Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER EIGHT

Part I (con’t)

What happens next in this encounter between Jesus and the leper, is both a miracle and a mystery. The miracle, of course, was that the leper was immediately healed. Then Jesus told him to follow the law as outlined by Moses.¹ The sacrifice that Jesus spoke of was clearly outline by Moses: “A priest must look at those who had the skin disease. The priest must go to them outside the camp and look to see if the skin disease is healed. If they are healthy, the priest will tell them to do these things: They must bring two clean birds that are still alive, a piece of cedar wood, a piece of red cloth, and a hyssop plant. Then the priest must order one bird to be killed in a clay bowl over running water. He must take the other bird that is still alive and the piece of cedar wood, the piece of red cloth, and the hyssop plant and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. He must sprinkle the blood seven times on those who had the skin disease. Then he must announce that they are clean. After that the priest must go to an open field and let the living bird go free.”² This sprinkling of the blood seven times on those with leprosy may have been the formula used by Elisha in having the Syrian General Naaman dip seven times in the Jordan River to cleanse his leprosy.³

But the mystery is that Jesus told him not to spread the news of his healing among the people. This was not done just to conceal Jesus’ power as the Messiah, but Jesus did this with an ulterior motive. He knew that His journey to the cross on Mt. Calvary would be laced with traps and temptations instigated by Satan in order to stop Him from carrying out His Father’s will. The crowds were already huge and cumbersome, so He did not want them to become so large that He could go nowhere without such a large entourage. In addition to this, such large healing and miracle campaigns would become a distraction and inhibit Him from delivering the good news the Father sent Him to tell everyone, and carry out His mission as the Lamb of God to pay the price for the sins of mankind. In other words, it was another way of avoiding the devil’s temptation to quit now while He was ahead. In this particular case, no matter how clean the leper looked or how much he claimed to be healed, the law still in effect required the ordained authority of a priest to make it acceptable.

Naturally, as he went to the priest and then returned home the question of how he was healed would immediately come up, and Jesus knew that it might cause the religious officials and priests to hunt Him down and that would impede the scope of His ministry. He only had a couple of years left before His crucifixion, so He wanted to be free to go as far and wide as possible, preaching the kingdom of heaven and healing the sick. It is clear, that to our Lord the leper’s healing and return to society was going to have more effect on those being told than on the leper himself.

Also, our Lord’s recommendation that the leper consult with a priest may have confused many of His opponents who thought He had no respect for the laws of the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, the writer of medieval Jewish polemic writings on the New Testament put it this way: “Now, I am surprised at His commanding the leper to go to the priest and bring his sacrifice. Once he was cured by Jesus why should he have to go to the priest? Moreover, from the time of His birth we don’t see that he commanded the observance of any other commandments in the Torah, such as those regarding the Sabbath, circumcision, pork, and the mixing of species, and several others which , in fact, He permitted people to transgress after His arrival. Indeed, even this commandment was not observed from that time on.”⁴ It appears that this critic of Jesus’ ministry was solely focused on this incident here in Matthew. But what about the ten lepers in Luke who were told to do the same thing.⁵ When I think of all the great men and women that have been given this special gift of healing, I wonder how much more effective they might have been in reaching many more with the Gospel, had they not had been so burdened with such fame for healing the sick?

Verse 5: Jesus then went into the city of Capernaum. When He entered the city, a Roman army officer met Him and begged for help.

By this time, Capernaum was becoming the headquarters city for Jesus’ ministry. Most of His disciples came from this area and His biggest supporters lived in this metropolis. It was also a major city for the Roman occupation of Galilee, as well as becoming a chief cog in the wheel of Jewish teaching and political influence. Being a centurion, this Roman officer was the commander of the garrison there that housed the occupying troops. A centurion was thought to be in charge of 100 men. However, one Neapolitan lawyer wrote the following toward the end of the 15^th century: “A band consisted of two centuries, each of which consisted of one hundred and twenty-eight soldiers; for a doubled century made a band, whose governor was called an ordinary centurion.”⁶ So based on the size of Capernaum, we can accept that this centurion was commander of a larger contingent than 100 soldiers.

