What a wrong idea the Pharisees held about keeping the Sabbath holy! They were hoping to catch Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath so they could bring charges against Him for breaking the fourth commandment. Their spiritual blindness is almost beyond our comprehension. No wonder that Mark wrote about Jesus’ reaction, “He looked around at them angrily, because he was deeply disturbed by their hard hearts” (Mark 3:5). Because they classified healing as doing work, they actually thought God would be displeased if Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath day! They didn’t know very much about God, did they?

Jesus exposed their hypocrisy by asking them what they would do if one of their sheep fell into a well on the Sabbath. Certainly they would work to pull it out, even on the Sabbath day. Jesus stated that a person is much more valuable than a sheep, and thus He was only doing for a man what they would do for their sheep. As Jesus so accurately pointed out, the Pharisees were actually claiming that it was wrong for Him to do good on the Sabbath!

Amazingly, even after Jesus exposed the error of their thinking and then instantly healed the man before their eyes, their reaction was not one of repentance. Rather, they called a meeting to discuss plans to kill the One God had sent to be their Savior.

Even though Jesus knew their plans, He was not afraid, but kept right on healing “all the sick among them” (Matthew 12:15). He knew He wouldn’t die until His Father decreed it was time. Knowing the truth and trusting in God will make us courageous, too.

Q. Jesus said that a person is much more valuable than a sheep. Can you think of any modern examples of people placing more value on animals than people?

A. When it is a federal crime to kill a whale or some endangered species but it is lawful to kill unborn babies, it reveals how mixed up people’s minds have become.

Q. Our reading today ends with Matthew quoting one of Isaiah’s prophecies that was fulfilled by Jesus. How can we be sure that Isaiah was speaking of Jesus and not someone else?

A. Because the entire prophecy fits Jesus perfectly. Jesus was God’s chosen servant. What God said through Isaiah about His servant being His beloved and that He was very pleased with Him also fits Jesus perfectly. The Father said of Jesus at His baptism, “This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him” (Matthew 3:17). Also, just like the person Isaiah wrote of, we know that Jesus had God’s Spirit upon Him, because the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove at His baptism. Finally, we know that Isaiah’s prophecy which Matthew quoted could only apply to Jesus, because it could only be said that in “his name will be the hope of all the world” (Matthew 12:21). No other person of history could make a similar claim.

Part of what God said through Isaiah is yet to be fulfilled, but it will be fulfilled one day when Jesus rules the entire world. Then He will bring “full justice with his final victory.” Until that day, the world will be full of injustices.

Application: Praise God that He is not mixed up in His thinking as are the majority of people. Praise God that He has opened our eyes to see things His way, which is the only right way.

As time went on, Jesus’ fame spread far and wide. Curiosity seekers and spiritually hungry people journeyed as far as one hundred miles to see Him, which was quite a distance at a time when there were no cars, trains or airplanes. People had to walk or ride a donkey. But it was worth their effort to see the Son of God, especially for those who needed healing or deliverance from demons. Lots of those kinds of people sought Jesus. One day, there were numerous sick people trying to touch Jesus as He taught along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. So many of them were pressing their way through the crowd that Jesus instructed His disciples to have a boat ready—just in case He was forced into the water by the mob of people! Imagine what that must have been like!

We have to wonder why Jesus would need a boat in such a situation, when we know that on another occasion He walked on the water of the Sea of Galilee. The answer is that, although Jesus was the Son of God, when He became a man, He emptied Himself of some of the qualities that God possesses. For example, Jesus was no longer omnipresent (present everywhere), omniscient (all-knowing) or omnipotent (all-powerful). He didn’t know everything about everybody, and He couldn’t work a miracle at any time, but only as the Holy Spirit willed. That is why Jesus had to be anointed by the Holy Spirit before He began His ministry, and why He did no miracles until after He was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Although Jesus was God, in His ministry He operated as a man anointed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which operate as the Spirit wills (see 1 Corinthians 12:11; Hebrews 2:4). Therefore, we shouldn’t doubt Jesus’ deity when we read about Him relying on a boat to keep Him above water or asking questions to obtain knowledge.

