Matthew 9:18 - 34

We are at a party, a party full of people that good Rabbis don’t hang out with. Jesus was. I would have loved to hear the dinner conversation, that is before they were interrupted.

The text shares the details of not one, but three interruptions. He first overhears the Pharisees complaining to his disciples (and we get the teaching about only the sick need a physician). Next the text says, “…John’s disciples came to him…” (we get the teaching about new versus old). 

Then we read of a ruler coming to him, leading Jesus to get up and go. His response brings us to four healings. A woman with a hemorrhage is given new health. A dead girl is raised to new life. Two blind men receive new sight. A man who was mute receives new speech.  

You cannot pour new wine into old wineskins. He has power over the physical ills of this world, the demons of the spiritual world, and even over death. Jesus makes all things new.

Yet look closer. 

·      We see he comes to those on the outside. 

·      We see he comes to those who have faith, even if it is imperfect. 

·      We see all this happens while he is surrounded in a sea of unbelief.

Dead bodies, bleeding women, and the deaf and dumb; all are outsiders. All are unclean. The religious people offer them no hope. Quite the opposite. Their religion actually precludes them from community. Jesus brings those outside the community to the inside of it and makes them whole.

Today you and I live in a world where churches hang out signs, “All are welcome”. Many of those churches are great churches. Some of them however, by that sign, mean “come on in, you don’t need to change”. When Jesus welcomes all, he seeks to change everyone. We change, in part, by the acknowledgement that we need to change (to repent), and that we have faith that he, Jesus, can change us.

This faith that Jesus can do “something” is present in all these healings. Unlike the earlier scene with Peter’s mother-in-law, where she lay ill with no one intervening, here each episode has a person of faith. The father goes to Jesus as a last resort, the woman superstitiously touches Jesus’ garment, the blind cry out Son of David, and the mute is brought to him by others of faith. To be sure their faith is imperfect.

Yet it is remarkable faith. Why? Because this faith is surrounded by a sea of unbelief. Those at the dead girl’s house mock him. The religious accuse him of being possessed by a demon. 

Ever feel like:

·      You are surrounded by a sea of unbelief?

·      Your faith is not quite a perfect as it needs to be?

·      You are standing on the outside?

Welcome! Jesus is has come to make all things new. 

With Jesus it is never “one and done”. He is continually making us new. Even when we’ve come inside. For us to become new, the old must pass.

Where are you are this journey with Jesus? What is Jesus changing in you today?