However, though he was a centurion he thought it wise not to send an emissary to Jesus, but to go himself because this was not a military matter, but a personal request. However, according to Jewish teaching, the centurion could have sent a spokesman because it says: “A man’s agent is the same as the man himself.”⁷ It it most likely that this centurion already knew about the prophet from Nazareth who had settled in his area of responsibility, and the crowd that were drawn there by His healing power.

Verse 6: The Roman military officer said to Jesus, “Lord, my servant is at home in bed. He is paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

The description of the servant’s condition tells us that there was something seriously wrong, and the urgency of the centurion’s request suggests that he did not have long to live. In fact, among the Jews the language used by the centurion about his servant’s condition would have prompted an inquiry as to whom his estate should be given.⁸ It is also possible that because of the centurion’s description that the man could not move and was suffering from extreme pain, suggests that he had suffered a stroke or heart attack.

Early church father Chrysostom sees a high level of faith in action here. He states: “But having come to Him and saying: “My servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented,” some say, that by way of excuse he mentioned also the cause, why he had not brought him. ‘For neither was it possible,’ he said, ‘paralyzed as he was, and tormented, and at his last gasp, to lift and carry him.’ For that he was at the point of expiring, Luke said: ‘He was even ready to die.’⁹ But I say, this is a sign of his having great faith, even much greater than theirs, who let one down through the roof.¹⁰ For because he knew for certain, that even a mere command [from Jesus] was enough for the raising the patient up, so he thought it unnecessary to bring him [to Jesus].”¹¹

There is no reason to dispute Chrysostom, in light of the fact that the centurion had such a quick answer for why it was not necessary for Jesus to accompany him back to the house. It also signifies that this centurion knew more about Jesus than Matthew, who was also from this area, shared. No doubt the reality that our Lord made Capernaum His home contributed to this realization, since I’m sure the reputation of Jesus as a great healer had already spread throughout the city. That’s why every time Jesus was in the city, thousands were brought to Him for healing. But Jesus did not tell this centurion to get in line, because He certainly understood the urgency.

Verse 7-9: Jesus said to the officer, “I will go and heal him.” The officer answered, “Lord, I am not good enough for You to come into my house. You need only to give the order, and my servant will be healed. I know this, because I understand authority. There are people who have authority over me, and I have soldiers under my authority. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes. I tell another soldier, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and my servant obeys me.”

The awe that Jesus Himself expressed concerning this centurion’s faith was shared by many when they saw someone who was so important stand above the rest in his belief in God’s ability to meet the need at hand. And our Lord’s compliment of the centurion was a positive one, no doubt because even with him being a non-Jew, he sought out the Jewish Messiah for an answer to his urgent need. This is important, because we know from history that not all who paraded themselves before crowds as being compassionate and righteous were the same behind the scenes.

Take for instance an incident in Jewish literature where we read about a man, who after being insulted by another man found out that the one who insulted him was considered by many as a great teacher and leader. Upon finding this out, the insulted individual snorted: “If this man is a teacher, may there not be any more like him in Israel!”¹² We find similar story in the writings of a well-known Rabbi. After a man observed another gentleman, for whom he had little respect, being called by some of his neighbors Rabbi, expressed himself this way: “If this is what a Rabbi is supposed to be, don’t let there be any others like him in Israel.”¹³ How vital it is when people meet us on the job or socially and out in public don’t exclaim they hope there aren’t too many like us around, after they find out we are preachers or teachers of the Gospel, But Jesus was aware of people like the Jewish Teacher and Rabbi described in these stories.

A good friend of Chrysostom named Theodore (AD 350-428), Bishop of Mopsuestia (now in Turkey), has this to say about the faith of this Roman officer: “The centurion did not approach Jesus as one who is the Son of God and Lord of the whole creation (for at the time, before the crucifixion, this was not yet known even by the disciples). Rather, he came to Him as to a man who, because of His virtues, had received from God some greater-than-human authority. This is why he says, ‘For I also am a man.’ For since he had said to Jesus, ‘say the word,’ and this might seem proper to God only, he rightly adds the statement, ‘for I also am a man,’ as though to say, ‘It is nothing surprising if You, a man who has received authority from God, should be able to do this thing, since I myself, a man like you, receive subjects and am set over them to command them as I will’.”¹⁴

