One of the
questions that drives Matthew’s story is, “Just who is this Jesus?” The question
focuses around two issues in chapter 8.
The first
issue is ritual purity. Some background: much of the book of Leviticus deals
with questions of ritual purity, that is, under what conditions is an Israelite
allowed to enter the tabernacle. Now entering the tabernacle was a big deal:
the sacrificial system was the way that one was set right with God and affirmed
in one’s membership in the people of God. To be disallowed from the tabernacle
was a devastating turn of events. (Sometimes this preacher wishes that people
understood attendance at the Lord’s house in the same way: a privilege and a
blessing that ought to be the desire of our hearts.) Jump ahead from Leviticus
a millennium and a half to Jesus’ day, and Jesus was faced with the Pharisees,
a group for whom ritual purity was one of the defining markers of being a good
Jew. And not just when a Jew wanted to go to the Jerusalem temple, but every day!
What does
all this have to do with Matthew 8? First, contact with a diseased body meant
that a person lost his ritual purity, and Jesus touches a leper! In the Jewish
mind, ritual uncleanness is contagious and Jesus should have become unclean.
But Jesus subverts those expectations and demonstrates that in His case, it’s His
purity that is contagious and the man is healed. Second, Jesus interacts with a
Gentile, and not just any Gentile but a Roman army officer, the very oppressor
himself. And Jesus, far from becoming unclean, Jesus declares him more faithful
than anyone in Israel. Third, there are demons and hogs (the epitome of unclean
animals) at the end of the chapter. Clearly, Jesus understands ritual purity very
differently than the most prominent leaders of Israel, leading them to wonder, “Just
who is this Jesus?”
The other
issue is the stilling of the storm. There the disciples explicitly ask, “What kind
of man is this?” That the wind and wave obey Him makes Him more than just any
other man. (Seems to me that’s a good story to ponder in these days of
pandemic: our Triune God continues to be the one who commands nature. We might
not understand why He doesn’t use that power immediately to settle this crisis,
but it’s good to be reminded God has never stopped being God.)
So, here is
Jesus, demonstrating authority over Moses’ Law and over nature itself. The
participants in the story will only slowly grow in their understanding of who
Jesus is, but how blessed are we that we know already: that Jesus is the Son of
God!
Well written! Thank you!
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