St. Matthew: Chapter 8

[lumengentleman]

1 And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him: 2 And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3 And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus saith to him: See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

"a leper came and adored him ..." The great irony begins: the unclean and the outcasts will recognize Our Lord's authority and adore Him; the religious officials will not

5 And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith to him: I will come and heal him. 8 And the centurion, making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.

"Lord, I am not worthy ..." These words are taken and adapted in the Roman liturgy, beginning with the Latin words Domine non sum dignus ...

9 For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth, and to another Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 And Jesus hearing this, marvelled; and said to them that followed him. Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel.

"I have not found so great faith in Israel ..." The irony continues.  First, a leper acknowledges Our Lord; now, a Roman centurion, a Gentile, manifests a great faith.

11 And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven:

"many shall come from the east and the west ..." That is, Gentiles from all over the world.  These will take their place along side the great Jewish saints of the Old Testament, thus forming the "new Israel."  The allusion here is to Ps. 107:2-4 (106:2-4 DR):

"Let them say so that have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy: and gathered out of the countries. From the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea. They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city for their habitation."

12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"the children of the kingdom ..." The natural, biological sons of Abraham.  The imagery of "gnashing of teeth" is an Old Testament image associated with the wicked:

"The just shall be in everlasting remembrance: he shall not fear the evil hearing. His heart is ready to hope in the Lord: His heart is strengthened, he shall not be moved until he look over his enemies. He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever and ever: his horn shall be exalted in glory. The wicked shall see, and shall be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away: the desire of the wicked shall perish." (Ps. 112:7-10, 111:7-10 DR)

13 And Jesus said to the centurion: Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour.

14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying, and sick of a fever; 15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered to them. 16 And when evening was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word: and all that were sick he healed: 17 That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet Isaias, saying: He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases.

"which was spoken by the prophet Isaias ... " A quote from Isaias 53:4 - "Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted."

18 And Jesus seeing great multitudes about him, gave orders to pass over the water. 19 And a certain scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou shalt go. 20 And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 21 And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.

23 And when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him: 24 And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but he was asleep. 25 And they came to him, and awaked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish. 26 And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm. 27 But the men wondered, saying: What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey him?

28 And when he was come on the other side of the water, into the country of the Gerasens, there met him two that were possessed with devils, coming out of the sepulchres, exceeding fierce, so that none could pass by that way. 29 And behold they cried out, saying: What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

"What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? ... " The ultimate irony: even the demons acknowledge that Jesus is the "Son of God."  The phrase "what have we to do with thee" denotes a readiness of submission - it is used verbatim in John 2 when Our Lord says to Mary, "what have I to do with thee?"

30 And there was, not far from them, a herd of many swine feeding. 31 And the devils besought him, saying: If thou cast us out hence, send us into the herd of swine. 32 And he said to them: Go. But they going out went into the swine, and behold the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea: and they perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled: and coming into the city, told every thing, and concerning them that had been possessed by the devils. 34 And behold the whole city went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart from their coast.

-----------------------------------------

Questions for Discussion

1. How does Jesus heal the leper?  What is significant about the method He uses?

2. Using a tool like www.blueletterbible.com, identify the two Hebrew words used in Is. 53:4 to describe "infirmities" and "sorrows."  What is the dual meaning that can be understood from these words, and how does that shed light upon St. Matthew's use of the passage here in the Gospel?

3. What other references in Is. 53 make that chapter associated with this chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel?

4. After studying the source of the words used in the Mass, Domine non sum dignus, etc., how might we apply this knowledge on a personal level to deepen our appreciation of the prayer?

5. Why does Jesus tell the prospective disciple, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead?"  Isn't burying the dead a corporal work of mercy?  Why does Jesus seem to downplay this work?

6. Locate "Gerasens" on a map (sometimes spelled "Gadarenes" or "Gergesenes") - is there anything significant about the healing of the demoniacs, or the reaction of the townspeople, give this location?

[VoxClamantis]

1. How does Jesus heal the leper?  What is significant about the method He uses?

 

John Chrysostom wrote:

 

But He did not merely say, "I will, be thou clean," but He also "put forth His hand, and touched him;" a thing especially worthy of inquiry. For wherefore, when cleansing him by will and word, did He add also the touch of His hand? It seems to me, for no other end, but that He might signify by this also, that He is not subject to the law, but is set over it; and that to the clean, henceforth, nothing is unclean. For this cause, we see, Elisha did not so much as see Naaman, but though he perceived that he was offended at his not coming out and touching him, observing the strictness of the law, he abides at home, and sends him to Jordan to wash. Whereas the Lord, to signify that He heals not as a servant, but as absolute master, doth also touch. For His hand became not unclean from the leprosy, but the leprous body was rendered clean by His holy hand.
 
Because, as we know, He came not to heal bodies only, but also to lead the soul unto self-command. As therefore He from that time forward no more forbad to eat with unwashen hands, introducing that excellent law, which relates to the indifference of meats; just so in this case also, to instruct us for the future, that the soul must be our care;--that leaving the outward purifications, we must wipe that clean, and dread the leprosy thereof alone, which is sin (for to be a leper is no hindrance to virtue):--He Himself first touches the leper, and no man finds fault. For the tribunal was not corrupt, neither were the spectators under the power of envy. Therefore, so far from blaming, they were on the contrary astonished at the miracle, and yielded thereto: and both for what He said, and for what He did, they adored his uncontrollable power.

[VoxClamantis]

2. Using a tool like www.blueletterbible.com, identify the two Hebrew words used in Is. 53:4 to describe "infirmities" and "sorrows."  What is the dual meaning that can be understood from these words, and how does that shed light upon St. Matthew's use of the passage here in the Gospel?

