Scripture Focus: Matthew 8.16-17
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 

“He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

Reflection: Amazing Jesus
By John Tillman

Matthew closes this section saying that the healings prove something about Jesus.

The central feature of this section of healings is the exemplary faith of the centurion. The centurion who previously would send the servant out on his behalf went out on behalf of his servant. Jesus is amazed. He says the centurion has greater faith than anyone in Israel. Pause for a moment and think about the people to whom Jesus compares the centurion…

No one Jesus has found in Israel has shown greater faith than the centurion? Not Mary, Jesus’ mother? Not the twelve disciples? Not John the Baptist? Not the devout leper in the previous scene who said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean”? None of them had greater faith than the centurion? Apparently. So, does it take “amazing” faith to be healed?

The other time in scripture where Jesus is “amazed” is visiting his hometown, where he would receive no honor and find no faith—yet he still healed. (Matthew 13.58; Mark 6.5-6) Faith is not a currency we purchase miracles with. If it was, how could those bankrupt of faith be healed? Jesus’ healings are connected to his identity and his mission, not our faith. 

Jesus’ healings validate his authority to teach and to forgive sins. (Matthew 9.6) But Jesus’ healings are more than a flex against the religious establishment. They tell us who Jesus is. Matthew records them to prove that Jesus is the one Isaiah prophesied. Jesus took weaknesses and sickness on himself to prove that he was the one who could take upon himself the sickness of death.

Healing is an emotional topic because it touches people we know. I have known people healed through medical science and people whose healing was inexplicable to medical science. I’ve also known people who prayed fervently for healing, yet died.

When someone dies, it sounds like an insensitive cop-out to say ultimate healing will come at the resurrection. I wouldn’t recommend it as a counseling strategy. However, we must remember that resurrection is the only form of healing that is not temporary. Every person you read about being healed in the Bible, died eventually. Every one of them will be ultimately healed at the resurrection.

Even today, healings tell the amazing story that Jesus’ resurrection is real and those who aren’t healed now await the full resurrection-healing that he promises.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. — Psalm 90.14

Today’s Readings
Genesis 47 (Listen 5:03) 
Matthew 8 (Listen 4:09)

Read more about Pain and Healing
Hosea shows how far God is willing to go to heal and restore. God is committed to our healing and restoration. Call on him.

Read more about The Miracle of Faith
Jesus’ greatest miracles were not stopping diseases…but…helping the faithless to believe, the cynical to trust, the hardened to love

Scripture Focus: Matthew 7.28-29
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. 

Reflection: Be Amazed
By John Tillman

Matthew and Luke (Luke 6.12-49), draw on imagery from Moses at Sinai when recording the Sermon on the Mount. Out in the wilderness, a leader goes up a mountain. A small group goes with him. Crowds follow below. From the mountain come moral teachings that define a new way to live for a new community.

The crowds following Jesus were a mix of society. Among them would be religious authorities and experts, average Jewish citizens, Roman officials, pagans, Greeks, and of course outcasts from all walks of life. Those who find beauty in Jesus’ words today are similarly diverse. Passages and principles from Matthew 5-7 are well-known and admired. Even those who reject religion, recognize that these teachings describe a beautiful way to live. Even today, the crowds are amazed at Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus’ teaching is a guide, an invitation, to live life in a way that is life-giving. These teachings are tied to Jesus’ authority and to the Law. Jesus often said, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…” Jesus wasn’t canceling or replacing the Law. He was correcting bad interpretations. (Matthew 5.21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44)

The Law, as it had been taught for centuries, had cracks and corruptions. The poor, outsiders, and widows slipped through these cracks. Many provisions in the law meant to support them were given legal loopholes allowing religious exemptions to true righteousness. (Mark 7.10-13) This is just one example of the blindness and corruption of the religious leaders of the time.

We can’t disconnect Jesus from his divinity when considering his challenging words. If his divine claims are false, all his teachings are only the ideas of a madman. If Jesus is God, as we believe, then he is the ultimate fulfillment of the Law and the ultimate authority in our lives. What corruption do we need Jesus to confront today? What cracks need to be filled in? What sins do we need to escape? 

The Sermon on the Mount isn’t just fluffy ideas about being nice to one another. It describes a kind of exodus. The power structures and selfish principles of the world are overturned one by one and, for those willing, an escape from brutality and greed opens up. His teaching excited the outcasts and frustrated or shocked those in power. It still does today.

Climb the mountain. Join the crowd. Be amazed at Jesus’ teachings. Let them shock, offend, and correct you.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
He went back again to the far side of the Jordan to the district where John had been baptizing at first and he stayed there. Many people who came to him said, “John gave no signs, but all he said about this man was true”; and many of them believed in him. — John 10.40-42

Today’s Readings
Genesis 46 (Listen 4:47) 
Matthew 7 (Listen 3:31)

Read more about Killing With our Hearts
Some of the most popular sayings of Jesus are here in Matthew’s fifth chapter. So are many of the most ignored sayings of Jesus.

