Matthew 8:1-9:8, Healings of Jesus
What if being a follower of Jesus means being an agent of God’s forgiveness?
I had always read the passages on forgiveness as more personal: I should forgive people who hurt me. But what if we’re called to do more than that?
If we are the Body of Christ and we are the temple of Holy Spirit, then are we empowered to offer forgiveness beyond our own hurts?
If God’s plan has been to have humans be His representatives on earth and His mission is to reconcile through the forgiveness of sins, then instead of going out and telling people they’ve sinned, maybe we’re supposed to simply go out and forgive. Forgiveness before repentance.
Jesus’s last act in the flesh was to extend forgiveness to those who didn’t even know they had sinned. Go and do likewise.
There is so much to cover this week to get to chapter 13 by Sunday…
In the first part of chapter 8, Jesus moved from the Sermon on the Mount, to going out and healing people. Jesus had full dominion over the powers of this world, from viruses and bacteria to storms on the sea.
Jesus demonstrated his full authority, so drew crowds and followers. People wanted to be part of what was going on, maybe this would lead to revolution, maybe it was the celebrity factor.
But Jesus was on a mission and His mission must move forward.
I think that has stayed true and that’s why ministries and churches die. We become more focused on burying our dead than following Jesus.
Following Jesus is hard and it won’t win you any popularity contests.
Journey Through Scripture 