And there’s a conclusion in chapters 26 through 28. But in between those two bookends, there are five alternating cycles. Cycles between stories about Jesus and sermons from Him.
We saw the first group of stories in chapters 3 and 4. They were followed by the first group of teachings, the epic “Sermon on the Mount” in chapters 5 through 7. We’ve spent the last year soaking right there.
Well today, we jump into the second cycle of stories and sermons. In chapters 8 and 9, we see Jesus displaying the power of His kingdom. We see a series of ten of his miracles. Then, in the second sermon, in chapter 10, we hear Christ proclaim what servants of His kingdom are called to endure.
Today, once again, we’re beginning chapter 8. But hear again how that Sermon on the Mount ends.
Matt. 7:28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
Matt. 7:29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Christ finishes this talk, and the crowd is in awe. They’re amazed by His authority. But they don’t know the half of it.
You’ve seen this scene before. It’s a dark night in the big city, and a man furtively trails a woman down a quiet, empty street. He gains ground, overtakes her, and violently rips her purse from her person. And then he hears, from somewhere in the darkness, these words: “Stop. Give that back to her.” The criminal smirks. He shakes his head. He responds, “Who are you? And why should I even listen?”
About that time, he hears a thud. And he sees a man in all black, donned in a cape, swinging through the sky. And before he knows it, that man has him pinned up against a building. And he glares at him, though his mask, and says, “What was that again?” The Dark Knight has arrived. And the man had heard his words. But now he had seen his works. And he would do whatever the man asked.
Here in Matthew, crowds have heard Christ’s message. They’re now about to see His miracles. And they have a choice. What’ll they do - in response? What’s one big purpose of these miracles we’re going to see? They’re to confirm His message. As we read earlier, hearing the Sermon on the Mount had left the people amazed by His authority. The crowds are about to have the same impression as they see His signs and wonders. He even has authority over disease! Who is this man? Right? Maybe we should do what He says.
Well, what do we see here in chapter 8, verses 1 through 4? I’m going to walk through it now, and then I’ll follow with three points of application for us. I want you to see this passage from three perspectives. We need a better - bigger perspective of who Jesus is and what He's done.
Jesus Cleanses A Leper
The Lord wraps up His sermon. And verse 1 says He descends that mountain. And the people are so moved, that they go down with Him. “Great crowds followed Him,” it says. They’ve heard Him talk. They’re now going to see Him walk. And it’s going to be awesome.
Verse 2 tells us that a “leper” approaches Jesus. Now if we think of leprosy today, our mind probably goes to what’s called Hansen’s disease. It’s a bacterial infection that causes damage to the nerves and a loss of feeling. Which results in sores and even disfigurement to the body. But the term used here is bigger than that, including all kinds of diseases of the skin. They knew social distancing.
Now in the Old Testament law, to protect His people, God put regulations in place to limit this health hazard. For sicknesses that tended to be highly contagious. And almost always untreatable. Lepers were kept out of the temple. And away from the people of God. And this, along with the fact that lepers looked kind of scary, led to quite a social stigma. People considered them cursed by God. They were treated as outcasts.
One leper comes to Jesus, and falls before Him. He calls Him “Lord.” And he asks Jesus for help. Now we don’t know that this man realizes Jesus is God. But Matthew here wants us to realize that - seeing the leper’s posture, and hearing the man’s words. And He says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” What faith, huh? Now we know from chapter 4 that healings by Jesus had already taken place. But this man has no doubt in his mind. He knows Jesus “can.” The Lord has the ability. He’s just not sure if he “will.” He wonders about His desire.
But in verse 3, Christ reaches out toward him - bringing to my mind God flexing His arm and stretching out His hand for Israel in the Old Testament. He’s about to show His power. But something really straightforward - but really shocking - is going on. Jesus is touching the untouchable. Right? Showing His love. He says, “I will; be clean.” He wants to heal the man. And so He touches him. Mark 1 tells us that Jesus is “moved with pity” for the man. And immediately it happens. He’s cured. Because Jesus is just that powerful.
But think about this. With most people, you come in contact with leprosy and the uncleanness moves to you. With the Lord, just the opposite happens. Cleanness flows out from Him. And He makes the unclean clean.
What authority! Even over illness! Jesus touches - and heals His body. But even more, think about what it did to the man’s heart. He’d likely not been touched by anyone for years.
Then in verse 4, we see Jesus then say something shocking. He says, “See that you say nothing to anyone.” Keep it quiet. Be hush-hush about it. And we think the reason is most likely that Jesus doesn’t want to just end up as a miracle-worker and be overrun by the crowds. And He also doesn’t want the crowds to try to grab Him and make Him the King. He doesn’t want to get swept up in their political ambitions. So he wants Him to keep quiet for now. He has more work left to do.
But Jesus says something additional here to that man. He tells him to visit the temple and see the priest. To take the offering required in Leviticus 14 and to let God’s leader inspect him - Jesus says, “for a proof to them.”