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Scripture Focus: Matthew 2.4-5, 15, 17, 23
4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written

15 And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet

17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled

23 So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets

Reflection: Good Things Coming True
By John Tillman

A narrator’s voice often influences how we perceive a story. The TV series, Arrested Development, featured a narrator who inserted his own opinion about what was happening. He often pointed out contradictions or lies by the main characters. In one scene, Gob (pronounced Job) is lying about having slept with someone.

     Gob: I did and it was disgusting.

     Narrator: They didn’t. But it would have been.

The narrator’s voice often inserts itself into Matthew’s Gospel, but Matthew isn’t pointing out bad things or lies. He’s telling us when good things come true.

The word “fulfill” occurs more in Matthew’s Gospel than in any other Gospel. Fifteen times, Matthew either says a prophecy has been fulfilled or records Jesus saying something must happen to fulfill the prophets.

Each Gospel author has a focus. Mark focused on Jesus being powerful, yet a servant. Matthew focuses on Jesus as the prophesied king, the Son of David, the Messiah, or Christ. He highlights prophecies concerning the messianic kingship of Jesus.

Many religions prophesy the future. This includes the non-spiritual religions of science, politics, and economics. With forecasts, polling data, and analysis, these prognosticators make promises too. But how do we uncover the truth? What prophecies can we trust?

In the mystery Knives Out, the detective Benoit Blanc describes the process of uncovering the truth using an analogy of watching the arc of a thrown ball. Once you understand the ball’s arc, finding where it will land is a simple matter of mathematics.

Matthew wants us to understand the arc of the previously fulfilled promises pertaining to Jesus to build trust. By looking at the path of past promises, we can trust the trajectory of Christ’s promises today. Every promise God has made will land—will be made “yes” in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 1.20)

If God, over millennia, can order the occurrence of events so that Jesus is born in the proper place, the proper clan, sojourn in Egypt, return to live in the correct obscure village, and fulfill the minutiae of other messianic prophecies, surely he is worthy of us trusting to him our tomorrow?

Jesus is not only called “Faithful and True,” he has proved to be so. Like Matthew, as we serve Jesus, we may need to explain to others the fulfillment of yesterday’s promises so that they can join us in trusting the promises of salvation. Good things are coming true.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seek, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. — Psalm 126.6-7

Today’s Readings
Genesis 41 (Listen 7:30) 
Matthew 2 (Listen 3:18)

Read more about Previsualizations of Promises
One day we will be ultimately freed and the world we are meant to live in will be rebuilt. This will be the ultimate fulfillment of all God’s promises.

Read more about False Promises and Threats
Lord, we are besieged with false promises and threats…pacification instead of peace and retribution instead of righteousness.

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.24-25
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Reflection: An Accepting Father
By John Tillman

Headings in scripture are not part of the original texts. There are no hard or fast guidelines on what sections should get a heading and which should not. Though these headings are not part of the Inspired Word of God, they are inspired by the Word. They are inserted by the scholars, editors, and publishers of the particular printings of the Bibles we choose. Their function is merely to help readers visually scan or skim for the section we are looking for.

Between verses 17 and 18 of the first chapter of Matthew, many English Bibles include a heading. The simplest heading is in The Message, which says, “The Birth of Jesus.” The NLT gets theological, saying, “The Birth of Jesus the Messiah.” The ESV inserts the Greek title for Messiah, saying, “The Birth of Jesus Christ.” The NKJV mentions Mary, saying, “Christ born of Mary.” The HCSB uses a fancier word for birth, saying, “The Nativity of the Messiah.” The NASB adds the Holy Spirit’s role, saying, “The Conception and Birth of Jesus.” The KJV and WEB leave this section of scripture unadorned, saying nothing at all.

But the NIV adds a radically different heading, with an emphasis on relationships and story: “Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son.” It’s like a mini-devotional all laid out in six words.

Most of what we know about Joseph comes from Matthew. No author recorded his words, but Matthew recorded his heart and motivations. Joseph was faithful to the law—a righteous man. Yet despite what it seemed that Mary had done, he was merciful, not demanding the law’s punishment. He was a cautious man and obedient to God’s will. 

As with his ancestor, Joseph, (Genesis 37.5-7; 40.8) God spoke to Joseph of Nazareth in dreams. (Numbers 12.6; Matthew 1.20; 2.13) Joseph understood the implications of Isaiah, of the name, “Immanuel” and the name, “Jesus.” As surely as Mary welcomed Jesus, Joseph did as well. This dreamer, Joseph, was willing to take in this mysterious son who was not his son.

The “son of David,” Joseph, accepted The Son of David, Jesus, as his son. Because of this, we can be accepted by Jesus the Son of David as sons and daughters of God. Joseph was an accepting father, and because of him, we all have an accepting Father in God. Despite what we have done, God is merciful, accepting us as his children.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
I put my trust in your mercy; my heart is joyful because of your saving help. — Psalm 13.5

Today’s Readings
Genesis 40 (Listen 2:59) 
Matthew 1 (Listen 3:29)

Read more about Dream Like Joseph
May we pray and dream as Joseph did. For only with a spiritual connection can we do what we must as a part of our calling.

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