Today we read about Jesus choosing twelve men to be apostles. The word apostle means “one who is sent,” and that is why Jesus chose His apostles—to send them out to preach the gospel. Jesus never could have, by Himself, preached the gospel to everyone who needed to hear it. These twelve men would be His helpers. Notice that there were two sets of brothers in the list: Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. There were also three sets of people with the same name: Simon called Peter and Simon the Zealot, James son of Zebedee and James son of Alphaeus, and Judas son of James (here called Thaddaeus) and Judas Iscariot.

Q. Jesus gave authority to cast out demons to the twelve men He chose to be His apostles. Why do you think He did that?

A. To help them in their task of spreading the gospel. When people were delivered from demons by the apostles’ command, it would advertise their ministry and draw more people to hear the gospel.

Q. Why do you think Jesus nicknamed James and John the “sons of thunder”?

A. To be a “son of thunder” would mean to be the product of something powerful and loud that startles people and gets their attention. For example, you may have heard the expression, “son of a gun.” It’s not a compliment to call someone the offspring of something that kills. Jesus would never have given James and John a nickname that would have been a continual criticism, so it must have been either a compliment or an encouragement. Probably it was an encouragement that God would transform them both into powerful preachers who would startle people like thunder and arrest their attention.

Application: Just as Jesus chose twelve apostles to help Him reach more people with the gospel, so Jesus is still choosing people for the same task. Everyone who is a believer in Jesus is given some kind of ministry that contributes to the expansion of His kingdom.

The Pharisees were a sect of Jews who prided themselves in their holiness. They thought they were fully obeying God’s laws and were certain that God especially favored them because of it. Surely God, impressed by how they had kept their religious duties, would welcome them into His kingdom. But now they had a big problem, and His name was Jesus. He claimed to be an authority on spiritual matters, and His popularity as a religious teacher was rapidly growing as He traveled about teaching and healing. To the Pharisees’ alarm, Jesus’ teaching about holiness was much different from theirs. Some of those differences surfaced in today’s reading, as the Pharisees vainly tried to find fault with Jesus.

The first fault the Pharisees found in Jesus was that He and His disciples didn’t fast. When someone fasts, he stops eating food for a while for some religious purpose. Not eating for a day or two is not an easy thing to do, and the Pharisees prided themselves that they fasted often. They thought they were earning points from God for their self-sacrifice.

Of course, skipping meals is foolish and pointless unless it is something God wants a person to do. And if it is, you can be certain God has a good reason for wanting a person to fast, since He obviously created people with a need to eat food regularly in order to live! So why would God want someone to fast? Probably the most valid reason for fasting is to have more time to spend in God’s Word and prayer. This was especially true in ancient times, when the preparation of meals took much more time than it does today.

Jesus didn’t say that fasting was wrong. He only said that, because the Pharisees and religious leaders didn’t understand who He was, they were fasting during a time when it wasn’t necessary. The main reason to fast is to spend more time in prayer to God. But God was right in their midst! Why would they ever fast to try to get closer to God when they had direct access to Him in Jesus? Jesus said that people don’t fast during someone’s wedding simply because that is not an appropriate time to fast. It’s a time to celebrate. Likewise, it was now a time to celebrate and enjoy God’s presence! When Jesus returned to heaven, then they could intelligently resume their practice of fasting.

Then Jesus shared two illustrations that explained the heart of His problem with the Pharisees and religious leaders. Both illustrations present the folly of mixing new and old things.

Jesus said that people don’t tear a piece of cloth from a new piece of clothing in order to patch a hole in an old piece of clothing. If they did, the new clothing would be ruined, and the old clothing would look bad with a patch that didn’t match. The understanding of the Pharisees and religious teachers was like an old, worn-out garment that needed patching. But Jesus’ teaching was like new clothing. It would be foolish to try to take a small part of Jesus’ teaching and make it fit with the old ideas and traditions of the Pharisees. The only intelligent thing to do would be to simply discard the old, worn-out clothes and put on the new ones.

In His second illustration, Jesus mentioned wineskins. They were bottles made out of animal skins for the purpose of holding wine. Nobody would pour brand new wine into old wineskins, because as the grape juice fermented and released gas, the old, hard, inflexible wineskins would burst, and all the wine would be lost. People only put new wine into new wineskins that were more flexible and wouldn’t burst as the grape juice fermented. The Pharisees and religious leaders were like the old, hardened, inflexible wineskins and Jesus was like the new wine. It was impossible for them to accept His new teaching because they were so set in their ways. They were satisfied with just holding the same old wine, and were unable to receive anything new and fresh from God. In fact, they considered their old understanding of spiritual matters to be superior. How wrong they were!

