Helping People get to Jesus

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

HELPING PEOPLE GET TO JESUS

Matt 15:29-31

29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 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. 31 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.

NIV

Once again, we have an account of many people who are in need of healing being brought to Jesus. The lame need help getting to Jesus. We would think the blind need help getting to Jesus, the terrain would be unfamiliar, and Jesus is one of the hundreds of people in a crowd. Even the crippled would need help getting to Jesus. We suppose most of the many others would need some type of help getting to Jesus. Perhaps the mute could make it on their own, but then maybe without a voice, they could not make their way through the crowds of people, not being able to say, “excuse me, coming through”. Maybe there was some shoving and pushing, but maybe there was some respect for those in need of being healed. However, the point here is twofold. First, Jesus healed them all and it caused the crowd to praise the God of Israel. Second, we see that people need help coming to Jesus. What we can be sure of is that Jesus is still in the business of healing people, but what needs to happen is those who require healing need to come to Jesus. When Jesus was walking among his people, they could come to Jesus in a physical sense. Today we can only come to Jesus in a spiritual sense, as He is physically sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven. However, even in the spiritual sense, people need help coming to Jesus. Unless Jesus appears in a supernatural way to someone, such as He did to Saul, who we now know as Paul, people do not come to Jesus on their own, they need help, navigating through the crowd. The crowd could be seen as a distraction or obstacle in getting to Jesus. We would suppose if there was a church in which everyone who was sick or had some infirmities were healed, a crowd would appear. We have seen crowds gather to watch some of these supposed faith healers, but for the most part, they came to see the man, and not God. Some of those supposed faith healers are indeed charlatans who do nothing but fleece the flock, by giving them a show and making them pay through offerings. Others may well be wanting the God of Israel to be praised, and people may indeed receive genuine healing. We have witnessed both, we think, as, on a personal note, we traveled with some of those “Healers” taking photos for them. But the point remains the same when it comes to getting in the presence of Jesus, people need help. This is evangelism in a sense; however, it is simply helping people get to Jesus.