MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 15:29-31
Jesus still from home.—We gather, from Mark 7:31, that the scene of this story lay on that side of the sea of Galilee (Matthew 15:29) where the cities of “Decapolis” were situated; and, therefore, in a country which was hardly, if at all, within the proper borders of Israel. Here as before, therefore, and most probably, also, for the same reasons as before, we find the Saviour away from His home. If He was not to cut short His ministry before His “time was come” (John 7:6) He must still keep away from those neighbourhoods where His enemies would expect Him. Anywhere, now, except where He had usually been. The precise locality now specified, also, has its importance. On the one hand, it seems to lend greater significance to the miracles wrought; on the other hand, it seems to account for the great effect they produced.
I. The miracles wrought.—For they were wrought in a neighbourhood from which, in the first place, He had been previously banished. Somewhere near here it was, in this semi-Gentile region of “Decapolis” that those keepers of swine who had lost their property through the cure of the demoniacs that had so long been a terror to the whole country-side, had prevailed upon all their neighbours, when they “saw Jesus,” to entreat Him to leave them. All they ask is that they may see Him no more (Matthew 8:34). It was for this same neighbourhood, also, notwithstanding this, that the blessed Saviour, in going away, had shown so much love, by carefully arranging that, even so, they should not be without some witness about Him. Doing this, also, by the adoption of a method which was unusual indeed on His part; the method, viz., of sending the man out of whom He had cast the legion of devils (notwithstanding his earnest desire to be allowed to go away with Him), back again to his old neighbours and friends for the express purpose of “telling” them himself what God had done for him (Luke 8:38-39, contrast Matthew 9:30-31, etc.). It would seem, therefore, that this grace of the Saviour had had its due effect on these men; and that this is the reason why we now find them as anxious to see Jesus as before they were not; and why we now read of such “great multitudes” in these parts coming unto Him; and “having with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others;” and then finally “casting them down at His feet,” as though exhausted by the efforts they had made in bringing them there, and feeling also that in doing that they had done the very best in their power. It was a marvellous change, if so, on their part. And it was responded to, apparently, by an equally marvellous manifestation of power on the part of the Saviour. “He healed them” (Matthew 15:30)—He healed them all—whosoever they were. He gladly welcomed their change of mind, however tardy and late. He forgets the ingratitude of the past in the need of the present. And almost seems, in a word, to have done more abundantly now because of the fact that He could do nothing before.
II. The effect produced.—The effect, on the one hand, of even prodigious surprise. To the people on the other side of the lake, the dwellers in Capernaum and its environs, miracles such as these had by this time become almost ordinary occurrences. They beheld them, therefore, if not quite without wonder, at any rate without note. To the people of this side of the lake who had previously driven the Saviour away, they come now with the vividness of a flash. “See what it is of which we have been depriving ourselves all this long time” (see Matthew 15:31). Also the language of St. Mark in reference, apparently, to one especially complicated case of affliction and of equally complete deliverance from it, marking this particular time (Mark 7:31-37). The effect, on the other, of very fervent and singularly discriminate praise. They “glorified God”—so it is said—as well they might, for these things. They saw what was meant by such miraculous doings, especially when accompanied, as these were, by such equally miraculous love. It was God’s power, and nothing less, that lay behind all. Also, in these things, they saw that, which to these half-heathenised dwellers in Decapolis would probably come home with much power, if not, indeed, with a pang. After all “salvation was of the Jews.” It is not only to God therefore—but to “the God of Israel” that they offer their praise (end of Matthew 15:31). A happy ending indeed to what had seemed at first so exceedingly unpromising a beginning (see again Matthew 8:34).
Let the backslider, from all this, learn to return. What is gained—what is not lost—by sending Jesus away? Who, again, can be more ready than He is to return? Or can possibly bring back with Him such an abundance of gifts?
Let the doubter, from all this, learn to believe. Why we believe is not because of His miracles only, though there are none like them elsewhere; nor yet of His character only, though there is nothing elsewhere like it; but because of His miracles and His mercy combined. Nothing but Deity could—nothing but Deity would—have done as He did!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 15:29-30. Christ’s grace.—
1. When Christ hath done His work in one place, He followeth His work in another place.
2. Many may come to Christ at once, without impeding one another; it is not so among men, where one must wait till another be despatched.
3. Christ standeth not how many and how desperate the cures there be that are presented unto Him. He healed them all, blind, dumb, lame, etc.
4. It is sufficient to lay our miseries before Christ; our miseries will speak for us, and He will answer us by helping us. They did but cast down the miserable at His feet, and He healed them.—David Dickson.
Matthew 15:30. At the feet of Jesus.—
1. These “lame, blind, maimed, and many others” cast down at Jesus’ feet, and lying there, remind us that Jesus is the well-defined centre of an undefined circumference. “Many others” indicate a vast number; we are glad not to know exactly how many. “At the feet of Jesus” is the place for helpless misery—yours and mine, and “many others’.”
2. Jesus came to be the ingatherer of all misery.—That which man most of all avoids, He most of all sought.
3. He healed them all.—His only alternative was to go away, or to send the people away unhealed.
4. “We cannot plead in prayer as some,” is often urged as an excuse. In answer to this we read of “multitudes” simply lying “at His feet”—and “He healed them all.” To lie at the feet of Jesus is itself prayer.—P. B. Power, M.A.