The second fault the Pharisees found with Jesus was His disregard of the law of the Sabbath. God did say in the Old Testament that the Sabbath should be a day of rest, and, therefore, no one should work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, however, had taken that law to the extreme, claiming that Jesus and His disciples were sinning when they prepared a low-budget meal by breaking off heads of wheat in a field. It would be like claiming that you sinned by working on the Sabbath if you exerted effort in pouring milk over a bowl of breakfast cereal!

Jesus responded to their criticism by proving from the Old Testament that God was not opposed to what He and His disciples were doing. Once David had broken the law, eating bread that was supposed to be eaten only by the priests. David normally would not have eaten that consecrated bread, but he did it out of necessity because there was nothing else to eat, and he and his companions needed nourishment. God certainly understood, and He wasn’t angry with David. The same was true concerning Jesus and His disciples. They needed to eat, and God wasn’t angry with what they were doing. He gave the law of the Sabbath because He loves people and doesn’t want them to work at their jobs seven days a week. He wants them to enjoy a day of rest. Picking a little grain to eat on the Sabbath is OK. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Beyond that, Jesus was God, and He is the One who gave the commandment about the Sabbath! So He certainly knew how to interpret His own law! Jesus’ claim to be “master even of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5) was equivalent to claiming to be God. The one who gives the law is greater than the law he gives. God can do anything He wants to do on the Sabbath, because He doesn’t have to answer to anyone! On this occasion, Jesus acted like we would expect God to act, adding additional proof that He was who He claimed to be.

Q. Is it wrong to rake leaves in your yard or ride your bike up a steep hill on Sunday afternoon since God said the Sabbath should be a day of rest?

A. Only if you rake leaves for a living, and had raked leaves Monday through Saturday, then it might be wrong to rake leaves on Sunday! (And especially not if you are planning to jump in the pile of leaves you rake!) And only if you are a professional bike racer who had ridden his bike Monday through Saturday might it be wrong to ride your bike on a strenuous course on Sunday afternoon.

Additionally, the real Sabbath is not Sunday, but begins Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening! And the Sabbath commandment was not carried over into the New Covenant, proven by the fact that it is not found in any of the letters to the churches in the Bible.

Application: Aren’t you glad that your heart and mind are not closed, like the Pharisees’, to Jesus’ teaching? Some people’s minds are like concrete: thoroughly mixed and well set! Ask God today to open your mind and heart even more, and show you if you are like an old wineskin in any way.

Many people have wondered what God is like. They’ve looked at flowers, snowflakes, hummingbirds and rainbows and realized that God must be very smart and very powerful. The things He’s made are amazing! And when people eat a crisp apple, sit by a warm fire on a cold day, or listen to musical instruments, they realize that all those wonderful things are made possible by God, and so He must also be very kind.

But knowing God through what He’s made is somewhat like knowing an artist only through his paintings. How much more could you learn about that artist if you could actually meet him in person and be friends for a few years?

God wants us to know Him personally, and not just through what He has created. That is one reason that God sent Jesus to the earth. We read today, “No one has ever seen God. But his only Son, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart; he has told us about him” (John 1:18). Nobody knew God the Father better than Jesus. They had lived together forever! In the original language in which John wrote, he said something like, “Jesus and God the Father were bosom buddies!”

Not only did Jesus know more than anyone else about God the Father, He also acted more like God the Father than anyone else. Have you ever heard the expression, “Like father, like son”? That was certainly true concerning Jesus and His Father. Jesus once said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9). If we want to learn what God the Father is like, all we have to do is learn about Jesus. We read today, “Everything about [Jesus] represents God exactly” (Heb. 1:3). If God the Father had become a human being instead of Jesus, He would have said and done the same things.

Before Jesus came, there were only two ways to learn about God: through looking at His creation, and through studying the words of the people who wrote the Old Testament. Some of those people had experiences with God from which we can learn, and some of them (the prophets) actually spoke God’s words. But ever since Jesus came, we now have three ways to learn about God! As we study the life and ministry of Jesus in the weeks ahead, we’ll be learning about God, the creator of everything, a person with whom we’ll be friends forever. What could be more exciting than that?

