Jesus heals a man with leprosy. In that day, this was the dreaded disease....you were isolated from your family forever, unless you recovered. Notice that the priest had to decide if one was "well" or not, and then one had to be cleansed ceremoniously to be able to worship again. This was major faith on the part of the leper, because by faith, he knew Jesus could heal him...he wanted to know if Jesus was willing.
I'm pretty impressed with this Roman centurion.....Notice "centur", which mean he had at least 100 men reporting to him. He was also open minded because in Luke's version, we see that the Centurion helped build the synogogue......again we see emotions in Matthew's version....Jesus was "astonished" at the "pagan's" faith. His own people reject him (at least the religious leaders). The Centurion's faith was so strong that he knew Jesus didn't even have to be under the roof to heal the beloved servant.
Matthew 8:5 says the Roman centurion visited Jesus himself while Luke 7:3 says he sent Jewish elders to present his request to Jesus. In dealing with the messengers, Jesus was dealing with the centurion. For his Jewish audience, Matthew emphasized the man's faith. For his Gentile audience, Luke highlighted the good relationship between the Jewish elders and the Roman centurion (I highlighted that in my study bible long ago!)
And finally Jesus raises a widow's son from the dead....notice emotion in Jesus again....Luke 7:13 says "his heart went out to her".....this is Jesus illustrating the Salvation story!!! Raising from the DEAD!!!!! Yay!
John the Baptist has healthy doubt and Jesus can handle that......an amazing note I have is that everyone who comes after John has a greater spiritual heritage because they know the purpose of Jesus' death.....I am so glad Jesus put me on this side of the cross!
We conclude today with the former prostitute washing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume and her hair. Jesus illustrates that she had more to forgive and with her debts cancelled, she loves him all the more.......Amazing line follows: But he who has been forgiven little loves little. This has been so true in my life....complacency or not having your faith tested makes you think you know the Lord, but until tough times come, or the tests that Jesus said would come to all our lives, in my opinion, you don't know about your own personal faith. Sentence structure stinks, but I think you get the gist of what I mean.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
After you read, feel free to make a comment or ask a question in the comment box. You can sign up as a follower on the right, or you can sign up by e-mail at the bottom if you would like to follow the whole year. You may also chose to simply read along and make no comments. Whatever you choose. If you fall behind, as most people will do, don't worry...the whole year is here and you can catch up at your own speed. I highly encourage you to stick with it, If you read the Bible, you are going to mine some real jewels and insights.
No comments:
Post a Comment