Matthew 9 Part 2

When we look back to last week, we find Jesus as he heals a paralytic. He hears the questions, how can He forgive his sins? And answers which is easier, to say ‘Yours ins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Rise and walk’? Jesus not only forgave the paralytic of his sin, because of the FAITH shown by him and his friends, but he also healed him physically. Rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and went home. They were able to see not only a physical healing, but a spiritual renewing as well. The crowds were afraid. They were glorifying God who had given the ability to heal to men. Yet they failed to understand Jesus wasn’t just man - he was God also.

Matthew then gave his personal testimony of how Jesus called him to the ministry. Two simple words. Follow me. Matthew not only followed Jesus, but coordinated a great evangelistic feast where many tax collectors and sinners came to dine with Jesus. But another question was raised by the church leadership, the Pharisees. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered their whispers with these words - those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Christians, our churches should have an emergency room sign on our front doors. It should not be like a hotel for the rich and famous, but instead the doors should be open to those who are sick - in need of SPIRITUAL healing.

In these coming verses, we find the Pharisees continuing to question the actions of Jesus. Why? Simply because He didn’t do things their way. Those who were learned scholars, who should have been able to see the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus chose to remain blind and reject Him.

Fasting

Matthew 9:14–17 ESV

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Not only were the Pharisees grumbling, but now the disciples of John followed suit. Why is it when God moves, others complain??? Have you ever noticed that? That’s not what I would have done. That’s not how I would have done it. That’s not the way it’s been done in the past. Blah Blah Blah. That’s exactly what these disciples were doing. “Why to we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Why were John’s disciples were criticizing, grumbling, and complaining? Because Jesus’ disciples were not doing what John’s disciples thought they should. How often we criticize those who veer away from the traditions and rules that we practice and often find easy to keep. Most men are disciplined in some areas and undisciplined in others. It is easy to criticize a man’s weakness while overlooking our own. And why is it that those who are criticized and murmured against the most are those who are so often serving the most? They are the very ones doing the most. How much division and damage is done by murmuring among God’s people!

Jesus answers this question with the illustration of the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom pictures a new life and age of joy.During the marriage festivities of a bridegroom, as long as the bridegroom is present, his attendants rejoice. It is a joyful, festive time. Jesus was teaching several lessons.

1 - Jesus’ presence brings joy. The age of the Messiah was often pictured as a joyful occasion. It was often compared to the festivities surrounding a marriage feast. Jesus was saying that He was the Bridegroom who was ushering in the Messianic Age. The Messiah brought a new age and a new life to man, an age of joy and liberation (salvation). It is a new age and life that supersedes the mechanical and external rituals and ceremonies of religion. It is an age that brings God’s presence down to man and lays the emphasis on God’s presence, not on ritual and ceremony.

2 - Jesus’ prediction was that He would die. Jesus was predicting His death by violent means. He was to “be taken from them.” His death brought sorrow to the heart of any who saw it and understood it. But it brought joy soon after, for there was the knowledge that He lives forevermore. His death and its cleansing power can be forgotten. The Lord’s presence can fade from a person’s consciousness. A person can become so busy and preoccupied with the affairs of the world that he loses his sensitivity to the Lord’s presence. At such times, the person needs to get alone with God. His concern should be so great that neither food nor sleep matter; nothing matters except regaining the consciousness of God’s presence.

His death would bring about fasting. His death should cause us to fast when we first learn of His death and what it really means. His death should cause us to fast when we are forcibly reminded that He died for us. Such times should be heartrending times, precious times of prayer and fasting for believers. His death should cause us to fast when we allow His presence to slip out of our mind for some length of time. At such times, we need to get alone and meditate upon His death allowing nothing to interfere, including food. Fasting allows us to remove the focus from the everyday routine and focus on what is truly important.

The second illustration Jesus uses is the new cloth. A new piece of cloth was unshrunken. To place it on an old piece of cloth was to surely mean it would fail. Jesus was bringing in new life, a new age, one that was stronger than the old life and age. He could not take His teachings and patch up the old teaching. It would not only detract from the good of the old, it would cause a tear that would be greater than what was going to naturally happen. There was going to be a tear in the old religion and teaching, a natural tear that occurs when any new age or movement is launched in a major way. But the tear would be greater if He attempted to patch up the old.

There was a tear, a pulling apart between Jesus and the old religion with its rituals and ceremonies. He was saying that the tear would have been much greater if He had adopted the old and reformed it. Both the new and old would have been useless, no good for any man to wear.

Many are attached to formal religion, putting their trust in its ceremonies and rituals. Going through the mechanics of religion is what is thought important. A person feels he is acceptable to God just so he worships God. Anyone who says otherwise or attempts to change the tradition of religion is considered radical and fanatic.

Jesus makes a third illustration of the new and old wine. The new wine would burst the old wineskins due to the old wineskins being firm and rigid, not being able to give to the pressure of the new wine.

The answer to handling old and new wine is to preserve the good of both. The old religion was not to be cast aside. It had some strengths and some benefits. The answer was not to reform it but to fulfill it by ushering in a new life and age. The old wineskins (restrictions) were not strong enough to contain the new life which Christ was bringing.

