Now in Matt. 8 we have the person of the Lord as present here. First, He meets the leper. The cleansing of the leper was a simply divine work. On the other hand, not only the leper was put out of the camp, but if any one touched him, he was put out too. Here the leper had seen the exercise of power in the Lord, but was not sure of His willingness, of His love. “If Thou wilt Thou canst.” With divine authority and reassuring love the Lord says,
“I will, be thou clean.” But more, though He were Jehovah who cleansed in love, He had become a man in grace; He touched man, so to speak; not infected or unclean with the uncleanness of men, but healing and cleansing them in grace through faith. “He put forth His hand and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean.” Impossible to have a more striking testimony of all that the Lord was in this world than this miracle. Next I find the recognition of universal divine authority in a Gentile. Though come amongst the Jews according to promise, God could not be confined to Israel. There was greater faith here than in heartless self-sufficient Jews; “speak with a word,” and all will be done, and so it was. Next, in home mercies, He bears our griefs and carries our sicknesses (not our sins here, though these were the fruit of sin being here). He not only heals with a word divinely, but comes as man in this power to know our sorrows. Still He is the rejected Son of man, not having where to lay His head, but come into the midst of an evil world, God manifest in the flesh. Adherence to and following Him at all cost was the test of righteousness, but following Him led into dangers and difficulties. Calm in the midst of the power of evil, rejected though He might be, He commands creation. All the power of the enemy, moreover, allowed therefore to be manifested, quails and bows before Him, not the less rejected for that; for man, who cannot drive away Satan, gets rid by his will of God even when come in grace. His presence disturbs him too much.
In chapter 9 we have the same divine power in the midst of Israel, but the character of His mission, through His person of course as manifesting God, still shines out. It is grace: He declares to the poor paralytic that his sins are forgiven him; the scribes in their hearts within judge Him as guilty in attributing to Himself what belonged to God only. He replies by exercising the power united to that of forgiving in Jehovah's ways with Israel in Psalm while taking still the place of Son of man. “Who forgiveth all thy sins, and healeth all thy diseases.” Forgiveness and healing, such was His mission if they would receive Him come in grace in the flesh. He proved the announced power and dealings of Jehovah present, but as Son of man by the exhibition of it in that part of what was announced, which was sensible to men in goodness. Then He calls Matthew, not come to call the righteous but sinners. The departure of the present Bridegroom is noticed, and the change from form to power. But then what was passing in Israel? Come to heal what was ready to die, He has in fact to raise the dead, for dead in sins we all are; but whoever by faith touched the hem of His garment was healed even of a disease which no human physician could cure. But blind and dumb were men (Israel), as well as spiritually dead.
We have here, then, miracles which show present healing there for faith which nothing else could afford; we have what was really in its fullness being wrought, raising the dead, the blind eyes opened, the tongue of the dumb loosed, and also, as ever, the harvest more plentiful than the laborers. Forgiveness and grace, the true character of what He was, were brought in, but showed in acts which manifested in present power what man could feel in his body, as in sorrow and evil down here, what God was, and this as present in goodness in the midst of men. The character of the mission and the character of the miracles are interwoven, and both, the expression of the character of God come down here and dealing in grace with man.
In the sad close of this chapter we see the effect on man's unchanged heart of goodness in power, of this manifestation of God. Rather than receive the Lord they ascribe miracles, which they could not deny, to the power of the devil. But the time for entirely giving them up was not yet come. Divine patience had yet a work to do. The unfaltering love of Jesus continues to seek the poor of the flock, if the Pharisees preferred blasphemy to grace, preaching the gospel, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. For He had compassion on the multitude, weary sheep without a shepherd; and this led to a further manifestation of power and grace. He sends others into the field: the harvest was plentiful; the laborers few. Ever is it so.
In chap. 10 we have not only power in goodness but power to give power; and this is properly divine Their work here is wholly confined to Israel. The mission to the Gentiles was from Christ as risen (28) but by His gift they were to exercise the same power as He did. Here it was seeking the remnant in Israel. If the house was worthy, peace was to rest upon it. The chapter is divided into parts all referring to Israel: their work then, to the end of verse 15; from verse 16 more general and continued, still in Israel, after His death till the Son of man came; but at present they must expect rejection. It is our lot in this world. They were not to fear. Not a sparrow fell to the ground (not merely without God, but) without their Father. For the Son revealed the Father's name; but we have seen this tested men. They could not stand the revelation of God. It brought out the enmity of the human heart against good, and especially against God; and enmity which, stronger than natural ties, wrought most where the relationship was nearest, and where the hated object—for hated, alas! as Christ has proved, it is—is more galling. The disciple is not above his Master; we have to take up our cross and follow Christ. Thus divine power, and its manifestation in goodness, and its rejection, go together as before.
