Disturbed

I'm reading through the New Testament with a friend right now and over the last week, I've found the word "disturbed" twice in my readings, so of course I wanted to search it, see what the original Greek was... You know, all that fun stuff that us word geeks like to do :-)


What I found was that the two instances that I found the word "disturbed" weren't actually the same in the original Greek.  But the meanings were still really cool and I still really want to talk about both of them so, here it goes... 


The first verse is found in Matthew 2:3.  The setting is when the wisemen approach King Herod with the news that Jesus, the King of the Jews, the Messiah, was born.  They were looking for where he might be.  This was Herod's reaction to the news and what struck me wasn't really Herod's reaction but rather the reaction of everyone in Jerusalem.  Take a look at the verse for a second:




³ King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

Everyone in Jerusalem was "deeply disturbed".


So, this lead me to my wondering about what "disturbed" meant in this context.  Partly because I'm interested in words, but partly because everyone had this reaction to the news about Jesus and I wanted a little more information about what that reaction was.  What I found was that the word translated disturbed here has the connotation of agitation, restlessness, to stir up, to trouble.  Most of the definitions I found seemed to have a negative affect.  But it's the reaction that strikes me.  It was a pretty involved reaction.


That reaction lead me to this thought:


Our reaction to Jesus is never neutral and we always have a reaction to him.  


Jesus didn't come so we could have a comfortable easy life.  He came to shake things up.  His presence should make our hearts restless for more of him.  That restlessness speaks to our need for Christ.


It made me wonder if my reaction to him has been too tame lately.  I want my restlessness and agitation to change the world for Jesus, but have I been restless or agitated lately?  Or have I allowed something else to take the place of that restlessness and stirring Jesus brings to my heart?

What about you?  Is Jesus stirring your heart?  Or have you allowed something else his place?


P.S. I'll talk about the other verse later...this is already long :-)