Only Jesus can heal and forgive

Read Matthew 8:1–4

Jesus healed a leper. (This is someone with a disease called leprosy. Leprosy is a terrible disease in the skin.) Jesus showed that he is the person whom God promised to send. He is the Messiah. He can forgive men and women.

Matthew now began a new section of his Gospel. (The section is Matthew 8:1–9:34.) It told about some miracles that Jesus did. Matthew wrote his Gospel in a careful way. So, there was a reason why he put the miracles here.

First, they fitted with what he had already said.

• In Matthew 4:16, he repeated the prophet Isaiah’s words. When Jesus began his work in Galilee, it was like a great light shining out.
• In Matthew 4:23–25, Matthew explained about the light. It shone out in Jesus’ words. It shone out in his actions too.
• In Matthew 5:17–20, Matthew showed again how Jesus’ words were like a great light.
• Now, in Matthew 8:1–9:34, he showed the same thing. He did this when he described some of Jesus’ actions.

The miracles in these two chapters did something else too. They confirmed the authority of Jesus’ words.

Miracles

In the Bible, miracles were important. They happened especially when God began something new. So, we read about miracles at the time of:

• Abraham. God first chose one small group to be his special people.
• Moses and Joshua. God rescued his people from Egypt. He had promised to give them the land. He led them into that land.
• Elijah and Elisha. These two men were the first of the great prophets.
• Daniel. This was a time when God’s people were especially in danger.
• Messiah. The Jews expected to see miracles when he came. So, Matthew recorded some miracles that Jesus did. Something is clear. Matthew wanted to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah. (Matthew 7:28–29.) The miracles showed that God’s kingdom had arrived. God had begun to do something new again.

The OT Law often mentioned diseases. Many people think that health was the only reason for the laws. But the OT does not seem to consider the disease called leprosy in the usual way. We usually think that contact with leprosy was dangerous. But, think about Naaman. He remained the leader of an army. But he had leprosy. (Read 2 Kings 5:1.) Gehazi had leprosy. But he could speak to the king. (Read 2 Kings 8:4–5.) Also, there were the priests. They must touch people who had leprosy. They must make sure that the leprosy had gone. But they might discover that the person still had the disease. (Read Leviticus 13:12–13.)

But the OT laws were often like signs. God used them to teach spiritual lessons. It was especially true about leprosy. This was because it was such an awful disease of the skin. It slowly spread over the whole body. A person with leprosy was like a dead person. He or she could not live with God’s people.

The sign of leprosy taught God’s people two things about sin. First, sin spoils people. Second, sin separates people from God. The words of Psalm 51:7 show this clearly. David asked God to ‘wash’ him. He wanted God to make him ‘clean’. Sometimes people did recover from leprosy. Then they would use this sort of language.

Jews thought that it was impossible to cure a person with leprosy. It was as hard as making a dead person come back to life. They thought that only God could heal a person with leprosy. (Read Numbers 12:13–15 and 2 Kings 5:14.) But, Jews believed that both these things would happen when the Messiah came. Matthew suggested this belief in Matthew 11:5. So, this story confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah. It taught that he was God. It showed that Jesus could forgive sin. (Compare Mark 2:1–12.)

Leprosy disease is a like a picture of sin

The poor man with leprosy here seemed to have understood much. He called Jesus ‘ Lord’. The word could just mean ‘Sir’. But the Bible also used it as God’s name. The man worshipped Jesus. He believed that Jesus could heal him. (And only God could do that.) In Luke 5:12, we read that he was ‘full’ of leprosy. So, he showed great understanding and trust in Jesus. Jesus’ action (Matthew 8:3) confirmed this.

Verse 4 is difficult. Jesus said that the man must not tell anyone. That could be difficult to understand There are various ideas. Perhaps it was only until the man had been to the priest. Perhaps Jesus thought that the priests would be jealous of him. If so, they would not want to declare that the man was ‘clean’. People might think about Jesus as just someone who did miracles. Jesus did not want this. He wanted them to know him as the Messiah. It was he who made people ‘clean’ from sin.

There is another matter in verse 4. The priest needed to say that the man was well again. This would be a proof to people. Perhaps Jesus was talking about the people in the crowd. The miracle would confirm his words. Perhaps he was talking about the priests. If so, Jesus’ act would confirm his work. Then there would be no excuse for them to oppose Jesus.

So, leprosy is like a sign. It shows that a person is a sinner. Sin is like the disease of the skin, leprosy. Sin spoils the whole person. It shows itself in different ways. But it proves that there is a serious disease. No medicine will heal it. The person will be separate from God’s people. He or she cannot enter God’s kingdom. The end must be death. These things were true about leprosy then. They are still true about sin today.

But, there is an answer. Jesus put out his hand to heal the leper. It was against the OT Law to do this. (Read Leviticus 5:3.) A person who touched a leper became ‘dirty’ too. He became like a leper. But Jesus showed that he makes people ‘clean’ from sin. Only Jesus can ‘touch’ sin and heal the sinner. (Note: A leper is someone who has leprosy.)

Of course, there were things that the leper must do. Jesus’ power to heal was not just a matter of chance. The leper must recognise three things.

• He must be sure that he had a serious disease.
• He must be sure that Jesus, as God’s Messiah, could deal with it.
• He must trust Jesus to do it.

Jesus had great sympathy for this man. (Read Mark 1:41.) He healed him immediately. He healed him completely. Jesus never refused to help anyone who came to him. He always forgave the sin of anyone who came to him. He is still the same today.

Questions

• It is wonderful if Jesus heals you by a miracle. But there is something even more wonderful. It is when Jesus forgives you. This is a miracle too. Think about what Jesus has done for you. Make a list. Some people do this in another way. They pretend to write a letter to thank God.
• Should people in the church ask God to heal people? What place should this special work have in the church?
• Do non-Christians need people who do miracles? Do they need preachers? (A preacher declares God’s word in public.) Or do they need both? Give a reason for your answer to this question.