ELACHISTOTEROS

“Why do the nations rebel, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the land stand together and rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against his Anointed One: ‘Let us tear off our shackles and throw off our ropes.’ The one sitting in heaven laughs, the Lord mocks them. He speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his fury: ‘I have consecrated my King upon Zion, my holy hill.’” – Psalm 2:1-6

Here we see the absolute futility of rejecting God’s chosen authorities. Not even the kings of the earth and the rulers of the people are able to legitimately challenge God’s right to rule and select his own ruler. The best laid plans to throw off God’s “shackles” and “ropes” are simply laughed at and mocked by God himself. His chosen king stands over and above any other possible ruler.

People have always rejected God’s rule over their lives. Most people are vehemently opposed to humbly accepting the authority God has placed on them. They struggle, rebel, complain and fight against God’s rule. They aren’t happy with how God does things. They aren’t satisfied letting God call the shots.

We’ve been like this since the dawn of time. We want to assert our autonomy at the expense of our own dignity. Think of Adam and Eve, they were convinced that God was trying to trick them and restrict them. They were so sure of it they went behind his back and transgressed his one and only rule. But they are not unique, they are typical for the entire human race. We all want to distinguish ourselves as competent monarchs even of our own little personal worlds.

We never really see, until after the fact of course, that God’s rule is always, always, always for our good. It is always for our good. True, it may not seem true at the time, but looking back we can always see that God’s authority in our lives is certainly for our good.

His Chosen King is the best King to ever live. His King knows what is good for us, how to treat us, how to lead us and protect us. God has chosen his King for us. It is not our place to question his authority or kick against the rules or doubt his goodness, it is our place to humbly accept the authority of the King in our lives.

“Oh how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers! But the law of Yahweh is his joy, and on his law he meditates both day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which gives its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither,and he succeeds in everything he does. Not so the wicked, because they are like chaff which is scattered by the wind. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous, Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” -Psalm 1

The first psalm is quite a psalm. For one, it looks absolutely nothing like the songs we sing.

This psalm makes a big deal of the written word of God. Association with and meditation on the word of God is a primary issue at work here. Notice how it makes all the difference between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous one finds his joy not in the company of scoffers and sinners but in the law of God and in meditation upon it. 

I like the manifold description of the blessed man; he doesn’t walk with the wicked, stand with sinner or sit with scoffers. His character is revealed in who he does not walk with, who he does not stand with and who he does not sit with. Rather, the word of God influences his life and actions.

Being constantly connected to the law of God is like being a tree that is constantly connected to a source of water. Trees that have a reliable water source consistently bear fruit and thrive. But the wicked can’t be described this way. They don’t have the water source or the root system. They lack the stability that comes from the word of God.

We know how true this is. We know how important it is to be grounded in God’s word, to be planted firmly by the water source. We know that its essential for stability in this life to be connected and fed by the richness and vitality supplied by the word of God. But, still we meditate on other things both day and night. And when it comes to the Bible, we don’t exactly find our “joy” in it. We know its good for us, but its just not that exciting.

If this is true, there should be no surprise when we don’t see any fruit.

“There was a big herd of feeding pigs far off. The demonized ones urged him saying, ‘If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.’ And he said to them, ‘Go!’ Going out, they went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down a steep bank into the lake and died in the water.  The farmers ran away, and going into town, they proclaimed everything that had happened to the demonized men, and behold, the whole town came out to meet him. When they saw him they urged him to leave their region.” – Matthew 8:30-34

It’s weird how familiar this story is to us. Maybe because its so odd box. It really is a different story. All these pigs and demons committing suicide.

What’s even more weird is the focus of the narration. I mean, typically, when Jesus heals someone, you at least get a reaction from the person who was healed. They say thanks or God bless you or see ya later. Even if they don’t say anything, we typically hear about something they feel or think. Here, we don’t get any response from these two men who just had demons exorcised from them. We do, however, get the reaction of the farmers and the people from that region. In this story, the demonized men are just foils in the plot, they don’t have a major role; the demons inhabiting their bodies get a more prominent role in fact.

