Matthew 14:14 – When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Matthew 14:14 – The Power of Forgiveness
In this passage the Lord shows, by a series of circumstances, that Israel’s case was desperate, and that He was the physician who provided for it. He does not so much abridge the multitude of the leper’s sufferings, as to set them down as a prefiguration of what would come in the close of the age, the defiled mass of the apostate Jews, whose impenitent unbelief clings to them to the very end of life, and reduces them to that deep degradation, not merely unclean, but filled with the power of Satan and carried down to swift destruction.
It was, then, a question not only of cleansing, but also of forgiveness, and this He proved in the power of his own grace. There could be no strength to walk before men and glorify God, till forgiveness were possessed and enjoyed in the heart.
When Jesus went in the boat and the wind was contrary, it was a sign of His divine presence in the midst of the storm. Wherever He was, the wildest storm became a calm; where He had walked through the surf and the waves of the sea, the boat remained safe; but wherever His Spirit was at work, the souls of men were not made strong by a mere demonstration of power; they had to know and enjoy that forgiveness which He possessed and bestowed.
In this way He showed that He could, in the very presence of publicans and sinners, look upon them with compassion, as one whose whole life was devoted to a holy purpose. In this way He demonstrated to the Pharisees, and, in a sense, to the Gentiles also, that His grace was far superior to their uncleanness and unbelief; it was not only a matter of cleansing, but of forgiveness, and that they had no right to think that they were worthy of the blessing He gave them.
