Monday after the Festival of the Transfiguration of our Lord
Scripture: St. Matthew 8:14-22 (NKJV)
8:14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.
16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”
18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Devotion
Our Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself through humility and mercy.
Our own sin and self-importance makes us think that God’s will is done in our vain efforts at righteousness. But if our works of piety are focused on making ourselves appear a certain way, then we are serving ourselves, not Jesus.
God shows us His will in His clear commands, especially as they are taught to us by the Words of Christ. The Ten Commandments and our Lord’s explanation of them reveal far more than we could ever accomplish in our days, yet the devil constantly temps us to ignore them and seek after the efforts that are right in our own eyes.
Such pride and vanity are no less of a sickness than the bodily ailments that our Lord healed in the Gospel accounts. He continues to deal with our infirmities and sicknesses, whether they are physical or spiritual. He heals us by His Word and Spirit, bringing us to humble repentance and true faith, and then He continues to teach us and strengthen us to go about the work of serving Him, not according to our own ideas, but according to His will that is revealed to us in His blessed Word.
We pray: Almighty and Everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth the right hand of Thy majesty to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
