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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Matt. 8:1-13
The Law of Moses contained a fairly extensive 8-day process for declaring a healed leper clean. It involved birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, hyssop, lambs, flour and olive oil, with very specific instructions for the priest as to what to do with it all. So when Jesus healed this leper, He told the man to go and present himself to the priest. What caught my attention, though, is that Jesus didn’t say, “Go perform your obligation to the priest.” Nope. What He said was, “…go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matt. 8:4b). Jesus called all that stuff “the gift”.
That just made me think what we should do, how we should respond when God heals us of our sin condition. Are we to spend our days, working as hard as we can to fulfill the obligation we now owe Him? Not at all! Besides the fact that we could never in a million lifetimes repay God for His good gift to us, if we feel obligated to God for that gift, we really missed the point. Instead, we should present ourselves to our High Priest, Jesus, offering our lives to Him as a gift of gratitude. Not because we owe it to Him, but because it becomes our greatest desire. Our changed lives then become a testimony to God’s healing in us.
Matt. 11
It seems that every physical thing in the Bible has a spiritual parallel. Jesus’ miracles were no exception. His answer to John the Baptist’s question declared exactly who He was, way beyond being the physical fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Jesus’ answer told what He does for us all. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news” (Matt. 11:4b). Spiritually speaking, Jesus opens our eyes and ears to know God’s truth. He straightens our path, helping us to walk with Him. And He cleanses us from our sin condition, taking us from death to life. Because of Jesus, we who are poor in spirit, who lack righteousness and are separated from God, receive the true wealth of God’s holy kingdom.
Luke 7
Luke included a comment after Jesus’ discussion of John the Baptist that Matthew did not note. Luke essentially said that, of those who heard Jesus’ words about John, those who received John’s baptism believed them, while the unbaptized did not. What Luke specifically said was that the baptized ones, “acknowledged God’s way of righteousness” (from Lk. 7:29). Luke made quite the statement in his comment.
We know that there was no power in John’s baptism. Rather, it was an outward expression of a repentant heart. Thus, what Luke said was that those with repentant hearts received Jesus as their righteousness. They believed God’s word, that we are sinful beings who cannot attain righteousness on our own. And they accepted and received His promise of mercy through Christ, God’s Messiah. Without that repentant heart, we continue to rely on self. Luke even went on to give an example with the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet at the Pharisee’s dinner table. She came to Jesus with a humble, repentant heart, appropriately honoring Him with all she had. She knew she was not righteous. She knew she needed Jesus. Consequently, “He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.’” (Lk. 7:50).