The new wine would have been lost if it had been put into the old wineskins of religion. There would be no new life or age, no hope for man whatsoever.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

One of the biggest mistakes made by men is their pouring new ideas and new methods into old wineskins, that is, into the old restrictions and ways of doing things.

We must not let the traditions of the old way bring about our death. Our rituals, ceremonies, and religion will die apart from the new life in Jesus Christ. Even we ourselves will die apart from His new life. Our traditions, our religion can keep us from Him by focusing our attention upon them instead of God.

Girls Life Restored and Woman Healed

Matthew 9:18–26 ESV

18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. 20 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, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. 23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.

As Jesus was dealing with the grumbling from John’s disciples, a man approached with a real problem. His daughter had just died. But through faith, this man knew if Jesus would just touch her she would live. Jesus and his disciples left and went with him.

Isn’t this life? How many times do we have to wade through so much of the everyday bologna that it seems to drive us nuts. Only to have something critical hit us, and put us back into perspective? While everyone else was wondering why they weren’t fasting, a real emergency was occurring. While everyone else was wondering why things weren’t being done their way, a family experienced a loss. While this family experienced a loss, their faith would find them restored.

There was the helpless cry for life. The man who cried for help was a ruler and a father. Luke says that the ruler’s name who oversaw the administration of the synagogue at Capernaum was Jairus. The synagogue ruler was an elected position among the religious leaders. The person was highly respected, both capable and popular, a person who wielded great power. He determined who was to teach in the synagogue worship and supervised the whole operation. He was one of the most important men in a community.

Jairus’ daughter was only twelve years old. Jairus was a man of strong love, a man who loved his daughter ever so deeply; and he was a man of strong courage. He showed remarkable courage in approaching Jesus, for he went against the tide of the other religionists who were violent in their thoughts against Jesus. The other religionists were bound to react against Jairus. Only the sense of desperation would stir him to approach Jesus, and then he would approach Jesus only as a last resort. It was the desperate need of his daughter that drove him to Jesus.

Note Jesus’ response to the father’s desperation. Jesus arose and acted by following the man, by going to his house where the need was. There was no hesitation whatsoever. Jesus will meet us at our place of need. Jesus wants us to need Him. Jesus won’t ever fail us.

On the way to restore Jarius’ daughters life, there was the secret hope for health by another woman. She had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. She was desperately hopeless, feeling ashamed, embarrassed, and unworthy. According to the law, she was not to be in the crowd surrounding Jesus at all. She was supposed to be isolated, but her desperation drove her to Jesus. She felt that Jesus would never touch her because she was unclean, but she had heard so many wonderful things about Him: if she could only touch His garment, He would never know, and she would be healed. Imagine her great faith!

There was no way Jesus could have felt the touch to His robe. He was being pressed and thronged by the crowd, yet when she stepped up behind Him and touched His robe, He knew. How? Her faith touched Him. It is faith that touches Jesus. Faith will never go unnoticed nor be ignored by Jesus. Virtue (power and life) went out from Jesus into her. When a person places his faith in Jesus and His power, it touches Jesus, and Jesus infuses His virtue (His power and life) into that person. Jesus saw the woman. He saw her desperation, her confession of hopelessness, her need, her faith; and His heart went out to her from the depths of compassion. Jesus adopted the woman. He called her “daughter” and adopted her into the family of God. He spoke to her in behalf of the Father and gave her the assurance that she was accepted by God. The fact that God would help her was conveyed to her immediately. Note also that Jesus said, “be of good cheer.” She experienced the consolation and assurance of God immediately. Jesus made her whole. His virtue (power and life) was infused into her, and she was saved and made whole. She had feared facing Jesus because she feared being rebuked. She was wrong. Jesus longed to heal the desperate among the people. No person is too dirty for Him. In fact, the more unclean a person is, the more He wants to cleanse and make him whole. Imagine such a Savior!

Now, why do we see this delay in his response to the rulers daughter? Jesus knew that the ruler’s desperation was bound to grow more uneasy by allowing the woman to delay Him. But He also knew that the ruler’s confidence and assurance would be strengthened by seeing Him meet the woman’s need. Perhaps the man needed to be strengthened. Whatever the reason for allowing the delay, Jesus knew.

Returning back to his task at the rulers house, he saw the preparations that had taken place. The death crowd and musicians had gathered. It was noise, grief and despair everywhere. He commanded the crowd to leave. Their wailing was being done for nothing. They were simply a distraction. At times, we must also get away from the noise and clamor of life and seek quiet so we can mediate, pray, and trust God to do His work.

While they laughed at Him, they were sent away, He took her by the hand, and she arose. This girl was dead. It was unmistakable that she was dead, even the CROWD knew she was dead. They knew death when they saw it, and they laughed at Jesus for not recognizing it. But Jesus took a time of mourning and desperation and turned it into a time of joyous celebration. The result of His power. Jesus’ fame was spread abroad. The raising of the dead was proof that Jesus was the Messiah. The people talked and talked about His power, but note how many still did not believe. They still refused to commit their lives to Him.

Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (2004). The Gospel according to Matthew: Chapters 1:1–16:12 (Vol. 1, pp. 220–221). Leadership Ministries Worldwide.