Q. Perhaps your parents are like most parents: one is a little more strict than the other. If you have to get a spanking, you probably would prefer to get it from your mother, because she doesn’t spank quite as hard as your father! Do you think God the Father is more strict than Jesus is since He’s the Father?

A. No. Both the Father and Son are equally loving and equally strict. They become equally angry over the same things and care about you the same.

Application: Since God has put forth so much effort to help us to get to know Him, we should study His creation, His Word, and the life of Jesus so that He will become our closest friend.

Apparently Levi, also known as Matthew, had been touched by Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum. Perhaps he had listened as Jesus taught by the Sea of Galilee or heard the testimonies of people who had been healed. When Jesus called Matthew to be His disciple, he didn’t hesitate for a minute, but left everything behind to follow his new Lord.

What was so amazing about Matthew’s calling is that he was a very sinful man—at least until he met Jesus. Matthew was a tax collector, which meant that he worked for Rome, the country that occupied and controlled Israel at that time. The Israelites hated the Romans, and naturally they had no respect for any fellow Israelite who worked for them. Tax collectors were considered traitors by their countrymen.

Beyond that, tax collectors had a reputation for being very dishonest, forcing their fellow Israelites to pay more in taxes than Rome required and then keeping the extra money for themselves. In so doing, they became rich at the expense of their own neighbors. Thus, the only type of people who would have been Matthew’s friends were fellow tax collectors and other people of very low moral character. Those were the type of people who came to Matthew’s banquet.

Matthew, however, had become a disciple of Jesus, repenting of his sins, and as is the case of anyone who is a true follower of Jesus, he wanted his friends to meet Jesus also and be saved. That is the reason he held a banquet in Jesus’ honor. It was a low-key evangelistic meeting, and Jesus, who loves everyone, gladly accepted the invitation to spend some time eating with Matthew’s sinful friends.

Because He did, He was criticized by the Pharisees and religious teachers, who would never associate with such people. Jesus responded by informing them that the purpose of His coming was to “call sinners to turn from their sins” (Luke 5:32). In order to do that, He had to spend time with sinners, and that is exactly why He attended Matthew’s banquet. Jesus didn’t spend His time at that banquet talking about sports or the weather! He was telling sinners that they needed to repent and follow Him, just as their friend Matthew had!

Q. The Pharisees and religious teachers we read about today didn’t understand two important things. First, they thought holy people shouldn’t associate with sinful people. But just the opposite is true. If people are truly holy, they will associate with sinful people, because holy people are motivated by love to share Jesus with those who need to be saved.

That should give you a clue concerning the second thing about which the Pharisees and religious teachers were mistaken. What was it?

A. They thought they were holy, but actually they were themselves sinners who needed to be saved. Jesus referred to this fact when He said, “I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough ” (Luke 5:32, emphasis added). Jesus was speaking of the Pharisees and religious teachers.

Q. What would you think if your pastor accepted an invitation to a party that was hosted by a newly-converted drug pusher for his drug pusher friends?

Application: Jesus in us loves evil and sinful people. Do we? Or are we like the Pharisees who considered themselves too holy to spend time with sinners?

Can you imagine what it would have been like to witness this miracle? Four men brought their paralyzed friend on a pallet to a house where they heard Jesus was staying. Upon arrival, they discovered that the house was jammed with people, and many others were standing outside looking in, blocking all the doors and windows. There was no way to get their friend close to Jesus.

But they would not be discouraged. The roofs of the houses in Capernaum were flat, and many of them had stairs that went from the outside of the house up to the roof. So they carried their paralyzed friend to the roof of the house, dug an opening through the clay, and then lowered him on his pallet by ropes right in front of Jesus. It must have taken a lot of time and effort to dig through the hardened clay roof and caused some commotion inside the house when the clay dust began falling from the ceiling. I wonder what the people inside were thinking as they coughed, wiped dust from their eyes, and watched a hole slowly form in the ceiling above their heads.

What was Jesus thinking then? He was thinking about the faith of the men who were going to so much trouble. The Bible says that it is “impossible to please God without faith” (Hebrews 11:6). Because of their faith, the paralyzed man was forgiven and completely healed within seconds. If they hadn’t believed, they would never have gone to so much trouble, and their friend would have remained unforgiven and paralyzed, even though it was obviously God’s will for the man to be forgiven and healed.

