Matthew 9:14-17 Living Water

Matthew 9:14-17  Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”  Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?  The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.  “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.  Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins.  If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Fasting was a very big part of the Jewish religion.  Everyone fasted annually on the Day of Atonement and Israelites were commanded to fast when dire national circumstances were involved, when solutions were needed, such as in times of drought, epidemics, war, or crop failures.  Private fasting and some religious fasting carried on by the Pharisees happened twice a week: Monday and Thursday.  These fasts might be perfunctory or sometimes based on serious needs such as sickness.  Most of the time they were discretionary, not a part of some dogma or regulation.  But for the Pharisees and the hyper religious, fasting became a custom for them.  This act indicated they were more religious than the average person, holding a special position with God because of their dedication to him.  The Pharisee praying in the Temple believed he was special to God because of his religious activities.  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:  Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: "God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”  (Luke 18:9-12)  The Pharisee believed his religious activity brought righteousness to him, but the tax collector, a well-known sinner in the Jewish community, placed his life on the altar in desperation to the God of the living and dead.  But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  (13)  He placed his life on the altar, pleading to God for mercy and grace.  His heart was completely involved with his prayer, but the Pharisee placed his deeds on the altar, his perfunctory service, as acceptable to a righteous God.  Who went away justified before God and who went away without God’s blessing?  God accepted the humble man who laid down his life and rejected the man of fasting and tithe giving.  The Pharisee’s life was filled with religious fervor and discipline, but his heart was in it for his own justification and not God’s glory.  Fasting was an important exercise in the Old Testament, mentioned many times, demanded of the people many times, but fasting in the New Testament is hardly mentioned.  When it is mentioned, fasting is often during times of great transition.  We see Jesus fasting in the wilderness before his ministry.  We see leaders of the church praying and fasting before sending Paul and Barnabas out for ministry.  Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.  While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  (Acts 13:1-3)  This is the beginning of Paul’s dynamic ministry to not only the Jews but to the rest of the world: the Gentiles.  God had already decided Paul’s ministry, declared to him at his conversion.  But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go!  This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)  But now, the Christian leadership needed affirmation of his call.  Paul’s call was affirmed in prayer and fasting in the city of Antioch.  They sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey.  Fasting is a powerful way of knowing God’s voice, for it is laying aside the concerns of the body for the will of God.  We do not see fasting as a great concern in the nascent church, but fasting is mentioned in selecting leaders of the early church.  These leaders were pathfinders for the Christian work who needed God’s direction in their words and activities.  

Christianity is not a religion of rituals, regulations and laws but involves an intimate relationship with God himself.  This relationship is implemented through the power of the Holy Spirit who closely interacts with our own spirits.  He has come to abide in us, to make a permanent home in our beings.  This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  (1 John 4:13-16)  In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was not an abiding Spirit, except for a few such as the prophets that He came upon to speak for God, but his presence is in us who name the name of Christ.  We do see his presence in the Old Testament with the tribes of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness: in the fire by night and the cloud by day.  But his visible presence stopped when they went over Jordan to the Promised Land.  But for us who are IN CHRIST, his presence is in us every minute of the day.  His voice is real, and his reflection comes out through our lives through justice, love, mercy and grace for others.  If we fail to image God in our lives and words, we are walking in disobedience and open to discipline.  In that case fasting might be necessary to redirect our paths and change the direction of our lives.  The aspect of fasting is not a substitute for being sensitive to the voice of God.  Religious activity does not replace obedience to the Holy Spirit inside us.  We should do what we know is right.  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.  (James 4:17)  If the voice of God is telling us to be kind, generous, full of mercy and grace, and then we reject that compelling voice and turn back to the flesh and its spirit, we will be bitter, angry, judgmental, and troubled, producing a well of sin not the refreshing works of God.  The water we spew out from us will be black with the darkness of sin.  If we are imbued with the well of the Holy Spirit, we will have living water flowing out of our innermost being.  The Spirit is God in us and it is the living water that people need for their souls, not the water that comes from fleshly pursuits and ideas.  The latter is dead, produced by dead men and women.  The former is eternal life.  Jesus told the woman that He asked for water, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  (John 4:13-14)  The wilderness dwellers of this world need that water of hope, of abundant life: eternal life.  As sweet water, not bitter or alkaline, we have something that will refresh the souls of men.  Fasting will not give us that; laws and regulations will not give us that.  Only the Spirit of God in us will make us a fountain of sweet, drinkable water for a thirsty world.

