Dave's Diary

Prayer

Before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 119:66-68,

Lord, teach me knowledge and good judgment.
I trust Your commands.
At times, I have turned away from You,
but, Oh, how I long to obey Your word.
Teach me Your decrees,
for You are good, and what You do is good. Amen.

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your awareness to the voice of God, coming to you through His Word.

Reading

Matthew 8:1-4 

We cannot always take a command Jesus gave to an individual in the Gospels and derive from it a general command that is relevant for all disciples everywhere. But in this case, I think we can do so reasonably responsibly.

People with leprosy were forced into social isolation in Jesus’ day. There was no known cure, and so, rather than risk a whole community being infected, lepers were forced to live outside the villages, towns and cities. Their families or other kind villagers would leave food and water for them at agreed drop-off points, but all physical contact had to be avoided. Most of them died a painful death in isolation from their loved ones.

While the Law of Moses provided a process by which a healed leper was to be restored after inspection by the priest (see Leviticus 14), such occurrences would have been exceedingly rare.

I have no doubt that, after years of sickness and social isolation, with no real chance of ever returning to society, the leper Jesus healed would have been bursting to shout his news from the rooftops. He would surely have wanted anyone and everyone to know that he had received his miracle!

However, in His perfect wisdom, Jesus knew that by doing so the man might do more harm than good. The man would quite likely put his own life in danger (and make his testimony ineffective) if he rushed up to people to tell them of the miracle, only to find that their prejudice and fear of him would lead them to utter skepticism at best, and deadly violence against him at worst.

So, in love for the man, Jesus insisted that he should very specifically go to the priest and allow his healing to be certified by him (as the appointed authority). This would ensure that the man was safe, and that his healing would be genuinely recognised as real, and not just the ravings of a fanatic. He would be received back into society, and then his testimony would have real and undeniable power.

The general principle I believe we can we derive from this account is this: Disciples of Jesus are called to testify to the works of Jesus in our lives, but only in submission to the direction the Lord may give us by the Holy Spirit. So let us not simply rush up to everyone with a testimony, but let us remain sensitive to the Spirit of Jesus and His promptings, and give our testimonies boldly to the people to whom He leads us, and in the ways He leads us to do so.

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ: 

• I have a testimony of His work in my life,
• I will share my testimony,
• I will do so in submission to His Spirit’s leading.

Lord, please grant me that wonderful balance between wisdom and courage in sharing my testimony with others today. Amen.