Loving Authority: Matthew 8-9 (Ep. 52)

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Good day. I'm Dave Whittingham. Welcome to stories of a faithful god. What's your experience with people in authority? Has it been largely positive?

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Mostly negative? When someone gets a position of authority, when they're going to have real power over things in your life, whether it's at work or in your family or in government or at a school, does that excite you? Does it terrify you somewhere in between? One obvious reply is, well, it depends on who the person is. You might be super excited that this particular person's been given authority.

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You're excited about all the good things they can do with their new power. A different person in the same position, though, could be terrifying. They could use that power to break and hurt and destroy. So who do you most trust to have power? The Bible claims astounding authority in Jesus.

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In fact, at the end of Matthew's gospel, we read that Jesus has authority over everything and everyone in heaven and on earth. And so we need to ask, a, does he actually have that authority? Does he have the right to rule over us? And, b, if he does have that authority, what will he do with it? Is it good for him to have that power or terrifying?

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Is he someone we can trust? Those are the questions we'll be answering as I present to you our next episode of stories of a faithful god. At the end of our last episode, the crowds around Jesus were amazed. They were astounded. Not because he'd just performed an astounding miracle.

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He'd just finished a long sermon to his disciples, and the crowds were listening in. They weren't amazed by the content of his preaching, even if we're amazed at Jesus' wisdom and clarity. No. They were amazed by how he taught, the fact that he taught with authority. He didn't refer to any greater authorities.

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He didn't rely on what other rabbis had said. He barely even quoted the Old Testament. Instead, as he completely reframed the entire Old Testament and the way God's people should live, the only authority he relied on was himself. Now that fits with everything Matthew's told us so far in his gospel about Jesus being God with us, the declaration from God that Jesus is his son, the miracles he's been performing and which prompted the crowd to come and check him out. And yet, for the people on the ground, teaching like this is astonishing, and it raises the question, does he actually have authority to teach like that?

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And if so, what's he gonna do with that authority? We don't really know if the crowds are excited or skeptical or angry or whatever. They do keep watching him, though, to see what happens. They follow him back down the mountain. As soon as he's back, a man with a skin disease comes and kneels in front of him.

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The translations usually call it leprosy, but the word can mean all sorts of skin diseases. What's significant, though, is what having a skin disease meant in the Jewish culture. Basically, it meant being shut out from God's temple and God's people. The Old Testament law used lots of symbols to point to a spiritual reality. One of those symbols was the idea of being ritually unclean.

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Skin disease made you ritually unclean, meaning you were banned from the temple until you became clean again, usually by ritual washing. In cases of disease, though, you had to live outside towns and cities until you were clean. It didn't mean that the sick person was more sinful than other people. Rather, it was a physical symbol or a sign to illustrate the problem of sin, that God and his people mustn't be contaminated by sin. Sin needs to be shut out.

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The man in front of Jesus asks him a remarkable question. In Matthew eight verse two, he asks, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. It's remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, the man doesn't say if you are able, but Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. He actually assumes that Jesus can fix this problem of his uncleanness.

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The question isn't can he fix the man? It's is he happy to use his authority to fix the man? It's especially remarkable because what he's claiming of Jesus is even greater authority than the priests in the temple. It's the priests who look at skin disease and announce if someone is clean or unclean. But in a sense, they're just observers.

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They look at what's there, and they make a judgment call. They're not doctors. They can't fix anyone. This man believes that Jesus can fix his problem, not just the problem of being sick, but the problem of being cut off from God and his people. So is Jesus willing?

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Is he happy to use his authority to help this man? So many people in authority wouldn't. They might look down on him or feel he's not worth their time. In that religious world, they might tell him to not come near them so they don't become unclean with him. The life of this man hangs in the balance.

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The question of Jesus' character hangs in the balance. And then Jesus does something no one else there would be willing to do. He reaches out and touches the man. Normally, you don't do that because uncleanness passes from one person to another. If you touch someone unclean, you become unclean.

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With Jesus, though, it's the other way around. He doesn't become unclean. Instead, he passes on his cleanliness to this man, And Jesus declares the most wonderful words in verse three. I am willing. Be made clean.

