10. healings and miracles

8/13/2019 10. Healings and Miracles

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Lesson #10Healings and Miracles

(Matthew 8: 1 - 9: 38)


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In Lesson #9 we brought Jesus Sermon on the Mount

to a close, and we observed several things about it:

1. The Sermon on the Mount is a stellar example of Jesus expository

teaching.

2. It is nested within Matthews overall mirrored chiastic structure, and it

is the first of five Great Discourses at the core of that structure.

3. The Sermon on the Mount itself is a carefully-crafted, 4-part

teaching, each part linked through structural repetition and the

repetition of sound.

4. Each of the four parts takes us into the inner dynamics of the Law,

probing both meaning and motive.5. The Sermon on the Mounts teaching is revolutionary, fulfilling and

transforming the Law, establishing a new moral and ethical Gold

Standard for Christian behavior.


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We learned in Matthew 4: 23-25 that Jesus public ministry

consisted of teaching, preaching and healing. In Lesson #10

we will examine Jesus healing and his power over both the

natural and the supernatural, elevating him far above the

mundane. There have been many great teachers and

preachers, and there have even been great healerslikeElijah and Elisha who both raised the deadbut none who

controlled nature and confounded the supernatural world

as we see Jesus do.

In this lesson Jesus rises above mere mortals, and we see

the first signs of his divinity as he exerts his supernatural

authority.


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The Gospel according to Matthews overall

mirrored chiastic structure

A Narrative: Jesus as Messiah, Son of God (1-4)

Minor discourse: John the Baptist identifies the authority of Jesus (3:7-12)

B Great Discourse #1: Demands of true discipleship (5-7)

C Narrative: The supernatural authority of Jesus (8-9)

D Great Discourse #2: Charge and authority of disciples (10)E Narrative: Jews reject Jesus (11-12)

F Great Discourse #3: Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven (13)

E Narrative: Disciples accept Jesus (14-17)

D Great Discourse #4: Charge and authority of church (18)

C Narrative: Authority and invitation (19-22)

B Great Discourse #5: Judgment on false discipleship (23-25)A Narrative: Jesus as Messiah, suffering and vindicated (26-28)

Minor discourse: Jesus identifies the authority of the church (28:18-20)


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1. Curing Diseases

Jesus cleanses a leper.

Jesus heals the centurions servantJesus heals Peters mother-in-law

and many others.

2. Exerting Supernatural Power

Jesus calms the stormJesus casts out demons


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3. Transforming Lives

Jesus heals the paralytic

Jesus calls MatthewJesus questioned about fasting

4. Defeating Death

Jesus raises a dead girl and heals a woman with a hemorrhage

Jesus restores sightJesus restores hearing


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Healings and Miracles

No person can perform a miracle; only God can.

You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the

Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mightydeeds, wonders and signs, which God worked through him in

your midst, as you yourselves know.

(Acts 2: 22)


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Cleansing of the Leper (Codex Egberti, Fol. 21v), c. 990.

Municipal Library of Trier, Germany.

This is the oldest existing manuscript with illuminated scenes from the life of Christ.


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Cleansing the Leper

(Matthew 8: 1-4)

The Hebrew word for leprosy is raat, and it refers to a

wide range of scaly, fungal infections that occur in people, as

well as in fabrics and even on the walls of houses. It is not

limited to modern-day Hansons Disease.

In Scripture, however, raatis associated with

uncleanness, since it is highly visible, infectious, thought to

be a punishment from God, and associated with sin anddeath.

See: Leviticus 13: 45-46; 14: 1-32.


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1. Curing Diseases



and many others.




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Roman Centurion

A Roman Legion consisted of 6,000 men and was divided into ten Regiments, each

having a name. The Centurion at Caesarea who summons St. Paul in Acts 10 is a

member of the Italian Regiment, probably of the 10

th

Roman Legion. EachRegiment consisted of 600 men. A Centurion commanded a 100-man unit in a

Regiment. Although not exactly analogous, a Centurion was similar in rank to a

career mid-level officer, a Captain or Major, in todays Army or Marine Corps.


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1. Curing Diseases



and many others.




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What was Wrong with Peters Mother-in-Law?

We are told in both Matthew and Mark that Peters mother-in-law was in bed with

a fever (Matthew 8: 14, 15; Mark 1: 30, 31). The Greek word for fever used by

both Matthew and Mark ispyreto, from the rootpyro, meaning fire.

Although drawing upon Matthew and Mark as sources, Luke the physician

(Colossians 4: 14) uses the phrase great fever (Greek =pyreto megalo), a medical

term typically associated with Dysentery or Malaria.


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1. A scribe said: I will follow you . . . (8: 19)

Jesus said: Foxes have dens . . . birds have nests (8: 20)

2. Another disciple said: Lord let me go first and bury myfather(8: 21)

Jesus said: . . . Let the dead bury the dead (8: 22)


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And . . . Matthew has just ever so subtly

planted the phrase Son of Man.


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1. Curing Diseases



and many others.




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Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (oil on canvas), 1633.

Location unknown. (STOLEN from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, Boston in 1990.)


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Sea of Galilee (GoogleEarth)


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1. Curing Diseases



and many others.




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Healing of the Gadarene Demoniacs (wall fresco), c. 1350.

Monastery of Deani, Kosovo.


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Sea of Galilee (GoogleEarth)

Gadara


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Gadara, one of the ten Decapolis cities, lay about

5 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee.

Josephus writes:

. . . he went out with all these and kindled the villages of

both Gadara and Hippo, which indeed chanced to lie on theboarders of Tiberias and Sycthopolis.

(Life, IX, 42)

The territory of Gadara had several outlying villages along

the shores of the Sea of Galilee.


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4. Defeating Death




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Jesus Heals the Paralytic, (Mosaic), Basilica di SantApollinareNuovo, Ravenna, Italy.


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4. Defeating Death




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4. Defeating Death




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By placing the call of Matthew between the

healing of the paralytic and the new wine/old

wineskins metaphors Matthew frames his own

story of redemption and discipleship.


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4. Defeating Death




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Paolo Veronese. Raising the Daughter of Jairus (oil on paper mounted on canvas), 1546.

Louve Museum, Paris.


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4. Defeating Death




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4. Defeating Death




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Jesus Heals the Deaf and Dumb Man (mosaic), c. 1315-1321.

Church of Chora, Istanbul, Turkey.


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The Gospel according to Matthews overall

mirrored chiastic structure

A Narrative: Jesus as Messiah, Son of God (1-4)

Minor discourse: John the Baptist identifies the authority of Jesus (3:7-12)

B Great Discourse #1: Demands of true discipleship (5-7)

C Narrative: The supernatural authority of Jesus (8-9)

D Great Discourse #2: Charge and authority of disciples (10)E Narrative: Jews reject Jesus (11-12)

F Great Discourse #3: Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven (13)

E Narrative: Disciples accept Jesus (14-17)

D Great Discourse #4: Charge and authority of church (18)

C Narrative: Authority and invitation (19-22)

B Great Discourse #5: Judgment on false discipleship (23-25)A Narrative: Jesus as Messiah, suffering and vindicated (26-28)

Minor discourse: Jesus identifies the authority of the church (28:18-20)


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Once again, very fine work, Matthew!


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Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy

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