This past week, my wife and I watched almost every vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. I’m a political scientist by training and she is an equally concerned and informed citizen. And, we are both educators. Both of us love our country. We each unselfishly gave more than twenty years of our lives in service to America during our careers. The spectacle that we saw unfold in the House of Representatives last week, and the changes to the House Rules, concern us both, as they concern many Americans who understand that there are not always simple answers to complex problems. What necessarily follows are worries and lamentations over the current state of American politik.
Individual citizens vote (as nations act according to the theory of political realism) according to their self-interest. There is nothing wrong with that. If you own a small business, you likely have a modest, perhaps even meager profit margin and you want to keep your taxes low. And you likely care about your employees, that they receive wages commensurate with their contributions to your business, that there are not undue risks to their safety, etc. One of the most rewarding things I’ve experienced as a department chair in college is to be able to offer a job to a qualified applicant. To tell her that we value her skills and experiences and she will be enthusiastically welcomed on our team is truly an honor for me. As a supervisor, you should value your employees, and if you don’t, then why don’t you?
If you are a farmer, you want price supports to offset increases in your production costs in term of feed and fertilizer. And, every commuter wants the cost of gasoline to go down. My wife and I are senior citizens who depend on Social Security and Medicare. While we are not asking for another eight-percent-plus increase per annum in our monthly Social Security deposits, we at least don’t want—and likely cannot afford—deep or draconian cuts in these programs that our family or other seniors like us depend on. We would willingly sacrifice for our country if required, and if the sacrifice were equally shared by all, but there is the rub. My family has struggled to pay our income taxes faithfully each year, while others who boast of a net worth many millions of dollars more than ours, pay no annual income tax for some years at all!
The slim Democratic majority of one in the Senate will make it difficult enough to pass legislation in the upper house. The House of Representatives will likely be hopelessly deadlocked with the majority party divided. How will anything get done?
What will become of us a year from now? Two years from now? What will become of you?
This morning, I brought these concerns to the Lord during my devotions and I thought of the chaotic days ahead, thanks to the hubris of one man plus the attempts of five intransigent individuals to control the chamber and set the agenda, and the issues that will come up later this year. Such issues as raising the nation’s debt ceiling, the needs of a small democracy (Ukraine) to defend itself from yet another Russian invasion and, of course, those programs that hit home to us and our loved ones. Why won’t the Democrats reach out to the Republicans and work for a compromise? Why won’t the Republicans do the same to the Democrats?
Matthew 8
But then, as I was lamenting about all of this to the Lord, I was reminded of another tempestuous event, this one described in Matthew 8:23ff where Jesus quieted a storm which was about to swamp the boat in which He and his disciples were sailing. And actually, there are two other important events in this chapter that all relate to this one—that of the centurion and that of Peter’s mother-in-law who was suffering from a pugnacious fever, something many parents today can relate to when it arises in their children. I was struck by the thought that if Jesus could get His disciples through that storm, then He could certainly help my family now (cf. Psalm 46:1 which says: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.”)
Jesus rebuked
So, I think the key to understanding what is happening in Matthew, Chapter 8 are the words “He rebuked” (ἐπετίμησεν). W.E. Vine[1] says that “this word rebuke (ἐπετίμησεν) is confined in the NT to the Synoptic Gospels, where it is frequently used of the Lord’s rebukes to (a) evil spirits, e.g., Matt. 17:18; Mark 1:25; 9:25; Luke 4:35, 41; 9:42; (b) winds, Matt. 8:26; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24; (c) fever, Luke 4:39 . . . ”
In the storm we re told Jesus rebuked the elements. Elliot in his Commentary notes: “The fever (Luke 4:39), the frenzy of the demoniac (Mark 9:25), the tempest, are all treated as if they were hostile and rebel forces that needed to be restrained.” Rachel Starr Thomson says “The implication is that more was happening here than just an unexpected squall. There was something sentient, something malevolent, in the storm.”
The bad guys
Now, I cannot vouch for everything Rachel writes about in her blog, but I can say that she is spot on in this singular comment. The demons that Jesus rebuked in the gospels were sentient, even as they are today. In other words, they were “conscious” or “aware.” Demons are different, one from another. Some are angry while others are sad. Some are devious and try to mislead you while still others have a wry sense of humor. Some inspire horror, madness or fear. But all exist in opposition to God and they seek to gratify themselves as incorporeal beings through the lives of men and women who host them. These unwitting people enthusiastically animate the demons’ hate, lusts, lies, blasphemies and so on. That’s not to say that demons cause every sin. A child that steals a candy bar is likely just that. “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” as Freud once commented.
Sentient or not?
Are storms “conscious” or “aware?” Can a hurricane think or a tornado choose which town to devastate? Evangelist Pat Robertson who I never paid much attention to once commanded a hurricane (Hurricane Florence) to change direction. He was thoroughly mocked in the press for this outrageous, unscientific approach. I’m not saying that you can talk to the wind or reason with the sea. There are generally predictable variables that cause temperature drops, cold fronts, earthquakes and crashing waves (as with Nazare, Portugal where a world-class surfer recently died.) But perhaps there is an intelligence behind these calamities that is conscious, aware, and subject to Jesus’s authority? Is some hand manipulating the elements on occasion? Something we don’t understand? Some undiscovered law or variable?
