What does can Jesus do with your desperation, defilement, and death? (Matthew 9:18-26)

Desperation. Defilement.Death.

Jesus hopefies to your desperation (Matthew 9:18-19)

The ruler mentioned on verse 18 is Jairus (Mark 5:22). Jairus is a synagogue leader, which means he serves in a highly visible administrative role. He was not a rabbi, but he was part of the religious establishment. Everyone who knew anyone in the synagogue would know Jairus.

Jairus does not come to Jesus simply as a ruler. He come to Jesus as a desperate father. His daughter has been sick for some time. According to Matthew, the girl is already dead. In Mark and Luke’s account, the girl does not die until after Jesus has healed the woman in verses 20-22. There is no discrepancy here. It boils down to the perspective of the story teller. Matthew has chosen to cut to the chase and let the reader know the girl dies. Mark and Luke decide to give a few more details in the situation.

Mark says, “the little girl was at death’s door.” What that means is her body was already in the last stages of life. She was all but dead. For Jairus to say, “my daughter just died” is true. She was past the point of any hope of life. So, Jairus, the desperate father seeks Jesus for hope. He is so desperate that he kneels down at Jesus’ feet, this controversial rabbi who has a reputation for doing the miraculous, as his only hope for his daughter. He kneeled down and worshiped. Surely this had to raise a few eye brows of anyone who knew everyone in the synagogue. What is Jairus doing? Why is he prostrating himself at the feet of this radical rabbi who is leading people away from the synagogue? Why is seeking Jesus? Doesn’t he realize his daughter is far to gone?

This brother is desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures. he had no hope. The doctors failed him. The synagogue was not sufficient to help him now. His community and family can do nothing for him. His confidence in his church, community, and home was gone. That is the reality for wordly hope, by the way. The word hope, as we use it, has a degree of uncertainty to it. Like, I hope the medicine works. We are not sure if it will work. That is not the kind of hope the Bible speaks of when it refers to the hope of the Christian. Biblical hope is about confidence. It is certain. Job did not say, “I hope my redeemer lives. He said, “I know my redeemer lives.”

Paul speaks to the craziness of life that can unload uncertainty on you in the blink of an eye. While explain his ministry circumstances to the Corinthian church, Paul says, 2 Cor 4:8

2 Corinthians 4:8 ESV

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;

Yes, life is hurting right now. Yes, the weight of suffering is crushing our spirit at this moment. We are beside ourselves not knowing which way is up. I feel you, Paul. But Paul says, but not driven to despair. Wait? What? How are you not driven to despair? He’s not driven to despair because Paul is confident in Jesus, his resurrection, and Jesus’ assurance Paul will be with him in heaven.

2 Corinthians 4:14 ESV

14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

For Jairus, the only true hope he has in this world for his daughter is the confidence he can put in Jesus Christ. So, his desperate faith humbled and compelled him to seek Jesus. Isn’ that our first step in the gospel? He sought Jesus. He fell at his feet and worshiped Jesus. He trusted Jesus. My daughter has died. But I have faith in you. I may not know who you are—a prophet, the Messiah, God in the flesh? What I do know is that God is with you in a unique way, an extraordinary way, that he is with you as he was with Elijah (1 Kings 17:17–24) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:32–37).3 And just as they raised the dead, I believe you, Jesus, if you would just come to my house and simply lay your hand on her (not stretch your body over the child like Elijah did, and not even hand-to-hand or mouth-to-mouth or eyes-to-eyes as Elisha did),4 I believe that she will be brought back to life. Sean O’Donnell has a unique way of imagining what Jairus might of said to Jesus that day:

“My daughter has died. But I have faith in you. I may not know who you are—a prophet, the Messiah, God in the flesh? What I do know is that God is with you in a unique way, an extraordinary way, that he is with you as he was with Elijah (1 Kings 17:17–24) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:32–37).3 And just as they raised the dead, I believe you, Jesus, if you would just come to my house and simply lay your hand on her (not stretch your body over the child like Elijah did, and not even hand-to-hand or mouth-to-mouth or eyes-to-eyes as Elisha did),4 I believe that she will be brought back to life.” (Sean O’Donnell, Preach the Word Matthew)

Some people have argued that Jairus is simply s desperate, and we are not to read into his seeking Jesus for hope or kneeling down at Jesus’s feet as an act of saving faith. For example, Kent Hughes, who I admire as a man of God and one of the great preachers of our time, says,

“We must not mistakenly think Jairus had become a [follower] of Jesus or that he was a man of great faith. The simple fact was he was desperate. He had heard of Jesus’ miracles (maybe had even seen some) and possibly had talked to some who had been healed. He was not sure about Jesus, but Jesus was his only chance.” (R. Kent Hughes, Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior, Preaching the Word, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), p. 127.)

