A PRAYER TO START
Belief and faith are not exactly the same thing. We can believe that God is gracious and great, and that he loves us while we are still sinners, yet we can respond to the circumstances of life and emotions within as if what we believe is not true. Faith on the other hand is belief in action; thus we pray to live by faith, to respond in the everyday moments as if what we believe is indeed true. Virginia Owens and Nan Lewis offer us just such a prayer…
Hallelujah! Praise to our Father! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Hallelujah! Our Father who has no beginning or ending, you have established the new promise of reconciliation; grant that we who are reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body may show forth in our lives what we profess by our faith. Amen.
TAKING A LOOK AHEAD
On any journey, whether a hike in the mountains or a trek to the grocery store, it is important to be aware of your surroundings, to be present. It’s also important to know where you are going! To look up, and take a peek at what is ahead.
This coming week our journey moves on from teaching / preaching into the conversations, interactions, prayers, miracles and afflictions of Jesus’ ministry. Having painted a picture of a rather peculiar kingdom in chapters 5-7, Matthew introduces us to the details of life with Christ in stories about faith. Will we be ones who take seriously what Jesus says, and, as he exhorts us to in the conclusion of chapter 7, be ones who “hear” and “do” or respond to his amazing words?
Read Matthew 8:1-34. As you are reading take notice and note of the following:
Who are the characters in the story? Explicitly named and those assumed.
Where does the story take place? Physically, & how is it connected to what proceeds it?
What repeats? Words, characters, actions/events, sayings, descriptions, etc.
What surprised you?
What might have surprised the people Matthew was writing to?
What questions does the story raise so far?
CONNECTING THE DOTS
The first thing that often jumps out in the eighth chapter of Matthew is the obvious, Jesus’ miraculous works. Jesus heals a leper, a servant and many more. He also calms a storm and casts out demons. Actions designed, as verse 17 tells us, to confirm Jesus is indeed revealing God’s kingdom before us. Yet, the theme of chapter 8 is how people respond to the abilities and proclamations of this carpenter from Nazareth.
Compare and contrast the story of the centurion in verses 5-13 with the response of the disciples in verses 23-27 and the Gadarenes in verses 28-34.
What is similar about the stories? Think about what Jesus does, how people respond to the problems and Jesus solution, etc.
What is different about the stories?
Why does the centurion’s—a non-Jew—response cause Jesus to “marvel”?
In what ways are the responses of the disciples and the Gadarenes, less surprising?
Consider verses 18-22.
What does Jesus’ response to the scribe (verse 20) bring to mind from the Sermon on the Mount? Think chapter 6.
What does Jesus’ interaction with the disciple (verses 21-22) bring to mind from the Sermon on the Mount? Think the last half of chapter 7.
How does the faith of the centurion, the little faith of the disciples on the boat, and the fearfulness of the Gadarenes relate to the exhortations of Jesus to the scribe and disciple here?
What might Matthew be trying to show us about faith and a life of faith through these stories?
A THOUGHT TO PONDER
"If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look 'little' or 'big'."
(Elisabeth Elliot)