Authority over disease, storm and demons: the first miracles of Matthew's Gospel

Matthew 8 and 9 present the Messiah in deeds after chapters 5-7 have presented him in words. Matthew closes the Sermon on the Mount by noting that Jesus taught 'as one who had authority' (7:29) and now shows that authority at work. The two chapters contain ten miracles, grouped in sets of three with short stories about following Jesus placed between them. This arrangement is Matthew's own. Mark and Luke tell many of the same stories, but in a different order and often in a fuller form. The leper, for example, is healed early in Mark's account (Mark 1:40-45), while Matthew places the story after the Sermon on the Mount; the storm and the Gadarene demoniacs appear in Mark 4:35-5:20 and Luke 8:22-39. The usual explanation, accepted by those who hold that Matthew used Mark, is that Matthew rearranged material by theme, shortening the stories so as to bring out what they say about Jesus. Those who hold that Matthew was written first explain the parallels differently. The class on Matthew 1 sets out these debates.

Several of the stories differ in detail between the Gospels, and it is worth noticing how. In Matthew the centurion comes to Jesus himself, while in Luke he sends Jewish elders and friends (Luke 7:1-10); a commonly offered explanation is that a person who acts through messengers can be said to act himself. John tells a healing of an official's son at a distance that has similarities, though most scholars take it as a separate event (John 4:46-54). Matthew speaks of two demon-possessed men where Mark and Luke have one, and he names the region of the Gadarenes where they have the Gerasenes.

The setting is mostly Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee. Gadara was a city of the Decapolis, some miles southeast of the lake, and its territory reached the shore. The area was largely Gentile, which fits the presence of pigs. A centurion at Capernaum was a Gentile officer, probably in the service of Herod Antipas.

Matthew 8 is narrative built from short miracle stories and sayings. Miracle stories in the Gospels have a standard shape: a need, a request or approach, the word or touch of Jesus, the result and the reaction. Matthew compresses this pattern more than Mark does, so that the weight falls on the dialogue and on what Jesus says. The miracles are deeds, but they are also signs that point to who Jesus is, and Matthew uses them to answer the question the astonished disciples ask at the end of the storm: 'What kind of man is this?'

Two principles help.

• First, read the stories in their Jewish and Old Testament setting. A leper was ritually unclean (Leviticus 13-14), and the Hebrew word tsara'at probably covers several skin diseases, not only what is now called leprosy. A Gentile, a Roman officer, was outside Israel. A storm on the sea recalls the psalms in which the LORD rules the waters.
• Second, notice the chapter's order. It begins with Jesus coming down from the mountain with the crowds following (8:1), and the stories move outward from a Jew (the leper) through a Gentile (the centurion) to a woman, to the sick and demon-possessed, to the disciples, and finally to Gentile territory.

The Gospel's miracles are not offered as magic, nor are they treated as ends in themselves. They show the kingdom of heaven that Jesus has announced, with power over disease, nature and evil.

Verses 1–4

A leper kneels and says, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.' He has no doubt about Jesus' power, only his willingness. Jesus 'reached out His hand and touched the man', which no one would have done, since touching a leper made one unclean. He says, 'I am willing. Be clean!' and the leprosy is cleansed at once. Here uncleanness does not pass to Jesus; his holiness passes to the man. He then tells him to keep it quiet and to show himself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses (Leviticus 14), 'as a testimony to them'. Jesus upholds the Law, and the priests will have to face the evidence.

Verses 5–13

In Capernaum a centurion, an officer commanding about a hundred soldiers, asks for his servant, who is paralysed and in agony. Jesus offers to come. The centurion replies, 'I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But just say the word.' He understands authority: 'I myself am a man under authority', and when he gives an order it is carried out. He sees that Jesus has authority over sickness in the same way. Jesus 'marveled' and says he has found no such faith in Israel. Then he says that many will come 'from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob', while 'the sons of the kingdom' will be cast out. The image of a banquet of the nations recalls Isaiah 25:6 and Psalm 107:3. The sons of the kingdom are those who assumed they were in by birth. The servant is healed 'at that very hour'.

