Thursday, January 22- Matthew 8:1-4

-Today I ate pizza. I like pizza. Today Jin and I both worked on our cars...now they're both out of commission till tomorrow. I don't like that.

1When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.
-Sermon on the mount was done. People were amazed. Because of this many followed.
-We'll later see that much of this crowd disappears as Jesus teaches more difficult things. Why do we follow Jesus?

2A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
-"if" is the big word. Many times healing is based on the persons faith. I suppose by saying this the leprous man showed that he had faith and he believed that God could do this for him.
-This man comes kneeling before Jesus. Humble and desperate. This is the attitude by which we must come before God. Not in our arrogance, in our time, or our own strength, but in humility, in his time, and in weakness.

3Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
-Apparently, Jesus was willing. Jesus was authoritative over it.
-Cure was immediate and complete.
-Wonder what it was like to see someone cured of leprosy immediately? Was there a sound or smell associated with it? Must have been an amazing and wondrous thing.
-Touch was the mode of operation for this healing. That would have been a special thing for this man because he probably hadn't had someone touch him in a long time because of the contagiousness of the disease.

4Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
The Faith of the Centurion
-The man must have been ecstatic of the healing.
-It's one of those peculiar commands to tell the man not to tell anyone. The first thing he is to do is to show the priest and give sacrifice. Maybe this was so that the man could reflect and give thanks and glory to God first. Otherwise he would get caught up in a whirlwind of people asking him questions. Giving thanks to God is so important.
-My first impulse would have been to tell someone about the amazing thing that had happened to me. That needs to change into thankfulness to God.