MARCH 04 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 MARCH 04  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Thanks be to our Savior, our Redeemer, for without His Love we could not even love ourselves, without His Salvation, we could not save ourselves, and without the price He paid on Calvary we could not redeem ourselves. Lord Jesus we need You more than we know for without You we have no purpose, no reason, but with You we can “go” with confidence knowing that You are the “Way” and the “Truth” and the “Life” !And even though we are weak we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens [us].” Lord I pray as I do each morning that Your Spirit will guide, lead, and direct me to the Narrow Gate and the Light of Your Love will shine through me to guide others.    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS was asleep in a boat as the disciples panicked during the storm and when Jesus awoke He calmed the “wind and the waves” and His disciples “marveled” and wondered “Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matthew 8:27) Next we read “When [Jesus] had come to the other side…” He encountered a storm of a different nature in the form of “two demon-possessed men, exceedingly fierce…” and Jesus did to this storm what He had done to the wind and the waves, He calmed them! It is interesting that even though the disciples who had seen Jesus doing the miracle healing and calming the storm at sea wondered “Who can this be” — however, the demons did not wonder “who” Jesus was for when the demon possessed men saw Jesus they “suddenly cried out saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?’” (Matthew 8:29) The disciples had wondered “Who?” Jesus was after seeing Him healing, Teaching, and controlling the wind and waves but the demon-possessed men called Jesus by name and called Him the “Son of God”. Not only did the demon-possessed men know who Jesus was, they knew His purpose in regard to their personal situation as they asked Jesus, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29b) It is interesting to note that the demon-possessed men knew Jesus was the “Son of God” and that there was coming a “time” when there would be a “Judgement” and that their penalty would be “torment” at the hands of Jesus!?!? (Matthew 8:28-29) The disciples observed that the demons “begged” Jesus to let them “go away” which means that [the demons] knew Jesus had the power to free them — the disciples should have understood that Jesus controlled the wind and the waves which are “physical” elements and now they will observe that Jesus has control over the “spiritual” elements —  JESUS not only cast out the demons from the two possessed men but then Jesus allowed them to enter a herd of swine, which is a combination of the “physical” and “spiritual” worlds. After that incident we read “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city…” (Matthew 9:1) which begins the context for JQ#08a & JQ#08b. The fact that Jesus is in His own city is going to make this Question rather personal plus Jesus is introducing the most important personal event that will ever take place in our lives, and that event is the “forgiveness of sins”! Jesus introduces “forgiveness of sins” in His “own city” and He asks for our personal opinion by starting the Question/Lesson with “Why do you think…”. Jesus really gets personal when He bluntly says that what we are thinking is “evil”.  (Matthew 9:4) Jesus proves that He will not pull any punches with the “Truth of God” as He points out that the “evil” is “in [our own] heart”! It doesn’t get any more personal than this, we are at “home” and Jesus knows what is in our “own hearts” and He calls us out on our “evil thoughts and desires”! Jesus is pointing out with JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your heart?” (Matthew 9:4) that He knows what we hold dearest to our hearts and He identified our selfishness as “evil” but the Good News is the context in which He meets us on such personal ground. We see that some friends had brought a paralytic laying on a bed to Jesus and “When Jesus saw “their faith”, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.’” (Matthew 9:2) Sounds kind of personal doesn’t it? The message I get out of this Lesson is that even though our hearts are full of evil that if we will turn our attention away from our personal selfish desires and put our focus towards doing good for others that Jesus will honor our good intentions — it was the good intentions of some evil hearts that was the catalyst of Jesus introducing the “forgiveness of sins”!!!