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And immediately, the man's healed. Immediately, we see both that Jesus has the power to heal, and he has the willingness, the kindness, the gentleness, and generosity to heal. That's the sort of man you want in authority. Strangely, Jesus doesn't want anyone to know he's done this. He tells the man to obey the Old Testament law.

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He's gotta go and show himself to the priests. He's just not meant to spread the news of what's happened. Jesus says in verse four, see that you don't tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them. It's a pattern we're gonna see from Jesus. It isn't because he doesn't want people to follow him and trust him.

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It's more because people tend not to understand the meaning of the miracles, and they often respond in really unhelpful ways. Jesus heads back to Capernaum on the shore of Lake Galilee where he's made his home base. There, he's approached by a centurion. Centurion is a rank in the Roman army that means he's technically in charge of 100 men. This man is a leader in the occupying forces.

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He's probably not actually Roman, but part of what are called auxiliary forces, a kind of second army that works alongside the regular Roman citizen army. The big Roman legions at this time are stationed further north in Syria, defending the border from eastern invaders. They've left these auxiliaries in Galilee to assist the local leader Herod Agrippa. What's most significant, though, is that he's not Jewish, and we'll see why that's important as we watch what happens. The centurion comes in an unexpected way.

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He comes pleading. An occupying soldier would not normally have to plead with a nobody in the occupied land, but this man comes humbly, recognizing authority and status in Jesus. In verse six, he says, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible agony. This is a problem. Obviously, it's a problem for the servant and centurion, but it's also a problem for Jesus.

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For a Jew to go into the home of a Gentile means becoming ritually unclean. And so Jesus pushes the man. In verse seven, he asks, am I to come and heal him? There's almost possibly an indignation about it. Is a centurion really expecting Jesus to come to his home?

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Don't worry, though. There are two situations in Matthew's gospel where Gentiles ask for Jesus' help. In both situations, Jesus gives this sort of indignant answer. He's trying to reach the Jews at this particular moment, not the Gentiles yet. Both situations, though, have a very similar outcome.

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Here, the centurion replies with an astonishing answer, an answer that seems to perfectly understand the authority of Jesus. The centurion compares it to his own authority. He has authority over soldiers. Jesus has a much greater authority. The man says in verse eight, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

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For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, go, and he goes. And to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. Jesus is astonished.

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Lots of people have asked Jesus to heal them, but none of them get it like this man gets it. He really understands and trusts the authority of Jesus. He recognizes that someone with such authority over sickness isn't bound by physical distance. His authority is much greater than that. A commander doesn't have to move around.

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He simply commands those under him to move around. Jesus is particularly astonished that it's a Gentile who's saying this, not a Jew, not someone who's an inheritor of the Old Testament, not someone who's meant to understand Jesus and his mission. He says in verse 10, truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith. Then he says something that, for some listening, would be quite shocking. He says, this Gentile, he's actually just one of many Gentiles who'll get to enjoy all the benefits of the kingdom of heaven.

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More than that, there'll be lots of Jewish people who'll end up locked out of the kingdom in hell. He says, I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That is a terrifying thought, especially if you are thinking that you are fine with God simply because of your family tree. Jesus is highlighting that it's not genetics that gets you into God's kingdom. It's faith or trust in Jesus.

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That's true for Jews and Gentiles. The joy of the kingdom of heaven is open to everyone, but we can't wash over the horror in store for those who don't trust Jesus. The horror is that they're locked out of the banquet. It's got nothing to do with little devils with pitchforks poking you in the bottom. It's that you're cut off from the true source of joy and light and life, cut off from the Lord Jesus.

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That's why it's described as the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Inside the banquet, though, everlasting joy. And this centurion gets a taste of it even here on Earth because he's recognized where true authority lies, and he's put his trust in Jesus. So we're told in verse 13, then Jesus told the centurion, go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.

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And his servant was healed that very moment. Jesus heads back to Simon Peter's house and discovers something shocking. Peter's mother-in-law is lying in bed with a fever. For us, that doesn't seem too shocking. Take a couple of paracetamol and sleep it off.