Why did Jesus first tell the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven? No one knows for sure, but perhaps the paralyzed man was coming to Jesus both for healing and forgiveness. Certainly being forgiven of sins is even more important than being healed. Or, perhaps the paralyzed man, because of all his sins, had doubts that he would be healed, so Jesus removed his doubts by assuring him of forgiveness. Or, possibly the man had become paralyzed as a direct result of some sin he had committed. In that case, Jesus took care of the cause before giving the cure.

Regardless, when Jesus told him that his sins were forgiven, it caused quite a stir among the religious teachers who were present. They knew that only God could forgive sins, so Jesus was claiming to be God! They thought He was guilty of blasphemy (saying something that was very offensive to God).

Jesus knew what the religious teachers were thinking, so He proved, right before their eyes, that He had the right to forgive sins, also proving His deity. Anyone could pretend to have the authority to forgive sins because there would be no visible result. But no one can convincingly pretend to have authority to heal paralysis, because the result would be plain for everyone to see. When Jesus instantly healed the paralyzed man, it proved He had authority to heal, and it gave credibility to His claim to be able to forgive sins.

To us, this is one more proof that Jesus was the Son of God. If an average sinful human being claimed to be able to forgive sins, we would know he was blaspheming. But when a virgin-born, sinless, miracle-working person forgives someone’s sins, it’s just one more proof of what we would already suspect: God had become a man!

Q. We read that Jesus actually saw the faith of the four men and their paralyzed friend. How can faith be seen?

A. By actions. The Bible says, “faith is dead without good deeds” (James 2:26). Many people say that they believe in Jesus, but only those who have corresponding actions really do. Sometimes, Christians say they believe certain promises in the Bible, but their contrary actions prove that they really don’t.

Q. Just like this man whom Jesus healed, our sins have been forgiven by Jesus. If we truly believe our sins are forgiven, we will act like forgiven people. How do forgiven people act?

A. At the minimum, they would be happy and grateful to God for their forgiveness, and would show their gratitude by obedience to God.

Application: There has never been another person in history like Jesus. Other people in history may have claimed to forgive sins, but their lives proved they were phony. Any honest person who examines the evidence will be convinced that Jesus was God in the form of a human being.

For a while Jesus lived in Capernaum, a village on the coast of the Sea of Galilee, and He frequently taught in the synagogue there. The people who heard Him were amazed at His teaching because He taught “as one who had real authority” (Mark 1:22). That means Jesus came across as if He was absolutely certain of what He was saying. This is another proof that Jesus was God in the form of a human being. Naturally, God knows what He is talking about. Jesus never said, “I may be wrong, but let Me tell you how I feel about that subject” or, “Your opinion is as good as Mine.” If He had said those things, we’d know He really wasn’t God.

Once, right as Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, a man who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting at Him. The evil spirit was actually the one speaking, using the man’s mouth, and he said, “Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One sent from God!” (Mark 1:24). Jesus, to whom God the Father had given authority over everything, including evil spirits (see John 3:35), commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man, and it did. From this incident, we can learn several things about Jesus and evil spirits.

If you’re born again, you don’t have to worry about evil spirits getting inside you or possessing you, because Jesus lives inside you by the Holy Spirit. This man who was possessed by an evil spirit wasn’t born again. The Bible tells us, “The [Holy] Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world [the devil]” (1 John 4:4). Evil spirits are no match for Jesus. The evil spirit we just read about was afraid that Jesus was going to completely destroy him and all his fellow evil spirits.

This evil spirit also knew who Jesus was, calling Him “the Holy One sent from God” (Mark 1:24). Evil spirits like to brag about what they know, but in doing so, this particular demon showed how stupid he was. He said something in the synagogue that his boss, the devil, didn’t want anyone to know! I wonder if he got in trouble with the devil for shooting off his mouth!

Regardless, when the demon-possessed man was delivered, the news spread quickly in Galilee. God the Father was advertising His Son because He wanted people to listen to what Jesus was telling them. Believing Jesus’ message was the only way people could have their sins forgiven.

Next we read about Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law who had a very high fever. The news of that miracle also spread quickly, and when evening arrived, many sick and demon-possessed people came to Peter and Andrew’s house seeking help. According to Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, Jesus healed and delivered every single one of them (see Matthew 8:16; Luke 4:40-41). This not only again proves that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God, it also shows us that Jesus loves everyone who is sick or possessed by evil spirits. He loves them enough to heal and deliver them.