I agree with Bishop Theodore that there was no way for this centurion to know that this great healer named Jesus of Nazareth would die on a cross a few years later, and be celebrated as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, and after His resurrection and ascension into heaven would sit down at the right hand of the Father as every believer’s intercessor, and that the words of Isaiah would be applied to the new High Priest as the one by whose stripes we are healed. I also agree that in spite of this lack of knowledge, the centurion still recognized that all the power that Jesus exercised with authority did come from God on high, who in this officer’s mind was the Divine Commander-in-Chief. But we must also recall reading that word was already spreading throughout Galilee that this man Jesus was in fact the Anointed One, the Messiah. So while the centurion thought of Jesus as a man, I’m sure he believed Him to be, The Man!

Verse 10: When Jesus heard this, He was amazed. He said to those who were with Him, “The truth is, this man has more faith than anyone I have found anywhere in Israel.”

The early church preacher Chrysostom makes this point: “What then did Jesus do? What He had never done before, For whereas on every other occasion He was used to following the wish of His supplicants, here He rather springs toward it, and offers not only to heal him, but also to come to the house. And this He did, that we might learn the faith of the centurion. For if He had not made this offer, but rather said, ‘Go your way, let your servant be healed;’ we would have never known these things.”¹⁵

In one of his sermons on this text, Augustine makes this point: “Now this man was of the Gentiles, for he was a centurion. At that time the Jewish nation had soldiers of the Roman empire among them. There he was engaged in a military life, according to the extent of a centurion’s authority, both under authority himself, and having authority over others; as a subject obedient, ruling others who were under him. But the Lord, though He was among the Jewish people only, even now announced beforehand that the Church should be in the whole world, for the establishment of which He would send Apostles; Himself not seen, yet believed on by the Gentiles: by the Jews seen, and put to death. For as the Lord did not in body enter into this man’s house, and still, though in body absent, yet present in majesty, healed his faith, and his house; so the same Lord also was in body among the Jewish people only: among the other nations He was neither born of a Virgin, nor suffered, nor walked, nor endured His human sufferings, nor wrought His divine miracles. None of all this took place in the rest of the nations, and yet was that fulfilled which was spoken of Him, ‘A people whom I have not known, has served Me.”¹⁶ And how if it did not know Him? ‘Has obeyed Me by the hearing of the ear.’¹⁷ The Jewish nation knew, and crucified Him; on the other hand, the whole world heard and believed.”¹⁸

The whole point that Augustine is making here is that even though the Jews were more aware of all the scriptures that pointed to the coming Messiah, and in their opposition to Jesus were cognizant of the fact that the powers He possessed and exercised were also attributed to the Anointed One of God, they rejected our Lord as the Christ. But this Gentile needed only to see and hear what Jesus did and said, and it was sufficient to spark enough faith in him to believe that Jesus was sent from God, and all that He did was good. Therefore, the centurion had no fear that whatever Jesus did in response to his request, it would work together for his good and the good of his seriously ill servant.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER EIGHT

Part I

NOTE: The powers of Jesus run the gamut in this chapter. Among other things, He healed a leper, a paralyzed servant, a fevered mother-in-law; cast out evil spirits; calmed raging winds and waves, and healed two raving demoniac’s. In every case, except Peter’s mother-in-law, the infirmity was incurable by medicinal means. Yet, Christ healed each one with equal ease. The leper was mobile but couldn’t go where he wanted to because of restrictions. The servant could go unrestricted but he wasn’t mobile. Peter’s mother-in-law was mobile and uninhibited to go anywhere but the fever impeded her from doing either. The demoniac’s were mobile, roamed where they would, and physically well, but they were without personal control over their minds and bodies because they were possessed by demons. The devil does not desire complete domination to the point where someone is immobile, restricted to space and too sick and possessed to function. All he wants is just enough power and influence to make lives miserable. But thank God that Christ took that away from him. Now, as in Job’s case, Satan must get permission to harass any of God’s new born children.

