The Sermon on the Mount Matthew 9:18-34 I am looking at this passage from a number of perspectives. The first perspective is that of the three miracles. The miracle of the synagogue leader’s daughter, the miracle of the woman with bleeding, and the healing of the two blind men. In the first miracle, it is interesting that a synagogue leader, one of those whose love of power and adulation caused him to reject Jesus, has now come to Jesus. I get the impression from the reading, and this is backed up in many commentaries, that this man has come to Jesus as a last resort. He has tried everything else and now he is desperate. His daughter is dead, but Jesus has healed others, perhaps he can help? So the man came because he had nowhere else to go. I find that interesting. So often people come to faith in Jesus because they have tried everything else and find themselves having nowhere else to go. If someone came to me under those circumstances I would find it hard to want to help him. I would want him to acknowledge what a worm he was and that he had been wrong. Jesus, mercifully, is not concerned about His ego. He is willing to accept even those who come to Him because they have nowhere else to go. It is a great thing that Jesus is not flawed like me, or very few of us would ever be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. The second miracle is about the woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. You can read a fuller version of the story in Mark 5:25-34. This woman has tried everything to be healed. She is also desperate. In a superstitious act, she reaches out to touch Jesus’ clothing. She believes that touching his clothes (which must be imbued with magical properties) will heal her. In the third miracle, note the two blind men refer to Jesus as “son of David”. Jesus never called Himself that. This was a title that those who believed in the warrior Messiah used. What these men thought about Jesus was that He was going to cast out the Romans and all other oppressors and Judah would again rise triumphant. They had no concept of the need for a permanent solution to the problem of sin. So these blind men had an inadequate concept of Jesus. The bleeding woman had an inadequate faith and the synagogue ruler’s motive was inadequate. The message of these verses is that we can come to Jesus as we are. He will meet us at our point of need. We are not expected to develop perfect motives and a perfect faith. All we have to do is take that step towards Him. No matter how imperfect that step is, if it is made towards Jesus, He will meet us with a willingness to receive us. There are two important truths here. We can come to Jesus at any time. It doesn’t matter if our concept of Jesus is faulty, or our faith is less than perfect or our motives are highly suspect. Jesus will accept us willingly with love. Once we are accepted, then He will change us. So we can always be reassured of a willing acceptance. Our response to this, apart from one of worship for our mighty Lord and Saviour, is to never judge the motives, theology or faith of others. Jesus takes us as we are and changes us into who we should be. So as disciples of Jesus we must accept others as Jesus accepts them.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:51:49 +0000
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