Q. In the final verses of our reading today, we read that Jesus arose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness to pray. Why would God need to pray? What do you think Jesus prayed about?

A. While Jesus was on earth, He was following His Father’s orders. One reason He prayed was to receive those orders. From what we read today about Jesus’ prayer time, it seems He received direction to leave Capernaum to preach in other towns (see Mark 1:38).

Q. We know that no true Christian could be possessed by a demon. But why is it that only some unsaved people become possessed by demons?

A. No one knows for sure. However, it is quite likely that many unsaved people who become demon-possessed open the door to possession by continually thinking wrong thoughts and giving in to temptation. An evil spirit can’t get inside any person it wants. Becoming demon-possessed is normally a gradual, progressive thing that begins when a person yields to the suggestions of a demon.

Application: Just as elephants shouldn’t be afraid of mice, we shouldn’t be afraid of the devil and evil spirits. They’re afraid of Jesus who lives in us!

If you live in the United States or any other developed nation, you will probably never see a person with leprosy. It’s a horrible skin disease that actually eats away at the parts of the body it has infected. People who are afflicted with leprosy watch their fingers and toes slowly dissolve. Eventually, they die from the disease. To make matters worse, leprosy is easily spread to other people, so no one wants to be near a leper. When a person gets leprosy, he soon loses all his friends. In the Old Testament, God made a law that required all leprous people to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” whenever they were in a public place where other people might be infected (see Leviticus 13:45).

The Greek word translated leprosy was used to describe various skin diseases in Jesus’ time, so it’s possible that this man whom Jesus healed was not suffering from the disease we refer to today as leprosy. However, there’s no doubt he had a very serious physical problem, and his situation was desperate. He fell on his knees before Jesus, begging to be healed. From the reports he had heard of others being healed, he knew Jesus was able to cure him. But he didn’t know if Jesus wanted to heal him. Jesus, however, was moved with pity for the distraught man, and assured him that He did want to heal him. A second later, the leprous man felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time: the touch of another person. As Jesus put His hand on him, instantly his leprosy was gone. Imagine how he felt as he looked at his new skin!

Some people think that Jesus healed people only to prove that He was the Son of God. Certainly Jesus’ healings did prove that. Because God the Father had given Him authority over all things, including disease, Jesus simply spoke and the leprous man was instantly healed. We read today, however, that Jesus was “moved with pity” over the leprous man’s situation. Jesus healed this man because He loved him, not just to prove that He was the Son of God.

For all Christians, this healing story, along with the many others in the Bible, affirms that God cares about our health and will one day give us brand new bodies that will not be subject to sickness and disease. For some Christians, like myself, the stories of people whom Jesus healed inspire us to trust that we don’t have to wait until heaven to experience physical healing. Jesus never told anyone who came to Him requesting healing, “Rejoice, because in heaven you’ll be healthy.” In every case, He healed sick people, often crediting their faith. When we remain ill, we often claim that it must not be God’s will for us to be healed, but more likely, our own lack of faith is to blame. Jesus said, “Anything is possible if a person believes” (Mark 9:23). Praise God that we can trust God for healing, and praise God that even if we fail to trust God for healing, He doesn’t condemn us.

According to the Old Testament law, the priests were responsible to determine whether or not people had leprosy. If a person thought he might have contracted the disease, he was supposed to be examined by a priest. If the priest declared him a leper, he had to obey the laws of leprosy, removing himself from contact with non-leprous society. Likewise, if a leprous person was healed, only a priest could make the official determination and allow the former leper reentry into normal society.

Jesus commanded this leper to obey that law and show himself to the priest, taking along the required offering, as a testimony of his healing. It was probably the first time that priest ever performed that part of his job, declaring a leper to be cleansed! I wonder if he had to look up the appropriate scriptures just to find out what he was supposed to do!

Q. Why did Jesus tell this man He healed not to talk to anyone on his way to the priest?

A. Because Jesus didn’t need any more advertising. If the former leper started spreading the news of what happened, Jesus knew He would soon be mobbed with people, and it would actually hinder His ministry. Sure enough, the man didn’t obey Jesus, telling everyone what had happened, and Jesus was then unable to publicly enter any nearby towns. Several days later, Jesus did sneak back into Capernaum where He had been living, but was soon discovered. Within a short time, the house where He was staying was crammed with people, inside and out (see Mark 2:1-4).

