Thoughts of a Pastor-Historian

In this morning’s text Jesus confronts two great fears of the ancient Jews: the storms of the sea and the demonic.

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.  (24)  And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.  (25)  Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”  (26)  But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  (27)  So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  (28)  When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.  (29)  And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”  (30)  Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding.  (31)  So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.”  (32)  And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.  (33)  Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.  (34)  And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

I.    The King’s Authority over Nature, vv. 23-27.
In verses 18-22 we read of two encounters with potential disciples as Jesus made His way to the boat. In verse 23 He arrives at the boat and enters it along with His disciples (Mark 4:36 tells us that other boats were with them). The boat would have been a small fishing boat, not a ship, yet large enough to carry approx. 12 people. In other words, this boat was not an ocean liner. Jesus and His disciples enter this boat for a trip across the Sea of Galilee.  The Sea of Galilee was actually a large lake 8 miles wide and 13 miles long from North to South. It is located 680′ below sea level. Bible commentator Robert Mounce says that, “The high hills that surround it are cut with deep ravines that act like great funnels drawing violent winds from the heights down on to the lake without warning.” (78). This is exactly what happened on this occasion as the Bible describes “a great tempest” which suddenly arose on the sea. The Greek word is the word for earthquake, seismos, indicating the violent nature of this earth shaking storm. This storm shook the world of those on the boat that day. It was so bad the text says “the boat was covered with the waves.” This language has the picture of a boat surrounded by waves which are higher than the boat. This was a serious storm!

I can imagine the scene in the boat as everyone is panicking and doing whatever it is that sailors do when they get in the midst of a storm.  They instinctively begin to look around for Jesus only to find him sound asleep in the midst of this storm.  This speaks volumes about the level of human exhaustion that Jesus was experiencing at this point.  Have you ever been so exhausted that you could sleep through anything?  You wake up in the morning and there are trees and pieces of houses scattered throughout your community and you think, “There must have been a storm last night.”  Think about Jesus’ hectic schedule of teaching, traveling, and healing.  Jesus is fully human and His human body was fully exhausted.  Jesus was so much human that He needed sleep, but He was so much God that He could wake up, wipe the sleep from His eyes, and rebuke the storm and it would obey Him!

So the disciples awake Jesus saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  But before Jesus rebukes the sea and wind, He first rebukes the lack of faith of His disciples.  He calls them “Cowards!” when He asks “Why are you fearful?”  Then He calls them “Little-faiths” oligopistis.  It’s important to note as Matthew Henry has, that Jesus “does not chide them for disturbing Him with their prayers, but for disturbing themselves with their lack of faith.”  Jesus wasn’t upset to be awakened, He was disappointed in their lack of confidence in the protection and providence of God.  This was not a discouragement to prayer, but to unbelief.

Then Jesus arose and speaks to the wind and sea as if to living beings.  He rebuked the winds and the sea.  He essentially says, “Sit down and shut up!” Here Jesus is asserting His Kingly and Divine authority!  Can you imagine standing and shouting into a storm, “Stop it!”?  You would be put in the looney bin.  But when Jesus rebuked the storm, it immediately stopped and “there was a great calm.”  What a contrast this must have been.  One moment the wind was howling, lightning was flashing, thunder was crashing, the rain was pounding.  Then Jesus speaks.  And everything stops immediately.  One commentator said that the image is of the sea becoming  as a “glassy-flat surface and not a breath of wind” (Nolland, NIGTC, 372).

This is the power and authority of Jesus Christ.  He has authority over disease, distance, and disciples, but here He is shown to have authority over the deep!  He is the ruler of the winds and waves.  There is nothing outside of His authority.

This event causes the disciples to be amazed and ask, “Who is this man, that even the winds and sea obey him?”  The answer of the Old Testament is that only the LORD God can calm the winds and waves.  We see this in Psalm 107:23-32 and in Psalm 89:8-9,

O LORD God of hosts, Who is mighty like You, O LORD?  Your faithfulness also surrounds You.  9 You rule the raging of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them.