Jesus fulfilled the old way of serving God by laws and regulations.  He is the only one to completely satisfy the holiness of God, that which the laws and regulations reflect.  He is the Son of God—the complete man.  After his resurrection, Jesus is the first fruit from death to a new life with God.  We who are in the raiment of finite flesh will follow him from death to resurrection.  He is our elder brother in this act, and He is not ashamed to introduce us to his Father.  As He is in the family of God so also will we be known as God’s children with new names.  All of this requires a new creation, a born-again experience.  The old garment, the old wineskin will not hold the new work inside of us.  The powerful kinetic Spirit of God will tear the old garment or explode the old wineskin.  When the people of old met the Spirit of God or the Lord, they fell down in fear.  Their old selves could not face the holiness of God.  They fell in fear because flesh is too weak to hold the presence of God.  The priest fled the Temple when the Holy Spirit entered.  No flesh can face God in its sinful form.  Jesus said that we must be new creatures.  He said that no man is good, for the flesh has been permanently damaged.  The old will go down to the grave, for it has no ability to hold the presence of God.  Jesus said that no expert in sewing or no winemaker would put the old with the new.  They do not go together; there is no harmony between the old and new.  No, the new work of Jesus abiding in us must be put in a new creature.  His voice must be put in the newly born, alive in Christ forevermore.  No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.  Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins.  If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  Fasting does not make newborns; regulations do not make newborns; laws do not make newborns; only the blood of Jesus makes newborns.  He spilled his blood for every man and woman.  He has life gushing out of him for all people.  All we need to do is believe that Jesus’ blood is for our cleansing, for our new life.  He gave up his perfect life as a sacrifice so that we might be made perfect through his work on the cross.  IN HIM, we have found perfection: the old is put away for good; the new is for everlasting life in the presence of God.  As children of God with the voice of God in us, we need to listen attentively to everything God says.  Of course, we do not go outside of the scriptures, for the scriptures are the parameters of God’s voice.  But his will should be our will, his life our life, his service our service.  We might need to fast to focus more clearly on God and his will in us, but because of the Holy Spirit in us, we have every opportunity to know God and his ways.  The new cloth has come, the new wineskins have arrived.  As born-agains we have the Spirit of God present in our lives.  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”  (John 3:5-7)  Yes, our flesh will give way to death, but our new life IN CHRIST will never give way to death.  We will enter the kingdom of God under the precious auspices of Christ’s work for us.  An eternal solution has been made for us as children of God, not of the flesh.  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  (1 Corinthians 15:55) 

      

Matthew 9:9-13 The Sick Need A Doctor!

Matthew 9:9-13  As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.  “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

Jesus tells the Pharisees, men devoted to the Mosaic law and regulations, that God desires mercy more than their sacrifices and religious restrictions.  These men for the most part were dedicated to serving God, but their service to God was based on human effort.  But Jesus now tells them that they are mistaken in their beliefs if they do not understand that God is a God of mercy and grace.  He is the one who sends the rain on the just and the unjust, the daylight to those who are good and righteous and to those who live in the darkness of sin.  Mistaken about the nature of God, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law are judged harshly by Jesus.  In Luke 11 Jesus accuses these religious leaders of lacking the nature of good shepherds who care for their sheep.  Without godly character, they are greedy, faithless, and unrighteous.  He evaluates them as poor shepherds, caring for themselves above the needs of the sheep.  “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.”  (39)  “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.  Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.  Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”  (42-44)  Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.  Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them.”  (46-47)  “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge.  You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”  (52)  The tax collectors and sinners that Jesus met with in Matthew’s house are illustrative of wayward sheep who have no shepherds to guide them.  They are the most needy of the Israelites, but these are the people Jesus came to minister to.  He did not come to those who thought of themselves as good or without need.  He came for those who knew without a shadow of doubt that they were outside of God’s holiness.  For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.  (Matthew 9:13 NLT)  The outcast, the poor, the blind, the crippled, the needy in spirit and body were central to Jesus’ ministry.  Those on the wrong side of the street in respectability are the ones God showers with the Good News of mercy and grace.  The elite, especially the spiritually elite of that day or any day, assess themselves as being in control of their spiritual lives.  Maybe a tweak here or there is needed to make them better, but a total overhaul of everything within them will never fit well with their ideas of worthwhileness and goodness.  If we feel we need only a minor adjustment to our spiritual wellbeing with God, we are totally wrong.  We do not understand the perfection and holiness of God.  That is why Jesus could say do not call me or any man or woman good in the flesh, for all fall short of deserving the mercy and grace of God.  All are unworthy to approach God in any situation or under any circumstance in their own righteousness.  What is needed then?  A new creature is required, made perfect without blemish.  Only Jesus fits that role, holds the power to create anew.  We who hide IN JESUS because of our faith in his works become totally acceptable to a holy God.

