Hunger after His Kingdom

Hunger after His Kingdom (7)

If, after reading my last post, you are still not convinced of God’s will concerning your health, consider the following incident recorded in Matthew 8 right after the Sermon on the Mount.

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. (Matt 8:1-3, NKJV)

This passage again expressed God’s will regarding the matter. Most have no problem recognizing that God has the power to heal, but too many have doubt as to His willingness to heal. The above passage should settle the case once for all. In telling the leper that He was willing to heal him, Jesus is telling all who would come before Him that He is willing to heal them, or else He wouldn’t be the Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8). Today, to say “If you are willing” in prayer may sound pious, but it is actually blatant unbelief. Make up your mind and believe what Jesus says: “I am willing; be healed.”

Having satisfied ourselves, let us look at the passage from another point of view. The incident happened immediately after Jesus preached the Sermon. In fact, Jesus was demonstrating what He preached. According to the Apostle Paul, the best preaching is not one with eloquence of speech or human wisdom, but with the demonstration of power and of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:4-5). Paul must have learned from the Lord Jesus Himself. In the Sermon, Jesus stroked the fire in His audience; He wanted them to hunger and thirst for God’s Kingdom. He told them that all their desires and needs shall be fulfilled when the Kingdom had come on them. And here came the leper, perhaps himself had his desire and hunger aroused, so much so that he risked the exasperation of many coming through the crowd to where Jesus was. Lepers were not allowed in a crowd. They had to go about shouting “unclean”. But he became the perfect subject for Jesus demonstrating the Kingdom. Jesus laid His hand on him; He touched him. His Kingdom came on the leper. There is no leprosy in His Kingdom. The reality of the Kingdom was made manifest.

What Jesus did and what He preached cannot be separated. That is why we can say His actions before and after the Sermon (that is, His actions in Matt 4 and Matt 8) gives us the context for the Sermon. His actions addressed the needs and desires of the people, so His Sermon must addressed the same. I don’t know about you, but I find this approach easiest to understand Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). It is clear this is what Jesus wanted to tell His audience, and to tell us:

Hunger after His Kingdom, and all that you hunger after shall be filled.    

Scripture Link: BibleGateway.com