Jesus’ Early Miracles in Matthew
“Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” (Matthew 4:23).
Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy of Jesus, showing that his legal guardian, Joseph, was descended from Abraham, and from David. In Chapter Two is an account of Jesus’ miraculous birth. In Chapter Three is a brief account of the work of John the Baptist and then the baptism of Jesus himself, by John. Chapter Four recounts Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness for meditation and testing. Matthew 4:12 then jumps to the time that John had been imprisoned, whereupon Jesus travelled northward to Galilee where he had an extensive service.
“His fame went throughout all Syria … and he healed them … And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan” (Matthew 4:24,25). Thus, though Jesus remained in the north, people from all parts of Israel flocked to him, intent on seeking his Godly leadership, teachings, and healings.
Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 then narrate the “Sermon on the Mount.” Probably these three chapters of admonitions aggregate to one narrative things that Jesus spoke on various occasions, because they were thematically related. That was the style of Matthew’s account. He grouped things by topic. That explains, for example, why the Lord’s Great Prophecy of Matthew 24 contains elements that Luke’s account shows to have been said on various occasions, split in Luke’s account between chapters 12, 17, and 21.
Then, in Chapter 8, Matthew begins to narrate specific events in the ministry of Jesus that evidently followed Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. These were healings and teachings that were individually identified, and continue until Matthew 9:9 which then turns to other kinds of testimonies — the calling of Matthew himself, and various specific teachings of Jesus.
This isolates, or rather segregates, the experiences of Matthew 8:1 through 9:8 as a unit. Presumably Matthew himself was witness to the experiences he records here, even though he did not follow Jesus on a regular basis until he was called away from his job “at the receipt of custom” in Matthew 9:9.
MATTHEW 8:1 ‑ 9:8 — SIX EPISODES
There are six episodes recorded in this section. It is the first detailed record of specific activities of Jesus in Matthew’s account. It appears that these form a consecutive series of pictures that have a deeper meaning about the progression of blessings, first through the Gospel Age, and subsequently into the Kingdom.
(1) MATTHEW 8:1‑4 — BLESSINGS TO JEWISH BELIEVERS
Matthew 8:1 begins, “When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.” This introduction perhaps has a spiritual meaning introducing the ministry of Jesus. When he came down from the heavenly kingdom, to serve here, many followed him.
Those served first by Jesus were the Jewish people, and the first miracle evidently pertains to them. “There came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” We are all lepers, in the sense that leprosy represents sin, and we are infected with sin through being children of Adam. We recognize that in Jesus, we can be cleansed. Jesus agreed to assist him, reached out to touch the leper, and “immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (verse 3).
Whereupon Jesus said, “Go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” It is this part of the interchange that indicates this first healing pertains to the Jewish people whom Jesus came to serve first. The Jewish people, and in this case the Jewish authorities, were the first to see the evidence that Jesus was God’s means for curing the sin sick world.
(2) MATTHEW 8:5‑13 — BLESSINGS TO GENTILE BELIEVERS
The next beneficiary was a centurion, who would have been a Roman, a Gentile. After the Jewish people, the gospel went out next to Gentiles, formally beginning with Cornelius as recorded in Acts chapter 10 — a person who himself also was a centurion. Thus the healing on behalf of this centurion is an apt way to represent the reach of the Gospel later to the Gentiles from Cornelius forward.
Other Gentiles had come to Jesus even during his ministry. The Syro‑Phoenician woman of Mark 7:26‑29 appealed to Jesus for her daughter, and after expressing her humility with the metaphor of seeking scraps from the children’s table, Jesus blessed her with her request.
Later, in the last week of Jesus’ life, John 12:20,21 records, “There were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast … saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.” Philip introduced them to our Lord, and his reaction was meaningful. “Jesus answered them, saying, the Hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (verse 22). Jesus knew that Christianity would extend world wide. The Gentiles then seeking his favor were a token that this expansion of his service was near at hand.
“It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob … I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
The centurion in Matthew 8:6 had asked some relief on behalf of his servant, who “lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” The Gentile world was under the thraldom of sin as much as the Jewish world, but without hope; they were by comparison “grievously tormented.”
Feeling unworthy of the personal presence of the Master, the centurion requested him merely to “speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed” (verse 8). Indeed, when the Gospel of Jesus would heal the Gentiles, it would not be through Jesus’ personal presence with them, as he had ministered to so many of the Israelites in their synagogues. It would be through the word of Jesus, going out through so many devoted emissaries. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Those words would be carried throughout the Gentile world, after the departing of Jesus, bringing blessings to all who trusted in it.
Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant of palsy, from a distance.
Jesus marveled at the Centurion’s faith. Even among his Jewish followers he did not find this kind of conviction, that merely to have the command for healing from the lips of the master, would suffice. Jesus granted the request, “And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” In commending this Gentile believer’s faith, Jesus then said the following:
“Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out” (Matthew 8:11,12). When Jesus spoke these words, he meant that many Gentiles would embrace the hopes of the Abrahamic Covenant, during the Gospel Age, while many natural Israelites, “children of the kingdom” by heritage, would forsake the privilege and be replaced.
Jesus’ words respecting the Gentiles are similar to Psalms 107:3, which speaks prophetically about the call to the Church class, mostly out of the Gentile world. God would “gather them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south.” That is — lands removed far from Israel, the center of Jewish culture and heritage.
