Jesus Presents the Gospel by Going on a Healing Rampage

Matthew Series | Matthew 9:18-35 | Pastor Duane Smets

This week is an exegetical sermon looking at four of Jesus’ healings and how they present and relate to the gospel: a woman with menorrhagia, a dead girl, two blind guys and mute guy. This sermon was originally preached on February 14th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
February 14th, 2010

“Jesus Presents the Gospel by Going on a Healing Rampage”
Series: The Gospel of Mathew
Matthew 9:18-35

I. A Bloody Woman Learns Jesus Ends the Shedding of Blood (v.20-22)
II. A Little Girl Learns Jesus Brings the Dead to Life (v.18-19,23-26)
III. A Pair of Blind Guys Learn Jesus Opens Eyes to See (v.27-31)
IV. A Dumb Guy Learns Jesus Enables the Mouth to Speak (v.32-35)

Introduction

So we’re in Matthew, the first book of the New Testament and we’re going to pretty much finish up chapter 9 today. What’s been going on is that Jesus started off his ministry with a pretty big bang. He got a lot of followers or interested people real fast because he preached a really good sermon…but then Jesus started changing things up, saying and doings some stuff that caused a number of people started to really question whether they wanted to be his disciples or not.

The first followers, the fisherman are pretty much sticking with him, but the scholars (the Scribes and the Pharisees) and the charismatics (John the Baptist’s disciples) are not really down. Last week we read about an old school gangster who decides to give up that life and follow Jesus and Jesus catches a lot of flak for it.

Jesus responds to their critiques with pure brilliance and fire…it’s awesome and then seemingly in the middle of all that he gets interrupted by a guy who’s daughter is dying and it starts of this chain reaction of interruptions and healings that take us nearly all the way to the end of the chapter. That’s what we’re looking at today. I’ll read it in a second for all of us but first let me clue you in to a few helpful things to know when looking at this healing rampage Jesus goes on.

First thing, we’re only going up to verse 35 because I think, along with a lot of other scholars that the chapter break is wrong here and that verses 36-38 really go with chapter 10. Those verses are about Jesus calling his disciples to mission and chapter ten starts off with Jesus sending the disciples out on a mission. So, I could be wrong but the chapter and verse divisions are not inspired by God but were added by a pastor named Jerome in the fourth century to make the Bible easier to read and reference.

Second thing, this is a healing rampage, with four straight in a row. After chapter 9, we won’t see hardly anymore healings throughout the entire book and there are 17 chapters to go. In all the rest of the book there are only four more healing stories. So that should tell us something from a literary standpoint, Matthew is trying to intentionally tell us something.

That’s the third thing, he tells us what he’s doing. Look at verse 35 real quick with me…he summarizes everything he’s been saying so far about Jesus for us. “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, but miracles in the Bible are always about something more than the miracle itself and often times its laid right out there for us. We’ll come back to this, but just notice for now that Matthew says the healings are connected to Jesus’ presenting of the gospel, they are a way or a platform for him to proclaim the gospel.

Okay. Enough set-up, let’s get on with it. Let’s read. Matthew 9:18-35. Pray.

I. A Bloody Woman Learns Jesus Ends the Shedding of Blood (v.20-22)

So we’re starting with the bloody woman. The story starts with ruler who has the sick daughter and Dr. Jesus is on his way to that guy’s house to see her and he gets interrupted by this lady who has been suffering from a medical condition known as “menorrhagia” for twelve years. It’s kind of gross, the Bible can be pretty graphic at times. But basically, it’s when a woman’s menstrual cycle never really stops, she just keeps bleeding and bleeding.

I’ll try to be delicate here. Obviously I’m a guy so I don’t really know what it’s like to have a period. But I am married to a woman and she says it’s not fun. You girls probably got some more insight on this one than us guys but bleeding like that, for twelve years not only must have been painful but frustrating, uncomfortable and just a general nuisance.

On top of it, the thing we don’t see here in this text is that it made her ritually “unclean” which means she wasn’t allow to worship or touch anyone else because then they would be declared “unclean” too. Pretty much like the same thing as if she had leprosy. She’s an outcast. She’s not allowed to have any human contact and she’s not allowed to go to church. The gospel of Mark tells us that she spent all her money on going to doctors but she didn’t get any better and in fact worse (Mk 5:26). So this woman is not just physically suffering but is poor and depressed.

At some point she must have heard about Jesus, who he was, what he’s been saying and what he’s been doing and she gets it in her head that if she can just press through the crowd enough and just get close enough to touch the bottom of Jesus’ robe that it will be enough and it will heal her. So she does that. Here’s what happens.

Listen to the story from the gospel of Luke. “Then Jesus asked, ‘Who touched me?’ When all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.’ And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed (Lk 8:45-47).”

