Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 208th episode. In this episode we’re going to continue our study of Matthew’s gospel. We are in chapter 9. We’ve already been given a glimpse of Christ’s power to save and His willingness to do so. We saw Jesus heal a paralytic and forgive him of his sins. We also read about Jesus calling Matthew from the tax collector’s booth into the ministry — much to the chagrin of the Pharisees. In this episode we’ll see Him restore to life the daughter of a synagogue official. We’ll also see a woman be healed from a 12-year chronic condition merely by touching Christ’s cloak. This passage also presents the disciples of John asking Jesus a question about fasting. Let’s begin by reading verses 14-17:
Mat 9:14-17
14 Then the disciples of John *came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
15 And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16 “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.
17 “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Something we notice with many of Christ’s most important discourses is that they are begun by critics raising objections to Him. Many times in life your best opportunities to explicate the truth are presented by opponents trying to deceive yourself and others. This is because an important step in deceiving someone is to weaken their current belief structures. In such a weakened condition, the listener’s vulnerability to deception is increased — but so is their openness to the truth. That’s how the wisdom of Christ brings good out of what others intend for evil. In this way the truth has a redemptive quality about it.
You’ll remember from our previous study that we’ve already observed this phenomenon twice just in this chapter. The first was Jesus revealing His power to forgive sins when He healed the paralytic. The second was His readiness to receive sinners when He called Matthew. In both instances the occasion for Jesus to further explain the nature of what He was doing and what it means about His character was presented by His enemies asking disingenuous questions and challenging His authority. Now we see the same thing happen in this passage when He is questioned about His disciples fasting.
The disciples of John asked Jesus why His own disciples did not fast. Their insinuation was Christ’s disciples didn’t hold faithfully enough to the law of God. This was a continuation of the criticism they faced for dining with publicans and sinners. The challenge was found in the implication that something must be wrong with Christ’s teachings if His disciples wouldn’t fast. It wasn’t just the disciples of John, here, included among the company were the Pharisees. There’s good reason to believe the Pharisees were instigating the disciples of John to be a part of this interrogation. Perhaps the Pharisees chose to work through John’s disciples because they were closer to Jesus and less likely to have nefarious motives. They could challenge Christ with more credibility since their enmity with Him wasn’t as obvious.
It’s important to point out how wicked men will use disagreements between good men in order to create animosity between them. Evil schemers will assemble good men against other good men on the basis of such secondary disagreements and try to sow discord between them. If you can alienate otherwise unified men and women, then you can make them more vulnerable as prey for the deceiver. Whenever we see the disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus clash, we have reason to believe the misalignment was intentionally exaggerated and the drama was fueled by the Pharisees. Part of the tragedy of humanity’s fallen condition is how we so often perverse religious duty, which is given as a confirmation of holy love, and make it the cause for strife and disunity.
Fasting was always consecrated by the Church as a faithful act in service to religion. The Pharisees fasted often, some of them would even practice two fast-days per week. And yet it seemed to have no impact on the sanctification of their spirits. Here they were boasting about their practice of fasting. Most generally the Pharisees were hypocrites and bad men. So this lack of fruit in their lives was evidence the practice of fasting itself wasn’t the source of goodwill in men. Religious ritual doesn’t cleanse you, but faithful practice of it honors the Spirit of God who does cleanse you. The Pharisees excelled many others in their outward devotions and even in their mortifications. They were known for being hyper-strict with certain elements of the law. But inside they were evil and unsanctified men. False professors of religion can often perform religious ritual much better than others. But that’s why Jesus said you can tell the quality of a person by his or her fruits — and religious ritual is not one of the fruits of the Spirit.
While the Pharisees fasted to garner praise for themselves, John’s disciples fasted partly in an effort to imitate their leader — for he came neither eating nor drinking and partly in compliance with John’s doctrine of repentance. Imitation of a leader is not inherently wrong. In fact Paul admonished the Corinthian church to imitate him as he imitated Christ. There are two main dangers with imitating a human leader.
First is the potential for you to become unmoored from the axiomatic principles which found your leader’s mode of being. So if Paul is acting a certain way because he is imitating the character of Christ and worships him, but Paul’s followers become unaware of Christ and instead worship Paul — this kind of imitation has become idolatry. Second is when your leader is actually wrong about Jesus. Even if they are wrong about a minor issue, having an entire following of people who unquestioningly accept their leader’s words as absolute truth carries a multiplicative effect on the damage the leader’s inaccuracies can cause.
