Believing Jesus Matthew 9:18, 23-25

While Jesus was saying these things, a leader of the synagogue came to him. He bowed down before Jesus and said, "My daughter has just died. But if you come and lay your hand on her, she will live again...."   Jesus continued along with the leader and went into his house. There he saw the funeral musicians and many people crying. Jesus said, "Go away. The girl is not dead, only asleep." But the people laughed at him. After the crowd had been thrown out of the house, Jesus went into the girl's room and took hold of her hand, and she stood up.

By this time in Jesus' ministry, He was already being questioned and shunned by the pharisees and temple officials.  This synagogue leader would, no doubt, ordinarily have been reluctant  to be associated with Jesus in public -not a good career move.  But this was different.  He wasn't trying to associate himself.  And he wasn't concerned about his reputation or career.  He was desperate.  His heart was breaking.  His daughter had died.


Funny how we so often wait until we have no other options before we turn to Jesus.  Amazingly, Jesus responds to brokenhearted, desperate people.  We don't have to wait to turn to Jesus.  We don't have to be broken and crushed and despairing -but it seems to be our way that as long as we can figure things out on our own and as long as we can muddle through somehow, we are going to try.


This father was out of options.  His daughter was dead, and in desperation he came to Jesus asking for the impossible.  And Jesus responded with mercy and compassion.

Jesus came to the house where friends and neighbors were already gathered in mourning, and immediately said something so absurd that in the middle of their mourning they laughed -not in joy, in ridicule -mocking.  Jesus said the girl wasn't dead, only asleep.  These people knew better.  They knew death.  They could see it.  They could smell it.  They could feel it in the air.  She was dead.  



What Jesus said did not make sense, yet He went to the girl's room and took her by the hand and "woke" her up.  No matter that the entire world believed and all evidence showed that she was dead, Jesus said she was sleeping and He woke her.

I am reminded of how we often refuse to believe what the Lord tells us simply because it doesn't make sense to us: our sins are forgiven and He remembers them no more;  there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; we are being transformed into the likeness and character of Christ; He loves us with an everlasting love; He will never leave us nor forsake us; He has plans to give us a future and a hope; He calls us friends.   Amazing. 

"A Worthwhile Risk" Matthew 9:20-22

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I will be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said,  "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. 

Because this woman had suffered a discharge of blood for 12 years, there are a few things we already know about her.  According to Jewish law, she was ceremonially unclean; that means she could not take part in any social or religious activities.  Because this was ongoing, she had not been able to take part for many years.  She was an outcast.

The Gospel of Luke's telling of this story (Luke chapter 8) gives a few more details.  It tells us that she had spent all of her money on doctors who had not helped at all -so she was sick, she was an outcast, and she was financially destitute.  She knew that it was not acceptable for her to confront Jesus openly and ask for healing.  If Jesus touched her, He would be unclean as well.  And of course, this wasn't the kind of topic a person wants to call attention to in a crowd.  There were many reasons why she couldn't just approach Jesus like other people did, yet she believed in her heart that Jesus could and would heal her.

So, she made a plan.  She decided to approach Jesus from behind as He was walking through a crowd, and reach out and touch the tassels of His outer garment.  Her hope was that in touching Jesus, she would be made well.  It was a risky move.  If anyone in the crowd recognized her, it could be dangerous.  Being unclean, she was not allowed to be in public, touching and bumping and jostling with those who were clean.  According to their custom, she could make the entire crowd unclean.  But she went into the crowd anyway, and she came up behind Jesus, her only hope, and she reached out and touched His garment, and she was made well.

I am reminded of how often we are embarrassed about the struggles and issues in our own lives and afraid to  approach Jesus in the congregation -in public.  Yet the book of James, chapter 5, tells us that we ought to confess our sins to one another so that we can be healed.  Someone said that we are as sick as our secrets -I think that's true.  Author and speaker, Jack Frost, noted that we often don't seek healing (spiritually and emotionally) until the level of our pain exceeds the level of our denial -I think that is true as well.  But, when we are desperate enough to risk it all in order to be right with God, God shows up.

I am also reminded here that after the fact -after Jesus heals and restores us, all of the hurt and pain and suffering we have endured (physically, spiritually and emotionally) is nothing but a testimony to God's goodness and grace.  After she was healed, it didn't much matter that people knew she had been sick.  The same is true for us.  Seeking Jesus is worth the risk.