Presented with the Good News, many of the needy will follow Jesus.  When asked, Matthew followed Jesus.  Interestingly, he followed Jesus to his own house where Jesus met with more sinners, those who were outside the culture’s acceptability.  Jesus not only sat down and talked with them, He interacted with them socially by eating and drinking with them.  His accusers said He was a wine imbiber because of these situations.  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.  (Matthew 11:19)  But Jesus was seeking followers, those who would commit to him emphatically because they saw in him one who understood their needs.  The “do gooders,” the self-righteous, would never commit to him because of their incorrect evaluation of themselves.  They were living their lives believing they were okay with God, not assessing God’s righteousness correctly.  The people Jesus was associating with at Matthew’s house knew they were outcasts, unappreciated by the majority culture and society.  Jesus did not feel as a stranger in these situations; He knew He was at home with them for He was sent by God to minister to them, to rescue them from hopeless lives, dead ended in the Jewish community.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  (John 1:11)  How many of us today know that we are hopelessly lost unless we accept Jesus’ work on the cross for us?  How many of us really understand that Jesus came for the unhealthy?  It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  How many of us really love our enemies?  Do we care for those who make fun of us because of our silly beliefs about a God in heaven and the resurrection of the dead?  How many of us love those who ridicule our belief in a virgin Mary and the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem?  Who among us loves the homeless, treating them as we would want to be treated, sorrowing over their circumstances?  How many of us love the beggar instead of looking down on their way of living?  How many of us would stop on the way through a busy day to help those who cannot help themselves?  How many of us are perfect, acceptable to a perfect God?  The answer is obvious: none!  We depend unreservedly on the grace and mercy of our loving heavenly Father.  But we can do better, so much better.  Open our eyes, Lord!

The people in Matthew’s house that day were living as if there were no God, in many ways by taking advantage of the Jews.  The tax collectors served the Roman Empire, and they were often dishonest in their assessments of the taxes owed by the Jews who considered them duplicitous.  Other sinners in Matthew’s house probably broke many social norms and laws of the culture, but Jesus sat down and interacted with them as equals.  He was so much at home with them that the Pharisees criticized his association with that kind of people.  But Jesus knew these individuals, as with all people, were blind from birth and in need of light.  As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.  “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind?  Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”  “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered.  “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.  We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.  The night is coming, and then no one can work.  But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”  (John 9:1-5)  Jesus uses this scene to illustrate that he has come to bring light to all people who are blind in their humanness and sin.  Of course, Jesus cures this man’s blindness through the power of God.  He uses spittle and dust for this miracle, maybe indicating through the spittle the power of the Holy Spirit, for from the innermost being the Spirit will flow as water through us.  Regardless, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were angry about this healing.  How could a sinner like Jesus heal anybody?  They thought that maybe Jesus was using demonic power to heal.  But the evidence was clear: a man blind from birth was healed.  Jesus told the former blind man this healing was to show God’s power because God alone could change his blindness.  Jesus said He came into the world to reveal God’s authority and power to his creation.  Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”  (John 9:39)  Jesus brought light to this man who could clearly see who Jesus was, the Son of God.  He was delivered from his innate blindness.  Now the Pharisees as all supposedly good people, upstanding citizens even in today’s society from the right part of town, questioned this idea of spiritual blindness or the disability of sin.  Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”  “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied.  “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.  (John 9:40-41)  The people in Matthew’s house knew they were blind.  A great light came into their midst and fellowshipped with them, leading them to eternal life.  The supposedly well people on the outside were the blind ones.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  (John 1:10-12)  The Pharisees claimed to be God’s own, but they were not; they were hypocrites, so they did not receive Jesus as the Son of God.  Matthew opened his home to Jesus; he became a child of God.  Our righteousness will never get us home to God—only Jesus knows the way.  I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teachings will never die.  (John 8:51)  Place your trust in Jesus and you will never die.             