Religious rituals like fasting are meant to lead us into the freedom found within dependence on God. But if we fail to treat rituals as on-ramps in this manner, it can be easy for us to become slaves to the actual ritual. If you’re fasting as a matter of subservience to tradition or ritual rather than as a means of growing closer to God, you’re submitting to a spirit of bondage which will make religion feel much more severe than it should. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The burden of religious ritual for its own sake is neither easy nor light. It does not bring us a peace which goes beyond comprehension, rather it locks us into a space of tyrannical misery and self-doubt.
Both the disciples of John as well as the Pharisees fasted often — or at least they believed it was often. It’s a common vice of man to proclaim his own good works and his own righteousness. This is especially true of those who actually do have some kind of remarkable gift or talent. It takes tremendous humility to live quietly when you’re gifted with a rare competence. Those who profess religion often boast to others about their adherence to ritual or perceived milestones in their faith. The same people plead with God on behalf of their own righteousness. It may go something like, “God I deserve this good thing and I don’t deserve that bad thing because of how often I attend church and how much I serve on the volunteer teams.” Scripture says our own righteousness is as filthy rags. This means compared to the righteousness of Christ, we have no reason boast and every reason to be grateful for the mercy of God.
Notice how John’s disciples and the Pharisees began with the uncharitable accusation that Christ’s disciples do not fast. Jesus instructs us to keep our fasting private and to conduct ourselves so that the people around us don’t know we are doing it. This is not a deception, rather it’s a resistance to promoting your own righteousness in the form of fasting. If you fast and you want everyone around you to know you’re making the sacrifice of fasting, then your fasting does not honor God as you seek to bring praise onto yourself. The accusation from John’s disciples was uncharitable because for all they knew the disciples of Christ were fasting and just being humble enough to keep it from being known they were doing so.
We can learn from this accusation that it is unwise to judge other Christians’ sanctification or religious zeal on the basis of visible rituals. Just because a person zealously takes communion every week doesn’t mean they are living a Christlike life. Similarly, a righteous person may for whatever reason miss church for a few weeks and this lack of religious attendance is not necessarily a reflection of their spiritual condition.
But let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that Christ’s disciples really weren’t fasting and John’s disciples were. This difference in fasting provides no biblical justification to suggest Christ’s disciples were less righteous because of it. It’s a common feature of religious arrogance to use yourself as the standard by which to measure someone else’s righteousness. So the degree to which someone is different from yourself is the degree to which they are missing the mark. If the person does less than you, this means they aren’t doing enough. If the person does more than you, this means they are doing too much. If you view others in this manner then that’s a reliable indication you lack humility and charity — two virtues of which it is impossible to be Christlike without.
It’s also noteworthy how John’s disciples and the Pharisees took their grievances with Christ’s disciples directly to Jesus Himself. We understand that Jesus, being God, is omniscient and knows all of our transgressions — but also consider the truth that those who take umbrage with Christians often place the blame on Jesus Himself. They use Christian offense as occasion to dishonor the name of Jesus. So if even for some pathological reason we don’t care about our own well-being, we should conduct ourselves well in order to prevent dishonoring God.
The astute listener will remember in the previous passage of Matthew 9 how the Pharisees brought their complaints about Christ to His disciples. And now they’re bringing their complaints about the disciples to Christ. This readiness to bring grievances to each concerning the other reveals their desire to sow discord and diminish love. If your motives are appropriate, it’s generally a better idea to take your complaints about a person straight to the person himself. Seeking to undermine him with his friends and then doing the same with them to him is an attempt to destroy the union. Setting people against ministers and ministers against people is a favorite tactic of Satan as he wages spiritual war on the Church.
When Jesus responds to the questioning it’s interesting to see how He doesn’t upbraid John’s disciples for the motives of their own fasting. He doesn’t remind them how easy it is for outwardly religious people to appear holy while ignoring the weightier things of the law. Instead He vindicates the practice of His own disciples and readily defends them when they had nothing to say in defense of themselves. Scripture says wisdom is justified of all her children. This means the honor of wisdom is testified to by the lives of those who live according to its principles. The same is true of the honor of those who live according to the precepts of Christ. If you stick to the word of God you can be certain that its wisdom will see you through any circumstance with your integrity intact.
Jesus defends His disciples in two ways: first is to point out it was not a proper season for fasting. He responds to John’s disciples by saying, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?” Here Jesus skillfully defends His own disciples without disparaging the institution of John. Remember the Pharisees are the ones who fomented this dispute with the hope of creating animosity between Jesus and John’s disciples. So you can imagine being in a similar situation as Jesus where a person or group of people approaches you with false accusations. In this case the accusations involve the actions of other people. How tempting it must have been to either tear down the accusers (who were John’s disciples) or to blame your own disciples for not fasting and causing you to come under scrutiny.
