Pastor John,
Tonight, during our reading in Mathew 9, we considered aloud the Lord’s commandment to two blind men, whom He had healed after they came crying for his help.
27.”…two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, ‘Have mercy on us, O son of David!’”
…
30.“…and their eyes were opened, but Jesus sternly warned them, saying, ‘See to it that no one knows!’
31. Nevertheless, when they went out, they spread his fame throughout that region.”
Later on, in our reading, you also explained how, “Everyone on Earth welcomes a healing. The Muslims included; everyone wants their family well.” (to paraphrase what you said).
Taking all of that into consideration: How Jesus healed folk who asked and believed.
KJV Luke 4:40 “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.”
As well as how he commanded, at least some of them, not to speak of their healings.
30 “…Jesus sternly warned them, saying, ‘See to it that no one knows!’”
Combined with the understanding that: all men desire a healing, and this, without necessarily desiring the Father or His son Jesus, at all.
I wonder if Jesus, by “sternly warning them to tell no one”, was trying to keep the healings from growing into something that required 100% of His available time?
While still wanting to heal and help all of those that the Father would permit, with the short life-span that he was allowed, but not wanting the function of healing to turn into His sole function on Earth.
Maybe too many folk seeking him just for a healing, would have hindered his ability to get out the message of the Kingdom of God? He spent a great deal of time (the recorded time that we are given in the scriptures), speaking to men. Often “likening” the Kingdom of God, to things in this world, so that men could better understand Him.
The Message was preached with miracles, signs and wonders, but perhaps he was trying to avoid becoming a manufacturer of nothing but miracles and signs, so that he could help men to prepare for the kingdom of God that he was about to make available to men?
A lot of what if(s). I’m just chewing on what we read this evening 🙂
Wonderful.
Jerry
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Hi Jerry.
That could very well be the case, as a story from Mark 1:40-45 strongly suggests: “…immediately the leprosy departed from him[the leper], and he was cleansed. And after he[Jesus] sternly warned him, he sent him away, and he said to him, ‘See that you tell no one!’ But after he went out, he began to proclaim it greatly and to broadcast the news so widely that Jesus could no longer openly enter a city, and so, he was out in desolate places.”
Thank you for that observation.
Pastor John