In Your Face!

Matthew 9:²⁷ After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

 ²⁸ They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”

   “Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”

 ²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.”

I have read this passage twice recently, and both times I have felt God nudge me to say something about it.


Don't you find it odd that despite Jesus being on a roll with the miraculous - he has just raised a little girl from the dead moments before these verses - he doesn't immediately heal the blind men? Jesus actually seems to ignore them and goes on home. How rude! I wonder how this made the blind men feel? Discouraged? Angry? Embarrassed?


Sometimes it feels like God doesn't respond to us either. Ever feel like those blind men?


But what do they do? Do they quit? Do they bad-mouth Jesus and go away resentful? No, they follow Him and get right up in Jesus' face. They actually enter the home where Jesus was staying - uninvited - and approach Him with their request. Now Jesus can't ignore them. Now they have His full attention, or more importantly, now Jesus has their full attention.


I wonder if this story is a little bit like the Lover in the Song of Songs who hides from the beloved to draw her to Himself more completely.  She has to pursue him, and put some effort into finding him, at a personal cost too, to have that wonderful experience of finding Him and be united with Him.


Here, in this passage from Matthew, the blind men also have to pursue Jesus. They have to endure the journey to the place where Jesus was staying.


Are we prepared to make the journey to where Jesus is staying? 'The place where Jesus was staying' is an interesting phrase. What does this mean in our individual contexts? Where can we see Jesus residing? Can we follow Him there?


When the blind men get to Jesus, they have a more intimate exchange with Jesus than they could have done if Jesus had healed them from among the crowds following Him. It is worth it to press in, to persevere in our pursuit to find Jesus, because maybe the very fact that he is staying away is because he wants to draw us in more deeply. 


Hang in there and press in - God has got something for you, you just can't see it yet.

Taking it Personally

Last night I read the story of Peter walking on the water. Its a well-known passage about faith, and I've read it hundreds of times before, but this time I was reading my 'New Living Translation' that adds one little word that the NIV version doesn't have, and it makes all the difference to see faith in a new light.


The NLT says, "³¹ Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said.“Why did you doubt me?”
The NIV says, ³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said,“why did you doubt?”


When I read the bible I always imagine myself in the story, as if Jesus is speaking to me directly, and to be honest, the NIV version of this verse makes me feel like a worm! I hear condemnation, and feel failure for my lack of ability to do as Jesus does - in this case, walk on the water.


When I read the same verse in the NLT, its no longer all about me, it makes me suddenly aware of the effect Peter's fear had on Jesus. The NLT Jesus seems to take Peter's lack of faith very personally: 'Why did you doubt me?' Jesus seems offended, even hurt, that Peter could entertain the idea that Jesus would let him drown. The verse is no longer about me, its about Him.


Faith is personal. Not just to me, but to Jesus too.


It got me thinking. Do I live like Jesus is affected by my faith or lack thereof? I'm so self-absorbed that I rarely stop to think how my thoughts are affecting my Maker. Is He hurt when I act like I'm not sure of His love for me or those around me?


I totally forget how I can make God glad or sad. For some reason, its hard to shift the belief that because God doesn't change, and He knows the outcome already, it doesn't affect Him if we get it right or get it wrong, trust Him or doubt Him. He is Almighty God, and it seems a little blasphemous to suggest I can make Him feel something, because it makes God seem weak. But is it really weakness to be affected by others? Yes, God doesn't change, but that doesn't mean He doesn't feel.


Even after being a Christian all my life, my perception of God is still a little stoic. God is more like a statue in my mind than a Father who runs to meet His long-lost son with longing, and rejoicing, or a Friend who reaches out His hand when I'm sinking, and is offended by my panic when I find myself tossed around by the wind and waves of life. 


How I respond to life matters to Him, and maybe not in the way I think it does - maybe not to be graded as if I was in school - but maybe it matters to Him because he cares, and because He cares, He feels.