NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER EIGHT

Part I (con’t)

What happens next in this encounter between Jesus and the leper, is both a miracle and a mystery. The miracle, of course, was that the leper was immediately healed. Then Jesus told him to follow the law as outlined by Moses.¹ The sacrifice that Jesus spoke of was clearly outline by Moses: “A priest must look at those who had the skin disease. The priest must go to them outside the camp and look to see if the skin disease is healed. If they are healthy, the priest will tell them to do these things: They must bring two clean birds that are still alive, a piece of cedar wood, a piece of red cloth, and a hyssop plant. Then the priest must order one bird to be killed in a clay bowl over running water. He must take the other bird that is still alive and the piece of cedar wood, the piece of red cloth, and the hyssop plant and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. He must sprinkle the blood seven times on those who had the skin disease. Then he must announce that they are clean. After that the priest must go to an open field and let the living bird go free.”² This sprinkling of the blood seven times on those with leprosy may have been the formula used by Elisha in having the Syrian General Naaman dip seven times in the Jordan River to cleanse his leprosy.³

But the mystery is that Jesus told him not to spread the news of his healing among the people. This was not done just to conceal Jesus’ power as the Messiah, but Jesus did this with an ulterior motive. He knew that His journey to the cross on Mt. Calvary would be laced with traps and temptations instigated by Satan in order to stop Him from carrying out His Father’s will. The crowds were already huge and cumbersome, so He did not want them to become so large that He could go nowhere without such a large entourage. In addition to this, such large healing and miracle campaigns would become a distraction and inhibit Him from delivering the good news the Father sent Him to tell everyone, and carry out His mission as the Lamb of God to pay the price for the sins of mankind. In other words, it was another way of avoiding the devil’s temptation to quit now while He was ahead. In this particular case, no matter how clean the leper looked or how much he claimed to be healed, the law still in effect required the ordained authority of a priest to make it acceptable.

Naturally, as he went to the priest and then returned home the question of how he was healed would immediately come up, and Jesus knew that it might cause the religious officials and priests to hunt Him down and that would impede the scope of His ministry. He only had a couple of years left before His crucifixion, so He wanted to be free to go as far and wide as possible, preaching the kingdom of heaven and healing the sick. It is clear, that to our Lord the leper’s healing and return to society was going to have more effect on those being told than on the leper himself.

Also, our Lord’s recommendation that the leper consult with a priest may have confused many of His opponents who thought He had no respect for the laws of the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, the writer of medieval Jewish polemic writings on the New Testament put it this way: “Now, I am surprised at His commanding the leper to go to the priest and bring his sacrifice. Once he was cured by Jesus why should he have to go to the priest? Moreover, from the time of His birth we don’t see that he commanded the observance of any other commandments in the Torah, such as those regarding the Sabbath, circumcision, pork, and the mixing of species, and several others which , in fact, He permitted people to transgress after His arrival. Indeed, even this commandment was not observed from that time on.”⁴ It appears that this critic of Jesus’ ministry was solely focused on this incident here in Matthew. But what about the ten lepers in Luke who were told to do the same thing.⁵ When I think of all the great men and women that have been given this special gift of healing, I wonder how much more effective they might have been in reaching many more with the Gospel, had they not had been so burdened with such fame for healing the sick?

Verse 5: Jesus then went into the city of Capernaum. When He entered the city, a Roman army officer met Him and begged for help.

By this time, Capernaum was becoming the headquarters city for Jesus’ ministry. Most of His disciples came from this area and His biggest supporters lived in this metropolis. It was also a major city for the Roman occupation of Galilee, as well as becoming a chief cog in the wheel of Jewish teaching and political influence. Being a centurion, this Roman officer was the commander of the garrison there that housed the occupying troops. A centurion was thought to be in charge of 100 men. However, one Neapolitan lawyer wrote the following toward the end of the 15^th century: “A band consisted of two centuries, each of which consisted of one hundred and twenty-eight soldiers; for a doubled century made a band, whose governor was called an ordinary centurion.”⁶ So based on the size of Capernaum, we can accept that this centurion was commander of a larger contingent than 100 soldiers.

However, though he was a centurion he thought it wise not to send an emissary to Jesus, but to go himself because this was not a military matter, but a personal request. However, according to Jewish teaching, the centurion could have sent a spokesman because it says: “A man’s agent is the same as the man himself.”⁷ It it most likely that this centurion already knew about the prophet from Nazareth who had settled in his area of responsibility, and the crowd that were drawn there by His healing power.

Verse 6: The Roman military officer said to Jesus, “Lord, my servant is at home in bed. He is paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

The description of the servant’s condition tells us that there was something seriously wrong, and the urgency of the centurion’s request suggests that he did not have long to live. In fact, among the Jews the language used by the centurion about his servant’s condition would have prompted an inquiry as to whom his estate should be given.⁸ It is also possible that because of the centurion’s description that the man could not move and was suffering from extreme pain, suggests that he had suffered a stroke or heart attack.

Early church father Chrysostom sees a high level of faith in action here. He states: “But having come to Him and saying: “My servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented,” some say, that by way of excuse he mentioned also the cause, why he had not brought him. ‘For neither was it possible,’ he said, ‘paralyzed as he was, and tormented, and at his last gasp, to lift and carry him.’ For that he was at the point of expiring, Luke said: ‘He was even ready to die.’⁹ But I say, this is a sign of his having great faith, even much greater than theirs, who let one down through the roof.¹⁰ For because he knew for certain, that even a mere command [from Jesus] was enough for the raising the patient up, so he thought it unnecessary to bring him [to Jesus].”¹¹

There is no reason to dispute Chrysostom, in light of the fact that the centurion had such a quick answer for why it was not necessary for Jesus to accompany him back to the house. It also signifies that this centurion knew more about Jesus than Matthew, who was also from this area, shared. No doubt the reality that our Lord made Capernaum His home contributed to this realization, since I’m sure the reputation of Jesus as a great healer had already spread throughout the city. That’s why every time Jesus was in the city, thousands were brought to Him for healing. But Jesus did not tell this centurion to get in line, because He certainly understood the urgency.