Verses 1-2: Jesus descended from the hillside, and a large crowd followed Him. Then a man covered with leprosy came up to Him. The man bowed down before Jesus and said, “Lord, you have the power to heal me if You want.”

This is the first instance of Jesus meeting a leper. There was an interesting teaching among the Rabbis about the Messiah and lepers. It reads: “Rabbi Joshua ben Levi met Elijah standing by the entrance of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai’s tomb. He then asked him, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ — ‘Go and ask Him yourself,’ was his reply. ‘Where is He sitting?’ — ‘At the entrance.’ And by what sign may I recognize Him?’ — ‘He is sitting among the poor lepers.”¹ Amazing how God was trying to speak so that when Jesus came, this would be one way to acknowledge Him as the Messiah.

So we now see that with His teaching session over, the Master has other things to do on His mission to establish Himself as the Messiah and prepare for His destiny on Mount Calvary. This reminds us of Moses coming down off the mountain after receiving instructions from God.² The difference is that while Moses was given the commandments on Mt. Sinai, now God’s Son is interpreting them on the mountain. Matthew doesn’t say it here, but Luke infers that after Jesus left the mountain He came to the outskirts of a town that lay on the route to Capernaum (cf. verse 5). We know that the leper that met him had to be outside the city because they were forbidden by law to go inside. It was clearly forbidden to touch them,³ because it created serious ritual impurity. In the Jewish teaching we read: “…see that the soul of every person had been made aware prior to birth that God is ritually pure, and that He ha given him a ritually pure soul, it is clear that when born and equipped with a body, the soul must make every effort not to come into contact with something or someone ritually polluted.”⁴

So in Jewish thinking, the whole purpose of human purity was to give people the opportunity to touch a pure and holy God. Of course we all know this effort failed miserably until the perfect Lamb without spot or wrinkle came to die for the sinner so that His holiness can be shared with everyone who believes. We also find this prohibition against touching lepers clearly asserted in verbal traditions that were backed up by the written law: “The walled cities of the Land of Israel are still more holy, in that they must drive lepers out of their midst.”⁵ In fact, on one occasion, Rabbi Johanan said about Elisha: “He healed the leprosy of Naaman,⁶ which is the equivalent of death.”⁷ Rabbis also put leprosy in the category of a plague that resulted from sin.⁸ They say that when “Aaron looked at Miriam, and realized she was leprous. Aaron said unto Moses . . . let her not be as one who is dead.”⁹

The reason they were already treated as dead people is because their disease was incurable and they were already decaying on their way to the tomb. As one venerable Rabbi tells us, anyone considered unclean must leave the camp or city and wait until they can bathe before they are allowed to return.¹⁰ Nevertheless, somehow this leper had been told about Jesus of Nazareth, and the news of His coming this way must have reached him before our Lord arrived. What is remarkable is that the leper did not wait for Jesus to get to him, he went out to meet Jesus. And whatever the leper had heard was enough for him to believe in the healing powers of Jesus. How could our Lord turn down such an expression of faith? While some who encountered Jesus cried out for attention, this man kneeled down and in a humble voice appealed to our Lord’s compassion.

Chrysostom makes an observation here on the leper’s conduct by saying: “Great was the understanding and the faith of him who drew so near. For he did not interrupt the session, nor break in while Jesus was teaching, but awaited the proper time, and approached Him. And not at random, but with much earnestness, and on His knees, he beseeches Him, as another evangelist says, and with the genuine faith and right opinion about Him.”¹¹ While I would not argue with the great preacher about the leper’s respect and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, it should also be taken into consideration that one main reason the leper did not interrupt Jesus while He was teaching came from the standing law that people infected with leprosy were not to come near anyone, or even into a city, without crying out a warning that they were unclean.¹² Had he come to Jesus on the mountain side, the people would have scattered and Jesus may not have taken so kindly to such an interruption. But he didn’t, he waited in faith and hope for his Healer to come. This should be a lesson for us all who go to God for healing, that once we ask Him, then to silently wait for His response.

Verse 3: Jesus touched the man. He said, “I want to heal you. Be healed!” Immediately the man was healed from his leprosy.

