Matthew 15:30

15:29-39 Whatever our case is, the only way to find ease and relief, is to lay it at Christ's feet, to submit it to him, and refer it to his disposal. Those who would have spiritual healing from Christ, must be ruled as he pleases. See what work sin has made; what various diseases human bodies are subject to. Here were such diseases as fancy could neither guess the cause nor the cure of, yet these were subject to the command of Christ. The spiritual cures that Christ works are wonderful. When blind souls are made to see by faith, the dumb to speak in prayer, the maimed and the lame to walk in holy obedience, it is to be wondered at. His power was also shown to the multitude, in the plentiful provision he made for them: the manner is much the same as before. All did eat, and were filled. Those whom Christ feeds, he fills. With Christ there is bread enough, and to spare; supplies of grace for more than seek it, and for those that seek for more. Christ sent away the people. Though he had fed them twice, they must not look for miracles to find their daily bread. Let them go home to their callings and their own tables. Lord, increase our faith, and pardon our unbelief, teaching us to live upon thy fulness and bounty, for all things pertaining to this life, and that which is to come.

And great multitudes came unto him,.... From the adjacent places; having heard of his being where he was; and who had either attended on him before, or, however, the fame of him, and his miracles, had reached their ears: these flocked to him, having with them, in their hands, or arms, or upon their backs, or shoulders, leading some, and carrying others, in some form or another, those that were lame; either in their legs, or arms: blind; in one eye, or both, and that either from their birth, or since: dumb: the word signifies both deaf and dumb: these often meet in the same person: and if a man is born deaf, he is always dumb: maimed: having lost a limb, an arm, or a leg, or so enfeebled by some disease or another, as the palsy, that their limbs were useless to them.

And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, {h} maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: (h) Whose members were weakened with paralysis, or by nature, for after it is said that he healed them. Now Christ preferred to heal in this way, that such members as were weak, he restored to health, and yet he could easily, if he had wanted, have given them hands and feet and other members which they lacked.

Matthew 15:30 . χωλούς , etc.: the people wanted healing, not teaching, and so brought their sick and suffering to Jesus.— ἔρριψαν : they threw them at His feet either in care-free confidence, or in haste, because of the greatness of the number. Among those brought were certain classed as κυλλούς , which is usually interpreted “bent,” as with rheumatism. But in Matthew 18:8 it seems to mean “mutilated”. Euthy. takes κυλλοὶ = οἱ ἄχειρες , and Grotius argues for this sense, and infers that among Christ’s works of healing were restorations of lost limbs, though we do not read of such anywhere else. On this view ὑγιεῖς , Matthew 15:31 , will mean ἀρτίους , integros .

(30) Blind, dumb. —St. Mark ( Mark 7:31-37 ) relates one memorable instance of a work of healing in this connection. Here we get a great aggregate of miracles, unrecorded in detail, working on the minds of the multitude, and leading them to repeated utterances of praise in the form of a doxology—they “glorified the God of Israel.”

Sea of Galilee - That is, the Lake of Gennesaret. For an account of the principal diseases mentioned here, see the notes at Matthew 4:24 . Maimed - Those to whom a hand or foot was wanting. See Matthew 18:8. To cure them - that is, to restore a hand or foot - was a direct act of creative power. It is no wonder, therefore, that the people wondered. And they glorified the God of Israel - To glorify here means to praise; to acknowledge his power and goodness. The God of Israel was the God that the Israelites or Jews worshipped.

Verse 30. - The incidents in this and the following verse are mentioned only by St. Matthew. Great multitudes. The fame of Jesus attracted the Jews settled in this semi-Gentile district, and cut short the privacy which he had lately been enjoying in his apostles' company. The people seized the opportunity of listening to his teaching and profiting by his superhuman power. Having with them. The catalogue of sufferers that follows represents accurately the sight that meets one in Oriental towns and villages, where the absence of medical appliances and the general want of surgical treatment render slight maladies or injuries chronic and inveterate, and fill the streets with persons in all stages of disease. Maimed ; κυλλούς : debiles (Vulgate). In Matthew 18:8 the word means "deprived of a member;" but it has been doubted whether our Lord ever exerted his creative power to replace an absent limb. In the case of Malchus the ear probably was not wholly severed from the skull, but was still attached thereto by a fragment of flesh or skin, and no fresh creation was needed. We may well understand the word to signify "deformed," or deprived of the use of hand or foot. The Arabic Version renders it "dried up," or "withered." Cast them down. The expression implies the precipitancy With which their friends offered the sufferers to Christ's notice, appealing to his mercy and relying on his power - not with careless abandonment, but with an earnest rivalry to be first attended to.