And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
In this
short passage we find three key elements of Jesus’ ministry. First of all,
Jesus uses Words to teach in the synagogues; He proclaims the Gospel of His
kingdom. Secondly, he is showing signs of Work, healing the sick from various
diseases. Thirdly, in the periscope just before this one in Matthew 4:18-22
Jesus calls his first disciples, and we then read here that Jesus is followed
by great crowds. We then see these three aspects of Christ’s activities: His
teaching ministry, His mercy ministry and His disciple making ministry
(chapters 5 through 10).
In
chapter 5 to 7 we have the sermon on the Mount. This is the largest piece of
teaching by Jesus found in the New Testament. Chapter 8 and 9 focus primarily
in Christ’s mercy ministry, where we read the stories of him healing a leper,
this disease completely isolated those contaminated (8:3), the servant of the
Roman Centurion, though he was part of the people occupying their land (8:13),
a paralytic (9:7), blind men (9:30) and a mute (9:33). We also see Jesus
spending time with Matthew a tax collector, his fellow tax collectors, and with
a group of people called sinners. They were outcasts. Tax collectors were seen
as traitors by the Jews for they worked for the Romans, and often took a lot
more from their own people than they should. Sinners were just people that you
would not want to be around, because of certain activities they practiced.
Jesus shows as a part of his ministry, that no one is beyond God’s love. When
he is with the sick he heals them, when someone is possessed with a demon, he
delivers him, when some deal with loneliness he spends time with them. The
final part we see from the end of chapter 9 (9:36) to chapter 10, is the
discipleship process, where Christ select some men that will be in his closer
entourage, whom he will train to be able to themselves reproduce disciples.
We see
from the study of Jesus’ ministry in the gospel of Matthew that Christ had
different components to his ministry. It involves the proclamation of the Gospel
of His Kingdom, the care for people’s practical needs, and He met them where
they were. We argue that his mercy ministry is what authenticated His message.
Mat 9:5-6 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”-he then said to the paralytic-“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
Difference between mercy ministry and
humanitarian work.
Speaking
about mercy ministry, we want to be careful here. The main problem of the world
is not disease or poverty. The main problem in the world is sin. It is sin that
separates man from God (Is 59:2), our sin makes us all liable for judgment, as
the wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23). For God so love that world that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, and
we know that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ
(Rom 10:17). Often Christians emphasize eternal rather than the earthly matters
in preaching and teachings. But our paradigm become this: if someone is
starving, he will not be able to hear the gospel. If someone is fully fed, then
he might go to hell with a full stomach without hearing the Gospel. There is a
need for both. The ministry of the preaching of the word is to come alongside a
mercy ministry, which focuses on social justice. This is consistent with the
ministry of Jesus Christ, and a great way of validating our message; people
will see us live in a way that embodies our message. As we preach a message of
restoration of all people, we should also show mercy on restoring the sick and
provide education, food and work to the outcasts through our ministry,
hopefully also to the rest of society.
The
difference between a Christian Mercy ministry and humanitarian work, is that
humanitarian work is purely humanistic, it does help those in deed, but God
does not delight in it, as it is done in the name of those doing it. The sole
objective of humanitarian work is to help people with their current earthly
struggles but does not help in anything related to eternal things. Although
mercy ministry may only introduce the Good News gradually, perhaps only in the
long-term, Jesus remains at the center of any Christian Mercy Ministry. All the
good being done, is in Jesus name, and cares more than people’s immediate
needs, it wants to see all being reconciled to God, to receive eternal life, to
spend eternity in heaven worshiping our Heavenly Father.
A Balanced theology and practice. Often
neglect - But can’t go too far the other way.
Two extremes that we want to avoid are
neglect either side. On one hand, because we want to get people saved, and we
are save through our faith which comes from hearing the Word of God, then all
we have to do is preach the word and nothing else. Some ministries to fall in
that trap which is a shame, as they give the world a poor witness of what
Christ did in his earthly ministry.
The other extreme, is to focus only on
the social justice side, believe that our roles are to transform society, just
help people. It is all good for the here and now, but the Bible is so clear
that eternity is at stake, as whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering
will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:20).
We conclude that after looking at the ministry of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew and looking at two extreme models being used, that Mercy Ministry must be a part of how we do church. The focus must always be eternity, but a mercy ministry reflects Jesus’ love for people and creation, and build trust and authenticates the message of the Gospel that is preached.
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