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If it gets worse, you might need antibiotics. But, of course, in Jesus' day, they don't have any medication like that. Also, they don't really have a great understanding of the various diseases that can cause fever. So any disease that causes a fever is just described as a fever, and fever without proper treatment can kill. In fact, fever was the number one killer, and all you could do was wait.

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The sick person would either recover or they wouldn't. So when we're told that this lady has a fever, she's at real risk of death, and no one can help her until Jesus arrives. And for Jesus, it's easy. He just reaches out and touches her hand, and immediately, the fever leaves her. She doesn't even need to sleep it off.

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She gets up straight away and starts serving Jesus as a good hostess. It's remarkable, and word quickly spreads throughout the town. We're told in verse 16, when evening came, they brought to him many who were demon possessed. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. Imagine all the people in the town who in a moment have flipped from hopelessness to joy, despair to hope, suffering to celebration.

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Of course, this is what God said would happen when the Christ came. He'd come in power and authority, and he'd use that authority to heal, to care, to show compassion. Matthew quotes that wonderful passage in Isaiah 53 that points so clearly to Jesus. He tells us that Jesus is healing so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, and then comes the quote. He himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.

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How wonderful to have this man in authority. How wonderful to put your faith in such a wonderful king. How astonishing that someone would use so much power to do so much good. Naturally, the sort of things Jesus is doing draws a crowd who wouldn't want to see him in action. He doesn't wanna get swamped, though, so he gives the order to his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.

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If they just walked around the lake, it'd be easy for the crowds to come with him. They're going over the water, though, which will give them a bit of breathing room. As they're preparing to leave, a scribe approaches Jesus and says something that, on the face of it, sounds fantastic. He says in verse 19, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And you think, great.

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Isn't that what a follower of Jesus should say? Jesus is an expert at reading people, though, and he sees in this man's heart a foolish rashness. The scribe hasn't properly counted the cost of following Jesus. Too many people over the last couple of thousand years have acted like that. They get all excited in the moment about following Jesus, but quickly give up when the going gets tough.

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Jesus tells the man plainly, listen, mate. Things are gonna be tough. It isn't gonna be luxury hotels and penthouse suites. In verse 20, Jesus says, foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. That's the first time in the gospel that Jesus uses the title son of man for himself.

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And here we see, despite his authority, despite his power, he lives a tough life. He doesn't have a permanent home, and anyone following him will have to join in that life, especially because he's about to cross the lake to a more remote location. We don't get to hear the scribe's response, but we do hear from another disciple, someone who's the opposite of rash, someone who's a bit more hesitant. Again, this man sounds very reasonable. In verse 21, he says, Lord, first let me go and bury my father.

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And you kind of think, who could say no to that? Funerals happen within twenty four hours of death. Surely, this guy isn't asking for a long delay. It seems totally reasonable. In the face of that reasonableness, Jesus' reply sounds, at first hearing, cold hearted.

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He says, follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead. Can you imagine saying that to someone a few hours before the funeral? And yet there's something else going on here. If the man's father had just died, culturally, he wouldn't be out on the shore of the lake with Jesus listening to his teaching and watching miracles. That would be shocking indifference to his father.

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Instead, he'd be at home keeping vigil and preparing the body for burial. Only later would he come and discover that he's missed Jesus. So it seems that his request, Lord, first let me go bury my father, isn't a request to fulfill his obligation to his father who's just died. Rather, it's a request to stay looking after his father until he dies, which could be years away for all we know, and then he will bury his father, put that part of his life to bed, and then follow Jesus. Jesus is not up for that sort of delay.

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It's the sort of delay you expect for normal opportunities in life. Some things you just have to say, that'd be great to do, but we'll wait until the kids are older, or I'm retired, or when my parents have passed away. There can be wisdom in delaying some actions. But there's no wisdom in delaying following Jesus because Jesus' kingdom is about life and death. When the boat's sinking in icy water, you don't say, I'll get into the lifeboat next year when it's more convenient.

