Matthew 9:9-34 – The Father’s Will, Part 3

The first cycle of miracles began with large crowds following Jesus (Matt. 8:1), and the second cycle began as two disciples expressed reservations about following Jesus (8:18-20), but in this third cycle of miracles, we finally encounter an individual who leaves everything behind to follow Jesus. Matthew writes,

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Matthew 9:9

This Matthew, who wrote the Gospel, names himself as a way of highlighting one of the major thematic elements appearing throughout this cycle of miracles: touching the unclean. The next verses tell us the Pharisees placed tax collectors, and thus Matthew, into the category of unclean people with whom one should not even eat.

But, before we move on to the next verses, let’s notice two other things about these opening verses. First, Matthew followed Jesus without posing questions regarding destination, family concerns, or even who might run his tax collecting business when he was gone. Matthew simply stood and followed him; there was no hesitation. Secondly, notice that Jesus called Matthew specifically; Jesus was proactive in his disciple-making. Certainly, others were generally drawn to Jesus, but Jesus specifically called those he chose as disciples. And we, as followers of Jesus, should consider being proactive as well. Instead of passively hoping others will see us and want to learn about Jesus, we should approach others so as to help them become disciples of Jesus. Jesus proactively followed the will of God; we should do no less.

We know from the other Gospels that after Matthew left his tax table, he prepared a feast for Jesus in his own house (Mark 2:15; Luke 5:29). Matthew writes,

10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:10-13

Jesus was comfortable spending time with Matthew, other tax collectors, and sinners, but those members of the Hyper-Vigilant-Holier-Than-Thou Committee disapproved. The Pharisees, founding members of the Hyper-Vigilant-Holier-Than-Thou Committee, restricted Jews from eating with “sinners” because the food on their table might be unclean, and, with regard to tax collectors, because they were in cahoots with Rome. As a result, Jesus broke the rigidly maintained traditions and rules of the Hyper-Vigilant-Holier-Than-Thou Committee when he ate with the people in Matthew’s house.

But, as Jesus said, the will of God means that we go to those who are sick and those who are sinners (Matt. 9:12). If the modern version of the Hyper-Vigilant-Holier-Than-Thou Committee keeps us from meeting the sinner where they live, then we probably should ignore them (the committee, not the sinner). Jesus didn’t tell the crowd at Matthew’s house, “Hey, I’m coming to eat, so can you guys stop sinning and become pure for me while I’m there! I mean, I am God and I can’t stand unholiness.” No, Jesus went to where they lived and accepted them as they were. The destination of discipleship is holiness, but it isn’t the starting point.

But it wasn’t only the Pharisees who had questions, John’s disciples also had concerns. Matthew writes,

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.

Fasting showed to the world that you were a follower of God, a fact even Jesus assumed when he said, “when you fast” in the Sermon on the Mount. But evidently, Jesus’s disciples weren’t fasting, and when John’s disciples noticed, they asked Jesus. Jesus replied that fasting was done for the purpose of mourning his absence, and until he was gone, they wouldn’t fast. Fasting, for us, is a reminder of the bridegroom’s absence and a statement of hope for the coming wedding feast of the lamb when we will be reunited with him. But Jesus’s response wasn’t only about fasting; he noticed a pattern to their questions so he added,

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.”

Matthew 9:16-17

I’ve always struggled with understanding these verses, but when read in the context of Jesus sitting with tax collectors and sinners while the Pharisees and John’s disciples were asking questions about their traditions, they make a lot of sense. The old traditions were rigid and brittle while Jesus’s miracles were unprecedented and his teaching was new (John 13:34). Those holding to the old ways could not survive if they merely tried to add Jesus’s new commands to the old; this is what the Pharisees and John’s disciples — old wineskins and old garments — apparently thought Jesus was trying to do. But Jesus knew that his teaching — new wine and the unshrunk cloth — had to be received by people who understood they were sinners. Only such a vessel — a new wineskin — could properly receive Jesus’s teaching.

