The Healing of the Demon Possessed and the Paralyzed.

Matthew 8:28-9:10

The Healing of the Demon Possessed Men

There’s a second miracle that begins at verse 28 after which Jesus will get in the boat again and once again leave to go to another region of the Galilee. Let’s remind ourselves of where we are up to. 

28 When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 29 And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

(Matthew 8: 28-29)

Isn’t that interesting the demons recognized that Jesus was the son of God, now that’s a Messianic title that is an indication that they are recognizing not just the surface level of what that means about him being a child of God but that they also recognize that beyond that he is that the Messiah. As matter-of-fact scholars tell us that it was commonly believed that the Messiah came there would be a judgment in which all demons would be destroyed. Here they are being seen to recognize that he’s the son of God, and the fact that they were to be at the final judgement is an indication of the depth of their understanding as to who he was and their fear that he was going to potentially destroy them before that time. Listen to what they say next

30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And He said to them, “Go.” So, when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea and perished in the water. 

(Matthew 8: 30-32)

The demons make this strange request, and they ask that if he does cast them out they that they can be allowed to re-enter, reincarnated (if they like) in the herd of pigs, and Jesus agrees.

Now look at what verse 33 says,

33 Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. The told the people in the city “everything” that had happened. . 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

(Matthew 8: 33-34)

The demons got it, they recognized who Jesus was, but the people didn’t. Why if you had somebody appear and heal a troubled man by casting out demons and that even those demons recognized him as both Messiah the son of God how would you miss the importance of that and worse still ask him to leave. Well, that’s what the people in the local city did here. One commentator I read said, this is human selfishness at its worst, it did not matter to these people that the two men had been delivered and the local’s attitude was I don't care what happened to anyone else it was just a fear that Jesus might threaten their livelihood that concerned them. They told him to go and as we shall see in the next chapter that is exactly what Jesus did. So, this miracle demonstrates that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Messiah would destroy demons, and that he was the son of God and the Messiah who had the power over Satan and the demonic realms. 

However, a secondary point of this story is to show what Satan can do to people that let him into their lives, he can rob them of their sanity, and self-control fills them with fear, robs them of their joy, their friends and their family.  Society often isolates such people, but Jesus demonstrates that he can restore them both to sanity and into society.

In the flow of Matthew’s account this ratchets it up another notch compared to the first group of miracles. Jesus in the opening group of three miracles demonstrated he had power over disease, then he demonstrates he has power over nature now he’s demonstrating he has power even over the demonic realm.  What else is there to be discovered, well if you stick around things will get even more spectacular.

The Healing of the Paralyzed Man.

1 So, Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. 2 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”

(Matthew 9: 1-3)

Jesus delivers someone from demonic oppression and the religious hierarchy are unhappy, but when he tells someone, their sins are forgiven, and they go berserk.  Why so, before I answer that, before we get into the details, I want to point out something. If you’ve been following me thought this Gospel of Matthew, it’s very important to remember what the first miracle that Matthew described was. It was the cleansing of the man with leprosy. Do you remember what Jesus told the man to do after he had healed him? He said, “go to the temple and tell them what has happened and give the prescribed offering to the priest. 

Now notice this text carefully, verse three “Some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes”. Bible experts say the language used here points out something we may not pick up in translation, the words “some of the scribes” refers to the fact that this likely means that some of the religious leaders must have come all the way from Jerusalem and ended up in Capernaum to check on what was going on and it was they who were sceptical.  Some had come all the way from Jerusalem and come see what’s going on and part of the reason they came was probably because Jesus had sent the cleansed leper to them, and the priests had come because it was part of their job to determine if anyone who claimed to be the Messiah was genuine. It seems they had already made up their minds. So, they’ve shown up to examine Jesus and the first thing he says to someone in front of them is, “I forgive you of your sins” Look at their reaction, they say he’s blaspheming, and they say that because they know that only God can forgive sin.

Imagine me saying based on my own authority, I forgive you of all your sins, wouldn’t you think I was claiming to be God. Or maybe you would think I had just lost my marbles. Well, that’s what’s going on here, Jesus says you are forgiven, then he explains in no uncertain terms why he is able to do this, and his explanation and his reaction is fascinating.

