Engaging Others: Globally
Joey Gordy | Missions
Matthew 8 begins with Jesus descending from the mountain
where he had just delivered what would later be known as the Sermon on the
Mount. Matthew records the impact of Jesus’s words when he says, “the
multitudes were amazed at his teaching; for He was teaching them as one having
authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt 7:38—9 NASB). The multitudes
followed Jesus down the mountain, hanging on his every word. Very quickly,
however, Jesus transitions from words to actions and the multitudes begin to
see the Sermon on the Mount come to life before their very own eyes.
Our passage picks up with Jesus healing three people with
different sicknesses, from three strikingly different backgrounds. In these few
verses, Jesus heals an outcast with leprosy, the servant of a gentile, and a
relative of a friend. There are at least two major takeaways from this passage
that need to be examined. First, Jesus cares about the well-being of those he
comes in contact with. And second, Jesus treats all three people with the same
amount of compassion and care. Jesus does not, for example, show partiality to
the leper, and then shun the centurion’s servant and Peter’s relative. Instead,
Jesus was impartial to the social strictures imposed by the world.
This leads us to a couple of questions related to personal
application. First, do your actions match your words, as Jesus’s did? Second,
is your compassion and care partial or impartial? Said another way, do you see
people the way Jesus sees people, as sheep who all need a shepherd regardless
of societal standing, religious background or personal cleanliness?
Spend a few minutes, right now, asking God to forgive you of
any partiality or prejudice that you may be harboring. Ask Him to open your
eyes to people all around you who need the healing touch of Christ and the bold
witness of one of his disciples today.
