Today I read Matthew 8, which contains a series of miracles the Lord performs including cleansing a leper, healing the centurion's servant and calming the sea. The first miracle is the cleansing of the leper. I find this interesting how the Savior actually does the healing. The leper approaches Jesus and tells Him that he knows the Lord can save him, it's just a matter of if the Lord WILL clean him. And not only does the Lord say He will heal him, but Jesus actually touches the man. This is HUGE for this leper because under the Mosaic law, those with leprosy were cast out and no one would touch them because they did not want to catch the leprosy for one thing, but also, and possibly even more important, they did not want to touch a leper because lepers were unclean. And if they touched him then they would be unclean. So depending how long this man had leprosy, it might have been years since another person had actually touched him. Now that's compassion.
The second miracle was the Lord healing the centurion's servant. I've always marveled at the faith of the centurion, I mean I know there is a lot more that the Savior did that we don't have a record of, but for this man to believe completely that all the Savior had to do was say the word and it would be done, that's true faith. It is truly an amazing thing that this man was not even a Jew and the centurion believed completely. Like I said there must be more, many more miracles by this point that we don't have a record of for the man to believe so completely at the beginning of the Savior's ministry.
The next miracle is the calming of the sea. I've often wondered about this one. It is still calling those that were with Him disciples and so He has not called them to be His Apostles yet, nor have there been many miracles yet, that we have a record of. And yet the Lord acts as though the men's fear of drowning in the sea is completely unfounded because He was with them, but I'm not sure why the Lord felt that way. I mean, even if they had seen several miracles at this point, I'm not sure the disciples made the connection in their minds that He had the power to calm the sea. I doubt I would have in all honesty. But yet, their wording when they wake Him up seems to suggest that they felt He could do something about their plight so perhaps the light rebuke is warranted. But then at the end they marvel that He has control over the elements and the seas and the storms. All in all, the story is weirdly worded to me and I don't understand all of it. Perhaps it's just as simple as they hoped the Lord could do something, but they weren't very confident of it.
The last miracle is the casting out of the devils into the herd of swine. This story has always been strange to me. There are some details missing from this version that are in other versions that we'll read later but I have often wondered just why the entire herd of swine run into the sea after the devils go into them. Did the pigs do it themselves meaning they prefer death to being possessed of the devils? Or perhaps even more strange, did the devils have the pigs do it? I don't think that is very likely since they had just begged the Savior to let them inhabit the swine instead of just being cast out back into nothing. Perhaps the pigs were so terrified at what was happening to them that they did not even realize where they were running to and it was an accident. We may never know.
The truly interesting thing to me though is that the Lord allowed them to take over the bodies of the pigs. I would have thought that the Lord would tell the evil spirits no and force them out. Why would He allow them to take possession of another creature? We are not told and it is very strange to me. I can understand the spirits desire to have a body was so strong that it did not matter to them what body they inhabited, but why did the Savior acquiesce to their request? I may never know in this life but I am really intrigued by it. Maybe as I ponder on it I will find something out before we re-read this story in one of the other Gospels.
As we mentioned above, we certainly do not have all the works that the Savior performed and it is obvious He was already well known for performing miracles by how people are treating Him at even the beginning of His ministry. I can only imagine what we don't have a record of and will get to read some day. I think when we finally get to read the entirety of the Savior's life, the fact that the Jews rejected Him will be even more amazing and dumbfounding than it already is. Until tomorrow.
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