Q. Wouldn’t it be horrible never to be touched by anyone? Sometimes parents feel like they must have leprosy, because their kids never hug or kiss them (especially when their kids are with friends). Have you hugged your parents today?

Application: In one way, we were like this leper. We had a spiritual disease that prevented us from ever hoping to enter the society of heaven. But Jesus cleansed us! Now we can look forward to enjoying eternal life with the many others like us whom Jesus has cleansed of sin.

After spending two days in Sychar (where Jesus met the woman at the well) Jesus and His disciples continued journeying to the region of Galilee. When they arrived, Jesus preached in many places, telling people to repent and believe the good news. He often taught on Saturdays, the Sabbath day of the Jews, in their small church buildings, called synagogues.

One of the places Jesus visited in Galilee was Nazareth, the town in which He had grown up. Because He never sinned, Jesus probably had a good reputation there. However, when He had lived among them, none of His friends or acquaintances realized He was God’s Son. He had never told them who He was or worked any miracles. To the people of Nazareth, Jesus was just a good man, a carpenter by trade, one of the five sons of Mary and Joseph (see Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 6:3). Since they had last seen Him, however, He had received the power of the Holy Spirit, and they had heard He was performing miracles in other parts of Galilee. Now it was time for Jesus to tell them who He was, and so He joined the people of Nazareth at their synagogue one Saturday.

On this occasion, Jesus was given the scroll of the book of Isaiah to read before the congregation. He opened it to some verses that described the Messiah’s ministry, hoping they would realize that He was the one of whom Isaiah had written. The word messiah means “anointed one,” and the portion of Isaiah’s prophecy from which Jesus read, spoke of a person who would be anointed by God’s Spirit to preach, deliver and heal. That is exactly what Jesus had been doing. In fact, the first thing the people of Nazareth noticed was Jesus’ ability to speak. They were all “amazed by the gracious words that fell from his lips” (Luke 4:22).

Even though the people of Nazareth had heard the report of His miracles in other towns, most of them refused to believe that one of their hometown boys was the anointed person Isaiah had predicted would come. They wanted to see some miracles right before their eyes before they would believe in Him. Their hearts were hard, and Jesus responded to their unbelief by saying that prophets are usually not received in their hometowns.

Even though Jesus wasn’t surprised by their unbelief, He was saddened by it, because He knew it would hinder God’s work in their midst. Then He cited two other prophets who weren’t received by their own people, and as a result, those people missed out on blessings that other people, even foreigners, enjoyed. Once during the time of Elijah the prophet, there was a three-and-one-half year famine in Israel. Jesus said that there were many Israelite widows who suffered during that famine, but God sent Elijah only to a foreign widow to provide food supernaturally for her. And during the time of the prophet Elisha, there were many Israelites who needed to be healed of leprosy, but God used Elisha to heal only one leper, and he also was a foreigner.

Jesus’ message to the people of Nazareth was clear: because they rejected Him, an anointed man of God and the Messiah, they would forfeit God’s blessing, just like the Israelites of Elijah and Elisha’s day. When the people in the synagogue realized what Jesus was saying, their mood quickly changed. At the beginning of His sermon, “all who were there spoke well of him” (Luke 4:22). By the end of His sermon, they wanted to kill Him, revealing the wickedness within their hearts. As they often do, desires turned into deeds, and they attempted to kill Him by throwing Him over a cliff. Jesus, however, was somehow supernaturally delivered. Perhaps God the Father made Him temporarily invisible! Wouldn’t that be fun if God did that to you?

Q. According to the Bible, Jesus had four younger brothers and at least two younger sisters. He knows what it is like to live as part of a family. What kind of an older brother do you think Jesus was?

A. He was the perfect older brother! That means He always thought first of His younger brothers and sisters before thinking of Himself. He assisted them whenever they needed His help and shared with them what was His. Because Jesus lives in you by the Holy Spirit, you have the potential to be the kind of brother (or sister) that Jesus was as He grew up.