By the way, I don’t know the complete significance of the pigs. To me, what seems to make sense is that the demons understand that Jesus is going to save those two men, so they were in trouble. They had to act fast before they get sent somewhere else. So they politely request a merciful exorcising and there just happened to be a herd of pigs in the area. I don’t see a ton of symbolic meaning at this point (I could very well be wrong). More likely, they know what Jesus has come to do and they look for a merciful way out from him.

Further, the reason why the pigs run off into the water is not clear either, other than the fact that demons unashamedly seek destruction and a perversion of God’s original intention. That is to say, God created the world for peace, these demons brought strife; God created harmonious relationships, the demons caused these men to live out in the tombs away from town; God created a safe nurturing garden, these demonized men made the road unsafe to travel on. It is clear that demons have a clear aim, and that is to subvert and pervert what God created. So, once again, God is the God of life, and given the chance the demons will cause death – even for pigs.

But the significant point I want to draw out of this story is what the people of the town focus on. Jesus heals these guys from a violent, anti-social, oppressive, disturbing and dark affliction and the people of the town come out and are concerned about the pigs. They are so upset that the pigs died, they ask him to leave their region altogether. Really? Jesus has just brought new life to these hopeless men and the town is concerned about the pigs??

Now, granted, the herd of pigs was an economic asset, not simply awkward house pets. They were probably more upset about the money he just cost them and the food he wasted. But this does not excuse their behavior. Their value system consisted of dollars and cents and Jesus’ value system is based not on currency but on life and abundance of it. If these people were offered the pigs back at the expense of these two men, I’m afraid to say I know what they would choose. Money every time.

It’s like when people hear the gospel and are hung up on the secondary issues. People reject the gospel because the crucifixion was too violent; or they think it was unfair; or now what do we say about those who haven’t heard about Jesus. Okay. These are not bad questions, but they miss the whole thrust of the gospel in the first place. Through Jesus we have life and abundant life at that. Through Jesus we have access to eternal bliss in a relationship with God the Father. It is Jesus who can fix our brokenness and bring healing and blessing and redemption from the sadness, destruction and loneliness of this world. Jesus takes our failure and turns it into glory.

Don’t ask him to leave because you have philosophic sensibilities that are offended by what you think the Bible says. Just look at what he has done.

“When he came to the other side into the land of the Gadarenes, he was greeted by two demonized men coming out of the tombs. They were extremely fierce so that no one was able to pass by that road. And behold, they cried out saying, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God?! Have you come to torment us before our time?!’” – Matthew 8:28-29

A number of scenic clues have made this a dramatic shift in the story. If you were a Jewish person, you would have caught them. We just went from a pretty Hebrew context (a very Jonah-esque story where Jesus sleeps through a storm) to a very non-Hebrew context. The land of the Gadarenes is a gentile area. We have stepped out of the safe bounds of Israel into foreign territory “on the other side.” Also, we are at a tomb of all places. Jewish people and tombs do not mix. Dead bodies will make you ceremonially unclean, so Jews avoided coming into any contact with them.

So we are totally out of our Jewish element. We are in a foreign place, an icky place, full of tombs and scary demoniacs as some call them. (I prefer the word “demonized” because it is a rigidly literal interpretation of the word, but I digress.) We are out of our Hebrew context. The reader is now confronted with the harsh reality that Jesus’ authority might be maxed out. He is pushing his luck, so to speak, because he is out of his neck of the woods. Being Israel’s Messiah, he is on someone else’s side of the tracks. He is not in his own stomping grounds. His miracles and tricks might have worked with his own people, but does he seriously think that he commands respect in these gentile, pagan, dirty outskirts of town where demons run the show?

I just watched the Lord of the Rings (part 1). And naturally I am thinking of the scene where Gandalf is on that skinny bridge facing the humongous black fire beast with the whip. Everyone is on the edge of their seat and biting their nails (the hobbits, of course) because they are wondering if this guy, who has proved himself on his own turf, can wield the same authority on someone else’s turf. Is the monster going to laugh and crush him? Is his authority going to hold? Will he escape? The one failure to this metaphor is that the demon monster takes Gandalf down with him (sorry if you haven’t seen it). His authority only lasts for a short while. So what happens with Jesus?