"New & Old" Matthew 9:16-17

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

 One of the wonderful things about God is that He is patient and thoughtful.  He understands our weaknesses and limitations, and He is willing to work with us within the context of our inadequate paradigms.  We cannot comprehend the greatness, the goodness, the majesty, the glory of God -it is beyond our understanding.  So, God patiently and lovingly fills to overflowing whatever box we try to put Him in.  That's just the way it is.

This is why, I believe, Scripture often speaks of God doing a new thing, a new song, new wine.  It is not because God has changed or changed His mind -it is more because He is greater than we comprehend, with God there is always more.

Sometimes we look at our past experiences with God and desire that God just continue doing what we have become comfortable with.  So, if God met our needs at a mega-church we tend to think that every church ought to aspire to be a mega-church.  If we encountered God a home-church, we tend to think that all churches should be home-churches.  If our hearts are moved by the ancient hymns and creeds, we tend to think that modern worship is shallow and flippant.  If we feel His presence in modern praise and worship, we tend to think historic hymns are boring and irrelevant. If we hear His voice in Scripture we tend to think that we don't need His Spirit speaking and giving direct revelation to our hearts and souls.  If we have experienced prophetic revelation and words of knowledge we tend to lessen the importance of Scripture.

God is patient and slow to anger, but He does have a perspective.  He desires that both the old wine and the new wine are preserved.  The new is good, but the old is also good.  Take care not to ruin either -the old and the new are both reflections of God.

"Mercy Not Sacrifice" Matthew 9:10-13

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

 It was a tradition among the Jewish people to honor a friend by hosting a feast in his honor.  Jesus had shown Matthew, the traitor, the tax-collector, the man who had exploited his own people for profit, compassion.  Jesus had restored Matthew's dignity, and Matthew desired to honor Jesus.  The problem was that because of Matthew's standing in the community (he had been thrown out of the temple and disallowed at any Jewish function) he had no proper friends to invite to the feast.  Matthew's friends consisted of other tax-collectors, thieves, prostitutes, and other pariah.

I'm sure that Matthew must have explained this dilemma to Jesus because his intent was to honor Jesus and he knew that in the greater community, it would not be honoring for Jesus to socialize with such a group.  But Jesus came to Matthew's feast anyway.

Sure enough, the religious elite -the guardians of public morality -noticed and immediately began to criticize.  When they asked, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" it was a rhetorical question as they has already reached their own conclusions.  In their thinking, Jesus had chosen the rabble because he himself was of the same ilk.

This causes me to think about all of the times Christians have brought out the verses about "shunning the very appearance of evil," and "not being a stumbling block to weaker brothers."  Once again Jesus goes to the motives of the heart.  It is not our place to look at other Believers and judge their motives. Only God is in a position to judge hearts.  Because Jesus knew this to be true, He was not concerned about His reputation.  He simply did what was right and let people think whatever they wanted to think.

When Jesus says, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' He forbids judgmental condemnation among His followers.  Sacrifice represents the law.  The Old Covenant was a sacrificial system.  Jesus represents God's heart.  The key here is the motivations of the heart.  When our motives are selfish and self-serving, we need to consider that others are watching and be careful not to be a stumbling block to weaker brothers.  When our motives are to obey Father and do His will, forget what others think -Mercy is better than sacrifice, and grace trumps law.

"Follow Me" Matthew 9:9

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

Although this little verse seems straightforward, there is more going on than at first meets the eye.  There is a back-story, a cultural backdrop, and probably more actual dialog than recorded.  Since the full conversation wasn't recorded, we don't know exactly what was said, but if we fill in some of the cultural details, we can imagine what was going on.

Matthew was Jewish.  He was Jewish, working for the Roman Empire -he collected taxes.  His position wasn't assigned, it was bought; he had purchased the right to collect taxes.  When we say "collect taxes," don't think along the lines of IRS policies and tax laws, because, frankly, Rome didn't care exactly how a tax collector got his money as long as he turned in the amount he had agreed to when he purchased the right to be the regional tax collector.  Anything the tax collector collected over and above what Rome demanded was his to keep.  An ambitious tax collector could become very wealthy.

