Calling and Dragging
Theres still so much in chapter 7 that I've been thinking about. Pulling back and reading the whole sermon on the mount, It says so much in just 3 chapters. This being the First teaching of Jesus he really takes the Jews through a spin. He is saying things that are counter culture,and in some eyes heracy. Jesus had balls.
Moving on.
Matthew 8
Jesus is coming down the mountain, and everyone is following him....I would too. If someone came and spoke like that, I would want to hear what else he has to say. On his way down a leper comes to him looking for healing, Jesus doesnt even blink, he says be clean.Done. So Jesus keeps going and just gets to Capernaum. I'm not sure how far away Capernaum is or how long it would take Jesus and his crew to get there, but thats besides the point. Hes in Capernaum and this roman centurion came to him and asks him to heal one of his servants. This is what he said "Lord, my servant is lying home paralyzed at home, suffering terribly." I emphasised the word Lord to consider a few things. First of all this guy is a roman centurion. Back in the day these guys led a group of 100 soldiers, hence the name centurion. These are the guys who would in todays world be considered Captains in the US. These men had power, were very structured, and were considered heathens by the Jews. I cant imagine a man of this stature saying to a civilian "Lord" or "Please". I see this today happening like this. A major comes up to a civilian, a preacher, and says "Please sir, one of my men is sick and paralyzed. I'm not worthy for you to come to my house. Please just say it and I know it will be done." Even in todays society its hard to see that scenario play out, except maybe in a movie.
Jesus' jaw drops. He says about a roman soldier, a heathen, that he has more faith than anyone hes known in Israel. Jesus says god, its done, and the man was healed. But lets look a little bit deeper into this. This roman centurion, a well respected leader, humbles himself and asks a rabbi to heal his servant. I can only see the look on his other servants face. It doesn't say this in the Bible but I see this man getting off his horse and walking up to Jesus, maybe even kneeling. What interesting is that the leper on the mountain acted in the very same way. He humbled himself and asked Christ to heal him.
When we put our pride to the side and come to Jesus with a humble heart and ask him for something. He does it. It seems like there is a direct correlation between humility and faith. These two things are related, you can't have one and not the other. For me, its easy for me to humble myself, but hard for me to hold faithful that what I pray will happen. In the same way its easy for me to get really head strong when I'm blessed and not credit the blessing to God. But notice that Jesus never runs up to these people and say, "ugh, you need healing." Hes not going to drag us through the steps of faith. He calls everyone and says "I'm right here." He puts the truth out there and doesn't try and hide how glamorous it might not be.
So Jesus is about to cross some body of water and this scribe comes up to him who wants to learn from Jesus. Jesus is basically like "yeah dude, but i dont have a home. So as long as you don't mind sleeping under the stars from time to time." The scribes like, yeahhhhh I don't think thats gonna work. Jesus doesnt try and convince this guy into following him. That doesn't mean that Jesus loves this guy any less. He still wants him to come, but that decision is ours to make.
Everybody piles into a sailboat and they head for the other side. Jesus is tired from a long day of healin' & preachin' so he takes a nap. By this point in the timeline I imagine maybe a few days maybe a week or two has passed since Jesus calls his disciples. So they don't really know this guy very well. All they know is it really sounds like he knows what hes talking about and hes healing people right and left. All of a sudden the sky starts getting black. It starts to rain and these guys are starting to get a little worried. The rain gets worse and waves start getting bigger and bigger......and bigger.
I've been on a few different kinds of boats in my life. I've been on small little speed boats and on big big cruise ships. I imagine the boat they were on to be a good size, not the size of a cruise ship, but probably what most of us would consider small yacht type. These things don't feel safe even in good weather. Your rockin and tossin and turnin, its fun....in good weather. In bad weather, you can see waves bigger than your boat. water is everywhere, everything is wet and slippery. It got so bad that these guys were like "Well its been an awsome few days see yall in heaven." They were running around the boat yelling "We are all going to die." So one of them wakes the still sleeping Christ and is like, "Jesus, I got bad news, we're goin down. If you can do anything about this situation....nows a good time, btw grab a life jacket." Jesus is like "relax" he tells the wind and the sea to calm down and they did. He says [26]....why are you afraid,o you of little faith?"