Well, first of all, they recognize who he is immediately. They even address him as Son of God! He immediately commands their respect and he hasn’t even spoken yet. They run out yelling and asking what Jesus is going to do to them. It’s funny that Jesus doesn’t get this kind of reception in his own land. Regardless, these demonized guys at the snap of a finger see exactly who Jesus is and call him the name “Son of God.”

(As a side note, some people think that the demonized men were being sarcastic, sort of mocking Jesus. I find this unlikely because they ask if he’s going to torment them before the appropriate time. In other words, they recognize and admit that they have an appointed time to be judged, and they ask if he’s come to bring the hurt. As the rest of the story will show, they don’t just pretend like Jesus has authority, they know it and play the part.)

The point I’m trying to make is that even though we are way out of our normal Jewish context, Jesus wields even more authority and more respect than we could have predicted. Even the demons bow to him. Even the darkest, foulest, scariest beasts in the created order bow the knee when they see him coming. How do we treat him?

“And the men were amazed and said, ‘What sort of person is this, that even the wind and the lake obeys him?!’” – Matthew 8:27

I’ll tell you who!

It’s amazing how long someone can walk with Jesus and not know who he truly is. Every day was a new adventure with this guy, every day was a new experience in which they were left wondering who he was.

Their question is very interesting. They do not ask how he was able to do what he did. They do not ask where he got the authority to do it. They don’t even as who he is. They ask what kind of person he is. “What sort of person are you?” They were astounded, “What is this guy?” “What kind of a being is he?”

Well we know what sort of person he was, he was a great teacher. That’s what he was. A great leader of men! That’s the kind of person he was!

They have started to realize that Jesus does not belong in the same category as normal human beings. He is of a different sort altogether. They are beginning to see that the flesh and blood man they are following is so much greater and more powerful than they could have ever guessed. They have already seen him heal many people. They have already seen him cast out demons and heal terrible illnesses with a word. They know he’s got power. They know he is a miracle worker. But someone who can COMMAND THE WIND AND WAVES is of a different sort altogether.

My mom used to say, “You’re something else.” No, it was more like, “You’re somethin’ else” (partial drawl). That’s what the disciples are realizing is true about Jesus. He is truly something else, in a profound way.

Let’s make a quick connection. A prominent theme in Matthew so far has been Jesus’ authority, remember? First, he teaches with authority not like the scribes. Second, he heals with authority, he just says the word and people get better. Now, third, he commands creation. He speaks and the elements obey. The man has absolute authority.

Yet we refuse to give him our lives.

“Coming to him they woke him up saying, ‘Lord! Save us, we are about to die!’ and he said to them, ‘Why are you so cowardly, you people with little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the lake. And it became exceedingly calm.” – Matthew 8:25-26

The only thing that I can think of when I read this story is issue for which the disciples are constantly scolded. All throughout the gospels, the disciples are rebuked, corrected and scolded by Jesus for, usually, one thing in particular. But that particular issue is usually not high on our list.

In our churches, you get rebuked for sinning. You get scolded for breaking the rules. Naturally, that makes perfect sense. Rules are meant to be obeyed, and if you break the rules, you get the hammer. Why should it be any different? In our schools, you get rebuked for stepping out of bounds. In our homes, kids get slapped for disregarding our parents’ rules. Its all about the rules.

But we don’t really have many stories about the disciples getting rebuked for their sins. Now, this could be due to the fact that they never sinned, which I doubt. What is more likely is that they did sin, but Jesus had something in mind that was far more important than simply following all the rules. Apparently Jesus was concerned about something entirely different from what our churches are concerned about.

Jesus was critical of a lack of faith not a disregard for rules. This story is a perfect example. Jesus gets up from a nap and scolds, censures the disciples for a lack of faith. He calls them “people with little faith,” or something like that. Why does he care so much about faith and we care so very little about it? We see it in such different light. We think, “Oh, you have little faith? that’s fine as long as you obey the rules. Your faith will grow in time, but what really matters is that you obey all the rules in the Bible.” How weird is that?