Now we’re not sure exactly what proof He means. Was it proof to those priests - either that Jesus was who He said He was or He wasn’t going around breaking God’s law? Or was it a proof for the people - that this was the long-awaited Messiah? That God’s kingdom had indeed come?
We’re not sure. Either way, a man without hope is touched and helped. He’s healed. By Jesus the King. With just a word. Just as He did in creation, He did in redemption. He spoke. It came to pass. What authority! And that leads to my first point.
A Window
We need a better - bigger - perspective of what Jesus came to do. Here’s the first vantage point through which I want you to see this miracle. First, see in Jesus’s work a window to another world. Twice already, in this book of Matthew, we’ve heard Jesus say these words: “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Often, He talks about that kingdom coming in the future - in full. But He also speaks of His reign as present in the here, in the now.
These miracles that we begin to see, in our passage today, point ahead to that world that’s to come. To the new creation. They give us a glimpse of the kingdom of God - where as Revelation 21 puts it, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
One day, Jesus will return, and He’ll renew us, along with all the creation. Everything will be as it was intended - except even better, with Him at the center. So often, when we talk about miracles, we think of them as God suspending the natural order. But what if we thought of them more of God beginning to set things right? Hear how Dane Ortlund puts it, in Gentle and Lowly, quoting also Moltmann:
“We tend to think of miracles of the Gospels as interruptions in the natural order. Yet German theologian Jurgen Moltmann points out that miracles are not an interruption of the natural order but the restoration of the natural order. We are so used to a fallen world that sickness, disease, pain, and death seem natural. In fact, they are the interruption.
‘When Jesus expels demons and heals the sick, he is driving out of creation the powers of destruction and is healing and restoring created beings who are hurt and sick. The lordship of God to which the healings witness, restores creation to health. Jesus’ healings are not supernatural miracles in a natural world. They are the only truly “natural” thing in a world that is unnatural, demonized and wounded.’" (Dane Ortlund)
Maybe this summer, you’ll get to go on a vacation - the beach, maybe the mountains, and you’ll look at your window. You’ll see glory that almost takes your breath away. In these miracles He performs, we see a window to another world. We get this glimpse. Of His Kingdom that is coming to earth. As He comes and heals, He’s telling those crowds - and He’s reminding our group here - that He is King. He’s the Messiah. The One they’ve waited for. The One we so desperately need. And so much glory is coming in His new creation.
Now, yes, we believe Jesus can heal here and now. And you may wonder, “If He’s able, why’s He not willing - at least when it comes to me?” We probably won’t know the answers - at least until the time of His return.
But we do know that one day, that healing will come. Maybe now. Let’s ask in faith. Like this man here. To remove our suffering. Definitely later. When He makes all things new.
What about your life - about this world - tempts you to lose heart? Can you see the glory in what Jesus does here - and what it means for your future? Can you see through this window what Christ is going to do? And what He’s even doing now? How have you lost hope, walking around in this fallen world? Has the unnatural become normal to you? Marvel as you see Jesus. See His crown. And be renewed in hope.
A Mirror
Second, see in Christ’s miracle a mirror to see ourselves clearly. Now in the New Testament, and we’ll see this explicitly as we go on, these ailments give a picture of our sin. And His healings point deeper to our salvation. And this certainly is the case with leprosy and this miracle. Scholar Michael Green puts it like this:
“Never was there a disease that so separated victims from their fellows. Never has there been a condition that so illustrated the spiritual condition of humankind. For sin is a terrible disease that separates us from our fellows and from God; it spreads, and it is fatal.” (Michael Green)
Sin numbs us. It hurts us. And it eventually destroys us - along with everyone around us. Can you see yourself in this man here in Matthew 8? Separated from God. He can’t go into the temple. And alienated from God’s people. All because of this condition that leads to death. Yes, this is a picture of our sin.
Maybe we clean ourselves up. Carefully hide our wounds. But we are lepers - all of us.
And Christ’s touch is a picture of our salvation. These miracles of the body point to what God does in the soul. He touches us. And again, our filth doesn’t contaminate Him. It’s overwhelmed by His purity. And we’re changed. We’re cleansed. Just by His healing touch.
He invites us to come to Him. And fall before Him. Just as we see here. And He is able and willing to work. One day, we’ll be fully healed physically. But today, we can be fully healed spiritually. Yes, they’ll be a battle until that final day - between our fallen nature and the new life we have in Christ. But we can be made new. He just calls us to faith - like with this leper here. Jesus is willing and able to heal and renew.
But what else does Jesus say - when He says “the Kingdom of heaven is hand?” In chapters 3 and 4, Jesus says, “Repent.” Before we’ll get anywhere, we have to see ourselves as broken and sick - and headed toward death. We can’t look in one of those carnival mirrors that leave us all distorted in our eyes. We have to gaze into the mirror of His word. And then repent.