4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 

(Matthew 9: 4-6)

To understand what this means you need to know that the religious leaders of that day taught all suffering was due to sin. Jesus didn’t believe that, but they did. So, Jesus says to them, now remember he is talking to people who believes that that suffering of this paralytic is due to his personal sin. So, he says, which is it easier for me to do say you’re forgiven or to heal the guy. Saying something is easy, right it is easy to say something, but that doesn’t prove anything. So, in this case for him to heal the guy because they thought sin caused his suffering then that proves that he has also forgiven him of any sin. Get the point? Jesus has ratcheted it up another notch by saying, “I can forgive sin”. 

I believe this miracle is told here at this point not just to demonstrate that Jesus can heal people, the gospels are full of that, it’s more than that, and it more than about demonstrating he is compassionate, though he was. This account is given, and it is given here to demonstrate his authority. In fact, it specifically says that in verse 6. “So that you may know the son of man has power”.  The Greek word “power” also means authority. That’s why I did this, he says, so again Jesus is demonstrating his authority he’s demonstrating that he is the Messiah but also that he is God, the Messiah, the savior who can forgive sin.

That’s the point of this miracle and there were three miracles I contend they all are given to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, the king of Israel.

Now at this point in the passage we have a diversion again into discipleship, just like he did when he had done his first set of three miracles. Let pick up at verse nine. 

The calling of Matthew.

9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So, he arose and followed Him. 10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 

Let’s pause at this point this is a point about discipleship again, just like at the end of the first three miracles when he said something about discipleship. So, at the end of the second group of three miracles he does and says something about discipleship.

Firstly, we see him meet and call Matthew, and the text says Matthew was a text collector, and Jesus says to him, follow me.  Now let me pause for a minute and talk about tax collector. I just thought you might find it interesting since we love to pay all kinds of taxes. I just want you to know there’s nothing new under the sun. At that time there were all kinds of different taxes there was a ground tax by which a man had to pay 1/10th of his grain and 1/5 of his fruit of the and vine to the government, either in cash or in kind. There was also an income tax would you like to know the rate of their income tax. This is going to really amaze you, income tax is not new they had it in Jesus day and the income tax was 1%. And did you know when income tax first started in the UK and for that matter the United States it was 1% also and it was paid every male from the ages of 14 to age 65 and every female from the age of 20 to 65. Then there were all kinds of other taxes also during the Roman occupation of the Holy land. There was a duty on anything from 2 ½% to 12 ½% on all goods that were imported and exported, tax had to be paid to travel on main roads with goods for sale or to cross bridges or to enter the marketplaces and towns or harbors. There were taxes on packed animals a tax on the number of wheels and axles on carts. There were taxes on goods bought and sold. Maybe you thought taxes were something new and you thought we had a lot of taxes today. Well, the Romans matched us in every way.

Matthew was one of those hated guys because they made their money by collecting the Roman taxes. When a country or a region had been conquered by Rome, they gave the job of collecting taxes to the highest bidder, the one who was prepared to offer the roman the most for the right to collect taxes. The tax collectors where then free to go collect whatever they could. They were generally dishonest, so the Jews hated them so much so that they were banned from attending the synagogue. They were included in the Levitical law like the beasts that were unclean. They were also forbidden to be a witness in court. They were the most despised and detested class they were considered unpatriotic because they were working for Rome. My point in telling you all of this is Jesus chose one of them to be his disciple. Jesus said to the most unlikely person you follow me, and Matthew did that as a matter of fact the Bible says he left everything and followed him. That’s significant for when he quit his job the Romans would fill it immediately so he could not go back and get his job again. Peter and James and John were fishermen they go back to the boat, Matthew had no boat to go back to, he really burned all his bridges so to speak, he couldn’t go back again.

Almost everybody who studies this passage concludes that when he wanted, he’s decided to follow Christ and he wants to introduce other to Christ, so he threw a sort of evangelistic party. But things don’t work out as he imagined, but we shall pick that up next time.