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No. You get in and you live, or you delay and you die. Jesus is challenging this man to see following Jesus, joining his kingdom, is more important than anything else in life. Anything, even family relationships. Certainly, we want our families to join the kingdom with us, but if they won't, we still must follow Jesus.

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If he was a nobody or even a regular famous somebody, he'd have no right to make that claim on our lives. But as we've seen, he has more authority than anyone else can possibly claim. And as we climb into the boat with Jesus and his disciples and head out over the lake, we're gonna see a new example of that astounding authority. Jesus has been working hard, and so he falls asleep in the boat. Suddenly, a violent storm comes down on the lake.

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The waves pick up, and the boat is getting swamped. This is a life and death situation, and the disciples are terrified. You can imagine them desperately trying to bail out the water, pull on the oars, watch the waves, all while Jesus is sleeping. They shake him awake and say, Lord, save us. We're gonna die.

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It's hard to know what they expect him to do. Their statement sounds like a statement of faith, trusting that Jesus really can rescue them. But Jesus recognizes how afraid they are, and fear doesn't come from faith. If they really trust that Jesus can save them, what's there to be worried about? And so he says to them in verse 26, why are you afraid, you of little faith?

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And then he shows them why they have no need to be afraid. He shows them that he doesn't just have authority over sickness and disease. His authority is over all of nature. In fact, he speaks to the wind and waves as the king of the wind and the waves. We're told he rebukes the wind and the sea like a teacher scolding a pupil, and the wind and the sea listen to him.

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Suddenly, everything goes calm and flat. It's breathtaking. The disciples ask the obvious question they ask in verse 27. What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him.

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They've never seen authority like this. Even though they've seen Jesus miraculously heal, they've never imagined just how far his power extends. The things he's doing now, it's the sort of thing god does, the sort of thing only God can do. In Psalm 107, the psalmist sings about God doing something very much like what Jesus has just done. I'll read it from verse 23.

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It says, others went to sea in ships conducting trade on the vast water. They saw the lord's works, his wondrous works in the deep. He spoke and raised a stormy wind that stirred up the waves of the sea. Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths, their courage melting away in anguish, they reeled and staggered like a drunkard, and all their skill was useless. Then they cried out to the lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.

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He stilled the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed. They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet, and then he guided them to the harbor they longed for. Let them give thanks to the lord for his faithful love and his wondrous works for all humanity. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders. If that's the power and authority of God, then what does it say about Jesus?

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Remember, none of these disciples believe Jesus is God yet. It hasn't even crossed their minds. But what do they make of what's just happened? Well, they sail onto the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gadarenes, and they're confronted by a terrifying sight. Two demon possessed men come out from among the tombs to meet Jesus.

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These are violent men. So violent, we're told that no one can pass that way. So it could be a bit nerve wracking seeing them coming towards you. It turns out, though, that it's actually the demons who are afraid. They're terrified of what Jesus might be there to do to them.

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Back in the boat, the disciples had been terrified because they didn't understand who Jesus is. They didn't understand that they were completely safe with him. Here, it's the opposite. The forces of evil know exactly who he is, and they know that with him on the scene, they're in deadly danger. They also know where they're heading, that hell is their ultimate destination, And so they shout at Jesus in verse 29, what do you have to do with us, son of God?

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Have you come here to torment us before the time? They notice a long way off in the distance, a large herd of pigs Desperate to delay their punishment and knowing that Jesus is probably gonna help the man they're possessing, they beg him saying, if you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs. Better to be in pigs than in hell, I guess. In this whole story, Jesus just says one word, a simple word of command. With his great authority, that's all he needs to say.

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In verse 32, he simply says, go. And the demons obey. They leave the men. They enter the pigs, and the whole herd rushes down a steep bank into the sea and drowns. Even this potential solution for the demons is destroyed.

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Sometimes today, Christians can get caught up in thinking that the cosmic battle between good and evil, god and Satan, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the air, it's somehow on a knife edge. Sometimes Jesus is winning. Sometimes Satan pulls ahead, and that's certainly what Satan wants us to think. But remember, he's a liar. Lying is his native language.

