FAITH

Traditional Jewish mysticism says every man has the present with the future coming toward him.  We cannot plan the past, but we hope for the future.

  In Matthew's gospel I have counted 9 times someone had the faith to be given a different future than the present they were living.  A simple example is the centurion's servant, who was in great pain with paralysis.  Jesus says, I will come and heal him.

  But the centurion knows Jesus has great power, that He does not need to come to heal the servant.  So Jesus says--I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.  The servant was healed the same hour the centurion said what he said.  The servant's life was not what it had been: his future was entirely different from his past.

  As we know, the writer of Hebrews says faith is--the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Certainly the centurion had the conviction that Jesus could do what was not seen.  We cannot live in the past in any realistic sense but by the grace of God we can have faith for a future which is different from the present.

  This can be startling.  Normally we think of God as He who does not change--Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.  We might think our fate cannot change, that we are like the Prodigal Son, stuck in the mud.  And yet Jesus was always changing the life of the one who has faith.

  Two blind men receive their sight in Matt. 9, Peter is saved from the sea in Matt. 14, a woman's daughter is demon-possessed in Matt. 15.  We certainly think about the transformation of the soul in salvation but we don't always realize how different the future can be for the soul touched by Jesus.  And yet Jesus says--I have come that they might have life and life more abudantly.

  What might not be so obvious is the change in the soul can result in changes in one's life.  The woman in Matt. 9 believes Jesus long enough to say to herself--If I only touch His garment, I shall get well.  That led to her challenging the crowd to let her through to touch Jesus so that He might heal her, as He does.

  While we cannot say everyone who is sick will be healed we can seek a different life for ourselves than the one we have.  Two blind men seek their sight in Matt. 20--Lord we want our eyes to be opened.  Jesus is moved with compassion.  He touches their eyes, they receive their sight.  Do they then leave?  No--they received their sight and followed Him.

  The rich young ruler cannot follow Jesus.  Some of His disciples leave Jesus when what He says is difficult to accept.  But these two blind men, kneeling on the side of the road who have the faith to call Jesus--Son of David--these two follow Jesus from that time on.

  Now we hae seen how different someone's life is when they have faith for the future.  This in essence is the gospel, the kingdom of God which Jesus brought.  This is change.  When God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden in Genesis 3, He sent them from a place of no alteration to the world of mutability and change.  Yet that change enabled the first Adam to eventually become the second Adam, Jesus.  That act of sending Adam and Eve out of the garden was what we call grace.  Change is the underlying river of the kingdom of God.  When the angels with Lucifer rebelled, God did not cause them to repent and return; once gone they were lost.

  However, with Adam and the human race we have been given repentance and return.  John, the cousin of Jesus, comes preaching--Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Jesus will begin His ministry by saying the same thing.