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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant Bible Verse:Matthew 8:5-13 (ESV) "When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment." Message:
The centurion was a Roman soldier. He was an officer in a foreign army of occupation, by birth a European. So, our centurion is very much not a Jew. We said, at the very beginning of our study of Matthew, that one of its primary purposes was as a gospel to the Jews. Yet here we have, in the very beginning the fourth section, a Gentile believer and a miracle performed for him. What gives?
Matthew is not trying to help Gentiles feel included, so much as to instruct the Jewish reader in the magnitude of change wrought by the new covenant.
Elijah
Elijah
Judaism had come to believe that, ultimately, the Gentiles of the earth would pass away with the coming of the Messiah. The ascendancy of the Messiah was to be marked by a great banquet, at which all righteous Jews would sit at a great table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Jewish covenant with God, however, was superseded by the coming of Christ. God expects the Hebrew nation to follow their Messiah and modify their attitude towards the law of Moses, taking it more into their hearts and lives, and less in the practice of ritual and literal observance of outward acts.
Under the old covenant, Jews were forbidden to enter Gentile dwellings. The centurion’s house was unclean to the Jews. And Christ actually does not enter the house; the centurion does not ask Him to do so, perhaps knowing the prohibition and wanting to spare Him the embarrassment.
We might consider how unsettling Matthew’s gospel would have been to a Jewish reader. Christ does not have to shock His followers by going into a Gentile’s house; the inclusion of Gentiles in the new covenant is being presented to them in stages. (Of course, Christ has already proven that His love will overcome Jewish laws of purity, by touching a leper, in the verses directly preceding.)
Rutland Psalter
Angel sleeping with a lion
Rutland Psalter (1245)
So, the miracle of healing the centurion’s servant is included at this precise point for the Jews. We must understand what a difficult concept it was for them, that Gentiles could now be eligible for inclusion in God’s kingdom, and some Jews would be excluded. Their separatism under the laws of Moses was thousands of years old and ingrained into every facet of their lives. Paul will still be fighting it, decades after Jesus’ ascension, when churches will balk at inviting Gentile members.
Another subtle announcement is made. The Jewish expectation of a Messiah was a new Judas Maccabeus or David, a great general who would raise Hebrew armies and cast out the conquering Romans from Judea. Yet, Christ accepts the very man that he had been expected to despise. So here, the Jews get the first taste that the Messiah is not what they expected: he is indeed a Messiah to save the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
Meditation : Prayer : Now, oh Lord, I pray that you may lift up the light of your countenance upon me, and give me peace; in my going out and in my coming in; in my sitting down and my rising up; in my work and in my play; in my joy and in my sorrow, in my laughter and in my tears; until that day comes which is without dawn and without dark........Amen |
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