Astonished

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

ASTONISHED

Matt 12:15-23

15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, 16 warning them not to tell who he was. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

18 "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. 21 In his name the nations will put their hope." 

22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"

NIV

This is interesting regarding the concept of what the people thought the Messiah would be and what Jesus was. For the most part, the Jews thought the Messiah would come as a conquering king, smashing the control of Rome over Israel. They thought the Messiah would come in power and majesty loudly proclaiming the kingdom of God, redeeming His people from the oppression of the Romans. But Jesus did not come into the world as a conquer, yet he did, for he conquered death. However, he came in the form of a human as an infant and lived among his creation until the time came for him to reveal himself. Yet, he revealed himself only to those who had eyes to see. Matthew tells us that Jesus withdrew from that place, he did not want to make a scene or get too much attention from those who were plotting to take his life. Jesus came as a gentle Savior, a peaceful redeemer, loving, caring for the meek and the bruised reed. Jesus did not want a fanfare, a celebration of his presence, he simply had compassion on those with infirmities, who needed to be healed, to be restored from their physical problems, but at the same time, they also needed to be healed spiritually for they were also in trouble in their spirit. There is nothing that Jesus cannot do. He is able to heal every illness, every infirmity, the blind, the mute, the lame, even those who have demons can be freed from their torture. The question is whether Jesus still does all of that from his place at the right hand of the Father, and we have to answer that with a resounding yes. Yet, why do we have so many who are sick, especially with this pandemic? Why do we believers have such a hard time believing Jesus heals? Why do we always look elsewhere first? Of course, we say that Jesus uses doctors, that Jesus gave mankind the ability, medical knowledge, and skills to heal certain aspects of the body. We say that we cannot put God in a box and insist that he heals us using only His own miraculous power. It is true, we cannot demand God uses only the method of our choice, however, we still need to understand Jesus wants to heal us, He wants us to be well so that we can give him all the glory and praise. Here, Jesus did not want the people to tell anyone who he was, but now we are told to tell everyone who he is. Let us not be timid in our response to his healing, of both our body and spirit. Let us shout his name from the rooftops, Jesus is Lord over all! Perhaps we need a little more astonishment in our lives as those people were. So, let us live astonished.