HE MADE ME WHOLE

Introduction

{Matthew 9}

After my mission trips to Japan I found their culture to be so fascinating. One thing that I found very beautiful was Kintsugi. When a piece of pottery shatters, they don’t throw it away. An artisan takes the fractured pieces and mends it back together using a special lacquer that’s mixed with powdered gold or silver. The vessel isn’t just fixed, it’s transformed, with the golden or silvery seams highlighting the breaks, making the history of the object part of its beauty. What was broken is made whole, and becomes even more valuable and resilient than before.

Some of us sitting here or watching online find ourselves to be damaged pottery. Whether physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional, we feel fractured. But from our passage today we learn the lesson that Jesus has the power to make me whole.

I want us to constantly and consistently seek Jesus to put us back together into something even more valuable and resilient than we already are in His sight—a sort of spiritual Kintsugi.

Matthew 9:18–26 LSB

18 While He was saying these things to them, behold, a synagogue official came and was bowing down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples. 20 And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment; 21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will be saved from this.” 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has saved you.” At once the woman was saved from her hemorrhage. 23 And when Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder, 24 He was saying, “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. 25 But when the crowd had been sent out, coming in, He took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And this news spread throughout all that land.

{pray}

Two passages before this one, Jesus called Matthew to be a disciple. Matthew had a banquet at his house, introducing all his sinner friends to Jesus. The Pharisees didn’t like that very much. So, Jesus told them to learn what this means: I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE. And now, Jesus puts this to action. The compassion that Jesus demonstrated toward the people in our passage gives us hope that He can and will do the same for us. What can we learn so that we too can experience the restoration Christ offers. Our first lesson is to:

1) Acknowledge the depth of our brokenness

It does us no good to deny that we or the world has a problem. All of us are broken in some way because we are all born broken into a broken world that constantly makes our brokenness worse. While we work so hard to pass ourselves off as having everything together, in reality we are shattered with the pieces of our lives strewn about. This is our reality.

Look at the people in our passage. The situation with the woman with the hemorrhaging touches upon every aspect of human suffering. She had been dealing with female bleeding for twelve years, so there is obviously the physical illness itself. She had to suffer through the symptoms (be it pain or fatigue) without any relief in sight. The parallel passages in Mark 5 and Luke 8 tell us she spent all her money on doctors that were of no help to her. I get irritated if I have a cold longer than 2 days. This poor soul suffered for twelve years!

But the mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering that came with the physical ailment broke her spirit. According to Mosaic law in Leviticus 15 any woman who has a discharge of blood is considered ritually unclean. This meant that she was not allowed to go to synagogue, cutting her off from the assembly of God’s people. On top of that, anything that she touched would be considered unclean and anyone she touched would be considered unclean.

So, most likely, she lived alone so as not to make anything or anybody else unclean. While she may have been able to talk to people from a distance, no one would have wanted to touch her for fear of becoming unclean, so she was not shown human affection. Imagine the toll this would take mentally, emotionally, spiritually—for twelve years. After a few weeks or months of such suffering it might drive us toward helplessness and hopelessness.

Some of you might relate to this woman. Things in your life have worn on you. It has affected your mind, your spirit, your relationships. Don’t bury your brokenness, acknowledge it and then do something with it (which I’ll touch on shortly).

But then there is the family of the synagogue leader who experienced the epitome of human heartbreak—death. We do everything in our power to try to avoid the subject because it makes us uncomfortable. There may be some squirming in their pews in the church or chairs at home because the mere mention of death causes anxiety. But we have to deal with this subject because it is something we all have to face. Denying it won’t make it go away.

We lose loved ones, and we one day will walk the path as well. Inside of us we know that there is something inherently wrong with death—things weren’t meant to be that way. Death, like the rest of suffering, is a foreign invader to God’s good creation. But it is our present reality. And if we don’t deal with it properly, it will only worsen our damaged state.

Imagine a homeowner with a piece of pottery shattered into several pieces. Instead of having it fixed (like the Kintsugi) they try to use the pieces as if the vessel isn’t damaged. But the broken pottery can’t hold anything, so everything just spills all over the place. So, the extent of the brokenness needs to be acknowledged so the homeowner seeks to fix it.

We can’t minimize the fact or the extent of ours or the world’s brokenness. But facing our own doesn’t need to lead us to despair, because there is an artisan who can mend us and restore us. Which leads to our second lesson, which is to:

2) Apprehend the reach of Christ’s power

There is no one who is too damaged for Jesus Christ to mend. There is nothing that you have experienced that takes you beyond His healing power. Jesus Christ is God the Son, meaning that He is eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present. He knows your need and is able to help with your need.

