February - Reading 17

Matthew 17:14-27 http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=English&version=KJV&passage=Matthew+17:14-27&search=&showxref=&showfn=yep

Acts 24 http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=English&version=KJV&passage=Acts+24&search=&showxref=&showfn=yep

Psalm 39 http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=English&version=KJV&passage=Psalm+39&search=&showxref=&showfn=yep

Leviticus 5-7 http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=English&version=KJV&passage=Leviticus+5-7&search=&showxref=&showfn=yep

[ February 16, 2004, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: Clint Kritzer ]

 

OK, we're ready to go this morning!

Matthew:

We have been sitting here discussing this passage. There is so much to deal with here, so I hope people don't go over it too fast.

First of all, there ARE illnesses and problems which are the result of demonic activity. This is scoffed at by the western medical and scientific communities today for the most part, but perhaps it is just more subtle here than the places such as India or Africa where it is quite overt at certain times. Are ALL illnesses demon-related? Of course not, although all, in the long run, are the result of sin in the human race.

Something else which this passage shows almost uniquely in Scripture is Jesus' impatience with His own disciples. His response to the father who brought Him the boy for healing was "O unbelieving and perverse generation...how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?"

This puzzled me for a long time. But, as Barry mentioned, look at where Christ had just been -- on the mountain top transfigured; tasting a bit of his heavenly glory. Then He had to come down, back to us. And so we see that moment of perhaps feeling a little spiritually jarred at the profound difference.

That sometimes happens to us, too. A sublime moment with the Lord, and then back to dishes and earning money and traffic jams and....

Jesus said the disciples could not heal the boy because they had so little faith. This had puzzled me, too, as faith is a gift from God. But, then, we are supposed to USE that faith and not bury it. James says clearly, "Sho me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons belive that -- and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead also."

Were the disciples then afraid that they did not have what it took to rid the boy of that demon? Perhaps they were unwilling to go that far in their new faith? What was different about this boy?

In some manuscripts we see verse 21 as saying , "However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." This verse is completely omitted in some texts as the manuscripts they translated from did not have it. Mark 9:29 has the phrase "by prayer and fasting" in some and only "by prayer" in others. So there was a definite difference in the early manuscripts regarding this verse. We know that Origen "corrected" some parts of Scripture to meet his own doctrines, and this may have been one of them. The correct version may actually have stated "by prayer and fasting" or "by prayer," at least, but it's really hard to know.

"Faith as small as a mustard seed."... This is the subject of so much debate where today's "miracles" are concerned. The image of the seed is used several times by Jesus, and that makes me stop and think, "Why?"

Seeds grow. That's what they do. That's what they are designed to do. If we have faith as small as a mustard seed, is that a clue that we should use that faith in our daily walk and that it will then grow to produce the radical changes that active faith does produce?

First a seed sends down the root. Then the first leaves and later the full plant. Then at the right time, fruit is produced. The seed, allowed to grow, produces fruit. That's what it does.

That's what we are supposed to do. Sink the root down into the Word of God and in prayer, and then grow. Act on the nourishment received. And that growth is DESIGNED to produce the fruit in our lives.

Mustard seeds don't alter the environment in an hour or a day. But given time they become large plants and produce what they were meant to produce. Maybe we should remember this when we talk about the faith of a mustard seed.

Then Jesus again talks about His coming death and Resurrection. Not that anyone understood, for the disciples were 'exceedingly sorrowful' or 'filled with grief.' They missed the meaning of the Resurrection before it happened.

And then the two drachma tax. This was the Temple tax. Jesus makes two very strong points here.

1. His identity. When He asks if the sons of the king should pay tax, the obvious answer is 'no', because those taxes support the royal family. In using this known physical picture, Jesus is implying again that the Temple is His and that He is God.

2. BUT, He says, NEVERTHELESS... they will pay the tax. The reason He gives is something we need to pay attention to. It is so that no one will be offended. And how often do we simply say what we want to say or do what we want to do, thinking "this is the Christian way to do or say ...." and not paying attention to whom we might be offending? Yes we must tell the truth, but very often the way we tell it or the way we act on it can be very offensive not only to unbelievers, but also to new or weak believers. We must be sensitive to people and sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, who knows what others will and will not respond to. There was no doctrinal or faith necessity for Jesus NOT to pay the tax. It didn't make sense in light of who He was/is, but that did not stand in His way of not causing offense where none was needed.

There would be enough later!

More later, enough for now. God bless you all.

Helen and Barry