He Healed Them

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

HE HEALED THEM

Matt 19:1-2

19:1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

NIV

 There is the matter of Jesus going into the region of Judea on the other side of the Jordan with large crowds following him. In Greek, it reads more like a great multitude followed him. This word can also mean a riot, so it might have been a rather riotous noisy crowd, yelling and calling out to Jesus for healing. Sometimes when we read about a crowd, we might think of this quiet submission group of followers, simply walking behind Jesus and his disciples. But they may not have been so quiet. We can see and hear them clambering to be the closest to Jesus, almost yelling at him, “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on us”. So far as we have worked our way through the gospels, we have never read where Jesus refused to have mercy of anyone and not heal them. He always took the time to heal as many as needed to be healed. Again, we do not think this was a quiet scene, but rather filled with requests, and praises as people received their healings, people jumping for joy, filled with the excitement of the moment seeing lame people walking, blind people seeing, deaf people hearing, and those who were sick of some disease cured, healthy again. This would have been almost a riot, hence that Greek word, mass bedlam, with Jesus in the middle of it all, healing all that needed to be healed. Sometimes we can get too sedate in our prayers, trying to use all the right words, especially when we are praying with each other, with all sorts of words that have nothing to do with our request. Maybe we simply need to yell out to “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy of us”, and tell him what we want, what we need him to do for us. Maybe we should try not to be so passive but more passionate in our request, trying to be as close to Jesus as possible, metaphorically speaking, for we know he is already with us for he promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us. He is always ready to hear us and to heal us, but we need to get before him. We also must realize that Jesus did not qualify his healing by asking them if they were worthy enough, if they had repented of all their sins, and were doing all the right things. These were mere people with all their faults, all their failures, following Jesus, hoping to get close enough to him for him to heal their infirmities, their illnesses. They we simply were putting their hope in Jesus for their need. Sure, maybe as all this healing took place many became permanent followers, and became what we would call born again bible-thumping, church-going, pew-sitting Christians, trying to live a life worthy of their calling. But we think that is something our post-modern church has developed into. These people simply wanted to get to Jesus, a crowd, a great multitude of noisy, bustling, clambering people, with needs, and Jesus healed them there.