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Jesus reveals the truth. Look at the reality of what happens when the demons face off with the authority of Jesus. They're terrified. They tremble. He says one word, go, and they flee.

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There is no knife edge in this battle. The authority and power of Jesus is complete. Unfortunately, the local townsfolk aren't very excited by this. Even though Jesus has just saved them from these terrifying demon possessed men, they don't care. Perhaps they're terrified of his power.

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Perhaps they just care about profit and loss, the fact that they've just lost all their pigs. Whatever it is, instead of welcoming him as their savior, they beg Jesus to leave. What a terrible loss for them. Jesus and the disciples get back in the boat and return to Capernaum. Here, Jesus is faced with exactly the same situation as when he left.

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People bringing the sick to him. Some men bring a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. Interestingly, we don't hear any request from them. We don't know exactly what they want from Jesus. Given the fact that he's been healing people, we assume that that's what's expected.

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Remember, the whole town were bringing their sick to Jesus before he left. And yet Jesus' words aren't quite what we expect. We're told that he sees the faith of the men. That's just like in the previous events where Jesus has responded to people who trust in him. And so he tells the paralytic in chapter nine verse two, have courage, son.

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Your sins are forgiven. Jesus has assessed this man's deepest need. It isn't his ability to walk. It's his need to be restored to relationship with God, to have his evil cleansed, to be given eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. Some scribes are watching on.

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Scribes are teachers of the Old Testament law. It was them who kicked off the whole synagogue system. They're very legalistic like the Pharisees, and lots of them were Pharisees, but you didn't have to be to be a scribe. You may remember at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the crowd had been amazed that Jesus taught with authority unlike the scribes. Now the scribes are outraged by the authority Jesus is claiming for himself.

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They say to themselves, he's blaspheming. Of course, there's only one person who can forgive sin, the one who's been sinned against, and that's God. How dare Jesus assume the authority of God? Surely, that's blasphemy. In a rather godlike manner, Jesus knows the thoughts that are going on in their heads and hearts, and so he asks them a question.

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He says to them in verse four, why are you thinking evil things in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and walk? Notice that he's made a judgment call about their thoughts. He says they're evil. Why are their thoughts so evil?

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Surely, they're just thinking the logical conclusion. But, actually, it's their evil that's stopping them from thinking logically. That's what evil does. Remember, Jesus has healed heaps of people in Capernaum. They all know that.

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Presumably, they've even seen him do it. When the paralyzed man is put in front of him, they'll probably assume he's gonna heal the man. So the logical question is, which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk? Now I've heard people argue both ways. Some say it's easier to say your sins are forgiven because no one can claim it hasn't happened.

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It's invisible. Other people say, no. No. It's easier to say get up and walk because it takes even greater authority to forgive sins. But I think both answers are wrong.

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Think about it like this. If I put a paralyzed man in front of you, would you be able to miraculously heal him? Not with medicine or anything like that. Just by saying, get up and walk. Would the authority of your words be enough to make his spinal cord instantly repair itself or his muscles suddenly become strong or his nerves be restored?

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Of course not. The only person who has that authority is the one who at the beginning of the world said, let there be light, and light burst into existence in obedience to his authoritative voice. Only God can do it. So if you can't miraculously heal a man, can you forgive his sin? Of course not.

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Only God can do that. Both of these actions are God things to do. So think about it logically. The scribes already believe that Jesus can heal miraculously. They haven't raised any problems or concerns with Jesus doing that.

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They've already accepted that he can do what only God can do. And so it's evil to assume that he can't do something else that only God can do. They've rejected the logical conclusion. They've refused to believe what's true. Kindly, Jesus shows them again.

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He shows them that he has the authority to do one, and therefore, logically, he must have the authority to do the other. In verse six, he says, but so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, and Matthew continues. Then he told the paralytic, get up, take your stretcher, and go home. So he got up and went home. The watching crowds are amazed.

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Matthew tells us when the crowd saw this, they were awestruck and gave glory to God who had given such authority to men. There's something the crowds get, they understand, and something that they don't yet get. They get that Jesus has authority that can only come from God. That's clear. What they haven't understood yet is that Jesus has that authority because he is God.

