Megan

What does it look like to have faith in Jesus when you’re standing in an operating theatre? We caught up with Megan over brunch to talk about the current 6pm series in Matthew 8. Megan is a junior doctor.

A. What have you been enjoying in Matthew 8?
M: I really enjoyed Matthew 8:18-22, getting such a clear idea of what the cost of following Jesus is, and having Jesus himself say it.
I think it’s really easy in your day to day life to have your problems in your head and think that everyone else’s life is easy and going really well. Jesus says ‘I don’t have any where to lay my head and everyone else does’ – which is such a fundamental thing to have! Jesus is saying ‘my home isn’t here – I don’t have my home here.’ So, knowing that…

A. Does it help with expectations?
M: It helps with your expectations about your life and knowing that it’s not going to be easy to be a Christian. And that helps you not give up when it is difficult. But it also helps with other people's lives. It’s easy to assume that everyone else is having a really great time. Actually it’s so much more helpful to sit down and go ‘this is really difficult and normal but I also know you’re finding it difficult too.’ It makes it much easier to relate to each other knowing that that’s the expectation.

A. And this passage doesn't come in isolation; it comes next to a whole load of episodes about how amazing Jesus is.
M: It comes after this great stuff about Jesus healing and gives us this real contrast: Jesus is working miracles around this thing that he says is really difficult. It immediately provides this great reason to trust in him despite the fact that it’s going to be difficult. It places the cost and the prize next to one another.

A. You deal with sickness on a day-to-day basis. What does faith in Jesus look like for you when you're in the operating theatre?
M: I think it’s really powerful when you’re used to seeing really sick people. You know what real physical sickness looks like, and how incredible it is to even control that—not heal it, but just bringing it to a bearable point is really challenging. So knowing that Jesus doesn’t have to do anything - it just goes away because that is what he wills—it makes his sheer power unimaginably huge.

It’s a lot to do with levelling the cost against knowing what you’re paying for. We’ve talked about how it's difficult when you don’t have a settled home and it feels like everything is changing all the time. But all I have to do is bear with that and in return I’m being saved by a God who can oppress demons and heal sickness and calm storms and save me from my sin.

A. And then he invites you to the dining table with Abraham and the fathers?
M: We’re having breakfast and that’s because we’re friends and it's fun to hang out. Jesus inviting you to his dining table is like him saying ‘I want to have a relationship with you’ and that’s amazing.

Catch up with the Matthew 8 series.