It is clear that Jesus’ priority for us is a strong faith, this story is typical of a much deeper theme in the gospels. The life of faith is actually a running theme throughout the entire Bible, from Adam to Revelation. We would do well to listen closely to the biblical message about faith, the repeated call for us to walk by faith, not just by obedience. I wonder how many people have lived and died who are now face to face with their God sorry for the countless times they didn’t trust him.

I wonder what our churches would look like if we learned how to live by faith and not by obedience.

“And he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. And behold a great storm arose on the lake, so that the boat was being covered by waves, but he fell asleep.” – Matthew 8:23-24

This is one of those posts that is very much dependent upon previous posts. This story is intricately connected to the ones that precede it, and the theme of discipleship carries right on through it. 

The things that these disciples have been hearing in the teachings of Jesus should have prepared them for what is about to come. They have been hearing that discipleship with Jesus is not always fun and it is certainly not very easy. They must be willing to go without a place to stay, and they must not be in this for material wealth; in fact they must expect that times will get hard and food and money will be scarce. Further, they must be willing to follow Jesus at the expense of their families. They must put their relationship with Jesus above that with their families and must choose to associate with him above all others. The road ahead of them is not fluffy and cushioned.

In fact, even a simple boat ride with Jesus can turn into a life-or-death situation. And here, it does. Don’t miss the pregnant phrase, “And his disciples followed him.” Good. They should. They are doing the right thing. They are following him when others want to turn back and run home. They are trailing behind Jesus ever so close, doing their best to keep up and learn from him when countless others are not willing to pay the price.

So they follow him into the boat. Sounds pretty harmless. It’s a little more dangerous than we imagine. Today, we have motors and GPS and life jackets and the Coast Guard and emergency flares and swimming lessons and all the crisis prevention technology we could ever want. They don’t. They have a bulky boat and a prayer (and Jesus though, right).

Sure enough, they follow him right into a storm.

I wish the disciples could have known beforehand what was being done to them. I wish they knew the end of the story. How this experience was going to be a test. How they were going to have their faith tried by the storm, and Jesus was using this entire time to show them was real life discipleship was all about. But how can you warn somebody? We can’t go back and change history to make these guys feel better.

But we can change the way that we live our lives. We can stop living as if Jesus’ sleep is equivalent to his ignorance. We can stop our petty whining about our problems and finally recognize that God has us exactly where he wants us, and maybe, just maybe we are in his hands being led through the storm to deepen our faith not destroy it.  

“Another of his disciples came to him and said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.’” – Matthew 8:21-22

There are two different ways this is read. First, the whole brunt of offense is embraced and some people read this as saying that Jesus is demanding that flat out leave our families behind to follow him.

Second, some have rightly noticed that “bury my father” is not as plain as it looks to us.  It’s not as if the body of this man’s father was lying there and he had a shovel in hand ready to dig a grave. Quite possibly, this man was requesting that he could wait a few years for his father to die, so he could get all his affairs in order and straighten out an inheritance. It could also refer to specific burial rituals that required about 8 months to complete. Either way, the guy is asking for an extended period of time before he packs up and follows Jesus. To do so immediately would be a great dishonor to his family.

I think it is legitimate to be sensitive to the possible cultural practices in this story, but there is no doubt that Jesus’ reply was one that would come as a shock to that disciple and the crowd. We shouldn’t intentionally soften the blow that would come from Jesus’ reply. In other words, no matter which interpretation we pick, we need to understand that Jesus was presenting this man with a difficult dilemma, would he choose to honor his family or follow Christ?

Christians all over the world are answering this question for themselves today. They are choosing to follow Christ rather than to honor their families, regardless of how culturally shameful that decision is, and they are paying the price.

I wonder if we recognize the fact that we must make that same decision. Maybe we don’t see it, but we must all decide between two groups of association. We must wake up every day and decide whom we are going to associate with; whose honor do we prefer? We can choose to follow Christ at the expense of our cultural honor, or we can choose to associate with our natural clan at the expense of Christ.

Jesus’ answer to us is the exact same today.

