We have all been damaged and broken by sin. Will you place yourself at his feet and ask him to heal you?
In Matthew 15 we find Jesus near the Sea of Galilee. It’s at this point in his ministry that he is beginning to gain much more notoriety. In the parallel passage of Mark 7, we find that Jesus attempted to enter a house without anyone knowing, “ yet he could not keep it secret.”
In this moment Matthew gives us an incredible example of how truly compassionate Jesus was and is. At the end of this text, Jesus gets into a boat and heads across the sea. Surely this was an option to begin with, but does Jesus run from the crowds? No, he went up on a mountainside, where he would have been incredibly visible, sat down and watched the crowds come. “…and he healed them.” This small phrase is easy to gloss over, but let’s take a little deeper look at what’s happening in this passage.
It’s just after these healings in Matthew 15 that Jesus feeds four thousand people. Can you imagine 4,000 people (this figure not including women and children, see 15:38) all crowding around Jesus? Can you imagine 4,000 people bringing their lame, blind, crippled and mute family and friends to Jesus? They crowd around just hoping to watch the lame jump for joy or hear the mute’s voice for the first time in many years.
And Jesus, having compassion on them, doesn’t run. He doesn’t try to escape the crowds because he had been found out. He walks up a hill, sits down and waits for them to come. This same Jesus is sitting, waiting for you. You don’t have to stand in line while 4,000 other people fight for his attention. All you have to do is cry out to him, and he will hear you. We have all been damaged and broken by sin. Will you place yourself at his feet and ask him to heal you?