Q. Just as the people who knew Jesus before He was anointed by the Holy Spirit found it difficult to believe that He was the Messiah, often the people who knew us before we were born again by God’s Spirit have a difficult time believing that we’ve been changed. What is the best way to convince them that you’re not the person they knew before?

A. By our daily lives. As they listen to us and observe our actions, they’ll see that we’ve changed. Then they’ll be more open to hearing the good news about Jesus.

Application: People who reject Jesus reject God’s blessings. Because we believe in Jesus, God is going to bless us forever!

The people who lived in the region of Samaria came from a mixed ancestry of Jews and Gentiles. Because of that, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews who considered themselves of purer ancestry, and the Samaritans hated them in return. It was the same as it is today, when people of different races or cultures hate each other only because they’re different.

But God isn’t prejudiced. He loves everybody, no matter what color their skin is or what language they speak. Today’s reading provides additional proof that Jesus was God, because He loved a Samaritan whom an ordinary Jew would have hated. This woman was very surprised when Jesus spoke to her, because usually, Jews didn’t even speak to Samaritans!

Jesus told her that if she knew who He was and what He could give her, she would have been the one to initiate the conversation, asking Him for some very special water. Obviously, when Jesus offered her living water, He was speaking symbolically of something else. What was it? Let’s look at how Jesus described it.

First, it was something that only He could give. It wasn’t available from any other source. Second, it was a free gift, not something that could be purchased or earned. Third, like water, it would go inside people, forever satisfying their spiritual thirst. And fourth, when the living water went inside, it would give people eternal life. Jesus must have been speaking about receiving the Holy Spirit and being born again. He was offering the Samaritan woman salvation.

She, however, didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, and she probably began to wonder if He was a little crazy. So she jokingly requested some of His living water so she wouldn’t ever be thirsty or have to haul water again from the well to her house. She was probably thinking to herself, “How can I get away from this oddball?”

But Jesus knew how to make her seriously consider what He was saying. Before she could see her need for a Savior, she had to acknowledge she was a sinner. So Jesus told her to call her husband, and she replied that she didn’t have a husband. By telling a partial truth, she was trying to hide a big secret of which she was very ashamed. And that is when Jesus really got her attention, telling her He knew that she had been married and divorced five times and that now she was living with a man who was not her husband. Now she knew she was talking with Somebody special! He must be a prophet to know things about her past, and she wanted to change the subject in a hurry before He began talking about anything else of which she was ashamed! So she quickly brought up a religious question about the proper place to worship.

Jesus downplayed the importance of what was at that time a big dispute between Jews and Samaritans. It doesn’t make any difference where a person worships. What matters is how he worships. Just because a person is worshipping in Jerusalem or at Mount Gerizim doesn’t mean his worship is acceptable to God. The important thing is the condition of a person’s heart. The only kind of worship that is acceptable and pleasing to God is worship that is done by people who worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). That is, their worship has to originate from their spirits, or hearts, and it must be sincere, not just a ritual. They worship God with their lives, living obediently to Him all the time. Only people who are born again can worship that way, and that is exactly what this Samaritan woman lacked.

Still hoping to end their conversation, she tried an argument that guilty people have always used to evade their accountability before God: “People will always disagree about religious issues, but someday God will straighten us all out. So there’s no sense in us discussing it now.” This woman, however, made the mistake of saying that she figured that when the Messiah came, He would explain everything. So Jesus dropped the bomb, telling her that He was the Messiah! And He was explaining to her what she needed to know, so she had no more excuses! Now she was faced with the biggest decision of her life, but we’ll have to wait for tomorrow to find out what she decided. (This is what is known as a “cliff-hanger devotional”!)

Q. Is it OK for Christians to be prejudiced against people of other races or cultures?

A. No. Christians should reflect the love that God has for all people. Jesus died for everyone, and the greatest act of love we can show anyone is to tell them about Jesus.

Q. Have you ever tried to convince someone of his or her need for Jesus, but, like this Samaritan woman, he or she keeps trying to evade the issues? What did you learn from Jesus about how to deal with people like that?

A. Don’t let them direct the conversation onto what is really not important. Keep it centered on two things: their sinfulness and need for a Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only way anyone can be saved.

Application: Am I a person who worships “in spirit and truth,” or am I just a religious person who practices certain rituals? Is worshipping God something I do just because I’m in church, or something I do because I love God with my heart? Is my daily life an act of worship to God?