Matthew follows the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7 with two chapters of miracles performed by Jesus. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we learn the audience was amazed by Jesus’ teaching because He was teaching as “one having authority” (Matthew 7:28-29). It is not by mistake that Matthew spends the next two chapters showing the authority Jesus also has over sickness, death, nature, and the spirit world. In this study, we’ll be examining Jesus’ miracles and what His purpose was in doing these works.
POWER OVER NATURE
Jesus got into a boat with His disciples and began to cross the sea of Galilea. As they sailed, He went below deck to get a nap. While He was sleeping, a “great storm” came upon them (Matthew 8:24). The boat was being battered with waves. The disciples began to panic saying “Save us, Lord, we are perishing!” Jesus woke up and responded:
Matthew 8:26-27- He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?
Jesus simply spoke. In Mark 4:39 it’s recorded that Jesus said “Hush, be still.” And at the moment He spoke, they were in a perfectly calm sea. We can have some fairly dramatic changes in the weather here in the Midwest. We’ve all experienced a heavy thunderstorm at some point in the day and another point on the same day, beautiful, sunny weather. It’s always a little eerie when that happens. But this was even more dramatic than that! They went from fearing for their lives as their boat was taking on water, to a beautiful stillness on the water at the word of the Lord!
The disciples were in awe. In Luke’s account of this event, he said “They were fearful and amazed…”(Luke 8:25). Jesus had been with them for some time now, and they had witnessed some amazing miracles, but this one blew their minds! They asked themselves “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?” (Matthew 8:27)
POWER OVER DEMONS
Jesus got out of the boat in the country of the Gadarenes. The area had been afflicted by two men who were possessed by demons and were causing all kinds of trouble. They were extremely strong and aggressive. They were unable to be subdued by others or even chains (Luke 8:29). The demon-possessed men were living in the caves/tombs between the town and the sea and had caused the route between the two locations to be closed because they were so violent (Matt. 8:28). We know from Mark 5:9 that the demons called themselves Legion because they were many. But as Jesus moves along this path, the demon-possessed men approached Him:
Matthew 8:29- And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have you come to torment us before the time?
These demons knew who Jesus was immediately. They cried out in fear, they addressed Him as ‘Son of God’ and they knew what His presence meant for them. The knew that Jesus is God and had the power to eliminate them at an appointed time and that He will send them to eternal punishment.
Matthew 8:30,31- Now there was a heard of many swine feeding at a distance from them. The demons began to entreat Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”
These demons, that were too powerful for chains and for the people of the town to overcome, see Jesus, and they immediately identify him as God and beg him for mercy. Jesus then orders them to “Go!” into the swine and the swine run off a cliff and all perish in the water below. Jesus had complete authority over the demons.
The response of the townspeople however wasn’t what you’d expect. They came out to Jesus and rejected Him. Between the fear they had that someone would have this kind of power, and their anger losing the heard of pigs, they implored Jesus to leave their region. (Matthew 8:34)
POWER OVER DEATH
Jesus was approached by an elder in the synagogue named Jairus who had a sick daughter. The job of the elder in the synagogue was to run the operation and take care of business. The Synagogue was at the center of Jewish society and this man was an important official. He began to come to Jesus asking for Him to heal his sick daughter but then received word that she had died while he was en route. So Jairus changed his request.
Matthew 9:18- …a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”
Jesus got up with his disciples and went to Jarius’ home where his daughter was already being mourned. She had been pronounced dead. At that time, professional mourners would be hired by people who could afford it. They would come in and wail and play flutes and make a big sorrowful show. This was already taking place by the time Jesus arrived.
Matthew 9:23-25: When Jesus came into the official’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder, He said “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been sent out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
Jesus said the girl wasn’t dead right before raising her was his way of saying that her death wasn’t final. He was declaring what He was about to do. In the story of Lazarus rising from the dead in John 11, Jesus used the same language, “that he’d only fallen asleep”. Lazarus had been dead for four days and was in his tomb. In both cases, Jesus knew he was about to raise them from the dead and therefore death wasn’t final for them so he described them both as ‘asleep’.
Everyone knew this girl had died. She was on the way to burial. So when Jesus dramatically cleared out the noisy crowd in the official’s house, they mocked Him. But a few moments later, the girl was up and walking around. The result was Jesus showing his power and authority over death!
POWER TO FORGIVE SIN
Jesus came home to Capernaum and began teaching in a house. Some men bring a paralytic to him but cannot get to Jesus because of the crowds. So, they took their friend to the roof and make a hole in the roof to lower their paralyzed friend down to Jesus.
Matthew 9:2- And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven”.
Jesus acknowledges the great faith of these men. They knew Jesus could heal their friend, so much so that they would stop at nothing to get him to Jesus. Even to the point of digging a hole in this person’s roof, something they likely had to pay for or fix themselves.
But Jesus, rather than just healing the paralytic’s physical ailments, responds by forgiving the man of his sins.
Matthew 9:3-5: And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’?
The reason the scribes are saying this is blasphemy is that only God is able to forgive sins (Mark 2:7). Jesus is making an unmistakable statement. He knows what they’re thinking and addresses it directly. Jesus is claiming to be God.
Matthew 9:6-7: But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”- then He said to the paralytic, Get up, pick up your bed and go home”. And he got up and went home.
This statement in Matthew 9:7 is the reason Jesus was working miracles. Jesus shows his power over sickness, nature, death, and the demons that demonstrates his complete authority over all aspects of the world. The miracles authenticate that Jesus is the Messiah! And He can forgive your sins and mine.