March 3
‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see…’ Matthew 11:4
Bible reading: Mark 7:31-37 (Go to the Bible passage)
‘There some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.‘
Why did they bring this deaf man to Jesus? How was it that there was such an expectation of the faith? ‘News about Him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee’ (Mark 1:28).
Jesus’ ministry on earth was only brief, and everybody who was expecting the Messiah needed to know that He had come. After all, had not the prophet Isaiah often said that these were the signs of the Messiah (Isaiah 29:18; 35:5; 61:1)?
By signs such as these - such as the wondrous healing of people - would then everyone know that the Messiah had come? Of course not. The world will pass by these signs. At most, people will regard them as peculiar, interesting or annoying. But for all those who expect God’s redemption of this world through faith in scripture, these will be joyful signs.
The worldly-minded clergymen - then and now - have doubted the miracles from the very first. Then as well as nowadays, they would rather pay tribute to science than to God when somebody is healed. And when scientists are baffled by a miraculous cure, they will rather deny the miracle than give honor to God.
But non-committal contemplations are of no use! God asks us in this passage, ‘Where do you stand?’
Is there a joyful gratefulness in your heart or a critical attitude?
When we read this passage with a prayer in our heart, God gives us the tremendous chance to get to know Jesus in all His glory and accept Him as the Savior or... to reject Him in self-sufficiency.

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