Hands

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

HANDS

 

Matt 17:9-13

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."  10 The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" 11 Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands."  13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

NIV

John was not Elijah but came in the spirit of Elijah. What the disciples were referring to the prophecy by Malachi, in fact, the last words of that prophet about Elijah coming before that great and dreadful day of the Lord. It seems Malachi is speaking about the Day of Judgement. The Revelation given to John speaks about the two prophets who came before that second coming of the Lord. It would seem they would be Moses and Elijah as these are the two that just appeared with Jesus when Peter, James, and John saw him transfigured. However, Jesus is speaking about John the Baptist and not about some distant day of his second coming. Luke makes that clear enough for us by telling us about the birth of John the Baptist being foretold to Zechariah by the angel. In fact, the words are almost the same as the prophet Malachi. The angel said that John would go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the father to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Matthew tells us that this is true, as he makes sure we know the disciples’ understood Jesus was talking about John the Baptist. So, how does all this have any meaning to us? This is all history, and we already know by the Spirit, that Jesus is real, and that John the Baptist was real, and did that which was foretold he would do. It was not John that turned our heart to the Lord, it was the Spirit. Still, Jesus also speaks about the fact that he would also suffer at the hands of man. What this speaks to us is that there is an evil that resides in the heart of men. Once we had that evil closer to us than we like to admit. But now, we have accepted Jesus into our hearts and that evil has fled for how can evil and the Spirit reside or coinhabit within our hearts. Still, we must understand evil does exist, just as it did in the hearts of those who inflicted the suffering upon Jesus, although they were only fulfilling the will of the Father, or at least God was using their evil to complete his plan for our salvation. Nevertheless, Jesus suffered for us. It is difficult to think of his suffering because it was our sin, our evil, which was the reason he had to come to die on that cross. We spend so much time worshipping and praising his name, giving him honor and glory, thinking good thoughts about Jesus, and how he is in all his glory, sitting at the right hand of the Father ever making intercession for us. But his suffering, his shame, and humiliation at the hands of man had to come because of the evil in our hearts. We may not have been “Bad people”, but if we did not have Jesus in our hearts, we had Satan in our hearts and Jesus suffered at our hands. However, thanks be to God, Jesus was raised from the dead and His love endures forever and now we are in his hands.