Then Jesus speaks very tenderly to her and teaches her about what was more important than the miracle she just experienced. Look at it, it’s verse 22 in our chapter. He calls her “daughter” and says, “your faith has made you well.” Her faith in Jesus made her well.

And actually those words, “made you well” are a bad translation, the ESV is good but not here, they should have left it literal. The Greek word behind those three English words “made you well” is “saved.” So literally it’s “your faith in me has saved you.” That puts a different light on the whole thing huh?

Jesus wants her to know that it wasn’t magic or some sort of mystical power inherent in his garment that healed her, it was her faith in him and her healing was not just a physical healing…in that instant of a moment Jesus healed her heart. He says, “Take heart, my daughter.”

Here’s the lesson for us. Some of you have a broken heart. Maybe you’ve had to go through some really trying physical suffering and you’re just beat up and broken. Maybe you haven’t suffered so much a physical thing but a relational thing, someone has hurt you and you like this woman feel like you are damaged goods.

This is the real healing Jesus offers that stand true today and is held out for us, he says take heart!

Some say, “Time heals all wounds.” That’s not really true. They are still there and if you allow your mind to think about them, they are as painful as ever.

Time doesn’t heal wounds. Neither does drugs or alcohol or sex or money or any other coping mechanism. And hurt is real. If you’ve never been hurt, you really haven’t lived. You will be hurt. We live in a fallen world with fallen people and hurt and pain and suffering are the reality and that’s why Jesus came. Jesus came into the world in order to minister to our hearts and to heal us where we have been bruised and battered.

If you’ve been there or you’re there right now…hear the message of the gospel, the good news today. Jesus can heal you. Jesus can do it. Jesus is able.

II. A Little Girl Learns Jesus Brings the Dead to Life (v.18-19,23-26)

Well let’s look at the next healing. First he heals a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years and then he heals a girl who is twelve years old. The girl’s dad comes to Jesus. The other Gospel accounts tell us his name is Jairus and his daughter’s name is Talitha. They tell us Jairus is a ruler in the synagogue, so he’s basically a kind of Jewish pastor.

Jairus daughter Talitha has just died, but he gets it in his head that if Jesus just comes and touches her with his hand that she will live. Jesus gets interrupted by the woman with menorrhagia and by the time he gets to Jairus house, the funeral is already under way.

Now funeral’s in the middle east even today are still like this what is described here, with a huge crowd, a lot of commotion and sad music. In fact, at the time this was written, even the poorest families were required by law to have no less than two flute players and one wailing woman (Ketuboth 4:4). So basically they would hire professionals to cry and play music.

Jesus gets there and this whole thing is under way and he tells them to all “go away” because the girl is not dead but sleeping. He hadn’t even seen her yet, but I guess he was pretty confident about what he was going to do. Everybody thinks he’s crazy. They laugh at him. I mean this is nuts. You got to get your head around this.

One of our church member’s uncle died this week and went to the funeral. Can you imagine, a guy coming in, interrupting the funeral, and telling everyone to leave because the guy isn’t really dead but asleep? We’d probably all laugh too and instead have him thrown out.

But Jairus takes Jesus inside his house, Jesus takes her hand and the girl rises. I don’t even know what to do with this. I mean what do you say? No one is laughing anymore. Verse 26 just says report of this goes out throughout the whole region. This guy Jesus raises the dead.

What do you about that? You can’t really say much at all. It’s just sort of left there, blunt and forces you to grapple with it to where you either try to come up with some sort of explanation or you start to really ask the question, “who is this Jesus?”

It’s interesting, in both the story of the bleeding woman and in the next story of the blind men, Jesus will point out their faith. But here with raising the dead girl, there is no interpretive commentary from Jesus or Matthew. I think that’s got to be intentional.

In all of Jesus’ ministry he only raises two other people, a widow’s son and Lazarus. When you look at both those stories along with this one as it’s recorded in the other Gospels as well, two features stand out. One, Jesus’ compassion…in all of the stories there are tears, very emotionally charged situations and in every one Jesus’ is moved by it. With the widows son it says he has bowel aching compassion. With Lazarus he breaks down and cries.

Two, Jesus’ angryish attitude about it. I don’t have time to show it to you but in the other accounts there is an imperative command when he takes her hand, he says, “Child, get up!” (Lk 8:54) In the story of Lazarus, it actually says in the original Greek that he snarls like an angry horse in disgust (Jn 11:33). The point I want to make is that death is a stench in Jesus nostrils. In John 10:10 Jesus says he came to give life, and that it might be had abundantly. Death is completely adverse to all that Jesus is and came to do.

