Monday, September 26
Listen
Asbury Seminary faculty comment on the Sermon on the Mount at asburyreader.com.
Behold
Matthew 8:5-13 MSG
As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
“Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
Be Perfect
But the Life was truly human. He met life as a man. He called on no power for his own moral battle that is not at your disposal and mine. He did perform miracles, but only for others and in answer to human need. He performed no miracles for himself. His character was an achievement. Everything he laid before men in the words spoken on the Mount had gone through his own soul. They were livable, for he was living them.
E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount.