Arise!
Matthew 15:29-31 Jesus
left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside
and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the
crippled, the mute and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he
healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the
crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the
God of Israel.
MATTHEW presses on to describe the Lord of creation
re-creating his people. This is a new “feeding” of the multitudes, much
different than giving bread and fish to thousands. Here Jesus offers more than
one meal. The “Bread of Life” (John 6:35) heals people into a new, transformed
life.
We can understand Jesus’
healing even more deeply when we understand the meaning of the phrase “cast them down”. The Greek word from
which “cast down” comes means to throw away or to scatter refuse. Thus, we see
a picture of people carrying society’s extreme sick and crippled to scatter
them at Jesus’ feet as they would garbage. The people of Galilee cast down
before Jesus the outcasts, misfits and burdens on society, perhaps to rid their
towns of such misfits.
Knowing the
desperate conditions of the sick, Jesus lovingly responds. He speaks to the “refuse”,
and they are newly fed into the new life of God’s salvation. With a word, they
are new. In a moment limbs are re-created, voices speak and ears hear. Isaiah’s
prophetic words of salvation came true: “Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”
(Isaiah 60:1) The “Light of the World”
(John 8:12) has fed His people with new life.
LIFE Link: The Lord’s feeding.
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