Of course, there was a trade-off.  Tax collectors became wealthy, but they were despised and they were ex-communicated from the temple.  Rome was the oppressor.  Collecting from fellow citizens for Rome was treachery.

Because they had the backing of Rome and very few regulations as to how to do their jobs, tax collectors tended to collect as much as they could get away with without the local citizens actually murdering them.  Typically they set up a booth on a major road near a town and taxed everyone coming and going.  They could tax for anything they wanted.  They taxed people for anything going to market.  They taxed people for anything they had purchased at market.  They taxed people for conducting business.  They taxed for anything that they could think of to tax someone for.  It was legalized extortion.

Jesus and His disciples came across Matthew's tax booth.  Since we know that Jesus actually talked to Matthew, it is safe to assume that Matthew had stopped them and was trying to figure how much to tax them.  Matthew was sizing them up trying to discern how much money they had.  he probably asked them some questions.  And I imagine that as Jesus answered the questions patiently and kindly, He gave Matthew a sense of dignity that Matthew hadn't felt from anyone in a long, long time.  Jesus wasn't hateful.  Jesus wasn't angry. 


Whatever other questions got asked, eventually Jesus looked deeply into Matthew's eyes and asked, "Matthew, why don't you leave all of this behind and follow me?"

And, amazingly, Matthew did.  Whatever the conversation actually was, Matthew felt from Jesus a compassion and a kindness and a sense of self-worth, a hope for a brand new start that caused him to leave his tax-booth, to leave his profession, to walk away from everything he was and everything he had and evrything he knew and begin a new life following Jesus.

I believe the invitation Jesus gave Matthew is the same invitation He gives us.  "Leave your old life -leave your old habits and dreams and ways of thinking -just walk away, and follow Me."

"Spiritual Problems & Physical Problems" Matthew 9:1-8

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.


 Jesus saw this young man who was paralyzed.  The people had already seen Jesus heal others with similar afflictions, so there was an expectancy that Jesus would heal.  They were surprised, however, when instead of simply speaking words of healing, Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven."  I can imagine the gasp as the entire crowd thought what the Pharisees said, "Only God can forgive sins."

I have three immediate thoughts about this.  First, Jesus is implying a connection between this man's condition and sin.  While we are not supposed to look at others with judgment and condemnation in our hearts, I think that we would be wise when we are sick and suffering to look inside and allow God to search our hearts before we head to the doctors and try to medicate spiritual issues with pills and drugs.  Not always, but at least sometimes, our medical issues have roots in spiritual issues.

My second thought about this is that this man had two problems, related, yet distinct.  He had a spiritual problem and needed God's forgiveness, and he had a medical problem that needed healing.  Jesus seems to be indicating that although the medical problem is the most apparent, the spiritual problem is the more important.  Ultimately, Jesus resolved both problems: He restored spiritually and physically.

My third thought is how Jesus is setting up a claim that is the basis of our faith, and demonstrating in a tangible way the reality.  "I and the Father are One;  If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father;  I only do what I see the Father doing and I only say what I hear the Father saying."

"Dealing With Demons" Matthew 8:28-33

When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"
 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.  The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."
He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.  Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

A couple of thoughts come to mind here.  First, sometimes people question why Jesus allowed the demons to go into the herd of pigs.  I think it is because Jesus cares more about people than he does pigs (or any animals).  It is not yet the end of the age, and until then demons occupy this world.  It was not time for eternal judgment; it wasn't their time to be abolished to the pit that is created for Satan and his followers.  So, Jesus, desiring to see these severely demonized men set free, allowed the demons to leave the men and enter the pigs.

The second thought that comes to me is how easily this transference took place.  There was no shouting match; no spiritual wrestling match; no snapping fingers or clapping hands; no cursing, puking, or violence;  and no danger that Jesus or His disciples would somehow get a demon on them.  Jesus, because He had authority over demons simply gave the word, and the demons obeyed -they had no choice.  Scriptures clearly indicate that we who are in Christ have the same authority over the demonic.  Why, then, do people (even Christians) get so freaked out at the thought of encountering demons?  Why do deliverance ministries make such a big deal of it?  Because we have authority (the authority of Christ) when we encounter the demonic, deliverance is as simple as hearing from Father what He wants to do and speaking the word.

Here in this story we get a very clear picture of the simplicity of destroying the works of the devil as we operate in the authority of Jesus.