"Yes"

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

“YES”

Matt 21:14-17

14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. 16 "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"  17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

NIV

Jesus never stops healing those who are in need. Although he has come to Jerusalem to fulfill his ultimate purpose, being the sacrifice of God for the sins of the world, he always will heal those who come to him. Isn’t that even the purpose of his going to the cross? Isn’t the cross the grand consummate healing of all of us? By his stripes we are healed, by His blood we are cleansed, and through his death, burial, and resurrection we are made whole and through our faith in him, we are given eternal life. Yes, we are the children of God who are shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. It is also interesting the chief priests and teachers of the law were indignant. It always seems that when someone’s authority over the people is threatened, they become upset and show an indignant attitude toward the person responsible. We see this within our two-party system of governance, the one all upset and indignant when the other party is in control. But here Jesus speaks to them and puts them in their place. Although Jesus is quoting from the Psalms, there is another interesting observation. They ask him if he hears what these children are saying, and Jesus simply says, “Yes”, followed by quoting the psalm. The thought occurs to us that Jesus is always hearing what the children of God are saying. Therefore, when we praise Him, when we come to him with a need, when we ask him, he hears us and he says, “Yes” and he has told us that if we come asking in his name, it will be done. It is that simple and sometimes we make it far more complicated than what Jesus intended it to be. We are going to see Jesus tell his disciples and us that very thing when they encounter the fig tree very soon. Jesus tells them and us that if we believe, we will receive whatever we ask in prayer. Jesus says, “Yes”, and we do not believe we have ever heard him say “No”. God has ordained that we, as His children, should have praise on our lips. Jesus lived and walked to give us an example of how we should live, and He always was giving all the praise and glory to His Father. This is our life, as children of God, praising our Lord. This is our life as the children of God always hearing our Lord saying, “Yes”. He said, “Yes” when we asked for the forgiveness of our sin, He says “Yes” whenever we ask him for our daily bread, which again can be seen as our daily walk with Jesus. He said that whatever we ask, if we believe, he is going to say, “Yes”.