Although I highly respect Kent Hughes opinion, I am not ready to dismiss Jairus’ faith in Christ as illegitimate saving faith. Why does it matter that the man was desperate? I actually think desperation is a great qualifier for saving faith.

I didn’t come to Jesus because life was good or the logic and theology of the gospel made sense to me. I came to Christ because I was desperate. The eyes of my heart saw the wrath of God. It felt the flames of hell in that night club. I ran from God as fast as I could only to find myself on the Causeway Bridge, a bridge that runs 27 miles across Lake Pontchartrain. I was certain that I was going to be swallowed up in the wrath of God like the Egyptian soldiers who drove their chariots right into the Red Sea. In my desperation, I called out to Jesus, and Jesus responded to my desperate faith, just as he did Jairus.

What can Jesus do with your desperation?

Desperate faith brought Jairus to Jesus, and Jesus gave Jairus true hope.

In verse 19, Jesus was moved by Jairus. Matthew 9:19

Matthew 9:19 ESV

19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.

Jesus responded to Jair’s desperation by arising and going with him. Jesus was compelled to help Jairus. Jairus faith was not perfect. It did not check off all the boxes of the Roman Road, but it was enough to please God. Jesus got up and he went with Jairus with the intent to bring resurrection life to His little girl. For the first time, maybe in a long time, Jairus saw light amidst his darkness. With Jesus at his side on his way to his home, Jairus could’ve been thinking about Elijah and Elisha, and how they raised sons from the grave. Maybe his heart began to feel the warmth of the confidence in Jesus melt his desperation.

If you are here this morning, and you are desperate, I want to encourage you to come, kneel at Jesus’ feet. Are sick? Come. Are chained in the shackles of a besetting sin that you cannot shake, that makes ashamed and full of guilt? Come. Maybe you have a prodigal child who has walked is so far away from the Lord that you cannot see any hope of them turning back to the Lord. What’s impossible with man is possible with God. Come. I truly believe Jesus loves your desperate faith. It gives him the opportunity to show you his glory and to plant his hope deep in your heart.

Jesus cleanses your defilement (Matthew 9:20-22)

As Jesus walks with Jairus, Matthew records a situation that interrupts the flow to the story of Jairus.

Matthew 9:20 ESV

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,

Mark and Luke reveal that this woman had been suffering from a menstrual blood hemorrhage for twelve years. She was at the mercy of local doctors who were not really competent to help her. For example, in antiquity, for conditions such as hers, it was not uncommon for local doctors to prescribe the plant Crocus. Crocus is a type of flower from which we obtain saffron. Saffron is known to break up blood clots and serve as a blood thinner. Women who experience heavy menstrual bleeding should not take it. The medicine was exacerbating her condition, physically and financially. The pain, the money, and even the social ostracizing was not the worst of it. Her condition left her ceremonially defiled, that is unclean. She could never enter the presence of God in the temple.

In Leviticus 15, the laws regarding bodily discharges is given by the LORD to Moses and Aaron. It specifies that any man with a discharge is considered unclean, regardless of whether the discharge is flowing or blocked. Items such as beds and seats that the person with the discharge touches become unclean, requiring anyone who comes into contact with them to wash their clothes and bathe, remaining unclean until evening. Similar rules apply to women experiencing menstrual impurity. If she is bleeding she is unclean for seven days, and anyone who touches her or her belongings becomes unclean as well; which means you friends did not come near you, or anyone for that matter. If a woman has a prolonged discharge of blood, she remains unclean for the duration, and she is to never step foot inside the temple. As a matter of fact, the penalty for entering the temple while unclean ranged from forty lashes to death by stoning.