Now think about this. What do you think would have happened if they went to Jesus when the sky started to turn black, or when the rain first started to fall, or when the waves started to get bigger? What if they never went to Jesus and tried to fight the storm on their own? When we are in the middle of life's storms Jesus is right there, waiting for us to turn to him. These guys were just about to sink their ship it was so bad. In my life, I think I sank my ship and i was drowning....I was underwater when I turned to Christ, who was still there and pulled me out of the storm when I asked him to. It isnt until we humble ourselves and say, I can't fight this storm on my own, I need you Jesus, that he pulls us out of the water. Just a heads up, its gonna rain. Its not an easy thing to do, this christianity. Even after I asked Jesus to pull me out, Its rained since then, and granted I turned to him much quicker now than before. But it is gonna rain, and sometimes it rains hard, and sometimes you think your gonna sink, and sometimes you do sink. Jesus is with you through it all. You only have to turn to him and ask for his help.
Think about it, a homeless diseased man who no one will touch and a high ranking officer of the military both act in similar ways. Jesus doesn't see our situation, or our status, Jesus sees our hearts.
Most of the stuff from this point to the end of chapter 8 I pulled off of a commentary on biblegateway.com.
So they get to the other side safely to a place called Gadarenes. One thing to note about this place is that it is primarily a Gentile area with a large jewish population (thankyou biblegateway.com) The tombs where these 2 demon possessed men are coming out of are unclean and considered the usual haunts of demons and magic (biblegateway.com has an interesting commentary but im going to sum it up). So the two demon men get all freaked out and ask Jesus to cast them out into a herd of pigs near by. Jesus only says "Go" and they possess the pigs and they all commit pork suicide. So the herdsman runs back into town telling everybody, "hey, this guy Jesus just killed my pigs," and in a much less concearned tone "and he healed those two crazy guys by the tombs." I say all that because I really wrestled with the last verse in Chapter 8. It says [34] And behold all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region."
Moving on.
Matthew 8
Jesus is coming down the mountain, and everyone is following him....I would too. If someone came and spoke like that, I would want to hear what else he has to say. On his way down a leper comes to him looking for healing, Jesus doesnt even blink, he says be clean.Done. So Jesus keeps going and just gets to Capernaum. I'm not sure how far away Capernaum is or how long it would take Jesus and his crew to get there, but thats besides the point. Hes in Capernaum and this roman centurion came to him and asks him to heal one of his servants. This is what he said "Lord, my servant is lying home paralyzed at home, suffering terribly." I emphasised the word Lord to consider a few things. First of all this guy is a roman centurion. Back in the day these guys led a group of 100 soldiers, hence the name centurion. These are the guys who would in todays world be considered Captains in the US. These men had power, were very structured, and were considered heathens by the Jews. I cant imagine a man of this stature saying to a civilian "Lord" or "Please". I see this today happening like this. A major comes up to a civilian, a preacher, and says "Please sir, one of my men is sick and paralyzed. I'm not worthy for you to come to my house. Please just say it and I know it will be done." Even in todays society its hard to see that scenario play out, except maybe in a movie.
Jesus' jaw drops. He says about a roman soldier, a heathen, that he has more faith than anyone hes known in Israel. Jesus says god, its done, and the man was healed. But lets look a little bit deeper into this. This roman centurion, a well respected leader, humbles himself and asks a rabbi to heal his servant. I can only see the look on his other servants face. It doesn't say this in the Bible but I see this man getting off his horse and walking up to Jesus, maybe even kneeling. What interesting is that the leper on the mountain acted in the very same way. He humbled himself and asked Christ to heal him.