 

Matthew 9:1-8 Filled with Awe!

Matthew 9:1-8  Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.  Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat.  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”  At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”  Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?  Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?  But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”  So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”  Then the man got up and went home.  When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man. 

In addressing this paralyzed man, Jesus puts the reality of existence in correct perspective.  He first encourages the man by saying, your sins are forgiven.  Of course as with Jesus’ mission of deliverance with the two demon-possessed men on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, this encounter in his home town was planned by the Holy Spirit.  These men who carried this paralyzed man believed Jesus had divine power to heal.  They probably were not concerned about the sick man’s soul, only his physical condition.  But Jesus immediately puts everything in correct perspective: the soul needed healing more than the physical body.  Of course, the spiritual sickness within the human soul is the primary problem of life, keeping us away from eternal life with God.  However, this need is often subservient to finding answers for our daily problems.  The men that brought this paralyzed man to Jesus wanted his flesh to be healed, not his soul.  But Jesus immediately goes to the need of the man’s soul, for Jesus’ mission on Earth was to bring salvation to all humans, everywhere. Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.  A strong belief in the Jewish culture at that time was that disabilities, sicknesses, troubles and deaths were the results of sin in people’s lives.  So, the paralyzed man probably thought this was a good beginning for his physical healing.  He might have thought, “Yes, thank you for getting rid of the reason that has caused my paralysis.”  But Jesus explains to the teachers of the law why He forgave this man’s sins first: “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?  Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?  But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”  He wanted the teachers of the law to understand He came to make men right with God the Creator of all life.  As John 3:16 explains so clearly, God’s motivation for sending Jesus was not to clear up every difficulty and problem in life, but to deliver eternal life to the world because God loves the world.  To deliver life, sin must be conquered, so Jesus tells this paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven, placing him in right standing with God.  Of course the teachers of the law were incensed by this statement of forgiving sin, for they believed, rightly so, that only God can forgive sins.  No man can do what only God can do: “This fellow is blaspheming!”  They were mistaken only because they did not believe that Jesus was truly God, which He was.  This account elevates Jesus’ ministry to something more than just being a powerful, divine man blessed by God or maybe a good man with a prophet’s assignment from God himself, for only God can forgive sin.  His actions caused the teachers of the law to accuse him of blasphemy and the crowd to praise God for the authority He evidenced with such power.  As we read in Acts: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.  (10:38)

Jesus calls himself the Son of Man—the Ultimate Man or the Complete Man.  When man was created from the dust, God placed his image inside of him.  God’s nature was instilled into this product of dust.  Because of that, Adam had full fellowship with God and intimate relationship as they walked together in the Garden in the cool of the day.  At that time, there was no barrier between God and man.  Adam knew the Lord’s will, just as Jesus reveals his obedience to the will of God.  The gospel of John gives us a wealth of verses confirming this: By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.  (5:30)  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  (6:38)  The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.  (8:29)  Why did Jesus always do the Father’s will?  Because there is no barrier of fellowship between him and his Father.  The curtain between God and man as the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the world was never between Jesus and the Father.  Of course, until the sacrifice of the Perfect Man, Jesus, was complete, that curtain remained intact between God and sinful men.  The Spirit of God could not come and abide in men’s souls before their salvation from sin.   Because Jesus the Christ possessed the Holy Spirit in his soul, He was the second Adam, the Perfect Man, possessing the Spirit who was from beginning of time.  Of course, Jesus as the perfect man, calling himself the Son of Man, was fully persuaded to follow God, even to the cross.  In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about the revelation of Jesus, the life-giving Adam.  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  (45-50)  When Jesus came to the paralyzed man, He was bringing the imperishable to him: Your sins are forgiven.  He was bringing God’s anointing of righteousness to this man, to prove it he says, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”  He emphatically announced, I have the power to forgive sin or I have the power to make the perishable into the imperishable.  I am the perfect Son of Man, the One who is right with God and who always has perfect fellowship with the Father.  Through his encounter with the paralytic man, Jesus announced to the world that He has the ability to make men, created out of dust, into children of God.  The first Adam could not implement that for he was made from dust, but the second Adam, the life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ, could create eternal beings from mere humans, his brothers and sisters in the household of God.  As Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  (John 10:10)