(3) MATTHEW 8:14‑22 — INCREASE IN NUMBERS
The next episode began with removing a fever from Peter’s wife’s mother, but expanded into multitudes “when even was come.” Suppose that the first episode above, chiefly about Jewish believers, refers to the Jewish Harvest period. And that the second episode refers to the even greater expansion of the Christian community into the Gentile world of the Roman Empire. In this case, perhaps this third experience begins with the Pergamos phase of the church, the third church of Revelation.
In that period, from perhaps 325 AD (the Council of Nicea) until 1157 AD (the time of Peter Waldo), the expansion of the Gospel brought multitudes more into the Christian community. This would be so because now the powers of the state became nominally Christian, and they would magnify the spread of Christianity throughout their domain. However, it was not as pure a form of Christianity as had multiplied earlier.
Early in that church period the work was among the already Christian community, a “family” affair as it were, just as the third episode in Matthew was internal to the family of believers. But by “even” many came, being relieved chiefly of devils. So the expansion of the Gospel work in the third period relieved multitudes of the doctrines of devils, paganism, that had formerly maintained.
But with this increase, came a dilution in the quality of faith among them. In Matthew 8:18, “Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.” It was that way in the third church as well. Numbers increased greatly, but the true saints among them seemed compelled to separate themselves, fleeing into a wilderness condition. This is expressed also in Revelation 12:9,14. After Paganism had been cast out as a controlling influence in the ecclesiastical heavens, the true church was required to flee into the wilderness “for a time, and times, and half a time.”{1}
In Matthew 8:19, “a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” Jesus replied that the foxes had holes, the birds had nests, but “the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” So it was, symbolically, of saints fleeing into the wilderness during this period of Christian history.
In the fourth period of the Church, Thyatira, spiritual conditions declined further in the mass of Christendom so that there was little spiritual life and rampant spiritual death (Revelation 6:8, 2:23). In Matthew 8:21 a disciple who wished to follow Jesus requested that first he wait long enough to “bury my father” — probably meaning that he would remain with his father until his passing. Jesus’ reply was “let the dead bury their dead,” and during the darkest part of the dark ages spiritual death was epidemic. It was for conscientious followers to move onward with the words of life, and not linger.
(4) MATTHEW 8:23‑27 — STORMY SEA
The disciples followed Jesus into a ship, perhaps representing the Christian community within the countries of Christendom, the “ship of state.” There “arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep” (verse 24). Wars stirred up the “sea class” of Europe with many distresses. The “Hundred Years’ War” from 1337 to 1453, the “Thirty Years’ War” from 1618 to 1648, and the Napoleonic Wars (1799‑1815), were among these.
Jesus predicted that this would occur during the Gospel Age. “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars … these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:6,7). It might have seemed to the saints that Jesus was unmindful of these distresses, symbolized in the narrative by “he was asleep” (Matthew 8:24). But Jesus rose, calmed the seas, and encouraged their faith. By the time the end of the age did arrive, the surges of war had calmed.
(5) MATTHEW 8:28‑34 — DEMON INFLUENCE REMOVED
Jesus came ashore, perhaps representing the end of the age, the time of his presence. Two persons “possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce … cried out … What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God”? Art thou come higher to torment us before the time? (verses 28,29).
If the devils earlier represented the false spiritual influences of paganism, perhaps these two possessed of “devils” represent two false spiritual systems and their illicit influences that are active during the Harvest. Revelation 16:13 speaks of three forces — dragon, beast, false prophet — the first of these is Satan’s influence through political forces, but the last two are false religious systems. They are scheduled for the lake of fire by the end of the harvest (Revelation 19:20). But the harvest message at the outset was a torment (literally, a testing) before this destined time.
The spirit of these devils subsequently cost the loss of a herd of swine — an unclean animal that the Israelites should not have been tending — whereupon “the whole city … besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.” The harvest message, cleansing unclean influences from Christian doctrine, brought disruption. The city of Christendom did not welcome it.
(6) MATTHEW 9:1‑8 — SINS OF THIS WORLD
Jesus entered into a ship again and “came into his own city.” We now move in picture to the Millennial Kingdom. The ship of state is the Kingdom administration, and Jesus is in “his own city,” spiritually his own administration, New Jerusalem.
Jesus healed Peter’s wife’s mother.
The Centurion’s servant earlier was afflicted with “palsy,” and that is the plight of the sick man brought to Jesus now for healing. The earlier servant represented Gentile believers, and this man afflicted of palsy represents the Gentile world — all of mankind — in need of the healing touch of Jesus in the Millennium.
In this case Jesus said something that we did not encounter earlier. Rather than heal the man immediately, Jesus began with “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” This is how the Kingdom will begin. The first step is to remove the curse, the sin of the world that came through Adam’s transgression. Thereafter, relief from the aggregate sufferings will ensue.
When Jesus said this, “certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth” (Matthew 9:3). Religious leaders passing into the Kingdom may also resist the new leaders of the Kingdom. Bishops and Cardinals will not readily recognize the authority of the Ancient Worthies, directing affairs in Israel of a formerly non‑Christian people.
Jesus asked whether it was easier to say “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” or “arise, and walk”? Then he turned to the afflicted one, directed him to “arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house” — and he did. The restoring work in the Kingdom will evidence the authority of the new administration. “The multitudes saw it” and they marveled. Just as the world will witness remarkable things, and marvel.
— Extracted and expanded from a study by Br. John Kennedy, India
(1) Editor’s note: The 1260 “days” of 539‑1799, the “time, and times, and half a time,” were the “fleeing” of the true church from the Christian Roman church‑state system under Justinian and successors. The third church, Pergamos, started ~ 313 with vanquishing Paganism as a controlling influence in the ecclesiastical heavens. See more in the article following.