This kind of blame-shifting is really easy to fall into if you’re not careful to resist it. It’s especially tempting when the apparent transgression is not your fault. But we should learn from Christ’s example here that it’s both possible and wise to direct your efforts at clearing yourself without denigrating your accusers or casting blame onto those who are at fault. Recriminating others is not always a prerequisite for vindicating yourself or telling the truth.
Jesus uses this opportunity to speak a divine truth about Himself to His questioners. He argues that His disciples have reason to be joyful in His presence much the same way attendees are joyful at a wedding. This claim illustrates His deity because He places Himself as the bridegroom in the union between the Church and God. Furthermore it distinguishes His own disciples from the Pharisees because He points to His disciples as attendants of the bridegroom while the Pharisees are not. Another metaphor Scripture makes here is to call Christ-followers children of the bride-chamber and Pharisees children of the bond-woman. This difference highlights the joy and freedom believers find in Christ, while the Pharisees (and really all people who live according to a legalist, works-based faith) live in a dispensation of darkness and terror — constantly afraid of being insufficiently righteous to warrant salvation.
There was also a distinction between the disciples of Christ and the disciples of John. During the moment of this discourse Christ’s disciples still had Him with them, while John was taken from his disciples and locked in prison. Each day brought uncertainty as to whether John would live or die — so it was seasonable for John’s disciples to fast often. Jesus even points to this deprivation of leadership and prophesies that His own disciples will face the day when He is taken from them — and when this happens they will fast. The disciples of Christ grieved the news when Jesus told them He would be taken from them. When He was taken from them, tribulation and affliction befell them — and all of this gave them proper occasion to mourn, to pray, and to fast.
It’s important in this study that we don’t make the mistake of categorizing John’s disciples with the Pharisees. Yes they were asking Jesus questions which were inspired by Pharisaical malfeasance — but John the Baptist was a friend of Jesus Christ. John called himself a friend of the bridegroom who rejoiced at the sound of the bridegroom’s voice. While the disciples of John could not find salvation through John, they certainly could find the repentance necessary for turning to Jesus. When Jesus used this metaphor and called His disciples attendants of the bridegroom, He was reminding John’s disciples of their master’s alliance with Himself.
We also should avoid making the mistake of pretending Christ-followers should be rejoicing all the time every day regardless of their circumstances. The proper lesson here is that the close proximity of Jesus brings joy to His disciples — not that His disciples are incapable of feeling negative emotions like grief or pain. Indeed the followers of Christ sing of both mercy and judgment. When the presence of God is clearly felt and experienced by His faithful followers, this presence results in peace which goes beyond comprehension. But during times of life when God’s presence feels withdrawn from you — even if you’re a Christian — you will feel melancholy. You will walk with a heaviness and feel troubled. This is normal and nothing to be afraid of.
The moment the light of God shines upon your head once more, warmth, joy, and peace will fill you again. For the faithful in Christ, joy or lack of joy is entirely associated with the presence of God. His presence is like the sunshine which lights up the world and warms it into summer, and His withdrawn presence or perceived distance makes for the darkness of night and the cold of winter. The presence of Jesus is both singularly sufficient and entirely necessary for the joy of the Church.
So there would be a time for the disciples of Christ to fast but now was not it. Ecclesiastes points out how there is a proper season for everything and James reinforces this doctrine by saying, “Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.” To live in such a way that we understand the richness of God’s character we should accommodate ourselves to each season and not be hesitant to bear its fruit. When it’s time to laugh, laugh. When it’s time to mourn, mourn. When it’s time worship, worship. And in all things seek to honor and glorify God. In the same way that we are careful to steward our God-ordained calling we should be careful to steward the God-ordained seasons that He brings us into.
The second reason Jesus gives in defense of His disciples not fasting is that they simply did not have the strength to do so. His disciples were relatively recently taken from their worldly callings and hadn’t been following Him for long. It’s possible some of John’s disciples were former Pharisees, Essenes, and Nazarites themselves. These were men who had a lifetime of training in religious austerity. To compare them to the inexperienced, spiritually undeveloped disciples of Jesus was an absurdity. Christ points out the absurdity by saying, “No one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
There are some religious disciplines which are more difficult than others. Fasting and all that is required of it is an example of such a duty. It would not be ideal to ask a new convert to embark on a long fast when the convert has neither the tools to do it nor the understanding of why he’s doing it. Part of shepherding your congregation well and stewarding your relationships properly is understanding that the best of Christ’s disciples pass through a period of infancy. No one starts out with the spiritual discipline of a saint. Jesus knows this about us and so we should remember it about each other.
