Matthew 9:27-34
Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith let it be done to you.’ And their eyes were opened.
I went to a Super Bowl party this year. On one particularly hard hit (early in the game when it was still interesting) I saw “my guy” get hit with a dirty tackle by “their guy”. I moaned and cried out with indignation when the ref didn’t throw a flag. At the same time, another guest let out a whoop and holler extolling the fine example of defense we had just seen.
So it is with these two stories of Jesus healing. In the first story, Jesus heals two blind men while extolling their faith and belief in the power of God as what healed them and charges them to tell no one. But they can’t keep their good news to themselves and go off and tell their story “throughout the district”. In the second story Jesus casts out a demon from a mute man who was then able to speak.
The Pharisees who witness this disparage what Jesus has done by saying, “By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.”
So there we have it, two examples of Jesus healing power presented right after each other in Matthew with two very different interpretations of what just happened.
Have you ever had your faith story disparaged? How do we watch and listen for the “Pharisees” in our lives and pray that they come to see the power of faith in Jesus in their own lives and in the world.
Jeffrey Witt
This Lent, we are sharing the offerings of members of All Saints who worked together to create a daily Lenten devotional book. Join us for worship Sunday morning at 8:30 and 11 and Education Hour at 9:45. Wednesday (TONIGHT), we will have supper at 6:15 and worship at 7 as we meet a woman who was caught in adultery in our series "Christ on Trial." Visit http://www.allsaintspalatine.org for full calendar and information and respond to this email message to request to be removed from our distribution list.
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