Consider the woman with the issue of blood. No doctor could cure her and she obviously was not going to heal on her own. She had no one else. And Jesus was able to save her from this malady.

Think about the daughter of the synagogue official. She died, which is pretty irreversible unless you are God. Jesus went to the official’s house and already there were professional mourners there. It was a Jewish custom that when someone passed away, they hired musicians and people to wail over the lost loved one.

So there was a large crowd of people mourning. And Jesus tells them to stop all the commotion because the girl was merely sleeping. They laughed and mocked Him. They knew she was dead. But Jesus knew her death would be temporary, because He had the power to do something about it. Even death couldn’t escape Jesus sovereign control.

That means whatever fracturing of life you are experiencing, Jesus can mend you and make you whole—if not in this world, then most certainly in the next. So, for example, if you’re burdened by the bondage of addiction to drugs, alcohol, or other destructive behaviors, Jesus is able to heal. With this large weight on your shoulders you feel nothing but spiritual emptiness, relational devastation, and physical decline. Jesus can bring deliverance and freedom.

Some might carry deep emotional scars from past abuse, neglect, betrayal, or tragedy. This can lead you to have anxiety, depression, bitterness, unforgiveness, or even self-destructive patterns. Jesus can heal, teach you how to forgive, and find peace that surpasses understanding.

Of course, there’s the brokenness that we’re all born with, and that is the sin nature handed down to us from our ancestors that makes us spiritually dead and separated from God. But Jesus did something about that too, to make you eternally alive. Jesus died on the cross and rose again to make you spiritually complete, with the promise that one day you will have a body and existence that is complete and perfect.

That being said, we do need to deal with the reality of their situation and ours. It appears like God allowed the woman to suffer those twelve years. We might infer that God allowed the daughter to die. We have to wrestle with that. Just because Jesus has the power and authority to fix certain things doesn’t mean that He will—or will do things in a timing that we would like. In His eternal wisdom there might be some higher purpose for what He allows. But that doesn’t mean that Jesus has lost control of the situation.

Sometimes Christ’s power to restore comes when we leave this life and enter into His presence. Sometimes we are allowed to suffer on this earth in one way, but then we are able to maintain His strength and purpose in other areas of our lives. So, until the pieces are put back together again, we know that Jesus has the power to do so, and we believe that He will in His time according to His purpose. But there is an important step that we must take to pursue this wholeness in Christ, which leads to our third lesson, where we are to:

3) Accept His favor through our faith

You’ll notice for both parties in our passage, that they made the step to reach out to Jesus. Jesus didn’t approach them, they approached Him. And the way that they approached Jesus demonstrated that they believed He had the power to do something to help them, and it gives us models to follow.

The woman with the issue of blood probably had heard about all the amazing healings and exorcisms that Jesus had done, and truly believed that Jesus could heal her body. However, she may have been hesitant to approach Jesus directly because she was unclean and (in her mind) risked making Jesus unclean.

But she was desperate, and she reasoned within herself that if she just touched the fringe of His outer garment, that she could be saved from this sickness. So she did, and she was. And Jesus told her TAKE COURAGE, YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU. That doesn’t mean that the power was in the faith. No, faith in and of itself is no good. It is the object of that faith that is important. Her faith was in the person and power of Jesus. Faith was merely receiving the reality of Jesus.

Then there is the synagogue official. He was in charge of the order of worship at the synagogue. He would schedule those who would speak or teach, and it’s possible he had Jesus teach a few times. He too was probably aware of Jesus’ displays of power around Capernaum. And he believed that Jesus could save his daughter.

It says that the official approached Jesus and bowed down to Him. This was a sign of submission, of humility, of desperation. He believed Jesus was his only hope to help his only daughter. He, like the woman, had faith in Jesus and he acted on that faith—they approached Jesus. And if we want Jesus to help with our frailties, we can’t just sit there and do nothing. We have to believe Jesus can help us, and approach Him through prayer and ask Him to do it.

So, what exactly is this faith? Faith is not merely an intellectual assent to facts about Jesus. True, biblical faith is an active trust in Jesus’ divine power and authority that leads to a confident expectation of His intervention, even in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. We see various aspects of this faith in our passage.

First, we see a desperate, humble approach to Jesus. The official knelt before Jesus, pleading for help; the woman fought through a crowd to merely touch Him. Next, we see a specific belief in Jesus’ divine power and authority. The official believed Jesus could raise the dead, otherwise he wouldn’t have even bothered Jesus; and the woman knew that even just a touch was sufficient for her healing. Then, both of them expressed their trust through action by approaching Jesus. And finally, we consider that they had confidence even in the face of impossibility. The official remained steadfast despite his daughter dying, a seemingly irreversible condition; and the woman propelled herself to Him despite the social consequence of her actions. That is a faith that finds favor.