Paul writes about treating spiritual infants appropriately when he says to the Corinthian church, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.” And again we see Scripture comment on spiritual infancy when the writer of Hebrews says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” Jesus wouldn’t even tell His disciples things which they were not ready to bear let alone instruct them in a kind of fasting for which they were unfit.
Across the entire developmental narrative of Scripture at least as far back as the Exodus we see God extending compassion to the fragile frame of His people. When they escaped Egypt He rerouted them away from the land of the Philistines because they weren’t ready to see the kind of war that was happening there. Jacob took the same care of his children and his livestock when he refused to overdrive them after his reunion with Esau. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He leads the little ones of His flock with the same kind of compassionate care. The delicate beginnings of their faith require a gentle leading into further development.
Too often the lost will repent and profess faith in Jesus only to have their garments torn and their wineskins burst by being given inappropriate burdens. They are treated with indiscretion during a time when they need the most care — and this shipwrecks their faith. The lesson to be learned here is that it’s possible to give someone too much of a good thing. It’s possible to over-do it in righteousness and good works. Lurking within the strain and chaos of over-doing it, tragically, is the subtlety of Satan as he seeks to undo those who might otherwise flourish. Let’s read verses 18-26:
Mat 9:18-26
18 While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”
19 Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.
20 And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak;
21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.”
22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well.
23 When Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder,
24 He said, “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, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
26 This news spread throughout all that land.
This passage presents two pieces of famous history concerning Christ has His miraculous healings. One is the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, and the other is the healing of the woman who suffered a chronic condition for twelve years. It’s fascinating to note how the healing of the woman with the issue of blood is given to us almost parenthetically as it took place on the way to Jairus’s house. This tells us that Christ’s miracles were so plentiful that they made up the daily work of His ministry. The call to help Jairus’s daughter came while Jesus was in the midst of rebuking the accusations of the Pharisees. Observe how readily Christ exits a dispute to go about the work of healing and of charity. Don’t get me wrong — sometimes disputes are necessary and speaking in defense of the truth is a godly thing to do. But our primary role as Christians is to love God and love our neighbor, so opportunities to extend Christian charity shouldn’t be overlooked in favor of debate.
Jairus, a synagogue official, approached Jesus and appeared to worship Him. This would be unusual (and perhaps dangerous) behavior for a high-ranking Jew. But the faith of Jairus was strong nonetheless, and his faith functioned to condemn the unbelief of his associate officials who lacked it. Jairus had a twelve year old daughter who had recently passed away, and her death was the occasion for him seeking out the Lord. When we experience the grief of death or the pain of suffering today, we should also seek Jesus with a similar alacrity. Jesus is our source of life — Jairus took this literally in terms of His power to resurrect his daughter — but it’s still true for us today. Death should drive us to Christ since He is the source of our life. There will be times of affliction in our lives where it’s tempting to go into shock or sit down in confused silence — but the best thing to do is to emulate the reaction of Job and to immediately fall down and worship.
Another point to observe is that Jairus came to Christ himself, he didn’t send servants to coordinate it for him. This was a timely expression of humility and we should have a similar spirit when we approach Jesus. The kingship of Jesus is such that even the greatest rulers in the world should be honored to be in His presence. Pleading with Jesus himself did nothing to disparage the honor due a synagogue official. Not only did Jairus go himself, but he also bent the knee and worshipped Him. Jesus has been unfathomably gracious and merciful towards us while we were yet sinners — but despite this truth it still befits the faithful who seek to garner mercy from Christ to prioritize giving honor to Christ.
The faith of Jairus is demonstrated in his willingness to come to Christ even though his daughter was already dead. What good does it do for a physician to bring medicine after the person has died? But Jairus knew Jesus was no normal physician. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and so He is the only One who can be a physician after death. Resurrecting the young girl was an act outside the possibility of nature. There is no power in the natural which can bring life back once it is lost. But that power does exist, and it originates in Jesus. Jairus knew that if Christ laid His hand upon the child, she would come back and live.
Just because Jesus is able to supersede the natural order of things does not mean He seeks to break it. Indeed God is the One who upholds the universal constant we all live in. The universe is comprehensible and ordered because God made it that way and keeps it that way. So in our cases, it’s better for us to seek first the movements of God in the ordinary systems instead of entirely depending on His deliverance of a supernatural miracle. It makes more sense to utilize doctors and pray for healing than it does to wait for someone to die only so we can hope for Christ to break the natural order and perform a resurrection. In the present moment we should view death as being the functional end to a person’s life here on earth. We shall go to them but they shall not come back to us.
