B8 - E4 Preaching, Teaching and Healing
As Jesus continued to travel around Galilee, the news of his preaching spread everywhere. In each town he came to, he was invited to speak in the synagogues and people flocked to hear him, deeply impressed with the authority of his teaching which was so unlike that of their usual teachers and drew people to him. They went away full of praise for everything he said and did.
He had a lovely way of teaching them, using words and stories that people could relate to, speaking of God’s Kingdom in everyday, understandable language, with images from the countryside of his boyhood. He talked about seeds being sown in the ground and growing into great trees beneath which there was room for everyone to find shelter. He spoke of the lilies of the field and the birds in the air, all precious and beloved by God.
Alongside his preaching and teaching, the ability of Jesus to heal sickness and suffering became ever more apparent. On a visit to Peter’s house, where he and Andrew lived with their father, Jonah, they were met with the news that Peter’s mother-in-law was seriously ill in bed with a high fever. Peter had been married but, sadly, his wife had died and her mother had come to live with them in the family home, happy to care for them as they were for her.
Jesus went to see her straight away and as he took hold of her hand, the fever left her instantly. He helped her up and she was delighted to be able to welcome them all and offer them her usual hospitality. The news spread like wildfire and people began to come in even greater numbers to find Jesus wherever he was speaking, looking for guidance and healing.
On one particular day, the house in Capernaum in which he was preaching had become so full that four men actually opened up the roof to lower their paralysed friend down on a stretcher to the room below. Jesus was able to cure not only his troubled soul but also his paralysis to the astonishment and delight of his friends and most of the people. The religious leaders present were, of course, less than impressed, always looking to criticise and find fault with whatever he did.
He was able to heal and bring peace of mind to the many people who were deeply disturbed by mental illnesses of all kinds. The dreaded disease of leprosy was also rife at that time and Jesus was unafraid to touch and cure those afflicted by it who came to him for healing. Yet he would ask each person he cured to tell no one, not wanting people to come to him as ‘the miracle worker’ but to come to listen, to learn and to find God’s will for their own lives.
Within a very short space of time, the crowds grew so large that he found himself preaching beyond the towns, sometimes on a hillside, sometimes in vast open spaces and, even once, from a boat by the lake. He would rise early in the morning, leaving the companions who travelled everywhere with him, to go alone to pray for the strength he needed for his mission, always staying united to his Father in heaven.
At this time in their history, the Roman occupation of Israel was a constant thorn in the flesh of the Jewish people but, scorned and despised even more than the Romans, were the members of their own people who collaborated with the foreign rulers. Amongst these, the lowest of the low were, by far, the tax collectors, who not only worked for the Romans but were often known to cheat and exploit their own people to fill their own pockets.
One such, named Matthew, had brought disgrace and dishonour on his family and had been disowned by them all. Matthew’s half-brother, James, was one of the close group of friends of Jesus. He had often spoken about his brother and the shame he had brought upon their father, Alphaeus, and the whole family. One day, Jesus and his followers happened to pass by the stall where Matthew was working. Approaching him and looking directly into his eyes, Jesus said, “Matthew, I want you to leave what you are doing and come and follow me.”
Matthew stood up from his table and, leaving everything behind, invited all of them there and then to come to his house for a great celebration. Through his dealings as a tax collector, he had become immensely rich and had all the trappings of wealth but people of good repute would have nothing to do with him and his kind. The only people who consorted with him were those who enjoyed sharing the benefits of his ill-gotten gains.
When they arrived, the place was crowded with his friends and this brought severe criticism from the religious leaders who were following every move of Jesus, already looking for reasons to discredit him. “How come your leader is prepared to eat and drink with all these disreputable people?” they challenged his followers!
These were, of course, the very people whom Jesus had come to find and he was quick to retort to his critics, “It’s not healthy people who need a doctor but the sick!” Matthew was to become one of the twelve men whom Jesus chose from amongst his regular followers, to be his right-hand men.
In the Jewish faith, twelve was a highly significant number, representing, as it did, the twelve tribes of Israel who were descended from the sons of Jacob. Alongside his original companions, namely, Peter and his brother, Andrew, the brothers, James and John, and Philip and Nathaniel, also known as Bartholemew, the twelve included both sons of Alphaeus, Matthew and James, and four other men, Thomas, Jude, Simon and Judas. These twelve men were to be by his side for the whole of his ministry.
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