If you’re sitting there and you’re hearing this story of Jesus raising this twelve year old girl from the dead and you’re wondering what the heck it is supposed to teach you, it’s this, that Jesus is about life. He is the giver of life.

Some of you, though you’re not physically dead, you’re spiritually dead. Just numb and apathetic. You’re not really all that interested in all this Jesus’ stuff or maybe you were at one point but it all feels really distant to you. Or maybe you’re not just numb spiritually but you’ve lost passion about everything.

Even if you’re on the worst end of things, where everything seems meaningless and pointless to you, like this world and the life we live just seems like a sham…full of a lot of ugliness and darkness. If that’s you in anyway then you’re right here with Jesus. Jesus sees the darkness and the death and it repulses him and so he breathes life back in. If you’re dead and dying you need Jesus to awaken your soul and he’s the only who can do that for you. We have to keep looking to Jesus for our life because everywhere else we turn will leave us empty and dry. Everything we need is in Jesus, who is our life.

In Jesus there is hope. In Jesus there is meaning. In Jesus there is restoration. In Jesus there is life.

III. A Pair of Blind Guys Learn Jesus Opens Eyes to See (v.27-31)

Well, after Jesus heals the young girl he’s just leaving her house and a pair of blind guys interrupt him. It almost sounds like their stalking him, they follow him and repeatedly cry out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

From the look of it Jesus pretty much ignores them but they follow him into whatever house it was Jesus was going to and once they’re inside he has this conversation with them and like with the bleeding woman, Jesus draws out their faith. Jesus asks them if they believe he is able. They say yes and call him, Lord! Then Jesus touches their eyes and says because of their faith in them, they are healed and then they can see.

So a couple things there. First, blindness is pretty intense. I had a friend in college who was blind, we would always play cards together with some friends. He had cards with Braille on the corners so he could play. Which as a side note, never play poker with a blind guy, he would take all of our money every time. He would ask us to help him get dressed and then ask if he looked cool and if any girls ever came around he would ask us if she was cute or not. If we said yes, every time he would hit on her with some sly line. It was actually kind of fun. That’s probably bad.

My friend had a great attitude, but I’ll tell you what…being blind is gnarly. It’s probably the single most challenging ailment to live with other than a terminal disease.

Now I don’t know if these two blind guys in our story were blind from birth or not, but friend wasn’t blind from birth, he went blind as a young teenager. In talking with him about it, for the first few years he kept hoping his sight would come back or that some treatment would work and then finally he came to a point where he had to learn to accept it.

I mention that because blindness is an ailment that most learn to just accept and they learn to live with it. You get a walking cane or a seeing eye dog and you use crosswalks that beep. So what’s significant from the get go with these two guys is that they are so persistent in following Jesus…crying out to him. And they’re not only doing that but they call him “Son of David.”

This is the first time in the entire book of Matthew that Jesus is called “Son of David.” That is huge because this phrase is a loaded phrase. If I say “Commander in Chief” who am I talking about? The president right? Same thing with this phrase, “Son of David” was a technical term for the messiah who was supposed to come, who would be from the line of David, and here is what he was supposed to do, Isaiah 35:4-6 “He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

Pretty clear huh? So when Jesus asks them “do you believe that I AM able to do this” what’s he really asking is for a reaffirmation of their calling on him as the Messiah. Jesus is saying, “so do you really think I am the Messiah?”

And what’s their answer? “Yes, Lord.” They call him Lord, the name reserved alone for God if you’re a Jew or the Emperor if you’re a Roman. And Jesus says according to that faith, that faith in him, “be it done unto you.”

You see this is a good lesson about faith for us. Too often there has been spurious conception of faith as being this substance, like it is a power that we have, like a muscle or something. But that is not what faith is. Faith is a verb of action like the word “run.” Run is not something you have, it’s something you do. To have faith or belief, means you have trust or confidence in someone or something.

For example, I can have faith in this music stand that if I lean on it, it will hold me up. Faith has to have an object which receives it. In the case of the blind men, Jesus is the object.

What’s interesting about the blind men is before they see they see what others cannot see, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David, who alone can grant mercy. The opening of their physical eyes followed the opening of their spiritual eyes.

That’s what this story is meant to provoke in us. It’s meant to ask us, do you see? Do you see Jesus as he is or do you see something else when you look at him? Both people in Jesus’ day and people in our day see different things when they look at Jesus.

Some see a wise sage, who had some good things to say and learn from. Some see a wonder worker, who could do some strange and unexplainable things. Some see a social revolutionary who challenged the status quo and led an unparalleled revolt. And some see him as God in the flesh who came to extend mercy to human beings.

