daily java

Daily Java:

After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?” “Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.” Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! Jesus sternly warned them, “Don’t tell anyone about this.” But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.  (Matthew 9:27-31)

In the old single action revolvers in use before the 1860’s, there were two settings: half-cock and full-cock. The half cock was used to load the gun, but wouldn’t give enough pressure to discharge the shell the right way. To go off half-cocked means to go off before you mean to or are prepared to do so.

When Jesus healed people, there were several that he told not to tell anyone else what he had done. Some think that he did this using reverse psychology. The minute they got outside they would run because he told them not to.

But Jesus had a reason for doing these things and it wasn’t to encourage people to do the opposite of what he said.

His reason? He didn’t want them to go off half-cocked. They didn’t know who he was or what his mission was. All they had seen was that he had healed them. When they brought his message to others, it was a flawed message, that of healing.

The message of Jesus is not that of physical healing. It is of reconciliation. Any time anyone tries to reduce the message of Jesus to healing or any of his other miracles for that matter, that person has missed the point.

Jesus wanted them to know that the miracles he performed were an adjunct to his ministry, not the totality of it. He did not come to heal our bodies. He came to heal our souls. That was his message in the first part of this chapter.

“Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Matthew 9:4-5)

He showed his power over the supernatural by his power over the natural. And he wanted them to know that he came to have power over the supernatural, not the natural. He came to bring us back to God, not to heal us.

A lot of preachers have the wrong picture of what Jesus is or what he came to do. He did not come to help us claim our miracle. He did not come to heal. The apostle Paul is proof of this. In 2 Corinthians 11, he wrote about his thorn in the flesh that plagued him. It was some kind of ailment that caused him a lot of distress. He said he asked God several times to heal him, but God’s final answer was my grace is sufficient for you.

His ministry was going to be seen in God’s power through a flawed vessel. In other words, people were not going to be coming to God through the power of Paul, but through the power of God that Paul showed them.

If Jesus had meant to heal everyone, he would have done so. But he never came into town and just did a blanket healing. He would heal and then ell why.

And the reason for his healing was to show the power of God, to authenticate his message.

This is also one of the few times in his ministry when he asks someone if they had faith enough? Usually he just heals, even if they had never heard of him before.

It is not your faith that heals you. It is the power of God that heals you. If it were your faith, it would be by something you do. But it is by something that God does in you.