You might ask what was special about Jairus or Jairus’s daughter that Christ would make an exception for her. The answer has more to do with the fact that this occurred during His earthly ministry and the purpose of His miracles were not to appease the requests of the desperate masses — rather to seal His gospel with divine authority and remind the world that He is in fact God. Jairus’s faith to ask for an earthly resurrection was both permissible and commendable — but that’s only because he lived during the time of Christ’s miracles. When we pray for resurrection during our own time, we should pray for resurrection into eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven.
Notice the immediacy with which Jesus agreed to help Jairus. As soon as Jairus finished his request, Jesus rose up, left His company, and followed him. Not only was Jesus quick to grant Jairus’s request, but He was also willing to go to Jairus’s house to do it. Christ is King, but He is also characterized by servant-lordship. If Jesus is willing to humble Himself as a servant, there is no place for us to decline doing so ourselves. What’s interesting about Christ is that He chose different methods for performing miracles dependent on the spiritual frame of those who sought them. In John’s gospel we read of a nobleman calling on Jesus to save his child before he dies. Jesus immediately saved the child, but He did so by speaking a word and He didn’t actually step down to follow the nobleman home — like He does here with Jairus.
Jesus is able to search the most secret recesses of our hearts, so He knows what our motivations are when we ask Him for things in prayer. Asking with improper motivations doesn’t foreclose on His willingness to answer us — but it may change the method by which He answers us. Remember the ultimate purpose of any miracle is to point us to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our souls. God knows which methods to use with a man which are most likely to achieve this end.
When Jesus followed Jairus to save his daughter, His disciples came along with Him. He chose His disciples to be His constant companions. They didn’t stick so close to Him for clout or a reputational boost. In fact there would come a time during His passion where they all abandoned Him because they were afraid of guilt by association. He kept them so close during His ministry so He could teach them and they could be witnesses of His miracles. They needed to see and experience all of these things because they would go on to become preachers of His gospel.
On the way to Jairus’s house there was a woman who suffered a chronic health condition for twelve years. Scripture says she had an issue of blood. This woman had spent all of her money and savings on physicians in her effort to remedy her health condition — but to no avail. Scripture says her condition only became worse. So you have to imagine her despair because not only has her physical condition worsened but she’s also been bankrupt in her efforts to fix it.
It’s bad enough that her bleeding likely made her anemic and in a constant state of feeling unwell, but it also caused her to be ceremonially unclean. So she would have been denied entry to the courts of the temple on the basis of this illness. Her disease had a way of ostracizing her from normal life both physically and socially. Despite her inability to enter the temple, she wasn’t barred from approaching the Lord God Himself. She confidently approached Him and received His mercy. Witnessing Christ so immediately and comprehensively cure an intractable condition undoubtedly served as encouragement to Jairus’s faith — whose daughter was dead at this moment and all of his hope rested with Jesus’s ability to bring her back. Jesus graciously considers our frame and has compassion on new believers or those who struggle with their faith — He gives us plentiful evidence in scripture of His power to save and His power to heal.
We don’t know much about the disposition of the woman with the issue of blood apart from her great faith in Jesus. Her suffering was likely so unbecoming that she didn’t want to speak openly to Jesus about her bleeding. Instead she believed that if she merely touched the edge of His cloak such contact would be sufficient to heal her. This belief could have been born of her witnessing His great power in the miracles He had performed thus far — or it could have been a misapprehension derived from the story of the dead man who was raised to life just by coming into contact with the bones of the prophet Elisha. Wherever she got the idea, Jesus readily overlooked any misunderstanding she had concerning Him because of her great faith. She got the most important thing right — which is to say everything that belongs to Jesus has virtue in it. His power is limitless and no one can truly know the depths of His grace.
Jesus showed great favor to the woman insofar as He did not suspend His healing influence in her case. The humility with which she approached Him undoubtedly played a part in this. She was given a cure largely unknown to anyone else. Remember hers is an unprecedented healing in that there had been no example of a person being cured simply by touching the edge of His robe. But the cure was also unknown because many physicians had already tried and failed at finding a medicinal remedy.
We have reason to believe this woman would have been content to feel His healing power and then disappear into the crowd. But Jesus didn’t let this happen. He turned to see her and speak to her. He said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” We go back to reiterating the fundamental purposes of Christ’s miracles: to reveal and glorify God. His power was magnified in her weakness but Christ would have it that His grace be magnified in it as well. Her newfound comfort and commendation of Jesus as the Great Physician would serve to bring praise and honor from her mouth as well as the mouths of others.