All of us are like the bleeding woman. By our fallen nature, we are unclean. Isaiah describes our best righteousness as polluted menstrual garments (Isaiah 64:6). Charles Spurgeon likens our sin to a strong gut wrenching scent that lingers like an eternal pest in the nostrils of God. One sin of thought destroys all communion with God. Not only are we desperate, but we are defiled, unclean, never allowed in the presence of God by our own right.

Feeling the weight of her physical, social, and spiritual condition, she came to the same place Jairus found himself, desperate. So, she seeks Jesus. By this time he is walking away from her. She makes her way through the crowd and comes up begin behind him. She does not want to be recognized and she does not need Jesus to even speak to her. She is so confident in Jesus’ power to heal her that she is content to merely touch the fringe of his tassels (Matthew 9:21); “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Once again we see desperate faith. But what is cool about her faith is, it is also expectant.

What I love about Matthews account of Jairus and the woman is both of the have desperate faith, but intertwined with their desperate faith is an expectation. Jairus says

Matthew 9:18 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.”

The woman says

Matthew 9:21 ESV

21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.”

What I get from this is, with my desperation for Jesus I need to have an expectation of Jesus. I come to Jesus begging, pleading, needing, but I also come knowing and believing he is able and willing to respond to my faith, which is what he does for the woman.

As soon as she touches Jesus, his power goes out from Him. Immediately, her bleeding stops, and she feels physically better. Her heart is ecstatic; something marvelous has just happened. Jesus did what no one else could do for her, and he accomplished it in a way that seemed impossible—through his clothes. In Marks account, he describes the woman as feeling fear and trembling. She responded to Christ just as the disciples did when Jesus calmed the storm, and similarly to how the herdsmen reacted when they witnessed the man restored from demon possession: with fear and trembling. 

Jesus’s power instills fear in the hearts of those he encounters. Jesus is no ordinary magician or con man; he is unique. Something beyond healing occurred with the woman. When Jesus turns and demands to know who touched his garment, “The woman was compelled to fall before him and tell him the whole truth.” She confessed to Jesus that she is suffering from menstrual bleeding. She acknowledged that she knows Jesus is a rabbi, a holy teacher, and that she is unclean, meaning that touching him would’ve made him unclean. By this act, Jesus could’ve been irate with her, even shaming her in front of all the crowd. What Jew in their right mind who knew they were unclean would purposefully touch a rabbi?

So, she throws herself at Jesus’s mercy, and instead of rebuking her for using him and rendering him “unfit for temple worship,” he affirms her faith: “Daughter, your faith has made you well!” Daughter is a term of endearment. Jesus, knowing she was defiled, loved her, affirmed her, and cleansed her.

What can Jesus do with your defilement?

He can make you clean before God. The woman did not make Jesus unclean. Jesus can never become unclean. Jesus is what clean means to be. You never make Jesus unclean. Rather, by faith, he makes you clean. The woman did not make him unfit to go the temple; he made her acceptable in the sight of God. That is the beauty of Jesus. He makes the unclean, clean. In fact Jesus makes the sinner so clean that God himself can reside in you, making you the new temple. How? It’s the power of imputation.

When Jesus shed his blood on the cross, he atoned for your sin. You are forgiven. You are justified. You are made righteous because Jesus takes your sin and its penalty on the cross, and in turn exchanges it for his righteousness. That is, he gives you his perfect holy God pleasing complete righteousness. God credits Christ’s righteousness to you (Romans 4:6,11). Imputation, as John Piper defines it, is the work of God outside of us. God’s own righteousness imputed to us. Credited to us, as Romans 4:6 and 11 say. Put to our account. Reckoned to be yours. And because it is in Jesus, Piper encourages you, with your desperate expectant faith to,

“Remember, Christ is your righteousness. Christ is your righteousness. Your righteousness is in heaven. It’s the same yesterday today and forever. It doesn’t get better when your faith is strong. It doesn’t get worse when your faith is weak. It is perfect. It is Christ. Look away from yourself. Rest in him. Lean on him.” John Piper

That is what has been impressive with Jairus and the woman in out text. Their faith, however imperfect it was, looked away from themselves, looked to Jesus, rested in Jesus and leaned on Jesus.

