Here is My servant whom I have chosen, the One I love, in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out, till He leads justice to victory. In His name the nations will put their hope. Matthew 12:18-21.

In our Friday Zoom Retreat, we talked about letting go of burdens we were never mean to shoulder. We are not strong enough. Instead, we can give them to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. And as we do, and importantly, as we not pick them back up again, we begin to see clearly, and experience, that He has us all. He who created this world in unfathomable wisdom, carries all of it. I thought about that as I read our chapter, Matthew 8. Read as though Creator God is talking to you. When Jesus, the Son, began to teach, a new day dawned. Everything changed. And as we look to Him, and listen to the very words He inspired, put yourself into the moments these people and Jesus experienced together. Matthew gives a kind of drum-roll of events one after another and each one is so important. Imagine the impact each person felt. And don’t forget, He has just finished giving the Sermon on the Mount, the most important sermon ever given to mankind. When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed Him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before Him and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” Immediately He was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. v. 1-13. Imagine the rules everyone lived by being stripped away with a touch and with incredible faith. For a leper to approach anyone so closely and for Jesus to actually touch him was taboo. For a centurion of the occupying Roman army, a man with authority over 100 soldiers, to approach Jesus with faith He could heal a servant, and for Jesus to marvel at that faith and heal that servant was another taboo done away with in that remarkable exchange. What about our taboos and rules? And then He healed Peter’s mother-in-law as she lay with a fever; and those demon-possessed and sick brought to Him by desperate families, just as Isaiah had prophesied He would: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Isaiah 53:4). v. 14-17. But with those who were seeking help, came one who promised to follow Him wherever He went yet…not now. He wanted to go first to bury a father who may or may not have yet died. And Jesus’ response to him? “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” v. 18-22. Did we catch that? Let the dead bury their own dead. We come alive when we turn to Creator God. Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!” In the notes below: “The Sea of Galilee is an unusual body of water. It is relatively small (13 miles long, 7 miles wide) but it is 150 feet deep, and the shoreline is 680 feet below sea level. Sudden storms can appear over the surrounding mountains with little warning, stirring the water into violent 20-foot waves.” And the storm was calmed. And the final account in this chapter? When He arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met Him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. “What do You want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have You come here to torture us before the appointed time?” Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, “If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region. v. 28-34.

Not everyone could accept what Jesus, the Son, said or did. What about us? Are we still trying to control everything with rules, taboos, traditions purely from men? Or are we willing to have our eyes opened to Creator God and see with our eyes opened to Hope in Him? It changes everything when we acknowledge that Creator God IS. He becomes our Hope. Everything insignificant falls away. Nothing…nothing…is more important than our relationship with Creator God who loves us. Walk with Him and share with Him everything. Find the Hope you never knew without Him.