Day 280 (Matthew 8, Mark 2) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Today we drop in on Matthew and Mark. In Matthew 8, a leper approaches Jesus and kneels at his feet. This in itself is shocking because most lepers wouldn't dare approach people. They have to live outside the city and they have to yell unclean when anyone is approaching them. The fact that Jesus is this approachable shows us his great kindness and humility. Even the least lovely feel like they can come to him. The leper also demonstrates great humility. When he asks Jesus to do something for him, he has no entitlement, no demands, but he knows what Jesus is capable of. He says, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And again, Jesus tells him not to let anyone know that he has healed him.

We've seen this a few times before, so let's address this. Jesus told this leper to keep quiet, and he did the same thing with the guy we read about in Luke 5-12 just two days ago. But the woman he talked to yesterday in John 4 was allowed to tell everyone about him. Does he want to be known or not? Why does he keep changing his mind? There are a few things that seem to be at play here. First, you may notice as we keep reading that the times when he tells people to spread the news about him happen when he's in the Gentile regions or dealing with non-Jews, like the woman at the well. But with the Jews, there's a danger in having them know he's the Messiah, because not only will they want to crown him as king and expect him to overthrow their Roman oppressors, but then Rome will want to kill him or shut him down.

So in order to preserve the specific timing God has planned for his revealing and his death, Jesus is very measured in his approach. It's why he gave pushback to Mary when she asked him to work a miracle. He knew it could go badly for him if it wasn't handled with discretion.

On top of that, Jesus seems to want to be known for his message more than his miracles. There's a point we'll get to soon in John 6 where people are following him and he calls them out because he says they're just chasing what he can give them without grasping who he really is. Jesus has the very difficult task of keeping the Father's timeline while wanting to heal people because he has compassion on them, all the while knowing every healing exposes him a little more and gets him one step closer to his death.

Next, Jesus is in his current hometown, Capernaum, and one of the Roman military officials who is stationed there to keep a watch on the Jews has caught wind of what Jesus is capable of. He has a sick servant and he asks Jesus for help. If you're a Jew standing by and watching this unfold, you do not want Jesus to help your enemy, your oppressor. But Jesus defies the status quo. And just before he does it, he even makes note of all this to his disciples and to the Roman centurion. He says, this guy has more faith in the Jewish Messiah than the Jews do. This guy is an example of how my father's kingdom will be filled with people who are foreigners to the nation of Israel. And those in Israel who think they're in my father's kingdom just because they're born into the lineage of Abraham, they'll be cast out of the kingdom.

You can imagine this would not go over well with the locals. And then with just a word, Jesus performs his first long distance healing.

Jesus lets his followers know that following him will be costly. Not necessarily in terms of finances, but maybe. Mostly, following Jesus will cost us our priorities. Things like comfort and control and our own plans and timing. That's what happens anytime you love someone, anytime a person takes first place in your life. Your world begins to be shaped by what they bring to the table. And Jesus brings an upside down kingdom. It shakes loose everything that isn't rooted in him. One of the things he does next is kind of shocking, but to understand it well, it helps to know the lay of the land in the Galilee. We'll link to a map in the show notes. The western half of the sea is the Jewish half, and the eastern half is the Gentile half. Scripture reveals this and archaeology testifies to it too. You know how pigs are considered unclean in Jewish culture? No pig bones have been found on the western side of the sea, but they've uncovered loads of pig bones on the eastern side. So, when Jesus tells his followers that they're going to the other side, this is a big deal. They're going to the unclean side, the side they've spent most of their lives actively avoiding. They hit a storm along the way. Storms in that area can kick up quickly and without warning. And with a word, Jesus takes the weather from a great storm to a great calm. His disciples are in awe. Not only is this man bossing diseases around, but he also commands the weather? What can't he do?