When we put our pride to the side and come to Jesus with a humble heart and ask him for something. He does it. It seems like there is a direct correlation between humility and faith. These two things are related, you can't have one and not the other. For me, its easy for me to humble myself, but hard for me to hold faithful that what I pray will happen. In the same way its easy for me to get really head strong when I'm blessed and not credit the blessing to God. But notice that Jesus never runs up to these people and say, "ugh, you need healing." Hes not going to drag us through the steps of faith. He calls everyone and says "I'm right here." He puts the truth out there and doesn't try and hide how glamorous it might not be.
So Jesus is about to cross some body of water and this scribe comes up to him who wants to learn from Jesus. Jesus is basically like "yeah dude, but i dont have a home. So as long as you don't mind sleeping under the stars from time to time." The scribes like, yeahhhhh I don't think thats gonna work. Jesus doesnt try and convince this guy into following him. That doesn't mean that Jesus loves this guy any less. He still wants him to come, but that decision is ours to make.
Everybody piles into a sailboat and they head for the other side. Jesus is tired from a long day of healin' & preachin' so he takes a nap. By this point in the timeline I imagine maybe a few days maybe a week or two has passed since Jesus calls his disciples. So they don't really know this guy very well. All they know is it really sounds like he knows what hes talking about and hes healing people right and left. All of a sudden the sky starts getting black. It starts to rain and these guys are starting to get a little worried. The rain gets worse and waves start getting bigger and bigger......and bigger.
I've been on a few different kinds of boats in my life. I've been on small little speed boats and on big big cruise ships. I imagine the boat they were on to be a good size, not the size of a cruise ship, but probably what most of us would consider small yacht type. These things don't feel safe even in good weather. Your rockin and tossin and turnin, its fun....in good weather. In bad weather, you can see waves bigger than your boat. water is everywhere, everything is wet and slippery. It got so bad that these guys were like "Well its been an awsome few days see yall in heaven." They were running around the boat yelling "We are all going to die." So one of them wakes the still sleeping Christ and is like, "Jesus, I got bad news, we're goin down. If you can do anything about this situation....nows a good time, btw grab a life jacket." Jesus is like "relax" he tells the wind and the sea to calm down and they did. He says [26]....why are you afraid,o you of little faith?"
Now think about this. What do you think would have happened if they went to Jesus when the sky started to turn black, or when the rain first started to fall, or when the waves started to get bigger? What if they never went to Jesus and tried to fight the storm on their own? When we are in the middle of life's storms Jesus is right there, waiting for us to turn to him. These guys were just about to sink their ship it was so bad. In my life, I think I sank my ship and i was drowning....I was underwater when I turned to Christ, who was still there and pulled me out of the storm when I asked him to. It isnt until we humble ourselves and say, I can't fight this storm on my own, I need you Jesus, that he pulls us out of the water. Just a heads up, its gonna rain. Its not an easy thing to do, this christianity. Even after I asked Jesus to pull me out, Its rained since then, and granted I turned to him much quicker now than before. But it is gonna rain, and sometimes it rains hard, and sometimes you think your gonna sink, and sometimes you do sink. Jesus is with you through it all. You only have to turn to him and ask for his help.
Think about it, a homeless diseased man who no one will touch and a high ranking officer of the military both act in similar ways. Jesus doesn't see our situation, or our status, Jesus sees our hearts.
Most of the stuff from this point to the end of chapter 8 I pulled off of a commentary on biblegateway.com.
So they get to the other side safely to a place called Gadarenes. One thing to note about this place is that it is primarily a Gentile area with a large jewish population (thankyou biblegateway.com) The tombs where these 2 demon possessed men are coming out of are unclean and considered the usual haunts of demons and magic (biblegateway.com has an interesting commentary but im going to sum it up). So the two demon men get all freaked out and ask Jesus to cast them out into a herd of pigs near by. Jesus only says "Go" and they possess the pigs and they all commit pork suicide. So the herdsman runs back into town telling everybody, "hey, this guy Jesus just killed my pigs," and in a much less concearned tone "and he healed those two crazy guys by the tombs." I say all that because I really wrestled with the last verse in Chapter 8. It says [34] And behold all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region."
posted by Its not about Perfection, Its about Progress at 8:24 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home