Category: Devotionals

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:35–38)

This week in our text we aren’t focusing on one particular miracle, as in past weeks, but rather we’ll look at one of the broad statements about Jesus’ ministry. As we see in Matthew’s gospel, he has come to teach, proclaim, and heal, his ministry fueled by his great compassion on the crowds who clamor to hear him speak and to receive his healing touch. The word in the Greek for compassion indicates a deep feeling in the gut, so strongly does Jesus feel for his people.

Jesus longs to be their shepherd, a common picture in the Old Testament of God to his people. In doing so Jesus will provide protection and sustenance, meeting their voiced and unvoiced needs. He then changes the metaphor to another familiar one from the Hebrew Scriptures, telling his disciples that the harvest is ripe but more workers are needed.

What is our role? One is prayer – “ask the Lord of the harvest.” So often we put prayer low on our list of priorities, sometimes by default due to the busyness of life. But for some amazing and mysterious reason, God wants to hear us cry out to him, and he acts on those prayers. As Lord Alfred Tennyson said, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

What would intentional prayer look like for you this week? Is someone coming to mind even as you read this, for whom you should pray and perhaps fast? Maybe you could turn on a timer to signal the hours, then pause for a moment and pray for that person. God delights in the cries of his people, however we choose to make them.

For reflection: “Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi

A synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up (Matthew 9:18–25).

Utterly desperate, a leader in the synagogue approaches Jesus for help because his daughter has died. Jesus agrees to go to his house, and as they do so a woman touches the hem of Jesus’ cloak, believing that her nonstop bleeding will stop. Jesus responds with compassion: the woman is healed; the girl was only asleep.

Both situations were desperate. Jarius has tried everything but his daughter still died. But he holds out hope that this miracle man can save her. So too the woman who has been bleeding for a dozen years. That’s twelve years of being an outcast from her community, for the bleeding made her unclean. She had tried every type of medical cure available, to no avail.

Jesus has compassion on those at the margins of society. He doesn’t penalize them for coming to him as a last resort but responds quickly and powerfully. His actions signal a new kingdom, one in which grace upon grace is poured on God’s children – all of God’s children, whether women, little girls, the blind or leprous, or the elite of society. May we enter into this grace this day.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to see those who might feel ostracized or lonely, and let me be your agent of love and grace.

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. (Matthew 9:1–7)

Jesus tells the man that his sins are forgiven, and this immediately sets off alarm bells in the scribes and experts in Judaism. Forgiving sins can only be done by God, they know, which is why they accuse Jesus of blasphemy. Jesus, however, knowing their unspoken evil thoughts, responds. He knows that they believe that people won’t be healed unless their sins are forgiven. A way to show them his power as the Son of Man is to heal the paralyzed man – and to forgive his sins.

Receiving forgiveness can bring about healing, sometimes even physical, but that doesn’t mean that people who are struggling with disease or deformity are riddled with unconfessed sin. We’ll only fully be free when we enter the land of no more tears or crying or death. Until then, may we continue to present ourselves to Jesus, confessing our sins and receiving his cleansing forgiveness.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, what friends that man had to care for him so deeply. Show me this day how I can show love to my friends.

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. (Matthew 8:28–32)

Sickness, blindness, stormy lakes, and now demons. Jesus and his friends arrive in a Gentile area, which is why a herd of pigs was grazing. Again Matthew cuts out excess details as he points squarely to Jesus’ action of release instead of giving a lot of background information about the possessed men.

The demons knew immediately who they were encountering – the Son of God. They recognized his authority, and pleaded to be released into the pigs (two thousand, according to Mark’s gospel). He tells them to go, and they do so dramatically, sacrificing the pigs in the process. The Jewish people with Jesus wouldn’t have been bothered by this loss, for they so disliked pigs that they would have put them in the same category as the demons. The Gentiles, however, were troubled and asked Jesus to leave. As one commentator says pointedly, “all down the ages the world has been refusing Jesus because it prefers the pigs” (quoted in NIV Application Commentary: Matthew, p. 354).

We can feel bad for the squashed pigs, but if we focus too much on them we’ll miss the point of the story – the authority of the Messiah over demons, and freedom and restoration for troubled men. Also, we can ponder that Jesus allowed the demons to transfer to the pigs because it wasn’t the appointed time. We don’t know why he didn’t eradicate the evil then, but we know that one day he will.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

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!” Matthew 8:23–27

In his account, Matthew shows that Jesus is not only Lord over disease and demons, but over nature too. He is Immanuel, God with us, who rebukes the storm over the seas just as God in the Old Testament made the waters calm – see for instance, Psalm 104:7 (“at your rebuke the waters fled”) or Isaiah 50:2 (“by a mere rebuke I dry up the sea”). At his mere word the seas obey, causing the frightened disciples to wonder just who is in the boat with them. They had witnessed him healing the previously incurable diseases, but they hadn’t reckoned on him controlling nature. Being familiar with the references in the Old Testament mentioned above, they would have realized immediately the weight of Jesus’ actions.

The storm was no ordinary storm. This is hinted at by the Greek word seismos, which usually means an earthquake, or literally, a “shaking” (RT France, Matthew, IVP, 1985, p. 161). A force from outside brought chaos; that is, a squall came upon the lake violently and suddenly. Jesus demonstrates his authority by calming it with a rebuke.

Jesus wants us to believe in his power to still the storms in our lives, whether created from outside or from within. Sometimes they appear suddenly, taking us by surprise and perhaps flattening our faith. As we turn to him in fear or faith, asking him to save us, he brings calm and peace, creating order from disorder.

Prayer: Lord, I confess that when I see the waves leaping at my boat, I react with fear. Come and save me, and increase my faith in your goodness and grace.