The Jewish opponents of Jesus were certainly amazed at what happened, because leprosy was a very visible disease. Even in one Jewish polemic document we are told that the people marveled at the miracles of Jesus, but this only emboldened Him to perform more of them. In fact, the writer quotes Jesus as saying: “Do you wonder at this? Bring a leper to me and I will cure him.” And when they brought a leper He restored him to health in like manner through the Name of God. When the people saw this, they fell down and worshiped Him, saying, “Verily, you are the Son of God.” And it came to pass, after the fifth day, that this bad news was brought to Jerusalem, the most holy city, and there everything that Yeshua was doing was spread around. The weak-minded rejoiced greatly; but the elders, the devout, and the wise wept bitterly; and in the larger and the smaller Sanhedrin courts there was painful mourning. At length they all resolved to send messengers to Yeshua, secretly wishing to themselves, “It may be that by the help of the Lord we will capture Him, bring Him to judgment, and condemn Him to death.”¹³ So even in defeat our Lord’s critics had to acknowledge His power to heal. But what our Lord says next goes against what these skeptics were implying, that Jesus did this just for show and to earn Him notoriety and popularity.

Chrysostom points out a very important aspect of the encounter between Jesus and the leper. He writes: “But Jesus did not merely say, ‘be thou clean,’ but He also ‘put forth His hand, and touched him;’ a thing especially worthy of inquiry. What for, because when cleansing him by will and word He also added the touch of His hand? It seems to me, for no other end, but that He might also signify by this, that He is not subject to the law, but is set over it; and that to the clean, henceforth, nothing is unclean.¹⁴ For this cause, we see, Elisha did not so much as see Naaman, but though he perceived that he was offended at his not coming out and touching him, observing the strictness of the law, he abides at home, and sends him to the Jordan river to wash. Whereas the Lord, to signify that He heals not as a servant, but as absolute master, does also touch. For His hand became not unclean from the leprosy, but the leprous body was rendered clean by the touch of His holy hand.”¹⁵

What a wonderful thought when applied to our own sinful leprosy! When we were touched by His hand in forgiveness, He did not become unclean but we became clean. The reason? Because all the stains of our sinfulness were crucified on the cross with His Son Jesus, whose blood washes us clean and our hearts become as white as snow. There is a chorus believer’s sang in Jamaica many years ago that goes: “When His wounded hand touched mine, when His wounded hand touched mine, my Jesus set me free through out eternity, when His wounded hand touched mine.” It has been over 40 years since I heard it sung in a Jamaican church in England, but it still sets my soul to rejoicing just thinking about it.

Verse 4: Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about what happened. But go and let the priest look at you. And offer the gift that Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show everyone that you are healed.”

Some critics of those who say that the words of Jesus took the place of the Torah since He became the fulfillment of the Law, point to this and say that here Jesus still respects the law and orders the leper to follow the Torah. This is also one reason why certain Messianic Christians who follow both the Old and New Testaments, including all the Jewish Feasts and ceremonies, preach that the Law is still in effect. However, at the time Jesus met this leper, He had not yet instituted the New Covenant through the Last Supper, His death on the cross, and resurrection. So it was only proper that He give the leper these instructions. But even more so, in that the priests would then ask, “How were you healed?” and the leper could reply, “By the word and touch of Jesus of Nazareth.”

So at this point, let us recap how we reached this juncture in Jesus’ ministry. In chapter 5:1 we are told, “When Jesus saw the crowds of people there, He went up on a hillside and sat down.” Now Matthew tells us that with His teaching session over, He now comes down from that hillside. In chapter 4:23-25 we are told that Jesus was up in Galilee teachings in synagogues. On this occasion such a large crowd gathered from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from across the Jordan River, that He was forced to take His teaching out to a mountainside.

Today, there is a domed Catholic-run Church of the Beatitudes on top of a the hill rising out the Sea of Galilee which is believed to be the location of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. While that is a possibility, there is also a town called Tabgha located in northern Israel on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee southwest of Capernaum that is also believed to be where the sermon on the mount took place. However, the Church of the Multiplication which was built in 1981 and operated by the Dominicans is also touted as the place where Jesus fed the 5000. Up until 1948, Tabgha was a small town populated by Muslim and Christian Palestinians, all of whom were expelled by the Jewish militia, which flattened Tabgha during the Israeli War of Independence. Tabgha remains a barren field to this day.