As we look at this story dear friends around the breakfast table, we often praise Jesus for his authority over the flesh.  He did restore this man to health, and the man did pick up his mat and go home.  Then the man got up and went home.  But the story is actually putting this fleshly life and its relationship with eternal life in correct perspective.  This paralyzed man, made from the elements of this world was going to receive much more than just healing of his broken, finite body.  He was going to receive a spiritual redemption from the life-giving spirit, known as Jesus of Nazareth.  The crowd observing this scene was amazed that Jesus, a mere man, could have this kind of power.  When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.  For Jesus did not address the illness as a healer might: He addressed the condition of the man’s soul that only God could heal.  Jesus did not say, Be encouraged, you will be healed today.  No, He said, Be encouraged for the final solution for your sick soul will be solved today: your sins will be forgiven.  I, Jesus, will clean the slate of sin that separates you from your Creator.  We might think, how long did this man’s slate stay clean?  Well, because we know Jesus is the Messiah, and that He came to deliver the souls of men to God through his sacrifice, we can consider him to be the propitiation for this man’s sins.  Knowing that faith in Jesus as the Son of God is the key to everlasting life, we must assume that the sacrifice on the cross that will happen later will be the efficacious sacrifice for this man soul, just as it was for the man on the cross.  Then he (the thief) said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.  (Luke 23:42)  Jesus had not died yet, but the man’s soul was to be remembered because of his faith in the Christ.  Surely this once paralyzed man would carry his faith in Jesus as the Messiah to his own grave.  God would remember him, for Jesus said his sins were forgiven.  The question for us today dear friends around the breakfast table as we share this meal about the paralytic man, who are we carrying to Jesus?  Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat.  In this day of the pandemic, there are many trapped in their homes as this man was trapped in his body, but some men really loved this man.  They used their energy to carry him to Jesus.  Their action took planning, teamwork, and effort—real commitment to their cause.  Who are we carrying to Jesus today?  Or, are we so concerned about our struggles with life that we do not think of others?  Does the pandemic affect us so much that we feel we have no strength or desire to help others, those who cannot help themselves?  We can display the second Adam, not the first Adam, if we are willing to help others know God in their lives.  We have a blessed hope in Christ to offer those who are hurting and afraid.  Love should drive us to the mission of helping others.  There are many gifts in this world that we can offer, but the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13)   

Matthew 8:28-34 Light Has Come!

Matthew 8:28-34  When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him.  They were so violent that no one could pass that way.  “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted.  “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”  Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.  The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”  He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.  Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.  Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus.  And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

We see in this scene two men obsessed with the dead, living with the dead, men of violence coming out to meet Jesus.  Because they are possessed by demons, they knew their future: Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?  The demons knew their future, for they were spirits who were the opposite of God’s goodness and love.  Instead of  possessing the Spirit of God, they possessed the spirit of pain, violence and even death.  They were so violent that no one could pass that way.  Jesus was the opposite of these demons: He came to bring life to a dead and dying world.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:4-5)  Some translations say the darkness has not understood it, which would be true in many cases when Jesus approached people in darkness and they did not recognize him.  But when Jesus stepped out of the boat into the region of Gadarenes, the demons saw him and his power.  They were there with two men in their environment of darkness, but suddenly a bright light came to that area, and they knew it.  They may have met Jesus for that reason: two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him.  They knew their possession of these two men was a lost cause, for they addressed Jesus with these words, What do you want with us, Son of God?”  Jesus recognized the demons’ presence.  He had come for the purpose of delivering the two men from demon-possession.  These demons knew their time of torture was to come; their time of eternal death was in their future.  In the meantime, they wreaked their havoc on these two men.  The demons were destroying these men’s lives, having them cut themselves and live like animals, not like human beings who protect they flesh and love and care for others.  The demons enjoyed their destruction of these two individuals, but Jesus came to set them free.  The more prominent of the two, Legion, had a multitude of demons in him.  He was probably the more aggressive of the two, yet, he feared Jesus.  Have you come here to torture us?  No, Jesus came to deliver two men from their torturous lives.  He came to bring abundant life to these men in bondage to evil, and He came to reveal his power, even over a myriad of demons. This was no happenstance meeting, not just another occurrence in Jesus’ journey on Earth.  This was meant to happen: the occasion is recorded in three of the gospels, showing how important this scene is to Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Jesus said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.  (Luke 4:18-19 NKJV)  He came to deliver those who were functioning in tombs from death to eternal life.  The light came to the shore of Gadarenes, and the demons knew it yet had no power against this light, so they quickly capitulated to Jesus’ authority.  The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”  These unclean animals could not withstand the possession of the demons; the evil spirits agitated the pigs to the point that they ran into the sea and drowned.

