Scripture: Matthew 8:14–27
Observation: The first thing Jesus does in this passage is
heal Peter’s mother-in-law by touching her.
I find it interesting that at the touch of Jesus the fever left her. The ironic thing is that the Greek word used
there is haptomai from the root word hapto meaning “to kindle, to set of
fire”. So basically He set a different
kind of fire or light in her and the other fire (fever) left her. There was no more room for the sickness and fever. And the Scripture tells us that she got up
and began to minister to Jesus and the disciples. She got up and diakoneo – to minister, to
wait upon, to offer food and drink and prepare food. I don’t know about you, but after I’ve been
sick with fever, the last thing I want to do is get up and make some food for
my family or friends, but after one touch from Jesus not only was she healed,
but she was ready to serve those around her.
AMAZING!
The word used there is also the word
where we get our word “deacon” or “deaconess”.
It basically means in the root word (diakonos) one who cares for the
poor, a minister, or a servant.
Where did Jesus touch her? He touched her hand (vs. 15). With what did she serve and minister to Jesus
and the others with? Her hands!
After spending the afternoon with
Peter and his family it was evening time and Jesus goes out from there. Now I don’t know about you, but at about
4:00-5:00 p.m. I’m pretty much done for.
I’m not an evening or night person.
If I can be in my bedroom between 7:00-8:00 p.m. I’m good with
that! But here we see Jesus still
working as evening is falling. He is
healing the sick and casting out evil spirits.
The word used there for healing is “therapeuo” and it means to serve, to
do service, to heal, to restore health, to wait on menially (as a servant), and
to relieve (of disease) and to worship or adore (God).
Yeshua was out in the evening
worshipping God through His service to those around Him. Jesus was healing as an act of worship to the
Heavenly Father. This was what Romans 12
speaks of, this was one way Jesus was presenting His body as a living
sacrifice, acceptable to God and in reasonable service to The Father. Not only that, but these acts of healing (“therapy”)
fulfilled prophecy again pointing to Yeshua being The Messiah.
The last part of the text (vs. 18-27)
begin by Jesus telling his disciples that they were going to go to the other
side of the lake. You see this more
clearly in Luke’s passage, but if you look closely at Matthew’s account you
will see it too, but it is interrupted here in Matthew by a certain scribe that
comes to him seeking to follow him.
Yeshua makes it very clear here about a couple of things. First, if you are going to follow Jesus know
that we are not trying to make a home here on this earth. Jesus said, “I have no place to lay my head.” In another words, “I have no place to call
home.” Yeshua went from town to town and
place to place ministering and basically camping out during those three years
of his ministry. Second He told another
disciple that he needed to set proper priorities when choosing to follow Jesus.
After that Jesus gets in the
boat. He already said they were going to
the other side (vs. 18) but as they enter the water a storm begins to rage and
water starts filling the boat. It was
Jesus and a bunch of fishermen who were accustomed to being on the water, but
now they became frightened. They look
and there is Jesus sleeping in the boat.
Now mind you this was probably not a large boat. They didn’t have to look very far to find
him. But they look and see him sleeping
and they wake him up yelling at him, “PLEASE SAVE US!!!! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!”
I imagine Jesus calmly looks at them
in their frightened faces and we see these words in verse 26, “Why are you so
fearful?” Then he adds this, “O ye of
little faith.” He had already told them
they were going to the other side, was there not even one who believed
that?
Sometimes we look at our sickness or
the “storms” (proverbial or real physical ones) and we forget what Jesus
promised us earlier. We forget that He
said we will make it to the other side.
Jesus spoke the whole world into existence and in verse 18 Jesus spoke another
commandment “to depart to the other side”.
He had already “spoken” and cast out devils with his word. He spoke through the prophet Isaiah and He
became that fulfillment.
Application: There is a saying, Jesus said it, I can
believe it and that is good enough for me.
Is it in fact good enough for us?
Will we let Jesus touch us through His Word today and fill us up with
His Holy Fire that gets us back up on our feet to serve those around us? Will we allow Him to heal every disease
(physical, spiritual, emotional, etc.) in us so that we can minister to others
and worship freely? Will we believe
fully in the WORD of God spoken through Yeshua our Messiah? What is it that you need to trust in Him for
today? What word or words has He spoken
to you that you have forgotten and now you are screaming at Him, “PLEASE SAVE
ME!” and He is calmly whispering back to you, “Why my child are you so fearful? Believe in my word. Increase your faith.”
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