Cyril, the patriarch of the early church in Alexandria, Egypt, was a staunch supporter of God’s Word. He is therefore venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Episcopal and Lutheran churches. In his study of this encounter between Jesus and the leper, he found a comparison between what happened to a healed leper under the Jewish Law, and what happened to him here when he met Jesus at the foot of the hill.

According to tradition, the priest would anoint the right ear, hand and foot with blood dipped into the blood mixed with water of one of two small birds with cedar wood, broken scarlet and hyssop. From this we may assume that this is where Jesus may have touched the leper, thereby eliminating any need for him to go see a priest, and since our Lord was the Lamb of God that would be sacrificed in the cross, He too would have blood mixed with water flow from His wounded side. No wonder Isaiah said so confidently, “By His bleeding wounds we are healed.”¹⁶ And now that Christ has ascended into heaven into the presence of God the Father where He makes intercession for all of us, that we therefore can equally clean by the touch of His hand.¹⁷

To all my precious students.  I hope and pray that you had a great time celebrating the beginning of the new calendar year 2016.  And what better way to start than exploring God’s Word.

So on Monday we will begin the exciting journey through Matthew, Chapter 8.  I hope and pray that it will be like manna to your hungry heart, and like anointing oil to your soul.

See you on Monday!

I remember once looking at a sundial, and someone said: did you know that when it comes to telling time, the sundial has the fewest moving parts?  But then came the next question, which timepiece has the most moving parts?  Do you know?

Of course, being a watch and clock enthusiast, I immediately began to think of all the beautiful and intricate timepieces I had seen, especially chronograph pocket watches. But no matter which one I chose, it was always wrong.

This got me to thinking, how many times do we look at something that supposedly is giving us the information we need, but after following that data we discovered there was more to it than what we saw at first sight. And what a surprise! It changed everything. Sometimes it is referred to as “fine print.”

It’s in this fine print that we often discover the whole truth. Just like an advertisement for an item that has in large print, “Only $19.99!” Then when it comes in the mail and we read the receipt we find out that there was $9.99 in shipping and handling charges added, plus we didn’t see the fine print that said: $19.99 per month for 12 months. In addition, there is a 28% interest charge added to each payment. So the total charge comes to almost $300!

That’s the way it is in life when we meet challenges in our quest to get something, or achieve some goal, or try to figure out how to handle some issue. We often take the advice of friends or family that seem very simple on the surface, only to realize later there was a whole lot more to it than that, and so we sometimes end up making matters even worse.

The same is true of our spiritual lives. For instance, there are eight beatitudes in Jesus Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter 5. They are informative and instructive. But we should not stop reading there, Jesus goes on to teach many more virtues that a believer should develop in their lives in Chapters 6 & 7. And when we reach Matthew, Chapter 23, we find a list of ten “woes” that Jesus warned against. So when this is pointed out to a new Christian, it can be overwhelming.

But for me the key to this that makes handling all of these instructions, is the fine print in Matthew 11:29-30 where Jesus invites every believer to bond with Him, to learn from Him and follow His example so that He can help them at every point and turn in life when facing decisions and choices that will affect them not only now, but for eternity. And the only way to do that is to study what He said and did, and know that His hand will guide and lead us.

By the way, I finally found out which timepiece has the most moving parts. It’s the hourglass, with thousands of small grains of sand following each other through the neck in the middle, from the top to the bottom. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

Despite popular opinion, and no matter how many times your father or mother may quote it or your pastor promote it, the famous saying, “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. There are, however, several verses that promote a similar concept. The most familiar is in Proverbs 13:24: “Whoever spares the rod hates their children.” You can also see other verses that speak of the rod as an instrument of discipline.¹

In the English language, this verse in Proverbs may be what prompted William Langland in 1377 to write this line in one of his poems: “Whoso spareth the sprig – spoileth the children,”² which he quotes from the Latin, “Qui parcit virgae, odit filium.” A more modern translation would read: “He that spares his rod hates his son.” Then in 1662, Samuel Butler includes a similar line in one of his poems that reads: “Then spare the rod, and spoil the child.”³ However, many English literature scholars believe that Samuel Butler had something else in mind besides discipline.