“When Jesus saw a great crowd around him he ordered to go to the other side of the lake. And a scribe came to him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you where you lead.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” – Matthew 8:18-20

Jesus apparently was not among those who proclaim a “health and wealth gospel.” Maybe if Jesus had a little more faith he would have found a place to lay his head. Maybe if he had learned how to trust God a little more he would have started to receive some blessings once in a while.

If Jesus was not a member of the health and wealth clan, then why do we still think along those lines? We tend to think, “If I behave, God will bless me, if I mess up, God will make life hard for me.” We forget that the Son of God walked this earth with no place to call home. And, of course, it would be stupid to think that Jesus was somehow guilty of some wrongdoing that disqualified him from God’s blessings.

All I am saying is that it is unwise and inaccurate to surmise, based on material wealth and comfort, how God “feels” about us. God can make life very easy on his enemies, and he knows how to make life very difficult for those whom he dearly loves. We have the concept of karma so deeply ingrained in our heads that we are 100% sure it is our fault when things go wrong, or we don’t get the raise, or we lose a job, or we wind up in the hospital. God uses those sorts of things not to get back at us, but to develop us and mature us.

The bible is clear that God disciplines those he loves and he refines those that he cares most deeply about. We need to eradicate this silly notion of karma from our minds. We need to alienate ourselves from such a simplistic “cause and effect” mentality. If we don’t, we will never see how God uses heartache, discomfort, pain, trouble, distress, stress, failure, loneliness, idleness, confusion and sorrow for our good. Remember, God is our Father, not our “Heavenly Boss.”

This truth isn’t suddenly “switched on” in our minds, it takes a long, long time to learn it.

“When it was evening, they brought to him many demonized and he cast out spirits with a word and all who had sicknesses he healed, so that the word of Isaiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, ‘He took our weaknesses and he bore our diseases.’”

This is the weirdest King I’ve ever heard of. He sympathizes with all ragtag nasty sick people, or “sickies” as I’ve heard them called. Is this how a King should be received by his people? In all the movies I’ve seen, Kings are received by the most honorable and respected people. Kings eat at big banquets and get ministered to, and they get whatever they want.

This King came and took our weaknesses on himself and bore our diseases. That is beyond belief.

One of the arguments used by atheists (and others) against the biblical God is that there is so much suffering in the world. I wonder if they’ve ever read the Bible. Our Lord walked with us and carried our pain, he bore our sorrows and took our sickness upon himself. Jesus did not skate through his ministry talking about ethics and then zing back to heaven. He got his hands dirty with our mess. He involved himself in bearing our problems.

What’s more is that he was prophesied to do so. The prophet Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would come specifically to carry our sicknesses and bear our grief. This was not a random turn of events that Jesus happened to get caught up in. Jesus did not do a little charity work in the time he was on the earth. God the Father had every intention of reaching out to his people in this manner. He set these wheels in motion centuries prior to their fulfillment. It was God’s sincere desire to sympathize with his people in way that no one could have guessed.

Yes the world is full of suffering. But our Lord entered into this sorry mess and took it upon himself. He shared in the grief and he shared in the pain. Jesus did what no one else would ever do. And when he did, he took our sickness and made it his own.

That puts it in a different perspective.

“Jesus went into Peter’s house and saw his mother-in-law suffering from a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and served him.” – Matthew 8:14-15

I have debated with myself about what the significance of this short story is, especially the part about her serving him right after she was healed. What does that mean? Why is it included? Why did she immediately get up and serve Jesus?

Is it implying how thoroughly she was healed? That is to say, that Jesus made her so healthy and strong that she could immediately get up and start serving the guests in her house. If so, it is emphasizing Jesus’ radical power to transform the sick and weak, and that whatever Jesus does, he does it thoroughly. Jesus doesn’t just give dying people a few more minutes to live, he energizes them and invigorates them and brings new life altogether. That’s possible, and its definitely true, but is it the emphasis of the passage?

