They laid the sick in the streets.
The multitude in affliction
I. A beautiful country, inhabitated by a multitude of sick.
II. A prompt recognition of a former benefactor-“They knew Him (Matthew 9:35; Matthew 11:20-24; Mark 3:7-11).
III. Energetic exertion-“And ran, etc.”
IV. An affecting picture of human helplessness-“Began to carry about,” etc.
V. An admission that healing virtue dwelt alone in Christ.
VI. The infallible nature of the remedy. (F. Wagstaff.)
Jesus and His fulness
I. The landing. Wherever the Son of God landed there was blessing, peace, health, liberty.
II. The recognizing-“Straightway they knew Him,” “If thou knewest,” etc.
III. The gathering.
IV. The touching.
V. The healing. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Touch Jesus and be healed
1. The touch was needy.
2. The touch was wise.
3. The touch was prompt.
4. The touch was believing.
5. The touch was personal.
6. The touch was unrestricted. There was no exception to the healing.
7. The touch was efficacious. No failure.
8. The lost will be inexcusable. (J. Smith.)
A crowd of eager applicants
;-It was after a walk through the village of Ehden, beneath the mountain of the cedars, our last Syrian expedition, in which we visited several of the churches and cottages of the place, that we found the stairs and corridors of the castle of the Maronite chief, Sheykh Joseph, lined with a crowd of eager applicants, “sick people taken with divers diseases,” who, hearing that there was a medical man in the party, had thronged round him, “beseeching him that he would heal them.” I mention this incident because it illustrates so forcibly these scenes in the gospel history, from which I have almost of necessity borrowed the language best fitted to express the eagerness, the hope, the anxiety of the multitude who had been attracted by the fame of this beneficent influence. It was an affecting scene, our kind doctor was distressed to find how many cases there were which with proper medical appliances might have been cured; and on returning to the ship, by the Prince of Wales’ desire, a store of medicines was sent back, with Arabic labels directing how and for what purpose they should be used. (Dean Stanley.)
Spiritual healing
I. The necessity for such an application to Christ.
1. You have a disease of guilt upon you.
2. You have a disease of corruption upon you.
II. The manner of it.
1. They persuaded themselves that Christ was able to do this thing for them.
2. They put themselves in His way.
3. Those who could not come of themselves, sought the help of their stronger neighbours; none of them were so unfeeling as to refuse the needful aid.
4. They earnestly prayed for the blessing which they desired.
5. They complied with the simple method which was prescribed. This was to touch Him.
III. The certain success of it-“Made whole.” (J. Jowett, M. A.).