 

Found this there:

 

infirmities
Hebrew: choliy
Means: disease (internal or external), affliction, sadness, evil, calamity
Used in: Deut. 7:15, 28:61; Isaiah 1:5; Eccl. 5:16, 6:2

 

sorrows
Hebrew: mak'ob

Means: pain (inc. metaphorically "pain of soul"), sorrow

Used in: Ps 32:10, Job 33:19; Ex. 3:7; Lam. 1:12, 18

 

It seems that the dual meanings are used to make clear that He is not only some "Wonder Worker" Who deals with the physical, but is the Divine Physician Who heals souls...

 

[VoxClamantis]

3. What other references in Is. 53 make that chapter associated with this chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel?

 

I see a tie-in between these two verses, that characterize how He was treated by most of the Jews (the apostate Jews):

 

Isaias 53:2-3, 8
... there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:  Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity... He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.

 

Matthew 8:23
And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

[Mark]

As for question #1. Christ touched him physically and will him to be clean. He united His will, His intenion to the physical act of touching the leper. I see a small bit of similarity between this and the event where he cured the blind man in which Jesus mixed His spittle with dirt and rubbed it on the blind man's eyes to cure him and make him see. 

 

Now Christ was God, He could simply say "I command you to see". But instead He used exterior actions united with His interior Will, "Both a body and a soul", because such exterior actions are perceptible and in comformity to our physical senses as human beings. They are ways in which we perceive realities happening around us.

 

Also, the act of curing the leper is after the leper comes and adores Christ. Then after the leper is cured, Christ tells the leper to go show himself to the priest and offer a sacrifice, like a penance? (This sort of reminds me of being made clean after Confession and offering a penance) In other words Christ instructs the cured leper to be observant to the law according to the Old covenant.. 

 

At least these are things which first grabbed my attention.. any help is quite welcome..

 

[Mark]

5. Why does Jesus tell the prospective disciple, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead?"  Isn't burying the dead a corporal work of mercy?  Why does Jesus seem to downplay this work?

 

I have often wondered the meaning of this one also.. Hmmm. A Corporal work of mercy would only be meritorious (supernaturally) if one was in a state of grace. Perhaps in this instance Christ knew that he needed detachment from the things of this world and that it was more important that he get his soul right by following Christ over a work of mercy that would not even be meritorious for him in his current condition?

 

 

Alright, I'm stumped on this one.

[lumengentleman]

 

1. How does Jesus heal the leper?  What is significant about the method He uses?

 

John Chrysostom wrote: ...

 

Precisely.

 

Jesus, after having just delivered the New Law from the new mountain (The Sermon on the Mount), and thus showing Himself to be the New Moses, now demonstrates how the New Law is more powerful than the Old.

 

In the Old Law, physical contact with lepers (and other diseased persons) made you unclean.  The power of uncleanness was stronger.  In the New Law, Jesus makes physical contact with the unclean, but their uncleanness is less powerful than His healing touch - He doesn't become unclean, they become clean.

 

Mark was pointing out how Jesus seems to be insistent on combining both His will (as expressed via vocal commands) with His physical touch.  To that I say, "exactly."  This is the very basis and foundation of the sacraments - the Word of Christ united with some material element, whether it be a touch of the hand, a lump of mud/spittle, a chalice of wine, a font of water, etc.

 

What we are seeing unfold here is a bit of Matthean sacramentalism.

[lumengentleman]

5. Why does Jesus tell the prospective disciple, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead?"  Isn't burying the dead a corporal work of mercy?  Why does Jesus seem to downplay this work?

 

I have often wondered the meaning of this one also..

 

...

 

Alright, I'm stumped on this one.

 

Was the man's father dead or wasn't he?

 

For that matter, how does one dead man bury another dead man, as per Jesus' words, "let the dead bury their dead?"

[Mark]

 

 

Was the man's father dead or wasn't he?

 

For that matter, how does one dead man bury another dead man, as per Jesus' words, "let the dead bury their dead?"

Maybe Christ meant those dead in grace to bury others dead in grace?

 

OK, you win dang it, You're sure getting me to dig deep into this Gospel..  OK, time to pray, read, and meditate on this Gospel.

[VoxClamantis]

St. John Chrysostom wrote about the "let the dead bury the dead" verses by comparing and contrasting the scribe who said "I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou shalt go" with the disciple described immediately after, the one who said, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." He wrote:

 

Didst thou mark the difference? how one impudently saith, "I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest;" but this other, although asking a thing of sacred duty, saith, "Suffer me." Yet He suffered him not, but saith, "Let the dead bury their dead, but do thou follow me." For in every case He had regard to the intention. And wherefore did He not suffer him? one may ask. Because, on the one hand, there were those that would fulfill that duty, and the dead was not going to remain unburied; on the other, it was not fit for this man to be taken away from the weightier matters. But by saying, "their own dead," He implies that this is not one of His dead. And that because he that was dead, was, at least as I suppose, of the unbelievers.
 
Now if thou admire the young man, that for a matter so necessary he besought Jesus, and did not go away of his own accord; much rather do thou admire him for staying also when forbidden.
 
Was it not then, one may say, extreme ingratitude, not to be present at the burial of his father? If indeed he did so out of negligence, it was ingratitude, but if in order not to interrupt a more needful work, his departing would most surely have been of extreme inconsideration. For Jesus forbad him, not as commanding to think lightly of the honor due to our parents, but signifying that nothing ought to be to us more urgent than the things of Heaven, and that we ought with all diligence to cleave to these, and not to put them off for ever so little, though our engagements be exceeding indispensable and pressing.