I lived for 43 years in “Tornado Alley” and I recall seeing a photos once of a totally trashed town compliments of a tornado. One photo was interesting however. The evening before the tornado struck, a man brought home a single red rose in a vase to his wife. She placed it on the kitchen table, That night, a tornado hit and utterly destroyed the house with wind speeds likely approaching 200 miles per hour (typical for > F3 storms.) You could not locate the man’s kitchen as the stove, refrigerator and sink no longer existed and may have been deposited in the next county. But of all his possessions, one thing remained unscathed; the red rose on the table which was spared, completely untouched. Not a petal was missing or out of place.
I used to think that the crossing of the sea in Matthew 8 with the storm and the deliverance of the Gadarene who was possessed which followed were discrete (i.e. separate and unrelated) events. But now, I believe that Satan stirred up the storm to keep Jesus from reaching the far shore where the Gadarenes lived, so as to keep Jesus away from he who was possessed. The devil likely has other things to do than cause dozens of storms on the Sea of Galilee each year, but on this occasion, maybe he was personally behind it? The devil knew or supposed that Jesus was aware of this unfortunate, tormented person and wanted to assassinate Jesus if he could, or at least make it difficult for the disciples to cross. Satan had a perpetual habit of underestimating what God in Christ was doing (I Corinthians 2:8: “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”). When the devil inspired Pilate to sentence Jesus to death, Satan likely figured that that was the end of Him, not realizing that a resurrection was to shortly follow (Colossians 2:15.)
Peter’s mother-in-law
The Gospel authors use the word ἐπετίμησεν to describe the fever in Peter’s mother-in-law. Yes, Peter was married and his wife was said to have been killed with him many years later by the Roman authorities. Likely, there were “hacks” that the Jews had to cure fevers—preparations, baths, rituals etc. They could not measure fevers, and had no idea of modern medicine. But they knew that an unresponsive child or adult who was burning up needed help. So, just as Jesus rebuked the demons, the winds and the waves, He also rebuked the fever in Peter’s mother-in law. Even Luke uses the term ἐπετίμησεν in 4:39, and Luke was a physician.
In times past, I’ve had a pesky low-grade fever that bothered me on and off for days, keeping me from praying for someone who really needed it, and I rebuked it with some success. However, I believe it is probably irresponsible for people (parents) to avoid using Tylenol or aspirin to treat fever in their children in favor of prayer. God has given us medicine. Then, too, there is a role for medicine, but medicine can occasionally take you only just so far and then prayer is vital. Today, it is almost impossible to find children’s acetaminophen (paracetamol) in the U.S. so prayer is extra important. And you don’t always want to resort to aspirin in children.
The centurion
Let’s now look at the centurion. A Roman centurion was a professional soldier, like an officer or a senior NCO is today’s military. He had to be at least thirty years old, able to read and write, and he commanded about 100 legionaries (from “century,” though the actual number of soldiers need not add up to exactly one hundred.) He was well familiar with the term ἐπετίμησεν, because it can also be used to designate “command.” Here is the exchange he had with Jesus (8:5-13):
“When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ‘Lord,’”’ he said, ‘“’my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Shall I come and heal him?’”’ The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.'”‘
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ‘“’Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.’”’ And his servant was healed at that moment.
So, this centurion comes to Jesus. The soldier was a Roman, from a country with many strange gods and idols. He must have heard about Jesus else why would he have been there talking to him? Why track Jesus down? And because of political tensions between the Romans and the Jews at the time, he might have run some risk to his professional career even fraternizing with a controversial Jew like Jesus. Jesus offers to come to the centurion’s quarters (something unheard of among the Jews at the time) but the centurion replies essentially that he is not personally worthy to have a person like Jesus as his guest. Gone is the arrogance of Rome from this soldiers reply.
Notice where the centurion says “I, myself am a man under authority.” The Expositor’s Greek Testament says: “The centurion thinks Jesus can order about disease as he [the centurion] orders his soldiers—say to fever, palsy, leprosy, go, and it will go.” Meyer is even more embellishing:
“It is quite gratuitous to suppose that the centurion regards the disease as caused by demons that are compelled to yield to the behests of Jesus (Fritzsche, Ewald); and it is equally so to impute to him the belief that the duty of carrying out those behests is entrusted to angels (Erasmus, Wetstein, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius). From the context it simply appears that he looked upon diseases as subject to Christ’s authority, and therefore ready to disappear whenever He ordered them to do so (Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Bengel, de Wette). It is thus that he commands the fever in Luke 4:39, and it ceases.”
The Roman is suggesting rather modestly to Jesus that he [the Roman] has a supervisor who delegates to his centurions. and he as a centurion delegates to those under him. The centurion does not need to personally supervise whether something gets done. He has to power to “make it so” without personally being involved. His power is absolute and none would dare to defy him.
Jesus was amazed at this Roman’s faith. While the Jewish religious leaders were bickering over who Jesus was and where His power came from, this Roman, this uncircumsized barbarian, this enemy of the people was light years ahead of them in his appreciation of Jesus.
So, there were times when Jesus healed people (like the blind man at the pool of Siloam) or the woman with what sounds like possibly uterine cancer or perhaps more likely endometreosis (Mark. 5:25-26) and then there were other cases where he cast out demons to cure a person. And then there were health-related problems such as the fever that Peter’s monther-in-law had where he rebuked her fever without any suggestion of a demon present.
Hope floats
We will have difficult times ahead of us this year (you will have difficult times as well.). But if you can believe that Jesus can keep your boat afloat even as he did for the disciples and you trust that He loves you and is willing do help you when you call on him, then you will reach the distance shore. As the prophet Jeremiah said (29:11) “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’”
[1] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Vol. 2, p. 510). T. Nelson.