And what does that mean anyway? We start going one direction, and we stop, we turn, and we start going in the other. Away from sin. Toward our Savior. Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of behavior. Jesus calls us to faith here. In His cross, where we find forgiveness. Where we experience cleansing. And to turn from our impurity.
To leave our hiding from God and our isolation from others. And approach Jesus with humble hearts. Not just once, but again and again, throughout the duration of our lives. In faith in what He’ll do.
What in your life can you not seem to change? What about you leaves you feeling guilty and discouraged? Can you see in the mirror who you really are? And who in Him you can become? Rejoice as you see Jesus. See His cross. And give yourselves in faith.
A Doorway
Third, see in Jesus’s healing a doorway to the margins. I’ve mentioned two images that come from God’s word that help us to picture Christ’s ministry to the world. The crown. His Kingship. The cross. His atonement. There’s a third. The cradle. His incarnation.
Now when we talk of that word, we’re talking about Christ as God, coming to earth, putting on flesh, and walking among us, coming to rescue us. He who is completely unlike us becoming like us to reach us. That’s the incarnation.
We see a beautiful picture of that right here. Of Jesus Christ ministering to this leper, this outcast. This week, a leper. Next week, a woman. A Gentile, non-Jew. He leaves heaven for earth to draw near to humanity. And He goes to the margins of society, to bring people back in. The people who were excluded, who were even mocked, Jesus came right to them. And healed them. So they could enter back in.
Right into the temple. Back into the community. We see His great compassion. You see, Jesus is God’s presence come to earth, the true temple. And He’s regathering the people of God through His work. Not the powerful, but the meek. Not those who have it together, but the poor in spirit. Not those who applaud their goodness, but those who mourn their sin.
Again, there’s this puzzling statement, in verse 4, where Jesus says to this man, “Keep quiet about this.” But that was then. And we learn from Mark 1 again, that the leper didn’t obey it anyhow! He couldn’t contain himself! We’ve now been given this Great Commission at the end of this book. To go to the nations. And to tell all about Him - about His kingdom, along with His cross. And we do it in a way that fits with the cradle.
By going to people who may not look like us, to those who might make us feel uncomfortable. We were on the margins, and Christ brought us back in. And we should go out and seek to do the same. Jesus here calls us to the same love that brought us near to Him. To offer proof to the world that He has transformed our lives.
Do you see in this account a doorway out into the world? And to those that the world often can’t see? Who might there be that you find yourself struggling to love? Behold Jesus’s mercy here. He came to earth. In a cradle - like some of our babies here. He went to the margins. And pour yourself out in love.
Earlier I talked about my favorite film super hero, but actually I live with one, my real favorite. I know we’re all done talking about COVID. Sorry. But think about how we all felt. Fear. Isolation. As this disease spread through our world and wiped out so many. But we saw so many in the medical community - like my wife, while even going through cancer - draw near to people, risk even their lives - to touch and heal and see people restored.
And in that, we saw a picture of His kingdom that was coming and had come. Our sin and the salvation found in Christ. As well as the love we’re to extend to one another. A window. A mirror. A doorway.
Miracles, Awe, and Faith Like a Child
As I said earlier, we’ll begin looking at ten different miracles, as we keep plugging through Matthew. But for those of us who have long been in the church, they may seem more ho-hum. They’ve maybe lost their shock and awe. I love these words of author Leif Enger, in his classic, Peace Like A River:
“Let me say something about that word: miracle. For too long it's been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal. Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week - a miracle, people say, as if they've been educated from greeting cards. I'm sorry, but nope. Such things are worth our notice every day of the week, but to call them miracles evaporates the strength of the word.
Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It's true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in. Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave — now there's a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time. When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of earth.” (Leif Enger)
Friends, these miracles - like the healing here of this leper - are meant to shake us up. To put us on your knees in awe at the authority of our King. We need to regain a better - bigger - perspective of Jesus again. Of who He is. And what He can do.
Again, we’ll soon spend time dedicating our kids. And later in this gospel Jesus is going to talk about the faith of a child. Children love the stories about kings. Where the guy gets the princess. And the bad guys get beat. Cynicism hasn’t set in. They still have room for hope.
Children are also pretty open about their mess. They see no need to pretend. They know they have needs. And they’ll express them freely. Faith comes far more naturally.
Kids also don’t see the lines we see. Don’t separate into the groups that we do. Love for neighbor - for the other - comes easier for them. Brothers, sisters, maybe we need to pray that we’d grow young again.
But as we think about what we want to teach and model to these kids, I don’t know if there’s anything more needed than what we see here. That they’d be filled with hope. That they’d be looking out the window, longing for a better world.That they’d be growing in faith. Seeing in the mirror their need for a Savior. That they’d be moved by love. Understanding their doorway as a path to the hurting.
Nothing’s more important than grasping for ourselves and passing on to our children that we are His. That He is our King. And we’re about His purpose. And not our own. His Kingdom. Let’s pray that we - and these little ones - would have a better - bigger - perspective on who Jesus is. Let’s pray right now together.