There is no hiding from Jesus. The woman likely thought she could touch the edge of His robe without Him ever knowing. The omniscience and omnipresence of Christ are either some of His most comforting traits or most terrifying traits depending on your spiritual condition. For the faithful follower, it doesn’t matter what obscure corner of the earth you’re stuck in — Jesus is with you and He sees you. You can be locked away hidden from the sight of men and Jesus is still there with you and He still hears you. This holds true for the unrepentant sinner who thinks he can get away with the deeds he does in the dark. Jesus knows the motives of your heart, both virtuous and evil. There is no sin which escapes His sight and there is no sin for which you won’t be held to account unless you are saved by His righteousness.
The woman with the issue of blood likely feared the possibility of Jesus rebuking her for sneaking up on Him. But instead He welcomes her with gladness and reassurance by saying, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” Take note of how Jesus addressed her as daughter. Remember when He healed the paralytic at the beginning of this chapter He called the man “son.” He treated both of these people with the same kind of compassion and care a father would have for his children. Faithful women are daughters of Christ and He has comforts prepared for those of them who have a sorrowful spirit. Jesus instructs the woman to take courage and be of good comfort. Comfort and courage are the most sensible reactions to adoption into the kingdom of God.
Simply by being adopted as children of God, the saints are given sufficient consolation to endure the trials of life. It’s reasonable to suggest Jesus spoke life into people with the same power He spoke healing over them. So if Jesus calls on you to be comforted, we can expect comfort would wash over you with the same immediate, comprehensive effectiveness that His healing would. Despite the often tragic circumstances in life, we can be certain Jesus wants us to be comforted. He has the power to speak comfort to troubled spirits and to calm the storms within them like the sea.
Jesus gives the woman an encouragement concerning the quality of her faith. More than any grace which God gives to us, faith brings the most honor to Christ. Consequently a person cannot please God apart from faith. This woman had not done anything else except trust in God that touching the edge of Christ’s cloak would heal her. But this was such an expression of faith that it warranted Jesus complimenting her for it. Another characteristic which is inextricably linked with faith is humility. You can’t express God-pleasing faith without practicing humility as well. This woman who touched Christ’s robe had even more faith than she thought she had — and this was a revelation of her humility.
She had reason to take courage both because Jesus told her to and because her faith made her whole. She was physically cured, yes, but she was also spiritually healed in this moment. Her sins were pardoned and she was forgiven. You should always keep the spiritual dimension in mind when you are receiving the temporal mercies of God. Here’s what I mean: being miraculously healed because of the fervent prayers of a righteous man comes packaged with the spiritual grace of God to forgive your sins and heal you from their spiritual disease. Jesus cares more about your spiritual condition than your bodily condition — although He cares about both — so to receive a bodily mercy from the favor of God implies a spiritual mercy which has a much greater impact on your eternity. That’s why in both the case of the paralytic as well as the woman with the issue of blood — both of them had ample reason to be comforted even if their sicknesses weren’t cured: because their sins were forgiven.
Understanding that spiritual peace subsumes all temporal comforts is an important principle in the Christian life. This means simple tranquilities like good food, soft clothing, and restful sleep are all associated with spiritual peace. I’m not saying you can’t just go out and buy luxurious clothes or good food while suffering spiritual despair — but I am saying your capacity to enjoy them is associated with your spiritual condition. Being at peace with God by reconciliation through Christ grants a spiritual restfulness which goes beyond comprehension and opens the door to enjoying all of the other comforts life has to offer.
According to Jesus, the woman with the issue of blood’s bodily cure was the fruit of her faith. This doesn’t mean God’s power or sovereignty wasn’t the primary cause — but rather she had the faith to receive the mercy which cured her disease. When we pray for a miraculous healing we should desire it for the sake of God’s glory. We should also be resigned to God’s will on whether He chooses to heal us. To desire the mercy of God so that we may use that mercy to praise and honor God is what it means to receive His miracles by faith. It’s okay to wish healing for the sake of healing (no one wants the discomforts and mortality of disease), but our primary motivation in praying for healing should always be that we may glorify God by it.
When Jesus arrived at Jairus’s house He found musicians and crowds of people in noisy disorder. This is the kind of effect death often has on a family. It exchanges routine for chaos and causes everyone to work themselves into a hurry so that funeral arrangements might be made and the deceased may be given a proper burial. The family also has to sort through the affairs of the deceased and make sure everything is taken care of to the best of their ability. During this time the tsunami of labor often works to divert the family’s attention from the looming grief which tends to prevail as a tyrant over their spirits in the coming months.
