Luke 7 and Matthew 8
October 19, 2014


I noticed that the accounts of the Roman, official have differences.  Luke says the Official sent envoys, and that Jesus traveled toward his home.   Matthew says the Official came to Jesus personally, and doesn't mention that Jesus traveled at all.    They seem to be recollections of the same account, because what Jesus says in each case is almost identical.   So what should we believe?   Well, we know for sure that a servant was ill, and that Jesus healed him on request without being in the servant's presence.   We know that Jesus was very impressed with the faith of the Official, and we know that the Official was favorably disposed to the Jewish people.   We also know that the Official cared about his servant, and realized that he was a servant as well, and he expected that Jesus would care about him.     We cannot make any doctrinal beliefs based on the fact that he sent someone else, because we can't be sure of that.   We can't insist that you must show up in person before Christ in order to be healed, because we can't be sure of that either.    There's plenty of text that is identical into which we can "sink our teeth".    Sometimes passages like this cause people to think that the Bible isn't true.   However, any time two people see an event they will remember different parts, or get a detail or two wrong.  Maybe that happened here, I don't know.    We can establish several things that help us understand that the Bible is true:  1.  There was a person named Jesus.  2.  He performed powerful miracles   3.  The man asking for help wasn't Jewish    The passage is meant to show us that God has compassion on people other than Jews, and that His power extended beyond that of any human or any other prophet.   In this passage we see the compassion of Christ.

The woman who is burying her only son touches the heart of Jesus.   He saw her grief and pain, and was moved to action.   Think of it....our grief touches God's heart and moves him to action.

In a small town your past follows you.   Even after you accept Christ and change your behavior there will be some who will not forget the past.   They will bring up actions all the way back to high school.     The sinful woman who anoints the feet of Jesus is still in her sin....she hasn't changed her ways yet.   I'm sure the women of town had plenty to say about her.  And it would appear that she had the attention of the Pharisees as well.    So then, everyone knew what kind of woman she was, and yet she dared to come into the Pharisee's home and attend to Jesus.    That's really putting yourself out there...and Jesus rewards her sacrifice and her risk handsomely.

If I had been the Pharisee, I would be pretty upset.  Jesus points out that He hasn't been welcomed very well.   No doubt the meal was a thinly veiled attempt to interrogate Christ, not to honor Him.    I certainly hope that I am more like the sinful woman than the Pharisee when it comes to expressing love and devotion to Jesus.

PR