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This scene does not end in the death of the pigs, but instead ends with the people of the area telling Jesus to leave their land.  They loved darkness more than they loved God because they wanted to protect their lives more than they wanted to walk in the power and the light of God.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  (John 3:19-20)  This world and its possessions were more important than serving God.  As a community, they could have gathered around Jesus and asked him what they should do now since their livelihood had been impacted with the deaths of the pigs; instead, they begged him to leave them alone.  They wanted their lifestyle as it was, not as it could be.  They lacked vision and faith, so they rejected the light and loved their darkness.  If they would have accepted Jesus as their Savior, they would have had to repent of their lifestyle and the sins concomitant in their region.  As humans, God had given them freewill.  Humans are powerfully made with the ability to decide their own fate, their own way of living.  From the very beginning, God has not surgically removed this part of the human nature.  Man, made in God’s image, possesses the ability to decide the direction he or she wishes to go in life.  However, this willfulness becomes cancerous when people choose amiss according to the way of the flesh.  Sin is in all people, and it has spread aggressively throughout the whole system of mankind, every society and culture.  We first see this cancer manifested destructively in Cain and Abel’s relationship.  Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”  While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”  “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  The Lord said, “What have you done?  (Genesis 4:8-10)  Of course, we know that to love God, we must love our neighbor, especially our brothers and sisters in the flesh and in the Spirit.  Cain revealed that sin had captivated his soul by killing his brother.  God judged him harshly for that waywardness from God’s goodness and love.  We see this murderous thread of hatred and sin throughout the ages as men and women reject God and accept sin into their hearts, even though we know that God offers redemption through his Son: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:23)  

As with the people in the Gadarenes region, people today continue to love the darkness.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  (John 3:19)  Generally, people covet their way of life more than they covet God’s will.  Their vision of making anything better is to make their lifestyle here on Earth better according to worldly standards.  As with today’s story, maybe a new crop of pigs would help them live happier.  People tend not to want a home with God; they want their home, the way it is.  Often, they want their pigs and the prosperity they represent, not God’s pathway.  They want darkness rather than serving God in the light.  Sadly, in Gadarenes, they actually seemed not to care much if these two men possessed by demons were living in the tombs.  Yes, maybe they were a bother sometimes because of their threatening behavior.  However, the status quo was better for them than seeing two men sitting in their midst in their right minds if it meant a loss of property.  They chose the pigs over Jesus; they wanted the Healer to leave their region, to leave them alone, not to bring upheaval into their lives.  They loved their present darkness more than the light of the Healer.  As with Cain when he broke fellowship with God, the people of this region really did not know that their homes would never again be places of rest and peace.  As Cain, they would be no more than wanderers on this earth for their brief existence.  The judgment God put on Cain was that he would be a restless wanderer on the earth. (Genesis 4:12)  Someday their earthly shells would rest in those tombs; their wandering would cease.  Then they will meet God and his judgment might begin with questions about their unclean lives: their pigs, their rejection of Jesus—the light God sent them that they rejected.  God might ask them why they did not rejoice more about the two demoniacs being delivered from their torturers.  This story of demon-possessed men’s deliverance points clearly to man’s unwillingness to change.  The community did not want to change, but God brought Jesus to the tombs to change two men, to show what is possible when God’s power comes into a community.  The question for everyone who is partaking of this breakfast is do we want change?  Do we really want change by the power of the Holy Spirit?  Do we want to be home with God or do we just want more pigs, a better lifestyle, more security, more peace, less conflict?  Our hearts will decide that, not our minds.  Our minds will often want more or less of the aforementioned realities of this life, but when Moses addressed the Israelites in the wilderness about loving the One True God, he said, Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your STRENGTH.  (Deuteronomy 6:5)  Yes, our minds should also be given to the Lord, as the New Testament reveals, but in reality when we are in the wilderness, the mind might be obstructive to God’s desires for us.  We just lost our pigs, our livelihood; but God wants something better for us, a permanent home, a place where we can be at rest eternally.  If Jesus can deliver demoniacs of their torturers, He can deliver us from our present condition of unrest.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  (John 14:27)  