Jews didn’t tend to wait long after a person’s death in order to execute funeral arrangements. The people of Jairus’s neighborhood had come out to console the family on account of their loss. These would be the same people who would attend the girl’s funeral had Jesus not brought her back to life. It’s possible the musicians were Gentiles, in which case they would have been playing melancholy lamentations in order to fit the grief of the moment and possibly sharpen it. One might say, in this context, that they viewed death and grief as those who have no hope. A juxtaposition between how the Jews viewed death and how the Gentiles viewed death at this moment is telling of the distinction between Christians and non-believers today.
Christians are called to view death differently than those who are outside the faith. This is because we are given hope in Christ Jesus of a resurrection into eternal life. Nihilism or atheism serve to aggravate the grief which Christianity works to assuage. The Christian views death so differently than the world that Christians are often accused of denialism. When a loved one dies, a common temptation is to draw a false association between your despair and the depth of your love for that person. A person handling his grief properly and holding onto a faith that he will see his loved one again is not a reflection on the quality of his love for them. It’s possible to have deep, immeasurable love for another person and still handle your grief well after that person dies. A Christ-follower should resist allegations that his view of eternity cheapens the value of life in the present moment. Rather than cheapening it, a proper view of eternity sets him free to view the present life as it truly is. It sets him free to practice love in its truest form.
We might assume in this instance the parents of the young girl remained silent while the musicians made great lamentation. Grief reveals itself in different ways for different people. Just because a person grieves silently doesn’t mean his pain is less palpable than those who make loud noise. As Matthew Henry puts it, “The flowing river is loudest at its most shallow points, whereas the deeper waters tend to appear more serene.” A person who is truly racked by grief will likely shun observation or avoid attention. One point the crowd does serve to confirm is that the girl was actually dead when Christ arrived.
The first thing Jesus did upon arriving at Jairus’s house was to dismiss the crowds and the musicians. When we’re walking through tragedy and grief, it’s important we don’t allow the sorrows of the world or even our own sorrow to drown out the comforts of Christ. It’s possible for us to harden ourselves in the midst of our sorrow and refuse to be comforted much like Rachel did. Under these circumstances the Christian must remain vigilant to hear Jesus dismiss their troubling thoughts and rebuke the tyranny caused by them. God will make room for Himself in your soul and bring you to a realization that He is the one who holds the keys to comfort and consolation.
In the case of those grieving the young girl, Christ gives them a good reason to cease their troubling sorrow: He said the girl is not dead, but is asleep. In an ultimate sense this was true of the maid because it was true to Jesus. He knew He had the power to raise her from death as simply as if He had woken her up from sleep. From the perspective of the parents and the neighborhood — indeed from any of our mortal perspectives — this girl was most certainly entirely dead. But perhaps chief among His miraculous wonders is that death has no power over Jesus. For Jesus there is no difference between death and sleep. Scripture says of Jesus that He gives life to the dead and brings into being that which does not exist.
So for the Christian the most biblical way to perceive death is as if it is the same as sleep. Those who die in Christ have merely fallen asleep until the time when He resurrects them into new life. We have biblical evidence to suggest this happens immediately or shortly after death — much like waking up from a deep sleep where time has passed in an instant. Even the wicked who die in their sins are said to be asleep with their fathers or be asleep in the dust. They, too, will be raised back to life and in their case it will be to an eternity of contempt.
You might raise the question of how Jesus ushers souls into the kingdom of Heaven upon death when scripture also indicates there will be a great resurrection of the dead at some point in the future. I think this can be reconciled by understanding death is not a sleeping of the soul — rather it’s a sleeping of the physical body. In the same way the activity of the body does not cease when one sleeps, the activity of the soul does not cease when one dies. Sleep is like a short death, and death is like a long sleep. Upon passing away, the faithful enter into a state of restfulness in Christ. Their toil, sorrow, pain, and tears are no more. They rest in hope of the joyful wakening that is coming in the future on the morning of the resurrection. This is the point when they will be brought back in bodily form, wakened refreshed, wakened to a new life. They will wake up to be dressed richly and crowned, in a restored space where death will be no more.
God’s covenant of grace and His salvation afford Christians a kind of comfort which is alien to this world. When our loved ones die, we should not say they are gone. Rather we should say they’ve moved forward ahead of us. They’ve gone on to the place where we are also going. Paul believed it was an absurdity to imagine those who died in Christ are perished. Believing the biblical truth about death will allow us to see death as it really is. You can’t expect to grieve properly and without toxic missteps if you don’t first have an accurate perspective on death. Ignore the shouts from the culture when they tell you you’re in denial or that your religion is a form of wish-fullfilment. Hold fast to the biblical truth concerning death.
