Matthew 9:18-37

Mahatma Gandhi was the image of a tranquil soul who possessed perfect inner harmony. Fifteen years before he died, he wrote, “I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul.

It fills my whole being and I find a solace in the Bhagavad and Upanishad that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount.” But just before his death he wrote, “My days are numbered. I am not likely to live very long, perhaps a year or a little more. For the first time in fifty years I find myself in the slew of despond.” Even the tranquil Gandhi had to face the reality of death and the inability of his man-made religion to give him answers or comfort in face of it.

The Old Testament prophets predicted that the Messiah would have power to bring back wholeness to life, and when Jesus came into the world He demonstrated that power. Though the final fulfillment of the prophecies regarding His power would be in the future, Jesus fully proved His ability to fulfill them during His ministry in Palestine.

The Canadian scientist G. B. Hardy one time said, “When I looked at religion I said, I have two questions. One, has anybody ever conquered death, and two, if they have, did they make a way for me to conquer death?

I checked the tomb of Buddha, and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Confucius and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Mohammed and it was occupied, and I came to the tomb of Jesus and it was empty. And I said, There is one who conquered death. And I asked the second question, Did He make a way for me to do it? And I opened the Bible and discovered that He said, ‘Because I live ye shall live also.’ ”

Jesus the Radical is Accessible

Mark tells us when Jairus first came to Jesus, his daughter was not yet dead but was “at the point of death” A short while later messengers from his house informed him that she had died and counseled him not to “trouble the Teacher anymore”.

Jairus was probably the highest ranking religious official in Capernaum, responsible for the total administration and operation of the synagogue. He may well have been a Pharisee himself, if so, he could not have escaped being aware of this opposition to Jesus, and when he came to Jesus for help he knew he would face criticism and pressure from his peers.

Yet when he faced Jesus he did not seek to protect himself by going at night, as Nicodemus did, or by disguising his true motive and need with an involved and veiled religious question.

So the first thing that brought Jairus to Jesus was deep need. Often some great tragedy drives a person to Christ, but the person who feels no needs in his life has no hunger for God.

The second thing that brought him to Jesus was his faith. He believed Jesus had the power to do what he asked of Him. Such great faith is especially amazing in light of the fact that Jesus had not yet performed a resurrection miracle.

Almost everywhere Jesus went He was in the midst of a crowd, because the people would not let Him alone. Among those crowds were three kinds of people, and they still exist today.

1.The critical and resentful religious leaders, especially the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees;

2. The curious and uncommitted onlookers who saw Jesus only as a powerful, authoritative, and fascinating contrast to those religious leaders;

3.  and the guilty, hurting, desperate people who came to Jesus for help from sin, sickness, and tragedy.

The hurting, guilty, desperate people asked Jesus their deepest questions and brought to Him their profoundest needs, because He listened, cared, and acted in their behalf.

Jesus the Radical is Available

Jesus responded to Jairus by being available as well as accessible. Jesus could just as well have sent the power to raise the girl from where He was, but in a demonstration of self-giving love and compassion He rose and began to follow the grieving father to where his daughter now lay dead. Jesus was willing to be interrupted and to go out of His way to serve others.

Jesus the Radical is Touchable and Impartial

As Jesus was on His way to minister to a single desperate person, Jairus, among a large number of needy persons, His attention was called to still another single individual, one whom a less sensitive person might never have noticed.

This woman knew that only Jesus could help her. And just as Jairus’ daughter had known twelve years of life and laughter with her family, this woman had known twelve years of misery and ostracism from her family.

The stigma and humiliation of such a hemorrhage were perhaps second only to those of leprosy. Such affliction was not uncommon, and the Jewish Talmud prescribed eleven different cures for it. Among the remedies, most of them superstitious, was that of carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen bag in the summer and in a cotton bag in the winter.

Even her associations with her own family, including her husband if she was married, had to be carried on from a distance. In addition to her social and religious isolation she was also penniless, having spent all her resources on ineffective treatments.

Throughout His earthly ministry thousands of people came in contact with Jesus, and many hundreds of them talked with Him and touched Him; but many of them were not touched by Him. Throughout the history of the church, countless others, such as Mahatma Gandhi, mentioned above, have also come in close contact with Jesus; and many of them, too, have remained untouched by Him. He knows the difference between the person who approaches Him out of mere religious curiosity or a sense of adventure and the one who comes to Him in desperation and genuine faith.

Jesus said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” And at once the woman was made well.

The fact that Jesus ministered equally to the outcast woman and the leading elder of the synagogue certainly reveals His divine impartiality.

Jesus the Radical is Powerful

And when Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players, and the crowd in noisy disorder, He began to say, “Depart; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him.

It is Jesus’ power that most uniquely sets Him apart from other men. Humans can be accessible, available, touchable, and impartial, reflecting to some extent those qualities that He perfectly exemplified. But only Jesus has power to heal leprosy, restore sight, overpower demons, forgive sins, and raise the dead.

