Matthew 8:18 – 10:42
After Jesus preached the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7), the people who heard what he had to say were overwhelmed by his teaching. They were so powerfully impacted because “he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:28-29 NIV). Shortly thereafter, Jesus healed many people of their infirmities – a man with leprosy, a centurion’s paralyzed servant, Peter’s feverish mother-in-law, and others. He also expelled spirits from the demon-possessed. This is exciting stuff. A couple of men wanted to be part of it. A teacher told Jesus that he would follow him wherever he went. Jesus told him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” The second man who wanted to go with Jesus said he needed to first bury his father. Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Jesus seems to have been saying, “This is not what you think it is. You say you want to be part of it, but you don’t really know what I’m doing.”
I think Matthew’s message in writing the next couple of chapters (remember he didn’t put chapters and verses in his writing) is to understand what Jesus was doing and what his followers were in for. He was, in fact, confronting the evil that is in the world with that same authority that was in his preaching. Look what happened next.
While Jesus and his disciples were crossing the lake in a boat suddenly a massive storm roared down on them – it was like an earthquake of the lake. The disciples believed they were goners but they woke up sleeping Jesus and begged him to save them. This was not God testing them. It was an attack. I say that because of the way Jesus handled it. He “rebuked” the storm. This was something evil that needed to be stopped. Jesus verbally punished the storm and it stopped. His men marveled.
They made it to shore, and the disciples must have been happy that experience was over. But wait, look what’s coming. Two demon-possessed men came running at them from among the tombs. Violent men who attacked anyone who came close. They (controlled by the demons) knew who Jesus was! “Son of God,” they called him. They expected him to torture them even though it wasn’t the time for final judgment. They asked that if he was going to throw them out to send them into a herd of pigs. That doesn’t seem to me like a great place to inhabit, but I’m not a demon. Jesus commanded the spirits, “Go!” They did, but they agitated the pigs and the herd ran over an embankment into the sea and drowned. So then the demons had no place to call their own! The townspeople came out to see Jesus. The Gospel of Luke says they were overcome…with fear! They begged Jesus to leave their neighborhood.
So they got back in the boat. I wonder if the disciples looked around for storm clouds. They crossed the lake and landed at Capernaum, Jesus’ “own town.” Some people brought a paralyzed man to Jesus for healing. The first thing Jesus said to him was, “Your sins are forgiven.” Awesome! But not everyone was happy about it. A group of “teachers of the law” were there and started talking among themselves. They said, “This one blasphemes!” They took Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness to be slander against God. Jesus knew what they were talking about and asked them, “Why do you ponder evil in your hearts?” There is evil in storms, evil in demons, and evil in people. To show them that he had the authority to forgive sins, to do what he said, he healed the man of his paralysis. Matthew says the people watching all this “were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.”
“Why doesn’t God do something about all the evil in the world?” Well, he does, he has. God has confronted evil within history in the world – in time and space – by the incarnation of the Son. The eternal Word emptied himself and arrived here in the flesh. He became The Man and started the process of taking the world out of the grasp of evil into the love and goodness of God’s Kingdom. He had the authority to do that, which no one else seems to have had. Jesus can handle the evil that is present in the world.
But Matthew is not finished with showing Jesus confronting evil. Matthew had experienced it for himself. He had been a tax collector, working for the Roman government taking money away from his fellow Jews. So he was a traitor. To his own people, he was no better than a Roman soldier who took over the area and enforced the emperor’s rule over the Jews. He was scum. And Jesus invited him to join up (Matthew 9:9-13), become a disciple, follow the Messiah, the Messiah of the Jews. Matthew accepted the invitation and abandoned himself to Jesus. To celebrate this new life he had Jesus over for dinner along with his (Matthew’s) friends – “many tax collectors and sinners” – more scum. The good old Pharisees looked in and didn’t get it – how could this rabbi hang out with scum? Jesus told them they needed to understand their Bible, specifically Hosea 6:6 – “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” God wants to see mercy for scummy people not just religious activity. Jesus explained himself: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” So here’s another kind of evil Jesus confronted – humanity’s failure to live up to the life God created us to live. Along with authority, Jesus handles this kind of evil with mercy – compassion, care, grace, love. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He receives the scum to himself, befriends them, and accepts them into his people, his Kingdom. They get to receive life from God. That’s new life. It was like having new wine for Matthew and his buddies and the others that Jesus called. New wine needs new wineskins to hold it. New life needs something more than religious activity to hold it. It needs faith.
So Matthew tells about people who needed God’s mercy – a ruler (acceptable in that society), a bleeding woman (impure in that society), two blind men (unacceptable in that society), a demon-possessed man (an outcast in that society) – who received Jesus’ mercy by faith. They counted on Jesus to help them and he did. “According to your faith will it be done to you,” he said.
So, what does the fact that Jesus confronts evil have to do with people following him? 
What were those two men who said they wanted to follow him missing? What was it that they were in for if they really followed him? Does it have anything to do with us? If Jesus confronts evil in the world with authority and mercy, and we abandon ourselves to him by faith, are we in for anything other than receiving his love for ourselves and watching him handle the evil out there? Why, yes, yes we are!
When Jesus saw the crowds “harassed and helpless,” he told his followers to pray, to “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers” (Matthew 9:38). Then he “gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” He sent them out to the towns and villages of Israel to tell people, “The kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 10).
Jesus invited people to join him confronting the evil in the world with authority and mercy. He gave his twelve disciples specific instructions and warnings for that time and place, for that mission he was sending them on. He told them there would be difficult people and circumstances they would face, but to remember, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (10:38-39).
God confronted evil in the world in order to redeem and restore the world. His authority and mercy brought about a new creation in and through the Son of God in the flesh. Jesus leads his people to continue God’s mission by the Holy Spirit.
Following Christ looks a little different now than it did when Matthew wrote. Jesus was physically present then. We now follow him with a deep spiritual connection, instead of traveling with him into the villages and towns of Israel. Since the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, and Pentecost, the heart of following Jesus is this amazing relationship – Christ in you and you in Christ.
This is the way believers of the New Testament understood discipleship (see Ephesians 1 and 2). This is the way to live in opposition to evil. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness… Be very careful then how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:8-15). This relationship with Christ is the way to live with strength against evil. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Ephesians 6:10-13). And this spiritual union with Christ is the way to live in direct confrontation with evil. “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should” (Ephesians 6:18-20).
God’s mission is bringing about redemption and restoration within people and thus to the entire world. He is undoing the evil that has engulfed humanity and our planet (see Colossians 2:13-15). Yet, God has chosen to limit himself rather than take direct, full control over everything that happens in the world. As at the original creation, humans in Christ are God’s children and representatives (his images) to have dominion and carry out his plans.
This is what we are in for when we follow Jesus, when we live in Christ. It is not limited to being personally comfortable and prosperous – having a place to lay your head – nor restricted to meeting the expected social responsibilities – burying your dead. It’s more – we confront evil.
We don’t need to act as if there is no evil. It’s everywhere, including within us. Living in Christ, we behave differently, we stand strong, and we take the actions that break the hold of evil. When it comes to confronting the evil within people, we remember how Jesus did it – seeing people in need, offering them healing and rescue, and calling them to have faith. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). God will fully and finally confront and eradicate all evil. It seems we contribute to that by following Jesus now in this redemptive mission.
Following Jesus by living in him, in connection with him, abiding in him (John 15) – that IS confrontation with evil.
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