From Exclusion to Embrace: Jesus' Healing Grace

I'd like us to look today at a short story from the New Testament. So one of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John stories about an encounter with Jesus that a man has. It's a really, really short story. It's just four verses long, but when we look at this story, we get a glimpse of who Jesus is, the way that he operates, and and the difference that he's made in our lives today. Because the bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So everything he did then is what he's doing now and what he's doing today. [00:36:28] (37 seconds)  #JesusYesterdayTodayForever

Two weeks ago, seven set the scene, when he introduced the sermon on the mount from Matthew chapters five to seven. And the sermon on the mount was really Jesus' manifesto of love. It was his message of how to do the kingdom of heaven on the earth today. The teaching of Jesus was shocking. It was radical. He said things, crazy things like love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In a land at that time, the land of Israel, is overrun by Roman invaders, They'd taken over the land. They charged high taxes. [00:37:05] (38 seconds)  #SermonOnTheMountLove

There wasn't freedom in Israel at that time, and the Jewish people were waiting for their messiah to come. So in chapter eight, we find this story of a man, a leper who is healed by Jesus. But first of all, let's look at Jesus, how he was operating, where he was operating. So he went throughout Galilee, which is mostly an agricultural area. A historian called Josephus said that in Galilee, there were around about 200, villages and towns. The biggest of those were Capernaum, as you can see on that map, and and Nazareth also was large. [00:37:43] (38 seconds)  #GalileeMinistry

But when you look at those regions altogether, they cover roughly six to 7,000 square miles, which, I'm told is is roughly the the size of Wales. And the population of those six to 7,000 miles was roughly 600 to 800,000 people. And Jesus was operating in a small section of that area, an area called Galilee. The poverty at that time would have been really great. There was no welfare system. If you had a disability or an illness or a sickness, begging was your only opportunity to find food. [00:38:21] (41 seconds)  #GalileeReality

It's the same for us today in many ways. Although God's equipped us, hasn't he, with friends, and he's given us brains to make decisions. He's given us resources in our nation, but the only true solution is relationship with Jesus. Jesus was exciting to be around because there was incredible opportunity for healing for every sort of illness. [00:40:16] (27 seconds)  #RelationshipWithJesus

He's still available to us today in the same way. But the Jewish people at that time were sitting on the edge of their seats. They were waiting for this messiah king to come and make a declaration in their land to the Romans and say, out of our nation because we're a great nation. This is the nation of Israel. We are great. Get out of our nation. They expected a militant leader to come and rescue them. [00:40:43] (30 seconds)  #MessiahExpectations

And instead, the message that they received was totally counter to their expectations. It would have been confusing. The message was not a message that they hoped for. It was a radical message of love and grace. It wasn't the message of law, legalities, retribution. He came as a lover, but he could have been lawyer. It's the same call that each of us have on our lives. We could be lawyers. We could stand in judgment of each other. [00:41:12] (34 seconds)  #LoveNotLaw

Look at each other for what we're lacking or what she's got, what he's got, what he's not doing, what she's doing, but god called us to be lovers and not lawyers. Five times in chapter five in the sermon of of on the mount, Jesus says, you have heard it was said, but then he counteracts the judgment with a message of love and grace. Listen to this. Amazing. Matthew five thirty eight. You've heard it. It was said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, vengeance. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. [00:41:46] (39 seconds)  #CounterCulturalLove