Matthew 8

Matthew 8 contains several short stories about Jesus' ministry, but very interesting ones. The first shows examples of Jesus healing people, with an account of a Roman Centurion who believed Jesus didn't even need to come to his home to heal someone. Of course he was correct, and Jesus states that he has found more faith in this man than any of the Jews. Pretty sweet!

The third healing reported here is of Peter's mother in law. Let me say that again: mother in law. What does that mean? Peter was married! So the man who the Catholics built the idea of the papacy on was married, but they prohibit their priests (all the way from the lowliest up to the pope) from being married. Yeah, sorry guys: ya got this one wrong.

All of these healings, and the text states there were many more than these three, were fulfilling more prophecy about Jesus. Matthew quotes part of Isaiah 53:4 in the passage here, and it is quite applicable.

Following this we have the fairly famous account of Jesus calming a storm. What I like most here is that He was sleeping through it for a while - its things like this that remind us He was human - and then His perfect control over nature shows that he is also fully God. We also see here that His disciples at this early stage really don't realize who He is, based on their reaction.

Finally, we have the account of Jesus casting demons out of two men and into a herd of pigs. The locals aren't thrilled about the loss of the herd, but the more interesting thing here to me is the reaction of the demons to Jesus' presence. In verse 29 they ask: "What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?" This highlights a few things:

- They know Jesus' true identity
- They fear Him
- They are aware that they will be tormented at a future time, and that the time was not yet there

If memory serves there are other places in the Gospels where a demon-possessed person rightly identifies Jesus, and if those following Him didn't fully believe it themselves you'd think that would tip the scales. It also must be terrifying to *know* you are destined for judgement and torment... I wonder if the angels who rebelled and became demons knew that was going to be their punishment, or if it wasn't till after their rebellion failed that they realized it? They must have thought they and Satan had some chance, or why would they have turned on God in the first place? Dear me, though, I am getting off-topic; we'll come back to this in a future passage, I'm sure.