Verse 7-9: Jesus said to the officer, “I will go and heal him.” The officer answered, “Lord, I am not good enough for You to come into my house. You need only to give the order, and my servant will be healed. I know this, because I understand authority. There are people who have authority over me, and I have soldiers under my authority. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes. I tell another soldier, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and my servant obeys me.”

The awe that Jesus Himself expressed concerning this centurion’s faith was shared by many when they saw someone who was so important stand above the rest in his belief in God’s ability to meet the need at hand. And our Lord’s compliment of the centurion was a positive one, no doubt because even with him being a non-Jew, he sought out the Jewish Messiah for an answer to his urgent need. This is important, because we know from history that not all who paraded themselves before crowds as being compassionate and righteous were the same behind the scenes.

Take for instance an incident in Jewish literature where we read about a man, who after being insulted by another man found out that the one who insulted him was considered by many as a great teacher and leader. Upon finding this out, the insulted individual snorted: “If this man is a teacher, may there not be any more like him in Israel!”¹² We find similar story in the writings of a well-known Rabbi. After a man observed another gentleman, for whom he had little respect, being called by some of his neighbors Rabbi, expressed himself this way: “If this is what a Rabbi is supposed to be, don’t let there be any others like him in Israel.”¹³ How vital it is when people meet us on the job or socially and out in public don’t exclaim they hope there aren’t too many like us around, after they find out we are preachers or teachers of the Gospel, But Jesus was aware of people like the Jewish Teacher and Rabbi described in these stories.

A good friend of Chrysostom named Theodore (AD 350-428), Bishop of Mopsuestia (now in Turkey), has this to say about the faith of this Roman officer: “The centurion did not approach Jesus as one who is the Son of God and Lord of the whole creation (for at the time, before the crucifixion, this was not yet known even by the disciples). Rather, he came to Him as to a man who, because of His virtues, had received from God some greater-than-human authority. This is why he says, ‘For I also am a man.’ For since he had said to Jesus, ‘say the word,’ and this might seem proper to God only, he rightly adds the statement, ‘for I also am a man,’ as though to say, ‘It is nothing surprising if You, a man who has received authority from God, should be able to do this thing, since I myself, a man like you, receive subjects and am set over them to command them as I will’.”¹⁴

I agree with Bishop Theodore that there was no way for this centurion to know that this great healer named Jesus of Nazareth would die on a cross a few years later, and be celebrated as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, and after His resurrection and ascension into heaven would sit down at the right hand of the Father as every believer’s intercessor, and that the words of Isaiah would be applied to the new High Priest as the one by whose stripes we are healed. I also agree that in spite of this lack of knowledge, the centurion still recognized that all the power that Jesus exercised with authority did come from God on high, who in this officer’s mind was the Divine Commander-in-Chief. But we must also recall reading that word was already spreading throughout Galilee that this man Jesus was in fact the Anointed One, the Messiah. So while the centurion thought of Jesus as a man, I’m sure he believed Him to be, The Man!

Verse 10: When Jesus heard this, He was amazed. He said to those who were with Him, “The truth is, this man has more faith than anyone I have found anywhere in Israel.”

The early church preacher Chrysostom makes this point: “What then did Jesus do? What He had never done before, For whereas on every other occasion He was used to following the wish of His supplicants, here He rather springs toward it, and offers not only to heal him, but also to come to the house. And this He did, that we might learn the faith of the centurion. For if He had not made this offer, but rather said, ‘Go your way, let your servant be healed;’ we would have never known these things.”¹⁵

In one of his sermons on this text, Augustine makes this point: “Now this man was of the Gentiles, for he was a centurion. At that time the Jewish nation had soldiers of the Roman empire among them. There he was engaged in a military life, according to the extent of a centurion’s authority, both under authority himself, and having authority over others; as a subject obedient, ruling others who were under him. But the Lord, though He was among the Jewish people only, even now announced beforehand that the Church should be in the whole world, for the establishment of which He would send Apostles; Himself not seen, yet believed on by the Gentiles: by the Jews seen, and put to death. For as the Lord did not in body enter into this man’s house, and still, though in body absent, yet present in majesty, healed his faith, and his house; so the same Lord also was in body among the Jewish people only: among the other nations He was neither born of a Virgin, nor suffered, nor walked, nor endured His human sufferings, nor wrought His divine miracles. None of all this took place in the rest of the nations, and yet was that fulfilled which was spoken of Him, ‘A people whom I have not known, has served Me.”¹⁶ And how if it did not know Him? ‘Has obeyed Me by the hearing of the ear.’¹⁷ The Jewish nation knew, and crucified Him; on the other hand, the whole world heard and believed.”¹⁸

The whole point that Augustine is making here is that even though the Jews were more aware of all the scriptures that pointed to the coming Messiah, and in their opposition to Jesus were cognizant of the fact that the powers He possessed and exercised were also attributed to the Anointed One of God, they rejected our Lord as the Christ. But this Gentile needed only to see and hear what Jesus did and said, and it was sufficient to spark enough faith in him to believe that Jesus was sent from God, and all that He did was good. Therefore, the centurion had no fear that whatever Jesus did in response to his request, it would work together for his good and the good of his seriously ill servant.