In any case, while this saying is not a direct quote from the Bible, it does carry with it what the Scriptures have to say about discipline. Not that it promotes beating children as a way of getting them to obey, but by teaching them right from wrong in a manner that causes them to respect authority, but at the same time to be aware that it is done out of love not anger or revenge.

Listen to what the Bible says about how God disciplines His children. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews quotes the writer of Proverbs when he writes: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you,because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His child.”⁴

The key here is that discipline is based on love, not frustration, disappointment, irritation or retribution. A child knows when they are being disciplined out of love. They can see it in their parent’s face, hear it in their voice, and see it in the method they use to carry it out. Discipline should always be used as a way to help a child to grow, mature and learn the difference between what will work for them and what will work against them. Harsh criticism and severe disciple should never be used to make a parent look good or to make up for their parental weaknesses. This is called the “grace” factor in discipline.

When we understand that discipline is guided by unconditional love and unmerited favor, then whatever discipline is carried out it is done to help the child, not hurt them. That’s the way God does it. Sometimes He denies us our requests because we are not ready yet for what we want. At other times He allows disappointments to come our way so that when we try again we’ll be able to do it better. And sometimes He allows pain in our lives so that we can better understand how it feels when we hurt others, or give us compassion for what they are going through.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say: “So accept sufferings like a father’s discipline. God does these things to you like a father correcting his children. You know that all children are disciplined by their fathers. So, if you never receive the discipline that every child must have, you are not true children and don’t really belong to God. We have all had fathers here on earth who corrected us with discipline. And we respected them. So it is even more important that we accept discipline from the Father of our spirits. If we do this, we will have life. Our fathers on earth disciplined us for a short time in the way they thought was best. But God disciplines us to help us so that we can be more perfect like Him. We don’t enjoy discipline when we get it. It is painful. But later, after we have learned our lesson from it, we will enjoy the peace that comes from doing what is right.” – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

I’M SO EXCITED about what we are going to discover when we begin our study of Matthew, Chapter 8 next week.  We are going to see how Jesus affected the lives of those who met Him for the first time, and how He displayed His divine power in ways the disciples had never seen before and what it taught them.

But we will also learn that just getting to know Jesus is not enough, true believers will follow His teachings and His example.  How else is the light going to be spread in the darkness of this world?  But being His follower does not come easy.  That’s because no one was ever given the Medal of Honor just sitting around watching others fight the battle for freedom.

So I’ll see all of you beginning on Monday, January 4, 2016.  What better way can you find to start a New Year!  May God increase your hunger for His Word in this coming year.  See you on Monday!

It’s time for our annual New Year celebration.  But what most people don’t know is how it all began.

The ancient Babylonians celebrated the start of the new year at the Vernal Equinox, which will fall on Sunday, March 20th.  And the Romans also used the Vernal Equinox as a starting point, and chose March 1st for their new year.  The ancient Egyptians, however, used the annual flooding of the Nile which usually starts in June as the beginning of their new agricultural year.

The ancient Chinese celebrated their new year in February, which they still do to this day.  And the Israelites celebrated their new year in September, and that was September 14-15, 2015.

So how did we get to January 1?  Well, the Romans liked Janus  who is the god of beginnings and transitions, and thereby of gates, doors, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.   So in 46 BC they changed March 1st to January 1st as their New Year.

But when the Roman Empire became Christian, by 567 AD the Church decided that this was a pagan holiday and therefore changed it to December 25th, to coincide with Jesus birth.  So for some time, Christians celebrated the birth of Christ as the beginning of their new year.

But in 1582 AD, the Roman Catholic church changed their minds and redesignated January 1st as the beginning of the New Year.  The Protestants continued to view it as a pagan holiday for some time, but gradually joined the crowd.  The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752 AD.  Until then, the British Empire —and their American colonies— still celebrated the new year in March.

So here in America, celebrating New Year’s Day on January 1st is only 263 years old.  But after looking at all the days on which this day was originally celebrated, which one would you choose?

