Monday September 26, 2011

Read: Matthew 8:1-4

 

You’ve probably read this passage a thousand times and never really stopped to think much about it.  It’s just another healing passage, right? Definitely not! Did you realise that this miracle is the first miracle that Matthew records Jesus doing. Go on, track back through Matthew and     you’ll see that it really is the first miracle that Matthew details. Chapter 4 records Jesus doing some miracles and healings in summary form but doesn’t really go into any detail.  Now obviously, it wasn’t Jesus’ first miracle. John 2, the Wedding at Cana, records Jesus’ first miracle. Think about what Matthew is doing by recording this miracle as the first detailed miracle in the gospel.

 

Jesus has been tempted by the evil one and has overcome. He has shown himself to be supreme. In the next 3 chapters Jesus sits on a mountain side talking to the disciples and intensively teaches and instructs them. Now He is ready to continue the teaching of the disciples and to minister to the world. Theory has given way to practical! The disciples are effectively on work experience. Can you comprehend the enormity of the lesson that they learned first up? It’s a  lesson the modern day church would do well to learn and apply quickly.

 

Think about the big picture of what has happened. Jesus is confronted by a leper. The leper confesses to Christ that if He is willing then He can remove the disease. Jesus reaches out and touches the leper with the most beautiful and touching words, ‘I am willing’. Immediately the leper is cleansed and healed.  What lesson did the disciples learn? Jesus, God in the flesh, is both willing and able to reach out to the outcasts, the unclean, the diseased, the socially unacceptable and those who have no religious rights whatsoever. Jesus is willing to reach out and touch them, to take their uncleanness upon Himself and to make them clean. Here is a living parable of what Jesus will do for all mankind at the cross. At the cross we see the substitutionary death of the ‘righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God’.  We see the one who became sin for us bearing our rejection of God and making us clean!

 

Throughout this series you will see several symbols to push, motivate and encourage you. Activ8 means activating your faith, putting it into practice. Meditat8 is to meditate and think deeply upon the Word or verse for the day. Memorise the verse and think about it all day, asking yourself pertinent questions like ‘What does it mean?’  ‘How will I put in into practice?’ ‘What did this verse cost Jesus and what will it cost me?’ and so on.  Particip8 means to participate and get involved in your church’s life and ministry.

 

Meditate on Jesus’ words ‘I am willing’. Who are the outcasts in your society that Jesus would reach out and touch with his love? What would it look like for you and your church to willingly reach out and touch these people? What would it take for your church to reach out to these people?

 

Prayer Points:

 

> Pray for the Family Voice Australia with their upcoming annual review.

> Pray for the presentation of the 32, 297 names to Queensland Federal MPs in the coming months.