Is it, rather, implying that service is the right thing to do after we are touched by Christ? I mean, is this story telling us the appropriate reaction to experiencing Christ’s power, to serve? If so, this is teaching us not to see our conversion and our encounters with Jesus as the end of the road, but only the beginning. When we experience the love of Christ in our lives, we then have the privilege to turn around and serve him immediately after. We aren’t healed and saved to be served but to serve.

Probably the biggest lesson to learn here is that Peter had a mother-in-law, and therefore Peter was married, and therefore the Bible says we should get married, and therefore getting married is good. Ok, it’s not the biggest lesson to learn, but it is interesting to hear about Peter’s mother-in-law.

I’m not sure what precisely this short story is telling us. I don’t know if I can confidently say either one of these interpretations is the right one. But Pete’s mom-in-law must have been one heck of a lady. 

“I tell you that many will come from the east and west and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the sons of the Kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness where there will be crying and grinding of teeth.” – Matthew 8:11-12

Welp, okay. Basically, Jesus is talking about the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven and who gets to participate. Interestingly, the Kingdom is portrayed as a banquet, which is a polite word for a party. How’s that for our notion of heaven? We tend to think about floating around in the clouds strumming harps and talking about how great heaven is, but apparently its more like a feast and a party than anything else.

But the feast is not for everyone, some people will not join in. But make no mistake, according to this story, those who cannot join in won’t miss out because they weren’t invited. In fact, it is precisely those who are invited who won’t join in the party – they will be cast out.

It is specifically those who are not invited that will get to join in the party. They are the ones who will recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

So we should not think that this whole scene in heaven is unfair because not everyone is invited. Those who were invited rejected their invitation. The children of Israel and specifically called “The sons of the Kingdom.” It was always their privilege which they ultimately rejected, so the door was then opened to all those who were not previously invited (you and me).

We are those who come from the east and the west. We are not natives of Israel. Still our fathers are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob if we live by faith in the promises of God. Regardless of whether or not we share any hereditary lineage with these men, we become part of their family and we are promised a place at the table when we become children of faith. In the same way, those who are physically descendants of Abraham are not his true children, unless they become so by faith in the promises of God. As many as are of faith are children of Abraham.

You want a place in the party? You don’t get there by being a “son of the Kingdom.” You don’t get there by heritage or privilege or lineage. You get their by faith, just like Abraham.

“When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, urging him saying, ‘Lord, my servant of the house has been thrown into paralysis and he is terribly tortured.’ And he said to him, ‘I am coming to heal him.’ The centurion replied and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you would come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I am a man with authority, having soldiers of my own, I say to this one, “Go,” and he goes, and I say to another, “Come,” and he comes, and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to his followers, “I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel!” – Matthew 8:5-10

Did you pick up the thread that connects this story with the last few? Honestly? If you did, I grant you 25,000 imaginary bonus points.

The thread is authority. Remember how Jesus taught with authority? And how he had authority to cleanse a leper by simply touching him? Here again we have the concept of authority being expressed in story form.

Of all people, a gentile centurion gets the spotlight here. What an odd setup. But the cool thing about this centurion is that he makes the connection. This guy, above others, recognizes the implications of Jesus’ absolute authority. You see, that whole spiel about having servants that do whatever he wants wasn’t simply tooting his own horn. He wasn’t trying to impress Jesus with his authority. Rather, he was making the connection between his authority and Jesus’ authority. He was saying that in the same way he has servants that do whatever he wants, Jesus need only say the word and he can heal and work miracles.

Does that sound like anyone to you? I mean, when was the last time someone performed a miracle by speaking? I was thinking Genesis. I was thinking that only God can perform a miracle by his word. Has the centurion made such a connection? Has he realized that Jesus has the same kind of word of limitless power? I really don’t know for sure. It’s possible.

What I do know is that he amazed Jesus with this guy’s great faith. So whatever that centurion truly believed, it was something remarkable indeed. He knew that Jesus has limitless power, and that all he needed to do was to say the word and he would heal. And that’s all he asked for, too. Jesus already agreed to come to the guy’s house to heal the servant, and the guy asked him not to.

It doesn’t take great faith to ask Jesus for a miracle, but it does take great faith to recognize that he has absolute authority.