In any case, to all my blessed family and friends, may the coming days, weeks, and months bring you a new perspective on what life means to you and especially what each new day God gives to you means to Him.

I once read this brain teaser: “A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?” Immediately my mind began the arduous task of trying to figure out how this canine could get across the river without getting wet.

My search for an answer was complicated and seemed like an impossibility. Human logic and the information given me just would not cooperate in finding a solution to the question. Many times in life, and especially in spiritual matters, we face the same riddles. What we often see and hear just doesn’t make sense with what we know.

That’s because we often live in a mental box where we eliminate creative thinking or hypothesis in our intellectual assessment of such a puzzle. The reason why is because we are so afraid to use these options because we don’t want to be found out later as being in error when the facts are revealed. But that is exactly how clues to mysteries are often discovered. Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know the answer, but I’m going to trust my instincts?”

Let me ask those of you who have been married at least 10 years. Did you ever speculate in the beginning that your marriage and life with your spouse would turn out the way it has? I’m sure you were hoping things would stay as exciting as they were on the honeymoon. But now that you can look back, how close are you to what you were dreaming? Is is better, or is it worse, or have you simply grown accustomed to what it is?

The same is true of our relationship with Christ. When we were first born again, did we ever imagine all the things that have happened to us since then? And if we knew they were coming, would we have been able to predict that we would be what we are today? I wonder? That’s why if we may not know the answer we must believe there is an answer when confronted with enigmas like this brain teaser.

Many times I’ve had to deal with situations for which I had no logical answer. But I knew someone who did, and His name is Jesus. So even though I wasn’t sure how I was going to get from where I was to where I needed to be, or wanted to be, I did know that if I grabbed hold of His hand He would lead me to where He wanted me to be. And that was because He turned my circumstance from a stumbling block into a stepping stone. So not only was my predicament transformed, but so was I. And each time this happened, I learned to trust Him more and more.

By the way, the dog was able to make it to the other side of the river without getting wet because the river was frozen. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

Yesterday we were privileged to celebrate one of the most wonderful and marvelous events in world history, and we owe it all to the love God had for this pitiful world.

If He had not sent His Son to earth to be born of a precious virgin named Mary, there would be no such thing as Christmas.  We wouldn’t have the joy of gift giving, special dinners at home with family and friends, and a holiday that is celebrated around the world.

If Jesus had not been born in the small town of Bethlehem, and the angels did not sing to shepherds out watching their sheep by night, we’d have no Christmas carols to sing such as “Joy to the World”, “Silent Night”, or even songs like “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, or “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, because there would be no such time of year.

Bethlehem would be a forgotten village, Joseph and Mary would just be two common names among the Jewish people, and the New Testament would have never been written from which we learn that His coming was necessary to give hope and promise to millions of people who otherwise would have continued to live in heathenism and darkness.

There would be no Christmas lights on houses, and lighted Christmas trees with stars on top standing in living rooms under which lay dozens of presents as a way  of honoring the One who was born to bring God’s gift of eternal life to all those who believe that Jesus was sent to be our Lord and Savior.

Christmas candy canes, Christmas cookies, and even Santa Claus would not be seen at every shopping center, even in nations that do not call themselves Christian.  And people would not be clapping their hands to such tunes as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.

So why then do the politically correct insist on saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.  Don’t they know that the word “Holiday” comes from “Holy Day.”  And don’t they realize that by insisting that we take Christ out of Christmas and yet celebrate the yuletide spirit, is like denying that a certain person was ever born and yet wanting to offer Him well-wishes and send Him a Happy Birthday Card.  How silly is that!

But worst of all, they are so grinchy, that they want to prevent those who do believe from having the freedom of wishing each other a Merry Christmas out in public or over the air waves.  All I can say is what my Savior had to say: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME!

To all my irreplaceable family and friends, I pray that as you commemorate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, that the love He came to bring into the world will be poured out into your heart so fully that it can flow to all those around you.

It is also my prayer that He will bless you with special gift.  And that gift would be an unquenchable thirst and constant hunger for His Word, so that you can get to know Him better.

God bless you!

Dr. Robert and Aurora Seyda