If you’re ridiculed for believing the truth about death, understand that Jesus Himself was ridiculed for this same thing right before He resurrected Jairus’s daughter. They laughed at Him when He told them the girl was merely asleep. What’s interesting about these laughing onlookers is that many of them had lived in Capernaum so they should have been familiar with Christ’s power to work miracles.
They knew Jesus wasn’t one to say things He did not mean or to speak in hyperbole. Understanding the work of Christ and these parts of His character should have led them to at least be silent instead of vocalizing their disbelief. Jairus’s daughter was very obviously dead, and so maybe they laughed because they had no idea what Christ could possibly do to “wake her up” from this supposed sleep. A good principle for Christians today is to adore the mystery of God’s work and His divine words even when we fail to understand them. It’s better to trust in the mysteries of God than it is to hold fast the apparent certainties which run contrary to them. If Jesus says, somehow, that He’s going to raise Jairus’s daughter from the dead — we should trust Him that He will do it even if everything we know about life points us to the impossibility of resurrection from the dead.
Notice how Jesus sends the crowd away before performing the miracle and raising the young girl to life. Why would He do this instead of allowing them all to see it and then testify of His glory? I think it’s because He knew they wouldn’t receive it. As we said, many of these people lived in Capernaum so they had previous opportunities to witness Christ’s healing miracles. It’s likely they scorned at the lesser miracles and this made them unfit to witness the greater one. Those who laugh at or take for granted the small works of Jesus should not expect Him to do greater works in their company. Christ does not cast His pearls before swine, and part of the reason for this is because a miraculous display of divine power remains insufficient to persuade hardened scoffers. It’s compassionate for Jesus to avoid putting these people in a place where they see God with their own eyes and still insist on rejecting Him. It’s better if they reject Jesus without witnessing His power and glory because at least then they could plausibly maintain they didn’t reject who they realized was God and the door may be open to persuasion in the future.
Levitical law prohibited the high priest from going near the dead. Jesus, who the Levitical high priest symbolized, walked straight into the room and took the young girl by the hand as if to wake her up. Jesus touched the dead because He understood the letter of the law was subservient to the spirit of the law. The Levitical priests were prohibited from touching the dead both because of uncleanness and also because there wasn’t anything they could do to help them anyway. In both of these cases Jesus Himself is invulnerable. His power over death and the grave means He can bring the dead back to life and He is immune to the infection of uncleanness.
His immortality meant there was no inhibition or fear in Christ when He touched the dead girl’s hand. Right at the moment He touched her, she came back to life and arose from her bed. Unlike the instances where we see the prophets Elijah and Elisha resurrect the dead, Jesus didn’t need to make prayer or supplication in order to effect this miracle. All He did was touch her hand. The power to work miracles is sourced in Jesus — it resides in Him. Where Jesus can perform resurrections and miraculous healings by His own will, Christians today must depend on the power of God and petition Him in prayer. God still works miracles today, but it is always God who is doing it and human-intervention must run through the avenue of prayer and dependence on Him. No human being is the originator of his or her own miraculous power. Every person who enters the kingdom of heaven upon death must do so by the hand of Jesus. Without Jesus we are helpless to lie still.
Despite the fact that Jesus sent away the crowds before raising Jairus’s daughter, news of His miracle quickly spread throughout all the land. Everyone was talking about it. Many times you’ll hear unbelievers say things like, “If God exists why doesn’t He just reveal Himself or perform some miracle to prove Himself to me.” Well that’s exactly what He did with the incarnation of Jesus. Yes we didn’t see it ourselves, but neither did the people who spread and received news of His resurrecting the young girl. We are held accountable to the reliable testimony of history in the same way as those who were eye-witnesses of it. I was not in New York City to see 9/11 happen, but the fact of it happening has nonetheless left an indelible mark on my story and on my perception. Despite not being an eyewitness, the structure of the world after 9/11 is different for me just as it is for those who saw it.
We know that 2,000 years ago divinity came to earth in a cosmic intersection of eternity and the present moment. We know there was a Good Shepherd who spent His ministry healing the incurable, forgiving sinners, revealing the will of God, and finally defeating death itself. The life of Jesus on earth forever changed the structure of the world we experience at this moment. He gave us hope, He gave us freedom, and He gave us salvation. We use His life to tell our time. Although we were not eyewitnesses, the evidence of God’s love is all around us if we have the faith to believe. And Jesus said, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
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