Daily Devotional

The disciples had barely caught their breath. The storm had nearly swamped their boat, Jesus had spoken the sea into stillness, and they were still asking, “What sort of man is this?” Then they rowed the rest of the way across the lake and stepped out onto a hillside covered with pigs. No faithful Jewish farmer raised pigs. Jesus had brought his disciples into Gentile country, the last place a respectable rabbi would choose to go. In a real sense, this was his first missionary journey.

Notice the pattern Matthew is building. Jesus said, “Follow me,” and the very first place that following led was into a storm. The second place it led was onto unclean ground among unclean people. Following Jesus has never meant staying where it is comfortable. Sometimes it means a storm, and sometimes it means sitting across the table from people you never imagined you would know, let alone love.

This is one of the quiet glories of the gospel. It creates a family out of people who would have no other reason to spend time together. The early church astonished its neighbors by doing exactly this. Paul could write that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free (Galatians 3:28), not because the gospel erased every earthly distinction, but because it made something more important than all of them. The Jesus who crossed the sea to reach two outcasts on a Gentile shore is the same Jesus who crossed from heaven to earth to reach you. Those who belong to him should expect him to lead them toward people the world overlooks.