“After coming down from the mountain, a great crowd followed him. Behold! A leper came to him and bowed before him saying, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you are able to cleanse me.’ And reaching out his hand, he touched him saying, ‘I am willing, be cleansed.’ Immediately, the leper was cleansed, and Jesus said to him, ‘Tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest and present the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.’” – Matthew 8:1-4

There is a lot going on here, but I want to focus on one major point.

Jesus reverses what is normal.

What happens when you touch a leper? You become a leper. What happens, in Jewish law, when you touch someone who is unclean? You become unclean. This is the only way that it works.

If you have mud all over your hand and you shake the hand of someone else, now both of you have mud on your hands. That’s the only way that it works. You can pass on mud to someone else, and you can pass on uncleanness to someone else, and you can pass on sickness to someone else.

But you cannot pass on cleanness or health. If you have a clean hand and you shake the hand of someone who is covered in mud, you do not automatically make their hand clean – it just doesn’t work that way. You cannot make someone healthy by touching them with a healthy person. You cannot make someone clean by touching them with a clean person. And in Jewish Law, you could pass on uncleanness to someone, but you could never pass on cleanness to someone - that was reserved only for the priests.

Yet here, Jesus reverses the natural order. He can, and he does, pass on cleanness. At his touch, the sickness becomes health, the uncleanness becomes clean, the muddy hand becomes washed. When normal people touch a leper, they get leprosy; when Jesus touches a leper, the leper becomes clean again. That is remarkable in every way.

Jesus reverses our problems. He terrifies death and sin and he scares away all darkness. He sends evil back to where it came from. He takes our problems and he cleans them, fixes them and reorients us back to a healthier state than before. He is the instigator of the reversal of the Fall. He leads us back into the Garden. He brings us back into fellowship with our God.

The damage we have done, better, the damage you have done is rectified, reversed and superseded by the work of Christ. He takes our shambles and rags and turns them into glorious riches and robes. Only he can do that, and he will do it if he is willing, and you better believe he is willing.

“And when it happened that Jesus had finished these words, the crowd was amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority not like their scribes.” – Matthew 7:28-29

Jesus just backed up the dumptruck and unloaded on these people. Imagine hearing the whole Sermon on the Mount in one sitting like that. That would fry my brain. I would remember like one or two things and forget the rest. My mind would be elsewhere, distracted, tired, hungry. But these people, this crowd, heard and was amazed. That means they had to have been listening. They actually heard what he was saying and understood a good amount of it.

But they were astounded, alarmed, astonished by this teaching. What he was saying was not good teaching, it was not good moral advice, it was notsimply pacifism or nonviolent resistance. Jesus said some revolutionary stuff. Relook at 7:21, he says, “Not everyone who says to me …” Jesus puts himself in the place of God at the judgment seat. He claimed to be the Judge of all mankind. He also claimed to be the fulfillment of Scripture in 5:17. He told them how to read Scripture, how to interpret their Torah, he taught them how to pray and how to fast and give to the poor. He taught them a new way of life, characterized not by honor but by humility and meekness.

The crowds were amazed, not because Jesus’ teaching was so accurate or good, but because he taught “with authority.” Remember how he said, “You have heard it said … But I say to you …” ? Yeah, that is some serious stuff. By doing that, he was claiming to have the one true interpretation of the Bible. He was saying, “Moses said this, but I say this …” That is huge. That is not normal. No one has the right to change what the Torah says. No one but God. If anyone contradicts what Scripture says, he must be killed. But Jesus redefines what the Bible says, and he gets away with it, because of who he is.

The people recognize his authority, that is a significant thing. If some random guy today told me that one day I would face him at the judgment seat, I would laugh. If some random guy tried to tell me that he was the fulfillment of Scripture, I would laugh again. If he said, “The Bible says this, but I say …”, I would slap him. Not really, but I would want to. Yet this crowd recognizes Jesus’ authority and they are amazed. I applaud these people for seeing Jesus in his rightful authority.

I challenge you to likewise take Jesus at his word. He has the right to redefine what the Bible says. He has the right to judge us at the throne. He has the authority to tell us how to live. He does, because he is God.