Daily Bread for Oct 8, Mt 9-10
Today’s readings are Mt 9-10.
In Mt 9, Jesus
calls Matthew, the writer of our gospel, to follow Him. Notice the progression,
He heals many who appear to be "unworthy" then heals on the Sabbath,
both creating tension with the Pharisees. Next, he calls a tax collector to be
one of His disciples. Tax collectors were considered extremely unsavory as they
collaborated with the Romans and took advantage of the people. They were
perceived as sinners and traitors.
Just as He instructed His followers to live holy lives in
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is walking it out. He is a living demonstration
of His teaching. Not only is Jesus physically touching the diseased and
unclean, but He is also traveling and living with them! Far from avoiding them, He
begins teaching that these are the very people He came to help and save. They
are not to be looked down upon as unworthy and inferior. They are to be loved
and ministered to.
Jesus is not here to save those who think they are so
righteous they have no need to be saved. The reality is that those who feel
they are already righteous only want Jesus to give them what they expect and
feel they deserve, victory and a better life. They're not interested in being
forgiven for their sins, they believe they have none. Meanwhile, they point
their fingers and judge those around them. Their actions are the ultimate
expression of pride and arrogance.
In Mt 10, we see
the twelve disciples, often referred to as “the twelve.” Jesus sends them out,
giving them the authority to proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, raise the
dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons (Mt 10:7-8). There are those who claim
this is for all believers. Perhaps so, but those who think it is prescriptive
of the Christian life frequently neglect to read the rest of the passage.
The disciples are to preach and teach without pay, without
material belongings, without a home, staying with the people to whom they
preach along the way (Mt 10:8b-13). They will be flogged, arrested, put to
death (Mt 10:17-19). Their families will hate them, and there will be a hostile
division between them and the ones they love (Mt 10:34-39). As all these trials
come upon them, they are to speak the gospel by the power of the
Spirit. Furthermore, they are to limit their travels to Israel and their
ministry to Israelites (Mt 10:5). Clearly, these instructions are not to the
entire body of Christ, but to a select group of people for a singular purpose,
to prove that the Messiah has arrived.
These instructions and prophecies are made directly to the
twelve. The original prophecy was that the gospel would go to the Jews and
Jerusalem first (Ro 1:16; 2:9-10; Acts 1:8). This is how God will use these
twelve to spread the gospel, starting in Jerusalem and spreading to the entire
world. This is also how He will establish His church. The twelve are given this
type of authority to authenticate the validity of their teaching at a time
when the church needs it most.
During those first few years, there was no completed set of
Scriptures to which we can refer. They were still being written. God empowered
a small group of men to do extraordinary things to give authority to what they
wrote and taught. A close examination of the rest of the New Testament will
reveal that no one outside the twelve is on record as performing miracles like
these.
While we have the same charge to spread the gospel, we may
not have authority to raise the dead or the need to be flogged in the
synagogues. Neither are we required to travel to Israel to minister. We’re not
starting the church. We are the church! And we have been given the full counsel
of Scripture to help us along.
God can and will undoubtedly heal people today, even raise
the dead, if He so desires. But, to take what Jesus says to His twelve
disciples as a mandate for all Christians would be a mistake. If we do, we
would have to take the rest of Mt 10 as
a mandate as well.
Too frequently. There are those who lay claim to all the
good things they see in Scripture and none of the hardship or suffering. Yet,
we see, time and again, that our walk is the narrow way, the way of persecution
and trial. We should expect the supernatural without being surprised by the
tribulations that can come from living in a fallen world. God does indeed work
miracles, the foremost of which is our own transformation and redemption. When
we recognize that truth, any need or demand to see more will take a back seat
to the miracle He’s already performed in our hearts.
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