Nature Obeys

May 21, 2025 |  Read and Think About Matthew 8:14-27

The main subject of the passage today is Jesus calming the stormy sea, a moment in time when nature obeyed Jesus and everything went utterly calm.  

In a larger sense, the passage shows us a number of miraculous healings performed by Jesus in the first few verses, followed by three short exchanges Jesus had with different people.

To the religious scribe who wanted to be His follower, He responded with “Foxes have holes …”  In essence, this reflected that Jesus had no home by this point, for his ministry was one of traveling to the towns.  He had places to go and a mission to fulfill. 

To the man intending to follow Jesus after burying his father first, I think this was a metaphor.  The situation reflects those instances where a person might say,  “I will follow … when my circumstances change.”  In today’s terms, the circumstance could be finishing school perhaps, or settling down, or reaching some other station in life.  Jesus is saying when the spiritual tap on the shoulder occurs, when the attraction to know Jesus and follow him is felt, don’t let circumstances be an excuse.

Finally, to the Apostles in the boat, He responded to their alarm first by miraculously calming the storm, then by saying, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid.”  Given that Jesus was in the boat with them, why were they afraid?  This teaches that storms of every kind are inevitable, and it is better to be “in the boat” with Jesus when they happen, than to face them alone. 

Taken together, Jesus’ statements teach that we are to live ready to adapt and follow where the Holy Spirit leads.  Our priority should be Him rather than our circumstances.  And we are to stay close to Him and can trust Him, especially when life gets stormy.

The Starving Messiah

May 20, 2025 |  Read and Think About Matthew 4:1-11

Being human, Jesus got hungry.  In fact, He was starving, biologically.  The devil picked a good time to come with these challenges.  Even in his God nature, the level of hunger Jesus felt made it harder to respond in the right way, I am sure. 

I’ll bet none of us have ever gone without food for many weeks in a wilderness setting, or been tempted by the devil in an actual verbal exchange.

Yet as dramatic as these events were, the temptations themselves are not that far off from the temptations we face.

• There was the temptation to “take matters into your own hands” as we would call it today.  This is what turning the stones into bread would have been.

  
  

• There was the temptation to try and force God into action, to be the one in control.  This is what jumping from the pinnacle would have been.   

  
  

• Last, there was the temptation to gain something through compromise.  This was the offer the devil made in verse 9. 

Jesus’ responses to these temptations were anchored in God’s Word.  

This account teaches the importance of having that same anchoring for our own lives. It shows the importance of doing our best to read, know, store up in our hearts, and live God’s Word, always and only with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Background and Foreground

May 17, 2025 |  Recapping the First 2 Modules

Working through the readings and the posts so far has helped me think of the Good News like a painting.

The painter pours their creativity into the background, giving crucial context for the main subject. The painter gives exquisite detail to the foreground to set up the message of the art, and as the visual entry point for looking at the main subject.

In Module 1 and 2, we saw the mission of John the Baptist as part of the background for Jesus’ earthly ministry, preparing the way for Him. A woman stood at the feet of Jesus weeping. She was overcome by her sinful life being met with such mercy.  It seems that John’s message of repentance had taken hold of her.  The tax collector in the parable Jesus told had beaten his chest, knowing he was one of the worst of sinners, yet knowing he was right in God’s eyes because of his prayer for forgiveness.

We also saw foreground for observing the Good News, with the birth and early years of Jesus, as well as some passages about the early unbelief displayed by Jesus’ siblings.  What they saw in Jesus was not what they had expected. They didn’t understand at first who Jesus was or what He was about. All of these things point us to questions like these - who was Jesus, what was He about?

Module 3, starting in a few days, will look at these questions and others.