Matthew 8:18-27 Winds and Waves Obey Him!

Matthew 8:18-27  When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.  Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.  Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.  But Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us!  We’re going to drown!”  He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.  The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

We see in the above focus men who followed Jesus readily.  They were the disciples with great faith in the man Jesus as someone led by God, maybe even the Messiah.  They followed him without question: he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.  Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.  They were dedicated to this leader of theirs in Judea, followed his commands and protected him from the crowds.  They trusted his words, obeyed his instructions to the letter: As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden.  Untie it and bring it here.”  (Mark 11:1-2)  They had faith in Jesus’ words but remained confused about Jesus concerning his divinity, for they lived with him as a man with all the natural needs they had: eating, drinking, bathing, and the like.  They slept by his side, listened to his breathing in the middle of the night, and saw Jesus remove himself to attend to his bodily needs.  Considering these aspects, Jesus was more of a man to them than divine.  Good teaching, Yes!  Powerful healing and miracles, Yes!  But the controller of all things, even the Creator himself, Maybe.  But when Jesus rebuked the winds and the waves, they exclaimed, “What kind of man is this?  He controls the winds and the waves.  This event amazed them because it elevated their understanding of their leader.  He was not just a man to obey and to follow, but a man who spoke words so powerful that even nature bowed to his will.  But all that Jesus had done in front of them and all the teaching they had received from him traveling place to place through Judea did not convince them sufficiently of his divinity when they saw Jesus arrested by mere men.  Incapable of resisting the fear of death inside of them, they all fled and hid from the authorities.  In today’s passage, we see this fear of death in the boat as they crossed to the other side of the lake.  They trusted and followed Jesus enough to get into the boat, but when the waves swept over the boat and they thought they might perish, they cried out in fear to the MAN sleeping: “Lord, save us!  We’re going to drown!”  Maybe their leader could save them from this life-threatening situation.  He was their last hope.  He was the one who ordered them to get into the boat: it was his responsibility to get them safely to the other shore.  Maybe Jesus the man could help these men, some former fishermen.  Maybe he had a better idea of how to ride out the storm, for Jesus was a man of great words and miracles.  Desperately, they went to him.  But Jesus did something they really did not expect.  He spoke to the storm.  Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.  Of course, this startled the disciples.  Rebuking the storm is not what they were anticipating when they woke him up, for they were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this?  They had been willing to call him Lord as men call leaders Lord or even Master, but they did not know the meaning of that term in the universe of existence.  Lord, in heavenly words as angel uses the term, means: Creator, LORD of All that has ever existed.  In the Old Testament, it means, He who was and is and is to come.  

