Seeds for 10/05/2023 - Matthew 15:29-31
Scripture: Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Observation: Jesus is spending a good deal of time around the Sea of Galilee, which is a lake. Crossing back and forth, moving from town to town. What Matthew calls a mountainside we would describe as a hillside along a lake.
Once again, crowds are bringing folks suffering from various maladies to Jesus. Matthew is careful to point out the large size of the crowds. Jesus’ fame has increased, the need is expansive, and Jesus is seen as the solution to the problems that face. He has done this for others; He can do it for them too.
The response of the people is noteworthy. They “were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the cripple made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing.” Seeing the results is powerful. Jesus’ lordship and victory over disease and death is manifested in the miraculous works of healing. They capture the imagination and thrill the heart. These are kingdom works. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6). They are restoring people’s lives and in doing so, restoring their place in the community as well. Whether through miraculous or mundane means, when the church attends to so-called “needs of the body,” heaven and earth overlap a little more.
The last line is the most crucial, however. “And they praised the God of Israel.”
The kingdom works are valuable in themselves, but they are not ends unto themselves. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs His hearers to “let [their] light shine before others that they might see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
These works of Jesus are signposts. While they make a tremendous practical difference, their greater purpose is to point beyond themselves to God the Father and bring praise to Him.
Application:
Whose good kingdom works have pointed you to God and inspired praise in your heart?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, show me the kingdom works I can do that bring restoration to people’s lives and point their hearts to you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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