Matthew 8:18-34

Matthew 8:18-22 Jesus cautions people who claim they want to follow him

There are two stories here.  The first story involves a scribe.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus undermined the common understanding of many Old Testament passages by his novel interpretation of the Scriptures.  Yet now a scribe, a scholar trained in analyzing the Law, comes to him and says he will follow Jesus.

Why is it significant that a scribe expresses interest in following Jesus?

Jesus’s response if rather cryptic.  What is the meaning of his reply to the scribe (verse 20)?

What is Matthew hoping we will take from this story about the scribe?

In verse 21, another man approaches Jesus. This man is a “disciple” – in other words, someone who has already been following Jesus around.  What does he say?

Scholars suggest that when he says, “Let me go and bury my father,” he probably doesn’t mean that his father just died.  Rather, he is saying: I will follow you after my father dies.  This might be meant literally, but it also might be meant figuratively: When I am no longer under his authority, or when I no longer have any obligations to him, or when I won’t have to deal with his disapproval of my following you.  In any of these cases, it might be years before this “disciple” could actually envision following Jesus with his whole self.

When or how do we sometimes put off following Jesus, or put off getting more serious in our commitment to him?

What is the meaning of Jesus’s reply?

Some scholars think that “let the dead” means let those who are unresponsive to the new life Jesus is proclaiming.  If so, what is Jesus saying?

Sometimes people are unresponsive to new ideas because they don’t want to question what they already believe – they’re too embedded in their comfortable mental ruts.  My high school drama teacher Tom Beagle, the teacher who had the greatest impact on my life, was fond of saying, “People who stop thinking are as good as dead.  They haven’t lain down yet, but they sure do stink up the place.”

What is Jesus implying in calling some people “dead”?

The key to this passage may be the word "first" in verse 21, which involves the issue of priorities. Matthew is trying to make a point about discipleship – about being a follower of Jesus.  What is he trying to tell us?

How important is it to be a 100%, all-in follower of Jesus?

What do these two interactions with Jesus say to you about your own level of discipleship?

Do these passages make you more or less eager to be a follower of Jesus?  Explain.

In the next set of 3 miracles, Jesus expands beyond the narrow realm of physical healing.

Matthew 8:23-27 Jesus rebukes the storm

There are anecdotal stories of sudden, fierce storms on Lake Kinneret, the modern name for the Sea of Galilee.  The lake is nearly 700 feet below sea level, in a valley surrounded by rugged and arid terrain, and it is affected by Mediterranean sea breezes as well as the temperature dynamics in the valley.

What is the disciples’ reaction to the storm in verse 25?

What is Jesus’s response in verse 26?  What does his rebuke say to them and to us?

Note that Jesus doesn't say they have "no" faith – just "little" faith. How might this be an encouragement to us?

What does Jesus do?

What is the meaning behind the question the disciples ask in verse 27?  What are they really wondering?

In Jesus’s time, how might this kind of miracle – calming a storm – have been considered a sign of even greater power than physical healings?  What does this miracle tell us about Jesus?

People often see this incident as metaphor for how we deal with the storms of life.  What does it say to you personally as a metaphor for life?

Matthew 8:28-34 Jesus, men, demons, and pigs

There is uncertainty about the location of this event, because Mark 5:1 says it is in the land of the Gerasenes, whereas Matthew says Gadarenes. Gerasa was 35 miles from the Sea of Galilee. Gadara is a more likely location. It was a predominantly Gentile town (one of the 10 cities of the Decapolis) just 6 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Matthew 8:28 fn., p. 21). However, the early church father Origen believed it happened in Gergesa, a town that was directly on the shore (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1, p. 326), and that name appears in some of the later manuscripts (New American Bible, revised edition, Matthew 8:28 fn.) and ended up in the King James version of the Bible.

It was common for Jews in Jesus’s time to think that demons were everywhere and were behind every bad thing that happened.

This incident happens in a town that had many Gentiles.  We know this because Jews would not have had a herd of pigs, since it was forbidden to eat pork – even dealing with live pigs was considered unclean. This is the second miracle (the first involved the centurion) where Matthew shows that Jesus is for all people – Gentiles as well as Jews.

How do you think the people in this town felt about the two demon-possessed men, as they approached Jesus?

What do they shout at him in verse 29, and what does it mean?

In Jesus’s time, many Jews expected that the Messiah, when he came, would vanquish demons as well as earthly powers.  The demons are implicitly recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and suggesting that he is acting before his appointed time.

What do the demons ask of Jesus?

Why do you think Jesus agreed to do this?

People sometimes object to the possibility that Jesus might have caused the death of these innocent pigs.  Those of us who eat pork and do not have a religious objection to pigs might be more sympathetic to the pigs than a Jewish audience would have been.

Barclay has an interesting response.  In Jesus’s time, many people believed that legions of demons were all around them everywhere they went in their daily lives.  Jesus might have realized that it would be hard for the two men to believe that they had been freed from their demonic tormentors without some visible sign.  The stampeding of the pigs served as physical evidence that the demons were no longer in the men.  And since it was believed that demons are killed by water, it would be clear that these demons are now dead and could no longer torment them or anyone else.  In this view, a herd of swine is not too high a price to pay to save two men ((Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1, pp. 329-330).

How do you think that Jews observing this would have felt about what happened?

Why would Jesus’s power over demons have been seen as a greater power than even power over the storm?

What does Matthew want his readers to understand about Jesus?

The swineherds run off and tell the whole town what happened, and the people come out to Jesus.  But whereas the people who heard about Jesus from the woman at the well in the Gospel of John came out to learn from him and ultimately believed in him, the people of this town had a different reaction.

How do the people of the town react?  What do the ask Jesus to do?

Why do you think that is their reaction?

They probably were concerned about the economic impact of the loss of the swine.  They may also have had other fears.

Isn’t it sad that the people of this town, when given an opportunity to spend time with the Messiah, ask him to leave?  Compare this tragedy to the loss of the swine.

Are there ways in which we ask Jesus to stay at a distance from us because of fear that he might ask us to do things that would affect our pocketbooks or finances?

How might it be true that we don’t even see the choices we are making, small and large, that keep Jesus from being an integral part of our lives?

If you were God, how would you respond to the fact that some people don’t want quite such a powerful, active, and personal God?

Take a step back and consider this:

Previously, Jesus healed people, showing his power over illness and therefore, in a sense, his power of the human body.  In these two miracles – the calming of the storm and the freeing of the demon-possessed men – we see Jesus revealing his power over nature and over the demons in the unseen spiritual world around us.  This is monumental power he is showing.  And since how power comes from his Father in heaven, he is showing that he has been given authority over all of creation – both visible and invisible, seen and unseen.

Most Christians do not see God working in such dramatic, physical ways.  But to tell the truth, most Christians would be uncomfortable if God did act in such dramatic, physical ways.

Is it possible that we don’t often see God working in dramatic ways because, deep down inside, we’re not sure we want to be quite so close to such a powerful, active, personal God?  What might hold us back?

Are there ways in which you might be afraid of the uncertainty of living with a God who acts so powerfully?

Are there ways in which you might be afraid that you might have to give up too much of what you own, if you give your life totally to this kind of God?

Are there ways in which you might be afraid of the level of discipleship and commitment this powerful and active God might want of you?

How would Jesus respond to your concerns?  As he got in the boat and left that town, he probably did so reluctantly, with deep sadness in his heart.  He would have wanted to stay, and teach them, and share with them the love of his Father.  He wants to be with us and teach us, and love us, and work through us.  What is Jesus saying to you as you consider this story?