Matthew 8 extensively discusses some of the benefits of placing our faith in Christ. Chapter 8 is one of many places where Jesus heals people of diseases that were otherwise incurable. Verses 1-4 describe an encounter in which Jesus healed a man with leprosy. Lepers were social outcasts and were to stay away from everyone else due to the risk of infecting others. The text notes of the NIV Archaeological Bible states that the Greek word for leprosy was a general term that referred to various skin diseases, not necessarily just leprosy itself.

Verse 5 says that when Jesus was in Capernaum, near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, a centurion came and asked Jesus to heal one of his servants who was paralyzed and suffering terribly. A centurion was a Roman soldier who was in charge of one hundred other soldiers. This is where we get the English word "century." Jesus agreed to go and heal him, but the centurion said that he was not worthy to have Jesus come under his roof.

The fact that this centurion did not feel that he was worthy to have Jesus come under his roof shows that this soldier recognized Jesus' divinity. His unworthiness was also an expression of his recognition that he falls short of God's standard of perfection. The fact that this soldier would have been a Gentile rather than a Jew makes this incident all the more remarkable. Because of his military background, this centurion understood how a chain of command works. He expressed that he has seen this idea in action many times, both through orders given to him and in orders that he had given to other soldiers. This is also a recognition of Jesus' divinity, since God certainly has the right to give commands to angels and to people and rightfully expects his commands to be obeyed.

The centurion said that all Jesus would need to do is give the command that the servant would be healed, and it would be done. He knew that it was not necessary for Jesus to be physically present with the servant in order for Jesus' commands to be carried out. This is a tremendous recognition of Jesus' power.

Verse 10 says that Jesus was astonished at the faith of the centurion. Jesus said that he had not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Jesus said that many would come from the east and the west to take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The subjects of the kingdom, however, would be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The fact that Jesus says that many would come from the east and the west to take their places in the kingdom of heaven seems to imply that many Gentiles would come to faith in Christ and would enter the kingdom of heaven, but many Jews would reject Christ and would spend eternity apart from him.

In verse 13, Jesus tells the centurion to go and assures him that his request would be fulfilled just as he believed it would be. Matthew records that the servant was healed at that very hour.

Many wanted to follow Jesus as a result of his miracles of healing, but Jesus made it clear that there was a cost to following him, as well. Verse 18 records that a teacher of the law, who was most likely a Pharisee, told Jesus that he would follow him wherever he went. Jesus told him that foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Itinerant rabbis were common at that time, so it is very possible that Jesus did face situations in which he had no place to stay. Verse 21 says that another disciple asked Jesus' permission to let him go and bury his father, but Jesus told this disciple to follow him and let the dead bury their own dead. The fact that this man asked permission to go and bury his father does not necessarily mean that his father had just died. He may have been saying that he wanted to wait until after his responsibilities to his parents had been fulfilled, and then would follow Jesus. Jesus' mission was too urgent to wait and follow along later. The Expositor's Bible Commentary explains Jesus' instruction to let the dead bury their own dead as meaning that the spiritually dead should be left to bury the physically dead. Even though Jesus wants us to follow him more than anything, he also wants us to know that there is a cost to following him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a classic book called, "The Cost of Discipleship." In this book, Bonhoeffer discusses the issues of cheap grace and the cost of following Christ. He rightly states that what has cost God much, namely Christ securing our salvation on the cross, cannot be cheap for us. Bonhoeffer not only believed this, but he also showed it in his own life. Bonhoeffer was martyred by the Nazis about a month before Germany surrendered at the end of World War II. The cost of following Christ can take on many other forms as well, such as speaking out against something that we know isn't right, not following the crowd in doing something that we know is wrong, or facing ridicule for standing firm on Biblical teaching.

Matthew picks up this same theme of following Christ in Matthew 9:9, when he describes Jesus calling a man named Matthew to follow him. It is believed that the author of this gospel is recounting Jesus' call to follow him. Matthew had been a tax collector before Jesus told him to leave his tax booth and follow him. Tax collectors were despised by first century Jews. They collected taxes for the Romans, and so they were seen as traitors. Scripture records that as soon as Jesus told Matthew to follow him, Matthew immediately got up and followed. Some people speculate that Matthew must have know something about Jesus beforehand, so that would explain why it was easy for Matthew to just leave his tax booth to follow Jesus. In his book, "The Cost of Discipleship," Bonhoeffer points out that Scripture doesn't show the slightest interest in the psychological reasons for Matthew immediately following Jesus. The point seems to be that Jesus expects immediate obedience, and he has a right to expect this from us.

Matthew 9:10 describes Jesus having dinner at Matthew's house, but he was criticized there by the Pharisees for eating with tax collectors and "sinners." The Pharisees would never associate with tax collectors and "sinners," but Jesus saw a need to be with them. Jesus explained that those who are healthy don't need to visit a doctor, but rather those who are sick. Jesus told them that he had not come to call the righteous, but sinners. The Pharisees were apparently unaware of their own sinful condition and did not see their need for the Savior. They did not show any concern for the spiritual condition of tax collectors and those labeled as "sinners," but Jesus was very clearly concerned about their spiritual condition. He said that he came for those who are separated from God by their sin. That includes every single one of us.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they should learn what he means when he says that he desires mercy and not sacrifice. *When he said this, he was quoting Hosea 6:6. The Hebrew word for "mercy" (hesed) is close in meaning to "covenant love." Through Hosea, God said that the apostate Jews (those who had left the faith) of Hosea's day were continuing the ritual of temple worship but had lost its center. *When Jesus applied this quote to the Pharisees, he was comparing the Pharisees with apostate Jews of Hosea's time. The Pharisees would have known that Hosea had said this and would have understood that Jesus was comparing them to apostates.

In the Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations. Verse 35 describes Jesus modeling this for us by going through towns and villages and healing every illness. Besides providing physical healing, he also preached the good news in the synagogues. He had compassion on the crowds because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. It was common for Jews to be harassed by Roman soldiers. It is interesting that Scripture never makes mention of Jesus having compassion on someone without him doing something about it. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, so we should ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into the harvest field. He was saying that there is a lot of need out there in the world but not a lot of people that are working to meet the need. We need to be praying that God will provide workers to meet the physical and spiritual needs of our communities, our nation, and our world. Or we have to go meet the need ourselves, if God so directs us.
 

*= Denotes taken from Expositor's Bible Commentary