Okay. That still seems a bit obtuse…

You just like the word “obtuse.”

It’s a good word!

Anyway…let me put it this way. The more we think we have God figured out and the more we think we know how to gain God’s approval the more hardened we get in our ways and the less able we are to accept God as the forgiving and loving God that he is. The Pharisees and John’s disciples couldn’t see past their own hardened traditions to accept what Jesus was really saying and doing, but the sinners and tax collectors didn’t have such codified traditions through which to understand God. They were fresh to the scene and the new wine and unshrunk patch of Jesus’s teachings filled and repaired their lives in a way that older traditions couldn’t.

We are not called to mold disciples into the image of our own traditions; we are called to present Jesus to others and then get out of the way. As disciple-makers, we bear a message, we are not the judge or court-appointed guardians of other people’s lives. Our traditions and structures under which we operate often get in the way of allowing Jesus to pour the new wine of his love into the lives of others. As a way to illustrate this, Matthew writes about a few more miracles.

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.

Matthew 9:18-19

Speaking of unclean, what could be more unclean than a dead body? This synagogue leader would have known they were asking Jesus to become unclean himself when they requested that he touch the dead body (Num. 19:11). But Jesus didn’t push back on their request; he simply followed the leader to his house. The obvious conclusion is that uncleanliness meant nothing to Jesus, but the less-obvious conclusion is that Jesus could restore to life to anyone be they merely unclean or be they dead. In other words, this miraculous resurrection is not only about the dead coming to life but also about the unclean becoming clean. But, before Jesus arrives at the house of the dead girl, he is interrupted.

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.

Matthew 9:20-22

Speaking of unclean…

You already said that.

Yeah, and I’m saying it again. Speaking of unclean, a woman with a “discharge of blood for twelve years” — unclean for twelve years according to Leviticus 15:25-27 — came up to Jesus hoping that the mere touch of his clothing would heal her. She was a woman and she had been unclean for over a decade; these facts placed her on the lowest run of the social ladder. She probably kept to herself because of the grief it caused if she inadvertently brushed into someone in a crowd; her touch made others unclean. But when she heard the stories of Jesus she had a glimmer of hope. She thought she could just touch him, but she didn’t understand Jesus’s power; it didn’t emanate from his clothing, it came from the faith she had in Jesus

I suppose the 80’s televangelists selling prayer napkins love this miracle!

Well, not so much…read on. (Good one, by the way!) When Jesus knew that he was touched, he could have just as easily kept walking and the woman would have been whole. But Jesus stopped to let the woman know that his garment wasn’t the conduit of Jesus’s power, it was her faith.

So much for prayer napkins.

Yeah. And. I suppose by the letter of the law, Jesus was now unclean. But that didn’t bother him. Jesus came to the sick, not the healthy, and the sick require his touch.

So did the dead girl.

Right, you’re catching on! Now, with this interlude miracle complete, Matthew returns to the ruler’s dead daughter.

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.

Matthew 9:23-26

As we know from the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11, Jesus could have raised this girl from the dead with just his word — he could have even done it without going to her house (Matt. 8:5-13) — but Jesus chose to go and touch the dead child. And people laughed. People will always laugh about those things they can’t comprehend. But their laughter didn’t deter Jesus. Jesus entered the house and did what would make him unclean: he touched the body of a dead girl. He raised her from the dead to show his power over death, but he touched her to show the irrelevance of traditional and social barriers. He came to be with the sick, to know them, to heal them, and to touch them.

You can probably imagine the frustration of the Hyper-Vigilant-Holier-Than-Thou Committee; Jesus touched unclean people. But don’t we also find ways to separate ourselves from the unclean of this world? Sometimes we do it purposefully, but other times we do it without even thinking about it.

