Bible Study series: Matthew 14:34-36. He drew large crowds, not only because he fed them. He also healed them. They touched the edge of his garment and were healed. Reach out in faith.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 14:34-36
34 Then, after they crossed over to the other side, they came to the land of Gennesaret. 35 The men of that place recognized him and sent word into that entire surrounding countryside and brought to him everyone who was sick. 36 They pleaded with him so that they might only touch the edge of his cloak. And everyone who touched it was healed. (Matt. 14:34-36)
Comments:
34:
Now we know why Jesus wanted to go to the other side. He needed to minister to people over there. France says it is probably the modern Ginosar (p. 572). You can look up in an online Bible map where Gennesaret was. For my limited purpose, I note it was a fertile plain south of Capernaum.
35:
I really like that people brought their sick friends and relatives and really cared for them to go to all that trouble. I wonder if we care for our own ill friends and families. I certainly hope people do not suffer alone in their illness and die alone.
Remember what Matt. 25:34-35 says:
34 “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty and you me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; and I was in prison and you came to me.’ (Matt. 25:34-35)
Those two verses are talking about visiting the disciples of Jesus (not spiritualized to be talking about Israel, as some teach). We must visit the down and out. Here in Mark 6:53-56, the wise people took their sick to Jesus, who healed them.
“They sent word”: the word word is implied, but it is not in Greek. It could be translated: “they sent a message” throughout the entire land.
36:
I love this verse. They begged or pleaded with him to do one simple thing. Could they—would he permit them?—to touch the edge of his cloak or garment? He permitted it. He loved their faith. He honored it. Dear people of God, we have only one requirement, from our limited human point of view. We must have faith in him to be healed. Reach out to him.
No, it is not superstition to touch the fringe or tassels of his garment. But don’t turn it into a gimmick and sell them to people.
Here’s what Num. 15:37-41 says about the tassels on the edge of the prayer shawl.
37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.” (Num. 15:37-41, ESV; cf. Deut. 22:12)
The goal here is to remember God always. The tassels on Jesus’s garment showed that he was a man of devotion and prayer. His fellow-Jews could see his witness. But I see no reason to start a movement of law-keeping Christians to wear this shawl everywhere. Of course it harms no one physically or morally, but law keeping that is not about moral law is risky because the NT streamlines such outer appearances. The Epistles to the Galatians warns about keeping rituals that put up walls between believers. Prayer shawls may be a needlessly pious sign that one is more super-spiritual than the other church member sitting across the aisle. Bottom line: the Hebrew roots movement can be excessive and exclusive and major in the minors. Be careful. Be free.
“healed”: The verb is diasōzō (pronounced dee-ah-soh-zoh and used 8 times), and the prefix means “through.” Here are the occurrences: Matt. 14:36; Mark 14:36; Luke 7:3; Acts 23:24; 27:43-44; 28:1, 4; 2; 1 Pet. 3:20. It means what the regular verb does, but often to be rescued through and up to the very end, like Paul’s ship landing on Malta after going through the storm.
What Is the Work of Salvation?
After Pentecost, Peter walked by people, and his shadow healed them (Acts 5:15), and Paul’s clothing was a contact point for healing (Acts 19:12). Never condescend towards people’s faith and the means by which God chooses to heal them. The power is not in the cloth or the dimmed light, but in God through his Son.
As noted, please don’t turn this “clothing miracle” into a gimmicky fundraising ploy. This “method” of healing is unusual, not usual. Don’t build an entire theology and practice on it.
Turner lays out the high Christology in Matthew’s Gospel:
Jesus is “worshiped” in Matthew by the magi, a leper, a synagogue official, a Canaanite woman, the mother of Zebedee’s sons, and the disciples (2:2, 8, 11; 8:2; 9:18; 15:25; 20:20; 28:9, 17). The word [proskuneō pros-koo-neh-oh] sometimes describes only a respectful bow to a superior, not the religious worship of deity (18:26), but in the overall and immediate contexts of Matthew, the translation “worship” is warranted in most cases. In 14:33, the disciples worship Jesus and confess that he really is the Son of God after seeing him feed thousands of people, walk on water, and stop a perilous storm. Their confession of Jesus’s divine sonship should also be viewed in the highest sense, given Matthean texts (e.g. 2:15; 3:17; 4:3, 6; 8:29; 16:16; 17:5; 21:37; 22:2, 45; 26:63; 27:40, 43, 54; 28:19) (p. 376).
GrowApp for Matt. 14:34-36
1. Do you believe in healing? Have you held your ground and sought him for it? Tell your story.
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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