Jesus resurrects your death (Matthew 9:20-22)

I can only imagine how Jairus was feeling in this moment. He get’s Jesus to come to his house to heal his daughter, only for Jesus to get hung up with this woman. If I were Jairus I might be tempted to impress on Jesus to hurry up. Jesus, however, will not be rushed. He does not operate on our sense of time, nor is he obligated too.

In Marks account, someone comes to tell Jairus his daughter has died. Jesus has a message for Jairus.

Mark 5:36 ESV

36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

The way Mark describes how Jesus heard the report in v36 is nothing short of stunning. The Greek word “παρακούειν” (translated in the NIV as “ignoring”) has three distinct meanings: (1) to overhear something not intended for one’s ears, (2) to pay no attention to or ignore, and (3) to refuse to listen or discount the truth of. Jesus tells Jairus to ignore that he as heard, or to not listen to it. Jesus is not saying the girl is not dead. He is simply telling Jairus to keep walking the road of faith he started when he came to Jesus. Do not fear, only believe.

If Jairus was paying attention, the woman served a purpose of grace for him. Despite Jairus’s hope being crushed at the death of his daughter, Jesus healing the woman should ignite hope for Jairus and his daughter. If a woman can merely touch the tassels of Jesus’ garment and be healed of a twelve year infirmity, is it possible that Jesus can do something even more powerful, like resurrection?

When they finally arrive at the Jairus’ home, the hired mourners are already stirring up commotion. Jesus gives Jairus a hope when he says the girl is not dead, but is sleeping. The mourners laugh because they do not believe, kind of like Sarah when she was told she would have Isaac in her old age.

When Jesus entered the room where the girl is sleeping, he approached her as a father might approach a child who needs to wake up in the morning or from a nap. He takes her by the hand and says, “Talitha Koum.” Talitha is an Arabic term of endearment, akin to the words “honey” or “sweetie.”

When the girls were little, I would come into their room and gently wake them up. I might rub their back or pull their hair away from the their head and say, “Hey, baby girl, it’s time to get up and make it a great day.” That is Talitha Koum: “Baby girl, it’s time to get up.”

What can Jesus do with your death?

Jesus gives you ressurection life. The girl wakes up as if she were taking a nap. Jesus has the power to raise the dead to life. When Mary and Martha’s brother died, they called for Jesus to heal him. Jesus had other plans to show them that he was more than a healer. He is the resurrection and he life, and those who believe in him shall live and never die (John 11:23-26). A few verses later we read that Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of that tomb (John 11:43). Lazarus came out of the tomb alive and well.

Jesus died on the cross and was in the grave three days. On the third day he arose from the dead. Before he died he told his disciples John 10:18

John 10:18 ESV

18 No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus has the power to raise the dead. Jesus promises that all who are his will rise from the dead and be with him. Paul affirms this promise.

Romans 6:5 ESV

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

For us to have the promise of resurrection, however, Jesus had to die on the cross for our sin. He had receive the wrath of God on our behalf so we can have his righteousness. And God raised him from the dead so we can have his life and righteousness forever. As Keller beautifully explains it, “He lost hold of his Father’s hand so we could know that once He has us by the hand, He will never, ever forsake us.”

In the hands of Jesus, death was a time of rest for that Jairus’ little girl. In the hands of Christ, death becomes nothing more than an opportunity for us to awaken in the love and care of King Jesus. If you belong to Jesus, one day, you will hear Jesus say, “Talitha Koum,” “Arise, my child.” It’s time to get up. And when awaken you will be able serve him forever, just as the little girl did when she was resurrected.

Jesus’ offer of resurrection, cleansing, and hope is free to all who will take it. The gift of salvation is for all who call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. If you are desperate and know you need Jesus. Come to him today. He will not turn you away. If you recognize you are a sinner, unclean, and unable to stand in God’s presence, come to Jesus. He will forgive you and cleanse of all unrighteousness. If the eyes of your heart can humbly see that death is coming for you, and with death comes God’s judgement, come to Jesus. You need Jesus’ resurrection life. For those who reject Jesus, they will suffer his wrath in hell. You will have a resurrection of eternal judgement in the lake of fire. Repent and turn to Jesus. He give you an eternal resurrection of life.

John 11:25–26 ESV

25 …“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Believe, for today is the day of salvation. Let Jesus take you by the hand and bring you safely into his kingdom where desperation dies, defilement is defied, and death is destroyed. Amen