Only Jehovah God rules the raging sea!  Only He can still the storm. This miracle of calming the storm is yet another proof that Jesus is no mere man.  He is the Son of the living God.  What the disciples only raise as a question, is answered by demons two verses later.  This brings us to the next incident recorded by Matthew . . .

II.    The King’s Authority over Demons, vv. 28-34.
In these verses Jesus demonstrates His authority over demons.  He is not only Sovereign over all disease, distance, disciples, and the deep.  He is also Sovereign over all demonic forces.  There are at least two kinds of people who have trouble with this story.  The anti-supernaturalists and the animal rights activists.  The anti-supernaturalists don’t believe in the reality of demons.  As a certain commentator named Filson stated it, “Obviously the story uses patterns of thought not satisfactory to modern men, who would call these demoniacs mentally deranged.”  In other words, men and women living in a modern age don’t believe in demons and certainly not demon-possession.  Instead we call mental illness what the uncivilized peoples of the past called demon-possession.
I don’t deny that there are certainly diseases that can be classified as mental illness and that people in the past may have characterized all mental illness wrongly as demon possession.  But there was and is such a thing as demon possession.  The devil is real, demons are real.  If you really believed this you wouldn’t play around with witchcraft and the occult.  You wouldn’t take so lightly the celebration of “Halloween” as a glorification of witches and the occult.  Demonic forces are not something to be trivialized or taken lightly.   And its all around us in our culture, television shows and movies which glamorize witchcraft and wizardry.  These are matters which Christians should not take lightly, since these are the very Demonic powers which brought sin and death into this world and which Jesus Christ came into the world to destroy!   We have a problem when a preacher seems over the top who is opposed to the devil and demons.  Christians ought to be able to agree that the devil is bad!  I know that we don’t like to be negative, but we should be able to come to a consensus on this point!

As Jesus and His disciples disembark from the boat, they are met by two demon-possessed men.  In Mark and Luke’s account of this event only one demon-possessed man is mentioned.  But this is no contradiction because as I heard Hollie Miller say a couple of weeks ago, “If there was two, there had to be one.”  But seriously, we often speak of seeing one person of prominence when in fact we saw more than one person.  We say, “I saw the President today.” when in reality we saw the President, the Secret Service and a number of other dignitaries.  But we speak of seeing one.  Obviously, one of the demon-possessed men was more prominent than the other, the leader of the two.  These men were dangerously violent men.  Dangerous to themselves and society.  They lived among the tombs.  According to Mark and Luke, these men could not be bound, even with chains.  These demon-possessed came answer the question posed by the disciples on the boat.  They recognized Jesus and rightly address Him as the “Son of God.”  What the disciples wondered on the sea, these demons answer.  “Who is this?”  It is the “Son of God.” This is a powerful confession.  James tells us that the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19).  These demons are certainly trembling at the presence of the King.  They not only know who Jesus is, but they also know why He came.  1 John 3:8 says, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”  But this faith is insufficient for salvation.  More than knowledge of Jesus is required.  Complete trust in who He is and what He has done is required.  The demons ask the question, “Have you come to torment us before the time?”  They know that a day of judgment is coming for them.  But they thought they had more time.  They were expecting the judgement on the last day when the Son establishes His eternal Kingdom.  They now learn that with the coming of the Son of God into this world, the Kingdom has already come.  Jesus said in Matthew 12:28,”If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  He did and it had!  There was and is still a future day of judgment when the devil and all the demons will be cast into the Lake of Fire, but for these demons, judgment day had now arrived!

Jesus sends these demons out of these two men and into an entire herd of pigs.  He commanded the demons, “Go!” and they went.  This demonstrates Jesus’ authority over demons.  That with a single word He can dismiss them to judgment.  The demons enter the swine and we see their destructive power.  This is a powerful illustration of the destructive purposes of the devil and the demonic.  This should be another important caution against taking the demonic too lightly.  Demons will attempt to destroy you just as they destroyed these pigs.

