Key verse: Then He touched their eyes and said,
"according to your faith will it be done to you."
Matthew 9:29
This appears to be another case of Jesus doing a private
miracle. Was He just taking a break from the scrutiny of the Pharisees for a
bit, or did He really want to have a private moment with these two men?
Considering Jesus' emphasis on relationship, it was probably a little bit of
both.
"Have mercy on us, Son of David." (Matthew 9:27a)
We can tell by the way that these two men address Jesus that they believe in
Him. The title that they give, "Son of David," must have meant Messiah.
Messiah was expected to be able to "restore sight to the blind." So,
Jesus assured them, "according to your faith, will it be done to
you." However, we must ask, what does this mean?
How does faith work with God? Why do some people who seem to
have a tremendous amount of faith never get healed, or relieved of suffering
while other people seem to get relieved of minor inconveniences by comparison?
Behold a mystery. Tons of books and sermons have been preached on this subject.
Many scholars and theologians have weighed in with their opinions for the
explanation of how it all works.
One thing is clear, Scripture doesn't seem to
have one hard and fast rule to follow, such as if you do A, then B will follow.
Some of Jesus’ healings were done for people who had a great amount of faith,
such as the woman with the flow of blood, and these two men. In other
situations, the person who was healed didn't necessarily have faith him or
herself, but someone else had faith for them: the centurion for his servant,
the four friends of the man taken on to the roof and Jairus for his dead
daughter. Soon, we will learn of a situation in which Jesus Himself approaches
a person and offers to heal Him before he even asks.
I encourage you to explore this issue on your own if you
want to gain more understanding on the subject. I assure you, you'll have no
trouble finding information if you seek it out. Here is what I am prepared to
say with certainty on the matter. God is God. Faith in God is good, and each of
us are created individually with individual needs and gifts that your heavenly
creator understands better than anyone here on earth.
Through faith, you must
trust that what God allows in your life, is for your good, to help you develop
the Character of Christ, God's Son. If healing will do it, then praise God. If
suffering will work best, then you are in good company with Christ himself who
endured the cross for your sake --Phil.
2:8. Jesus was "a man of
sorrows and acquainted with suffering”--Isaiah
53:3. I realize that these words may not be the most comforting. All of us
want relief. Few people choose to suffer as our Lord did.
What I can tell you with certainty is that He understands.
He's been close enough to where you are to sympathize and He has promised to
help you endure, if that is His call on your life. If you are healed, then I
rejoice with you. But if you are not
healed now you will be in eternity! That
is the ultimate healing and all of us universally will at that time become more
whole than the healthiest of us are now.
In the meantime, we can all be blessed to think what joy awaits us there
even as, we with His help, continue to work on becoming more like Him down
here.
Walk By Faith Jeremy Camp
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