We are not told how long she had been dead, but it was obviously long enough to have summoned the professional flute-players and for the crowd of mourners already to be in noisy disorder.

In contrast to our western world today, funerals in most ancient cultures, including that of Israel in the time of Christ, were not occasions for quiet whispers and soothing music. They were instead characterized by the loud wailing of voices and the harsh dissonance of musical instruments such as those of the hired flute-players on this occasion. The intended result was a great noisy disorder.

They would hire professional women mourners, who would loudly wail the name of the one who had just died. They would also intermingle the names of other family members who had died in the past. Sorrow was intentionally intensified as memories of old grief were added to the new. Every tender chord was touched, and agony was magnified with loud shrieks, wailing, and groanings.

They also hired professional musicians, most often flute-players, who, like the hired mourners, would play loud, disconcerting sounds meant to reflect the emotional discord and confusion of grief.

Jesus arrived at the house of Jairus and told the musicians and mourners to leave, because the girl is not dead.

Jesus the Radical Heals Two Blind Men

When He left Jairus’s house in Capernaum after raising his daughter from death, Jesus passed on from there and two blind men followed Him, seeking deliverance from their affliction, crying out, and saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Blindness was common in ancient times, as it still is in most underdeveloped parts of the world.

As they followed after Jesus, these men were continually crying out to the Lord, hoping somehow to gain His attention amidst the noise and confusion that usually accompanies a large group of people.

The two blind men were crying out to Jesus in great anxiety and desperation and were determined to be heard over the hubbub of the crowd, knowing He was their only hope of deliverance from their afflictions.

They had the right knowledge about Jesus. The fact that the blind men addressed Jesus as Son of David indicates they acknowledged Him as the Messiah, because Son of David was one of the most common Jewish titles for the promised Deliverer.

Every Jew who heard the blind men call Jesus the Son of David recognized it as a clear confession of their belief in His messiahship. Publicly and boldly they affirmed Jesus as the promised Deliverer of Israel, and they came to Him seeking their own deliverance.

It is interesting that Jesus at first showed no response to the pleas of the two blind men. They continued to cry out as the entire crowd moved along with Jesus and the disciples, and He let them keep pouring out their hearts as they persistently demonstrated their determination. He tested their faith, letting it run to the extremity that proved its sincerity.

Faith is always involved in salvation, and Jesus prompted the two blind men to openly confess their trust in Him

Jesus the Radical Always Demands Faith to be Expressed

According to your faith signifies that the extent of Jesus’ ministry to these men was based on the measure of their personal faith in Him. Faith is the means by which men receive the salvation God graciously gives. In light of their confession and of Jesus’ specific mention of their faith, it seems certain that more than their eyes were opened. Their trust in Jesus Christ likely brought salvation as well as healing. He gave them spiritual life as well as physical sight.

The Two Blind Men Bring Others to Jesus

“The problem with humanity is this: humanity stands at the crossroads, and all of the signposts have fallen down.” Unknown.

For Matthew and every other writer, preacher, and teacher of the New Testament and for every believer today, humanity’s needed spiritual signposts are very much in place and are entirely reliable. The problem with humanity is not with the signposts but with those who ignore or reject the signposts God has made abundantly evident. Romans 1:18–23.

Among those signposts are the miracles that demonstrated Jesus’ divine nature and messiahship, His power to save and His right to rule. In addition to demonstrating who Jesus was, His miracles also served to separate those who accept Him from those who reject Him. For some people, Jesus’ miracles were a sign of divine,

And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. (9:35)

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us at this time there were some two hundred cities and villages in the region of Galilee, an area about 40 miles wide and 70 miles long. “The cities are numerous and the multitude of villages everywhere,” he wrote, “crowded with men owing to the fertility of the soil, so that the smallest of them contains above fifteen thousand inhabitants.” Based on that assessment, Galilee then contained at least three million people, most of whom could have had direct exposure to Jesus.

Jesus the Radical Said Pray for Workers

And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (9:36–38)

G. Campbell Morgan wrote on this passage,

There is no reason in man that God should save; the need is born of His own compassion. No man has any claim upon God. Why, then, should men be cared for? Why should they not become the prey of the ravening wolf, having wandered from the fold? God could have met every demand of His righteousness and holiness by handing men over to the doom they had brought upon themselves. But deepest in the being of God, holding in its great energising might, both holiness and righteousness, is love and compassion

The great Puritan writer Thomas Watson said, “We may force our Lord to punish us, but we will never have to force Him to love us.”

The primary problem that hindered Jesus’ ministry as He taught, preached, and healed in Palestine is the primary problem that hinders it today: the workers are few.

It is interesting and significant that Jesus did not command the disciples to pray for the lost, although that is certainly appropriate (1 Timothy 2:1–8). Their first prayer was to be for the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into His harvest.

Are we ever involved in allowing Jesus to use us as workers for the Harvest?

We should be at work letting the world know that the Radical Jesus is Accessible, Available, Impartial and Powerful. He cares, and is willing to meet the needs that only He can meet.