The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Wanting Jesus for Someone Else:  Mt.8:5 – 13

^8:6 ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.’

Is it okay to want Jesus for someone else? 

Put another way, do Christians ‘have an agenda’ for people?  In a culture where ‘having an agenda’ seems disingenuous and manipulative, that question makes me squirm a little.  Because the answer is:  Yes, we do.  I want to explain that to say that in exactly the right way, but the fact is that we do ‘have an agenda’ when we relate to anyone.  A lot of people get upset about that because they don’t think they ‘have an agenda’ at all.  They say they’re just ‘accepting people as they are’ or ‘being a more honest friend’ without having an agenda.  I doubt anyone’s motivations are so pure.  In reality, we ‘accept people’ to the extent we can handle them.  Our self-centeredness affects everything.

In that sense, I ‘have an agenda’ for my wife and kids.  I want them to experience Jesus through me.  For example, every night, my wife and I pray with our kids, and my prayer is, ‘Lord Jesus, help John and Zoe know how much Mommy loves them, how much Daddy loves them, and most importantly, how much You love them.’  Well, since November, I’ve noticed that John, who (at the time of this writing) is 6 years old, is understanding more of Jesus’ love.  He started to pray for his kindergarten classmates to know Jesus.  And he also decided to give half of his allowance away.  We give him 5 cents every week when he cleans his room, and he had built up four dollars and change.  He really wanted to buy animal stickers.  But we had talked about Jesus loving poor children through us, through WorldVision’s child sponsorship program that gives spiritual education, general education, medicine, and food.  So one day, John said that he wanted to sponsor a child!  My wife asked him how much he wanted to give, and he said, ‘Half of my allowance.’  So he gave two dollars, 50% of what he had!  I was happy.  Do I want my kids to have more and more of Jesus?  Of course!  Jesus is the best thing I have!

         The centurion came to Jesus because he ‘had an agenda’ for his servant:  He saw that the servant was suffering.  Seeing someone lack fullness of life is disturbing.  We want God’s best for others, and Jesus bestows it.  You could argue that the servant wanted the centurion to go to Jesus on his own behalf.  Perhaps, but we don’t know that for sure from the text.  Perhaps the centurion was going to Jesus without the servant’s knowledge. 

         Is it okay to come to Jesus for someone else?  Absolutely.  Let’s do that now in prayer.