If you could talk your way into the Kingdom of God, I probably would! 

Last week, we covered a few chapters containing wall-to-wall teaching from Jesus. We had ‘you’ve heard X, but I say Y…’ and warnings against religious hypocrisy; a group of teachings which have shaped the life of the church since their recording and which offer, perhaps, our most direct insight into the theological foundation of Jesus that we have access to.  

You may well be familiar with one claim about the person of Jesus that he was “just a great teacher.” And, based on the unprecedented impact of his teachings across history and around the world, that is rooted in truth – Jesus was undeniably a great teacher. Those reading this who have trained as teachers will know that one key element of effective teaching is communicating in a way that is clear and concise, making your key points and objectives as obvious as you can. Jesus may not have been OFSTED assessed, but given the fact that 2000 years on, people are still engaged with his teachings and feel compelled to change their lives on their basis, it seems evident that Jesus was a great teacher. 

But he wasn’t just a great teacher.  

Jesus didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk too.  

And that’s what we come across in this week’s readings. Story after story of Jesus carrying out the miraculous. I don’t know which of the specific stories stand out to you – there is so much that can be gleaned in each short account of a healing – but to look at chapters 8 and 9 reveals that Jesus was busy doing the work. 

These passages would have been placed specifically after the ‘sermon on the mount’ in the text, and I imagine it was specifically to contrast the teaching with the action. Like chapters 5-7, it’s not to suggest that all of the healings in chapters 8-9 happened one after the other, as if Jesus had some fad of healing people for a month or two, but rather that this is a collection of stories on a similar theme.  

This, then, is punctuated by the beginning of chapter 10, as we read yesterday, when Jesus gives the disciples authority to heal people and then gives them instruction to do so. 

It would take a whole other reflection to analyse Matt 10:5-6 and why Jesus seems to exclude the gentiles, but maybe you could look into that in your own time and then discuss at small group or over coffee on a Sunday. We would also need another separate conversation to consider the language of unclean spirits and possible modern understandings of this, but that too must wait! 

What I do want to highlight follows on from last week’s reflection - we need to get to know Jesus in order to live lives which follow his example. In these passages, we meet a Jesus who cares deeply about people, who meets them where they’re at and who loves to heal those in need.  

This is our challenge, as disciples of Jesus: to care deeply about people, to meet them where they’re at and to heal those in need. That is what we see Jesus doing. 

We can’t just talk the talk. We need to walk the walk too!