Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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Matthew 8:14-17 (Isaiah 53:4)
(December 12, 2004) So far in Matthew, we have seen John the Baptist as a voice in our wilderness preparing the way for Christ and Jesus as a light in our darkness. Today we skip ahead to chapter 8 and discover that Jesus heals our sickness and disease. Although Matthew mentions Jesus’ healing powers in chapter 4, he doesn’t describe any healings specifically until chapter 8. The previous section, in Matthew 5-7, demonstrates Jesus as the Messiah in word. We call this section the Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew makes connections between this word from the mountain and the word Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, the Ten Commandments. (See Exodus 19-20.) Our passage today comes from the next section in Matthew, in chapters 8-9, showing Jesus as the Messiah in deed. In this section, Jesus heals people with various illnesses, including demon possession, paralysis, and blindness. He also calms a storm while at sea with his disciples. Again, Matthew refers back to Isaiah to help us understand who Jesus is as the Messiah. Many who had hoped for God’s Messiah in the first century expected a warrior-king, who would conquer. Matthew shows them that the prophet Isaiah spoke of a servant-king, who would heal. Matthew quotes from Isaiah 53:4: “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.” This selection comes from a section in Isaiah known as “The Servant Songs,” found in Isaiah 42-53. In that section, Isaiah beautifully describes the struggle God feels, having poured out his heart for us and yet watching us turn away. These chapters overflow with love language that God uses to woo us back, in verses such as 43:1-2 “Do not be afraid for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you.” God loves us so much and goes to extraordinary lengths to win our love in return! Jesus demonstrated this love and caring in the passage of Matthew we read today. Notice, though, that in the other healing stories, the people came to Jesus. When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, she had not gone to him. He had come to stay in Peter’s house and found her sick, so he touched her and healed her. Jesus has a way of doing just that: walking in on our every day lives and discovering that we need his healing touch. We often think about needing Christ’s healing in the “big” sicknesses of our lives and we don’t usually hesitate to pray about those crises. However, Jesus’ love and caring extends into the ordinariness of our lives, to those places where we hesitate to go to God in prayer. God longs for us to be whole in every area of our lives, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Peter’s wife could have said, “Oh, Jesus, don’t come in. My mother is sick.” Instead, she opened her home and life to Christ. Matthew invites us in this passage to do the same: open up our lives to the healing touch of Christ. Questions for Reflection
For further study: Please read Isaiah 46:3-4; 48:18; 49:15-16; 52-53. These selections from the Servant Songs demonstrate God’s incredible love.
For next week: Read
Matthew 13:11-17 and
Isaiah 6:9-10. Which
comes first: faith or understanding? |
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