Verses 14–17

At Peter's house Jesus touches the hand of Peter's mother-in-law, the fever leaves her, and she gets up and serves him. In the evening many demon-possessed and sick are brought, and he drives out the spirits 'with a word' and heals all. Matthew adds: 'He took on our infirmities and carried our diseases.' This is Isaiah 53:4. Matthew's wording is closer to the Hebrew than to the Greek Old Testament. In context Isaiah 53 concerns the suffering servant who bears sin; Matthew applies the verse to physical healing. It is commonly understood to mean that Jesus takes the sickness upon himself in the course of healing it, and that this foreshadows the deeper bearing of sin on the cross, which 1 Peter 2:24 draws out from the same chapter.

Verses 18–22

Two would-be followers meet Jesus. A scribe offers to follow wherever Jesus goes. Jesus answers that foxes have dens and birds have nests, 'but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head'. This is the first use of 'Son of Man' in Matthew. The title comes from Daniel 7:13-14, where one like a son of man receives authority from God, and Jesus uses it both of his humility and of his glory. A disciple asks to first bury his father. Jesus says, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.' Scholars differ on whether the man's father had already died or whether he meant waiting until his father's death, which might be years away. Either way, Jesus makes his call take priority over the most sacred family duty.

Verses 23–27

Jesus is asleep in the boat when a violent storm 'engulfed' it. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by hills, and sudden storms are well known. The disciples wake him: 'Lord, save us! We are perishing!' He rebukes them as people of 'little faith', then rebukes the winds and the sea, and there is a perfect calm. The word for the storm is seismos, a shaking, the term also used for earthquakes. The men ask, 'What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!' In the Old Testament it is the LORD who rules the sea and stills it (Psalm 65:7; 89:9; 107:23-30). Jesus does what God does.

Verses 28–34

In the region of the Gadarenes two demon-possessed men come from the tombs, which were unclean places. The demons call him 'Son of God', and they fear punishment 'before the appointed time'. They know who he is before the disciples do, and they know a day of judgment is coming. They ask to enter a herd of pigs, and he says 'Go!' The herd rushes into the sea. The townspeople, learning what happened, beg him to leave. Matthew gives no explanation; he lets the contrast stand between the demons who recognise him and the people who ask him to go away.

The chapter teaches that the kingdom of heaven has power over what spoils creation: disease, uncleanness, death's reach, natural chaos and the demonic. The miracles are not random acts of kindness but signs that God's rule has come near. This is how the New Testament reads the healings, as an advance showing of the age when there will be no more mourning or pain (Revelation 21:4).

It teaches that faith is trust in Jesus' word. The centurion does not ask for a sign or touch, only that Jesus speak. Faith is seen as a response that can come from outside the covenant people, and that fact points to the place of the Gentiles in the kingdom, a promise given to Abraham (Genesis 12:3) and fulfilled in the church. The warning to 'the sons of the kingdom' shows that privilege without trust gives no security.

It teaches the cost of discipleship. The Son of Man has no place to lay his head, and following him takes priority over every other claim. The Bible never presents following Christ as free of loss (Luke 14:26-33). The chapter also teaches the reality of the demonic and the authority of Christ over it. Demons are real in the Gospel story, and they are subject to him. The rest of the New Testament sees this as the defeat of Satan's power (Colossians 2:15; 1 John 3:8).

Matthew 8 is a direct fulfilment in 8:17, where he applies Isaiah 53:4 to the healings. The Servant who 'took on our infirmities and carried our diseases' is Jesus. Isaiah 53 goes on to say that the servant is pierced for transgressions and bears the sin of many, and Peter applies the same chapter to the cross: Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). The healings point ahead to that deeper cure. Matthew does not say the full cost is paid in the healings; he says that the one who heals is the one who will bear.

As an echo, offered more tentatively, the calming of the storm recalls the LORD who rules the sea in Psalm 107:23-30, where sailors in a storm cry to the LORD and he stills the waves. The question 'What kind of man is this?' leaves the answer to the reader. There is also a contrast with Jonah. Jonah was asleep in the ship's hold during a storm sent because of his disobedience, and the sailors threw him into the sea to calm it (Jonah 1). Jesus sleeps in the storm, obeys the Father perfectly and speaks to the waves. In Matthew 12:41 Jesus says that something greater than Jonah is here.

The centurion's confession of authority and the demons' cry of 'Son of God' also show who Jesus is. The title was given to him by the Father at his baptism (3:17), and in this chapter it is recognised by the demons while the people of Gadara do not welcome him.