His Kingdom Came

Last summer a motley crew of women gathered in my living room every Thursday night to read through the Gospel according to Matthew. (If you don’t know Matthew’s story, read my blog about him here. Talk about redemption.)

At least that’s why we said we were meeting. As one week followed the other, we showed up because we wanted to experience God, experience community, and to know and be known. To know and be known is His Kingdom come. At the end of the night, it didn’t really matter what we studied because for us, the Kingdom had come.

Where Two or More are Gathered

Week after week we gathered. And then in one evening, God revealed Himself in such a way that we knew why we had put the time in. Because sometimes His Word is stored up for a later date, and sometimes it’s the exact Word we need right then. For this Millennial, it was a lesson to faithfully committing and showing up when sometimes, I didn’t feel like it. A testament to showing up, week after week. A testament to faithfully pursuing God, even when I feel like He seems distant or unsearchable.

We learn so much about the heart of Jesus in Matthew 9.

If you’ve been in the pews for a long time but still don’t know what this disciple life is supposed to look like, these ancient and holy words are for you. You’ve heard them before, I can almost promise, but the biggest barrier to truly knowing something is thinking you already know it. Let’s expect God to give us new revelation, my friends.

If Only: Jesus’s Disciples and Jairus’s Daughter

18 While he (spoke in parables about new and old wine skins,) a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

And Jesus stopped His class on wine skins and went. Oh, how He loves us. What’s important to you is important to Him. No concern of ours is too big or too small, too impossible, nor too improbable.

The synagogue ruler’s name is Jairus, and as a religious ruler he would have faithfully kept God’s commands and traditions of the Old Testament. But he lost his daughter and came to the end of his traditions and the beginning of Jesus. If only you could put your hand on her, Jesus.

The Creator of the Universe was in the middle of teaching His class on having a Godly attitude, but Jairus was desperate. He knelt before Him, maybe so desperate he couldn’t look his own Father in the eyes. But he knew the Creator whose breath awakened the oceans could awaken his daughter. Amen, amen, and amen.

And Jesus’s disciples followed Him.

Because that’s what disciples do.

Friend, we are all a disciple of something. What are we following? Here’s a good indicator if you are a disciple of Jesus: are you going into the hard places? The disciples were about to enter a place of horrible grief. A parent was going to have to bury a child unless Jesus did something. But they followed Jesus into the hard place because they knew He was going to act. That’s what disciples do. 

May we pray for eyes to see and ears to hear. Disciples go into the hard places because that’s where Jesus is. They invest in the only thing that’s eternal.

Working. Resorting. Resurrecting.

May we go into the hard places expecting Jesus to act. As disciples, may we step into the hard places as Jesus’s hands and feet. Because that’s what disciples do. Disciples show up with the casserole, or to carry the burden, or to call the lonely, or hold the baby, or fund, or practice patience, or adopt, or show mercy or grace because of Love. Disciples show up.

Spoiler alert: Jesus saves the daughter. But this series isn’t about the daughter or Jairus. It’s about Jesus’s daughter. Next week we are looking at extraordinary risk and brazen acts of defiance.

This discipleship life is so exciting if we allow it.