Imagine a scenario where there is a small village that is nestled deep in a valley, cut off from the main roads by rugged mountains. In this village is a young woman named Sarah who has had a mysterious illness for years. She hears about a healer on the other side of the mountain that has cured people with her particular symptoms. Now, she might say in her heart that she believes this healer can help her, but it isn’t until she leaves the village, traverses the mountain, and approaches the healer on the other side that she would receive any help.

Faith is not a Christian tagline, it is a belief put into action. Now, it does need to be said that sometimes God’s plans and purposes are different from ours, and for eternal reasons that only He knows He might refuse our request. But even then, He will give us the grace to endure. However, I do know this, the prayer that is never lifted to Jesus will definitely not be answered by Jesus. Do you really believe that Jesus can help you in your time of need? Will you then approach Him by faith?

And then, when Jesus has worked in our lives, there is a final lesson where we:

4) Announce His mercy through our witness

If Jesus has made us whole in any way, that’s not something we keep to ourselves. Think about what we do in our day and age. If we get a product off Amazon and it works amazingly, we go on Amazon and write a review telling people how wonderful that item is. If we have a positive experience with a local business, what do we do? We write a Google review to tell others about that company. If we are so quick to sing the praises of earthly things, how much quicker ought we to be to tell others about what Jesus has done in our lives?

It’s interesting—in the Mark and Luke versions of our passage, Jesus tells the people not to say anything about what He did. But then Matthew tells us how effective that request was, because in v. 26 it says that THIS NEWS SPREAD THOUGHOUT THE LAND. People saw Jesus take that which was fractured, put it back together, and they wanted others to know about it so they could have the same experience.

If there was a medicine that cured some serious illness that you had, you would tell others all about it. Well, humanity suffers the anguish of a fallen world in rebellion against its Creator. But this Creator sent His Son to make it whole again. Jesus took care of the source of our problems (which is sin) by dying to pay for those sins and we are released from its penalty and power. And since Jesus took care of the root cause of our ruined state, He is more than able to take care of all the symptoms.

And so now, when we look at people stuck in sin or suffering from the effects of the Fall of humanity, we know where to point them, we know the only One who can put the pieces back together. This isn’t like Humpty Dumpty where all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put him back together again. The King Himself is able to pick up all our pieces and put them back together, and He can do the same for anybody who approaches Him by faith. Would we not want others to find this?

I think of the testimony of Joni Eareckson Tada. She became a quadriplegic after a swimming accident, she initially struggled with bitterness and anger. She followed what she thought were biblical injunctions for physical healing, including being anointed with oil, but God's answer was "no," which she later described as a "stern schoolmaster" that forced deeper spiritual growth. She adopted the mantra that God allows suffering (which He hates) to achieve a closer walk with Him and a refined character (which He loves). She found spiritual and mental wholeness even in physical weakness. And so she used her situation as a platform to be able to tell others about what Christ has done in her life, and they can find the same.

When Jesus has made you whole, you too can spread the news far and wide, because what He did for you He can and will do for others.

Conclusion

We are told:

Psalm 147:3 LSB

3 He is the One who heals the brokenhearted And who binds up their wounds,

You may feel that your life is shattered in a million irreparable parts. The pain is deep and the wounds too visible. But the Bible tells us that Jesus can do something for us that is even better than the most beautiful Kintsugi.

The Japanese artisan uses silver or gold to highlight the fragmented pieces. Our Savior used His blood to redeem us. And we’re not just repaired, we’re transformed. What the world sees as ugly scars become the strongest parts of your testimony because they are filled with the power and presence of Jesus.

In the earlier passage about Matthew, Jesus told those Pharisees that He didn’t come to call the healthy, but the sick/damaged. You notice that he didn’t avoid the unclean woman—He called her “Daughter,” a term of love and acceptance. He didn’t turn away from a dead girl—He took her by the hand and gave her life. And He won’t turn you away either.

So today:

Acknowledge your brokenness—stop pretending you’re fine.

Apprehend the limitless power of Christ—nothing is too hard for Him.

Accept His healing through active, trusting faith—approach Him like the woman and the official did.

Announce His mercy—tell someone what the Lord has done for you and He can do it for them too.

Jesus is saying to you: Take courage, your faith has saved you. Christian, come to the altar and lay your brokenness before Him and seek Him to make you whole.

If you have yet to have your sins forgiven through faith in His death and resurrection, He can heal you, fix you, save you. Believe in Him today...