Some of us get distracted because there are so many things vying for our time and attention that we don’t see the relevance of Jesus. Some are simply blinded and cannot conceive of Jesus in the way he is presented in the Bible. In fact 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Many have described their experience in becoming a Christian as having the blinders removed or the scales coming off their eyes. It’s what the famous old hymn “Amazing Grace” is talking about when it says, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see!”

Sometimes stuff can just get confusing and we don’t see straight, other times we are just completed blinded. Maybe today, what you need most is to be able to see. To be able to look to Jesus and see him as the glorious Messiah he is and to see him as able.

The whole of the heart and ministry of this church is that you would see Jesus. My goal and the goal of every single leader here is to present Jesus to in such a way that he can be seen brightly and beautifully, put out on display as the one to whom we gaze at and worship and call Lord.

When we look to Jesus everything tends to fall into place and make sense…it’s when we get our eyes off him that everything starts to fall apart. If there’s anything blocking your vision today, anything that’s mudding things up for you, any sin, any worry, any desire…cast it aside so that you might see Jesus. Like the two blind men…do whatever it takes, follow him all the way into the house and cry out for mercy until Jesus reaches out and touches your eyes and shows you how great he is.

IV. A Dumb Guy Learns Jesus Enables the Mouth to Speak (v.32-35)

Each of these healing scenes feel like little sermonettes in themselves. They are each so powerful and real. Especially when you put them all together. I mean it’s hard to tell exactly for sure, but at least the way that Matthew writes it, he makes it sound like it all happened in the same day.

And there’s one more, the dumb guy whose tongue gets loosed. In this last story for today we’re told that there’s a guy who can’t talk, he’s dumb or mute and it’s because there is something demonic going on. We’re not really given any details about the healing, just that Jesus casts the demon out and then the guy can speak.

What the story really seems to emphasize is how the Pharisees, the religious and political experts, they don’t even question the healing or the demon thing…instead they try to explain it by saying that Jesus could cast the demon out because he is a demon lord or prince.

It’s really interesting. Look at it with me, verse 33 and 34. In verse 33 after Jesus casts the demon out and the guy can speak, the crowds speak saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” Then the Pharisees speak and they say, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

So you’ve got three speakings going on here. The mute or dumb guy is enabled to speak. Then he has two options of what he can say. Option number one, marveling at Jesus, saying he is truly unique and a gift to Israel. Or option number two, saying Jesus isn’t a gift but a curse, a prince over demons.

This is what Jesus tends to do. He tends to put you in a corner where you either love him or hate him. You either can’t stop speaking good about him or you speak evil of him and spread it around.

In a few chapters Jesus will say, “out of the mouth the heart speaks (Mt 12:34).” In your head, right now, just think back to the last time you spoke Jesus name in a conversation with someone. What did you say? What does your heart speak when it comes to Jesus?

Exodus 4:11 asks the question, “Who has made man’s mouth?” And then it answers, “Is it not I, the LORD?” Jesus will say later on in chapter 21 of Matthew that the mouth of man even from the time he is a baby is meant and made for praising God (Mt 21:6).

Jesus opens the dumb guys mouth so that mouths might praise and thank God for who he is and what he has done. And that is the same call put before us today. To bless or to curse our God and his Son whom he has sent for us.

Conclusion

The way I want to conclude or wrap all of this up is to take one last look at the fullness of verse 35, where it says that all of the healings Jesus did were part of the proclaiming of the gospel. The gospel is the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done so that people might be redeemed and restored back into a right and good relationship with God.

In his life as he is doing these things Jesus shows that he is good, all the while planning to go to the cross and pay the ultimate price, so that all of his healings would not just be temporary physical fixes but so he might provide eternal everlasting healing for sin and separation from God.

It’s quite amazing how each of these miracles Jesus does in the stories we looked at today foreshadow the cross.

First, he shows a lady that he is the one who ends the shedding of blood. On the cross, Jesus would offer up his God-man blood as a payment on our behalf so we don’t have to pay for our sin eternally.

Second, he shows a girl he is against death and came to give life. On the cross, Jesus gives himself up to death and then rises three days later forevermore and promises that same eternal resurrection to all who put their faith in him.

Third, he shows two blind men that he is fact the Messiah who would ultimately close his eyes and give up his spirit on the cross so that many people’s eyes might be opened to receive mercy and forgiveness.

And fourth, he shows a guy who could not speak that he would close his mouth and allow himself to be carried away like a lamb to the slaughter so that many might one day declare his praise.

Everyone here may have different needs today…some may be hurting and need healing, some may be deadened and need healing, some may be blinded and need healing, and some may be muted and need healing.

May Jesus work in us today so we might rejoice in the new covenant provided for by his blood, live in his resurrected power and might, see the wonder of all that he is and sing his praise with our mouths as long as we have breath. He is worth it. He is Jesus. He is the Lord. Let’s pray.