A friend recently asked if I thought writing checks to organizations was a good way to help the poor and underprivileged, and I said, of course, it is. But I also said that the structure of our modern western world has often made it far too easy for us to help the poor and underprivileged without actually meeting them or touching them. The automobile helped produce suburbs and suburbs helped separate people based on financial means. Rarely do most of us ever see poor or unclean people traipsing about our neighborhood. And if we do, we are probably tempted to call the police. I’m not quite sure what the answer to this problem is, but with Jesus seeing and touching the poor and unclean, perhaps we, as his disciples, should consider doing the same thing.

I wonder if this is what Matthew had in mind when he recorded this next miracle.

27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” 31 But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

Matthew 9:27-31

This seems like just an ordinary miracle.

Ordinary miracle? Do those words go together?

What I mean is that it’s not as exciting as raising the dead. It’s just two ordinary blind men who had been following Jesus and who eventually asked Jesus to have mercy on them. But Jesus responds by asking what seems to be a question with an obvious answer, “Do you believe I am able to do this?” Of course, they did or they wouldn’t have been following him! But Jesus wasn’t intellectually challenged. Jesus asked this obvious question because, like the woman with the discharge, he wanted them to know the role their faith in God’s miraculous work played.

Matthew included this miracle, not just to show Jesus’s power over the blind, but to show that we are often blind to the role our faith plays in God’s work. Furthermore, I think he wants us to also realize that we are often blind to the world around us. Our myopic vision keeps us from seeing the sick, dying, and dead, but Jesus can open our eyes so we can see the needs of the unclean and the underprivileged in this world around us if only we have the faith to ask.

And with the final miracle in this section about a mute demon-oppressed man, Matthew gives us one last lesson. He writes,

32 As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. 33 And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.”

Matthew 9:32-33

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Matthew made this miracle the last miracle in this section. At face value, we see Jesus’s power over Satan and his minions. And this is important because we need to know that even the strongest powers of the darkest world cannot stand to compete with Jesus. But notice the other part of this miracle: because of demonic influence a man could not speak, but take that influence away and the man spoke.

Yep, that’s what it says…?

I mean…well, I don’t want to go all allegorical here because this was a real person who was really mute because a real demon was really oppressing him, but I wonder what holds us back from praising God and proclaiming his word? I wonder if we have been silenced by the easy explanations given by the rational and scientific world? I wonder if we have succumbed to the influence of Satan’s first question, “Did God actually say?” I wonder if our lack of assurance and conviction comes from forces we cannot comprehend? I wonder…I mean, even when Jesus told the blind men to keep quiet, they couldn’t; they saw the world in a new way and couldn’t help but spread Jesus’s fame throughout the countryside (Matt. 9:30-31). And now, when this demon was cast out, the mute man spoke and the crowds marveled at the work of God. It doesn’t seem to be much of a reach to think that Matthew wants us to consider whether we are also blinded to the sick world surrounding us and are mute, unable, or unwilling to bring the healing and hope so desperately needed by the dead and the dying.

Jesus came to do the will of God — to heal the sick and to cleanse the unclean — and the world marveled. The world saw God’s power and noticed that no barrier could restrain his love for the lost, the dying, and the dead; they were astonished at his teaching and they marveled at his works. But not everyone marveled. Matthew writes,

34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

Matthew 9:34

The Pharisees, the founders of the Hyper-Vigilant-Holier-Than-Thou Committee, concluded that Jesus’s power came from the devil himself. Yep, here it is, Matthew concludes this third cycle with another comment about authority. But, instead of painting this conclusion with a lovely sunset, Matthew tells us that, in spite of all Jesus has said and done, there are some who won’t believe. There are always some who will look at a miracle — at the power of God’s hand — and draw the wrong conclusion. They might claim to have knowledge about God, but they have no faith; they are unable to accept that God isn’t defined by their limited understanding; the powerful works of God, our faith in the unseen, and Jesus’s message of hope don’t fit into their God-box. As such, these people draw the only conclusion they can: it must be from the devil.

But we must not lose heart. Even though there are many in this world who see Jesus as the devil or just a nice moral teacher, it didn’t stop him from following the Father’s will. Nor should it stop us from carrying out the Father’s will as we minister to the blind, the deaf, the sick, and the unclean.

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