Heard Carson Reed share some thoughts on church leadership this weekend. Really liked something he pointed out from Matthew. I’d never noticed the parallelism between these two passages:

“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.” (Matthew 4:23)

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” (Matthew 9:35)

Dr. Reed pointed out that these verses seem to describe the material that lies between them, showing how Jesus did three things:

• Proclaimed the kingdom
• Taught in the synagogues

(Dr. Reed compared this with spiritual formation)

• Healed every affliction

He then noted the similarity of thought with the commission he gave his disciples in the next chapter:

“And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:7–8)

His point was that these things describe what the church should be doing today.

A few of my own thoughts:

• I think the teaching and proclaiming actually were one thing, which explains why the teaching part is gone in Chapter 10.
• As someone else in our group pointed out, these verses also include the idea of going. Jesus didn’t set up shop and wait for people to come to him. It would have been easy to establish Jesus University and still teach and heal. Yet he went and told his disciples to go.

Anyway, I liked the way Dr. Reed related these passages. Any thoughts?