These verses are what causes the animal rights activists to be upset.  They read this passage and all they can say is, “Poor piggies!”  They are more concerned about pigs than people.

In verse 33, the pig herders go and tell everyone in the town what happened and “the whole city came out to meet Jesus.”  Surely they are going to invite Him to set up a tent and hold a week long crusade!  No, they beg Him to leave!  These people were merely upset that they had lost money in the destruction of the pigs.  As D. A. Carson said, “They preferred pigs to persons, swine to the Savior.”

Cf.  Acts 16, demon-possessed girl and Acts 19, Demetrius the silversmith.

Filed under: Expositions, Matthew | 1 Comment »

The September 2005 issue of Rev magazine has an article from Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan of Granger Community Church in Granger, Ind. adapted from their book Simply Strategic Growth. The article includes a number of ideas for drawing crowds to your church, including:

• Address specific needs. Like marriages, raising families, money, fulfillment, etc.
• Entertain people.
• Make children a priority. Granger is well known for their incredible children’s ministry. Sponge Bob would be jealous.
• Raise the energy level of worship. Turn up the volume.
• Give people hope. Grace, not condemnation. People should leave challenged, but encouraged.
• Offer multiple services regardless of how full your church is.

    Source

We live in a day when everything is being used to draw crowds to churches.  A quick internet search this week found churches using music, car shows, dramas, and even tigers to attract a crowd.

How did Jesus respond to the crowds?  What did Jesus do when a crowd gathered?

In this morning’s text, Jesus’ healing of the multitudes attracted large crowds.  What did Jesus do?  He left!  Then as He is leaving two potential converts chase him down and make professions of commitment to Him.  His responses to them seem to be attempts to scare them away.

And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.  (19)  Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”  (20)  And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  (21)  Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  (22)  But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  Matthew 8:18-22

What did Jesus do when He “saw great multitudes about Him”?  He said, “Let’s get out of here!”  Apparently as Jesus made His way to a boat to sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, He was approached by two potential disciples.  Both of these men are confronted with a challenge from the King.  The first in regard to secure accommodations, the second in regard to social obligations.

I.    Jesus’ Authority Challenges Secure Accommodations, vv. 19-20.
The first potential convert was a scribe who comes to Jesus and calls him, “Teacher”. He calls Jesus by a title of respect and then makes a remarkable promise. This man comes up to Jesus singing, “Where He leads me I will follow.”

What do you expect Jesus to say?  “Oh boy!  Here’s a great prospect, let me make sure not to say anything to discourage him.”  No, instead Jesus asserts His kingly authority by challenging this potential follower by rejecting this man’s basic need for secure accommodations.

This man comes calling Jesus, “Teacher.” But as Bible commentator William Barclay told of someone who was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, “So and so tells me that he was one of your students.” The teacher answered devastatingly, “He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.” There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a student. And so it apparently was with this man who had not yet counted the cost which Jesus will warn him of in verse 20.

This man makes a remarkable promise: “I will follow you wherever You go.”  That is a wonderful thing to say, it’s a wonderful thing to sing, but Jesus knows if it is a lie.  I wonder how many liars we have in church every Sunday singing with enthusiasm, “Where He leads me I will follow!”?

Jesus challenges this man’s enthusiasm with these words, “Foxes have hole and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  With these words Jesus provides further instruction to this one who has attended his lectures, but was not yet a student.

First, He lets him know that He is more than a mere teacher.  He is none other than the Messianic King, God in human flesh.  How does Jesus communicate this?  By use of the title “Son of Man.”  At first glance this title seems to emphasize the humanity of Jesus, not so.  Instead this title, which is Jesus’ favorite term of self-designation used over 80 times in the New Testament and 28/29 times in the Gospel of Matthew, is a strong claim to deity.  It is a reference to what Daniel prophesied in Daniel 7:13-14,

I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.  14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.