We who exist today still are confused by the term “LORD.”  As the disciples, we often see Jesus as a great man: Perhaps a healer, a miracle worker, or someone who can convince us to be better; but to know him as the angels do: as Creator, LORD of All is another story.  We often claim him as our Lord, telling him that we trust in him completely, but when we get sick, when we have trouble, when we experience the vissitudes of life, we quickly seek out man’s help.  Now, this is not bad, for God uses the blessings of men’s abilities to help us under different situations.  But often, we hear men say rather emphatically, “I trust the Lord!”  Of course this is good—we should trust the Lord, but sometimes we forget that through the history of mankind, people have trusted the Lord and the ship has gone down.  We forget the Christian woman from long ago who cried and wept over her babies who died from  disease, malnutrition, and plague.  We forget her great pain, her mental instability, as she touches here dead babies, crying out, “Why Lord!”  “Why Lord!”  In our modern world, we can so easily say, “I trust the Lord.”  As if she did not trust the Lord.  We forget that we run to the hospital or to the doctor, to make sure that we can make it through our illness or discomfort.  We must be wary of what we are saying in this modern world of science.  Sometimes, with our words, we heap scorn on our brethren in the past who endured horrendous situations, brought about by the times in which they lived.  We ought to trust the Lord, say emphatically that we trust the Lord, but we must always remember that God is LORD, not just someone we claim to follow.  The disciples confused the connotation of the word Lord when they rushed to the sleeping Jesus.  Lord, save us!  We’re going to drown!”  He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  They were using Lord as a term expressing his leadership role, save us!  We’re going to drown!  When Jesus awoke, he placed the situation in a correct perspective, You of little faith, why are you so afraid?  If you died here with the waves taking you under, do you not know that I am the controller of all things.  Is your faith so small in who I am that I cannot take care of you?  Don’t you understand that all that I am, everything I am talking about, and all my miracles are telling you that I have another existence for you, that this isn’t your home.  You are mine and I will never leave you, even in the grave.  But most of us cannot rest in this faith.  We want a rescue here, a decision here, a way out here.  We want an abundant life here.  Our faith is small.  We do not have faith that Jesus is LORD of all that is made, that real life is something more than just existing here.  Jesus told the Sadducees who believed there was no resurrection, He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  You are badly mistaken!  (Mark 12:27)  We are badly mistaken as were the Sadducees if we believe this world is more important that the Kingdom of Heaven.  The disciples on that day were thinking only of this kingdom.  Jesus brought another kingdom to them that would never cease: finiteness would slip away as the dust we are made of will be gone forever, and the eternal life that exists in our souls will someday reign with Jesus forevermore.  

If you walk through a cemetery with graves from the eighteen hundreds or the early nineteen hundreds, you will see many little graves with crosses on the tombstones, representing babies or young children who were buried there.  You can almost hear the sobbing of the parents who lost their children so early in life.  And yet there are crosses, for regardless of the hardships of life, they believed Jesus is LORD.  They served God because they believed He is the great Creator of All Things and that He loved them.  They trusted God and passed down Christianity to us who live in this modern world where medical help and science is so easily available to us.  We are often like the disciples who rushed to the sleeping Jesus, “Help us, we are going to perish!”  Jesus wakes up and looks at us in wonder, “Do not you know I am in the boat with you?  Have you not heard that I will never abandon you?  Do not you know I am the LORD?  YOU SHALL NEVER PERISH!”  Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Jesus said to these two young men, what you are asking is serious, eternal.  This is no game.  This is not a ticket to get out of jail free.  This is not a temporary fix for your life.  This is the real thing, the very definition of what it means to be alive.  You have been made to be with God, to have eternal life in your souls, to communicate and honor God forever.  This world holds no real meaning in comparison to what you are as followers of mine.  If you think you have to bury your father first before you commit to me one hundred percent, you have no part in me, for I am of another kingdom, not this earthly one.  If you think that things are going to be better for you on your earthly journey because you follow me, I want to remind you, I have no place to call my home.  If you want to have a happier family, more loving and caring, making your life warm and comfy under the auspices of God’s power and control beware: If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.  And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  (Luke 14:26-27)  Peter, James and John left everything when they were called.  They were no longer in the business of the world; they were in the business of a new kingdom.  We who are IN CHRIST are no longer in the business of the world.  Yes, there are great benefits of having people around you who love the Lord.  Yes, families do benefit greatly from being Christian, but Jesus is not just Lord to help us have a better life; He is LORD, CREATOR OF ALL.  Regardless of your circumstance today, do you believe He is LORD?  He said to the disciples, You of little faith.  Are you like the world who follow me because of fishes and loaves, follow me because maybe I can make this life on Earth better or are you children of God who know that their destiny is with God forever?  As with the woman who holds her little dead child and cries out LORD, I trust you.  DO YOU HAVE HER FAITH!  We have a Savior; Jesus is his name!