Bible Commentaries
Matthew 8

Verses 1-34

The King passed down from the mountain and from teaching in order that He might bring the Kingdom nearer to His people, and give them examples of its benefits. What a wondrous application of His power; leprosy, palsy, fever, all fly before Him, and mark the cosmopolitanism of His giving-a leper, a Roman, a woman, all the despised in the Jewish mind. In that wonderful evening, when the crowds gathered, and the King took their infirmities and bore their diseases, what a radiant revelation He gave them of the power and love of His heart, and therefore of the privilege of entering His Kingdom.

A time of sifting and testing followed. Men who would follow Him, but- They have had their successors all down the years, as also have the Gadarenes, who, when He interfered with their illicit trading, formally requested Him to depart, notwithstanding that He had left on their shores a man whom by His coming He had transformed from the curse of the countryside into a law-abiding citizen. Even the disciples most closely associated with Him had so little confidence they did not believe in His power unless they saw Him at work. They must wake Him to still the storm. In grace, He stilled the tempest, but He also rebuked the disciples' lack of faith.