In other words, when Jesus uses the title “Son of Man”, He is claiming to be the mighty king seen by Daniel whose rule and reign will never end!  Jesus is more than a teacher!

C. S. Lewis’ famous quote is appropriate here:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. . . .

You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Mere Christianity (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1960). pp. 40-41.

So after confronting this man’s understanding of who He is, Jesus then confronts this man’s need of secure accommodations.  “Foxes have holes,” He says, “and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  In other words, if you are going to follow me wherever I go, you’re going to lose the guarantee of secure accommodations.  The call to discipleship is a call to step into insecurity from a human perspective.

The great Italian military leader, patriot and soldier, Garibaldi had an incredibly committed volunteer army. It is said that he would appeal for recruits in these terms: “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!”
Similarly to be a solder in the army of the Lord, one must count the cost.  It’s not going to be easy.  Jesus places demands upon His followers!

By the way, this is not about a second level of Christianity, it’s real Christianity.

The following quote from D. A. Carson says it all:

Little has done more to harm the witness of the Christian church than the practice of filling its ranks with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, talk fluently of experience, but display little of perseverance.

This is what our churches and communities are full of, but they are not true disciples of Jesus Christ!

We have several attenders on Sunday morning, but how many disciples are there?  We have a lot of members on the church roll, but how many disciples are there?

II.    Jesus’ Authority Challenges Social Obligations, vv. 21-22.
This man is called “another disciple” of Jesus.  But as the remainder of verse 21 makes clear, he was not yet a true disciple.  The New Testament uses the term disciple in a variety of ways.  One way is to refer to the Twelve.  Another is to refer to a group of committed followers of Jesus.  The third way is to refer to those who are merely in the crowd.  Like many of you hear today who enjoy hearing Jesus teach occasionally and you like the good stuff that He does for you, but you have not committed your life to Him.  You are what the Puritans described as “The Almost Christian,” like King Agrippa in Acts 26.
The second man who comes to Jesus has been listening in and knows better than to call Jesus, “Teacher.”  Instead, he rightly calls Him “Lord.”  He acknowledges Jesus Lordship verbally, but with a reservation: “First, let me go and bury my father.”  But Jesus is either Lord of all, or not Lord at all!  He will allow no exceptions.  Jesus said elsewhere, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21).

It is this attitude that caused Jesus to ask on one occasion, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

This man calls Jesus Lord, but has not submitted to His Lordship.  What does it mean when this man attempts to make a deal with Jesus?   He says, “let me first go and bury my father.”  This could mean a variety of things.

• To make burial arrangements for an already dead, or soon dying father.
• To stay for a customary 7 days of mourning after a father’s death.
• To stay for a second period of mourning that lasts for one year and culminates with the reburial of the father’s bones in a burial box.
• To stay indefinitely and wait for a presently healthy, living father to die.

See Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew (NIGTC), 367.

But Jesus doesn’t play, “Let’s Make a Deal”.  He probably wouldn’t even watch it.  Instead, He says in words that seem harsh to our ears, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

To care for one’s parents in their old age and prepare for their proper burial was considered to be an important part of how one obeyed God’s command to honor one’s father and mother.  But Jesus is here asserting His Divine and Kingly right to be honored above father and mother!  The Christian’s obligations to Jesus go beyond his or her obligations to family, friends, jobs, or government.

Conclusion:
Let me ask you a question: When circumstances cause an extra demand to be made on your time that requires you to sacrifice one area of your life to meet that need, what do you sacrifice?

• Do you sacrifice family obligations?
• Do you sacrifice job obligations?
• Do you sacrifice recreation time?
• Or, do you sacrifice Christian responsibilities?

How does this account end?  We don’t know.  We don’t know if these two men get on the boat with Jesus or go away sorrowful like the rich young ruler of Luke 18.  We just don’t know.  These men could have surrendered to Jesus’ Lordship completely by forsaking both secure accommodations and social obligations, but we’ll never know in this life.  But you can know how your own story goes.  Will you unconditionally surrender to Christ’s kingly authority today?

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