This is fully developed in a solemn commentary on all in chapter 11. The ways and works of the Lord are summed up as testimony to John the Baptist, now in prison, on the question, Art thou He that should come? The blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised, the souls of the poor were cared for; but blessed was he who was not stumbled at the rejected Son of man—power in goodness and rejection! The Lord gives, not receives, testimony. But the solemn warnings of the Nazarite prophet of the wilderness, and the divine associations of grace with sinners to win them, men alike rejected. And this brought all to a point, the mighty works were in vain. In fact the truth of His person, too glorious for man as he was to receive, and in the perfect submission of Christ to His rejection as come among the Jews—His eternal personal glory, the Son revealing the Father in grace to burdened and needy hearts, taught submission withal by His own, that they might every way have rest—was what was really there, the new thing, and glory in grace shines out through the rejected but obedient Son of man.
The twelfth chapter completes the statement of the position in which Christ is here found, as well as that of the Jews as a body. There are but two particularized miracles referred to in it. The sabbath was the seal of Jehovah's covenant with Israel. As with the rejected David, so with the rejected Son of David, all things in Israel were made common. A greater than the temple, too, was there; the Son of man was Lord of the Sabbath. Had they understood mercy, as contrasted with mere law, they would not have condemned the guiltless. Under the Son of man's authority as Lord of the sabbath they were guiltless, but in their state of soul the Jews could not understand this. In the synagogue there was a man with a withered hand: convicting them of hypocrisy, well-doing was the manifestation of God and not the legal Sabbath. The old covenant was passing away. He withdraws and heals all that come. Meek and lowly, the time would come for Him to show judgment. He then works the second miracle referred to above, casting out a demon. The people say, Is it not the Son of David? The Pharisees repeat their blasphemy—He casts them out through Beelzebub. Now all was brought to an issue. If it was by the Spirit of God, the kingdom of God was come amongst them: they were openly blaspheming; divine power they could not deny, they were fully condemned, and at the end of their history would come under the full power of Satan. He did not own relationship in nature with Israel down here: those in whom His word wrought were His true relations. His connection with man was through what He brought, not what was in man, though He was a true man.
This closes the proper history of His ministry or service in Israel, though in divine mercy it continued, but with a testimony modified in character. But what His miracles were in testimony is clearly seen, and what they meant and said. His final breach with Israel leads to His going out and announcing the kingdom of heaven, but without the present King (chap. xiii.); full of interest, but not introducing any miracles. It is the first thing presented as taking the place of Messiah then presented on earth.
But in chap. 14 His mercy continues, though in a sovereign and divine way, not as Messiah, Son of man, presented to them. The putting to death of John the Baptist brought actual rejection close to His spirit, a solemn moment, felt deeply by the Lord, so that He retired apart, but the multitude came; yet the feeling for others or the solemnity of the moment never hindered the readiness of divine goodness. He was moved with compassion when He saw the multitudes; He meets it as Jehovah will fully in the last days, according to Psa. 132 He will satisfy her poor with bread. This as a sign He does. He then goes on high to pray—as He now is—the disciples being left to toil their way across the sea without Him, and rejoins them and all is still; and then He is joyfully received where once He had been rejected. But historically He exercises the same divine power in goodness—goodness above all the rejection and heartlessness of men. The hem of His garment made perfectly whole.
Chap. 15 is a very remarkable chapter, but I must touch on it only in connection with the miracle. Their human will-worship, as contrasted with God's law, and really to the temporal advantage of the priests, is utterly rejected: man's religion in alleged offerings to God as contrasted with God's law. Next, man's heart is the source of all the evil. And then with one of the accursed race of Canaan, so that as come to Israel there could be no blessing for her, the reckoning on God's heart in sovereign goodness met at once with a response. He could not deny Himself, or say, God is not as good as you suppose. He was divinely above the barriers of Judaism and dispensation, and divinely good. Again, the miracle is a present witness of what and Who He is. He returns to the field of ministry in the land of Israel, and satisfies yet again the poor with bread in the same divine way. I have no doubt there is an intentional specific difference between these and the 5000, the 12 and the 7. This latter is more specifically divine with the remnant, but it is not here the place to enter into these details of interpretation. The general principle of wonted mercy, verse 30, gives us again His full and constant character.
In chapter 16 we find the church substituted for a Christ present on earth, on the confession of Jesus as Son of the living God, and the keys of the kingdom given to Peter; but no special miracle demands our attention.
In chapter 17 we have the kingdom in glory. This was the Son of man revealed in the glory of the kingdom.
(Continued from page 51.)
(To be continued.)