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And that kinda makes sense. God gives authority to some Old Testament prophets to do miracles in his name. And yet the question the disciples asked in the boat is getting stronger. Who is this man? It's a question that was raised way back in chapter one with the two names Jesus was given.

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Jesus, which means God saves because he'll save his people from their sins. That's what he's done here with this paralyzed man. And Emmanuel, which means god with us. Is god with the people in a special way through the man Jesus, or is Jesus more than that? Is he himself god with us?

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The more he shows his authority, the more we have to lean towards that conclusion. Moving on from there, Jesus continues in his mission to save his people from their sins. We're told in verse nine, as Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. And he got up and followed him. Even though this is so quick to read, it's actually a startling event.

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Tax collectors are hated for a bunch of reasons. One, they take money from people. No one likes that, even in a healthy society where taxes really help people. Two, they tended to take more than they should to line their own pockets. If you refused, they've got soldiers with them to, shall we say, explain very carefully and in great detail what'll happen to you if you don't pay.

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The whole thing's basically an extortion racket. Three, the tax collectors work for the enemy. Galilee is ruled by Herod Antipas, who's not a Roman, but he is a puppet of the Roman overlords. The tax collectors are a bit like the French collaborators in World War two who didn't have a long life expectancy once France was liberated. Finally, and most importantly, they're considered unclean because they spend so much time with Gentiles.

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In other words, they're seen as morally bankrupt in virtually every way you can imagine, and now Jesus has invited a tax collector to follow him. In fact, we'll find out later in chapter 10 in the next episode, Matthew becomes one of the chosen 12, the inner circle of disciples. Anyone watching this in Capernaum would be shocked. It seems, though, that other tax collectors and other similar social outcasts, people labeled generally as sinners, get wind of what Jesus has done. When he's eating in a house, a whole bunch of them come to eat with him.

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They want in. They're drawn to this guy who, weirdly for the day, is a famous religious teacher and miracle worker, but who doesn't shun them. He welcomes them. Even as these evil people are drawn towards Jesus, the supposedly good people are repulsed. The pharisees are wondering what on earth's going on.

[00:39:16] - [Speaker 0]
They ask Jesus' disciples in verse 11, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Remember, the pharisees are seen as the good guys, the ones who apparently excel in righteousness and living for God. Of course, Jesus did tell his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that their righteousness needed to be greater than the Pharisees, and John the Baptist had called them a brood of vipers. So we shouldn't be too surprised that there's a bit of a clash of opinion here. Jesus overhears their question, and he replies with these words.

[00:39:53] - [Speaker 0]
I'll read them out, and then we'll do a bit of unpicking. He says in verse 12, it's not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. On the face of it, it sounds like Jesus is calling the Pharisees really good people.

[00:40:19] - [Speaker 0]
They're the healthy, the righteous. And perhaps Jesus is saying, you guys are fine with God. I'm just trying to restore these other people as well. I think there's more to it than that, though, and the key is in the middle sentence where Jesus tells them, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

[00:40:43] - [Speaker 0]
That's a quote from the Old Testament, from Hosea chapter six verse six, and the prophet Micah says a similar thing in Micah chapter six verses six to eight. The prophets were speaking to people who were doing all the right religious rituals, like making the sacrifices that the law required, but they completely missed the heart of the law. Their hearts hadn't become like God's heart. They didn't care about what God cared about. And God was saying to them, I really wouldn't mind if you forgot the whole sacrifice thing as long as you were merciful and loving and kind and generous.

[00:41:25] - [Speaker 0]
Here's Micah six six to eight. What should I bring before the Lord when I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year old calves? Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with 10,000 streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin?

[00:41:52] - [Speaker 0]
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you, to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. The Pharisees are great at sacrifices, but they're horrible at mercy. They're very strict at keeping the Sabbath, but they're useless at loving people. They're very proud of the way they keep the law, but they're hopeless at walking humbly with their god. And you see that in their attitude to the tax collectors and sinners.

[00:42:33] - [Speaker 0]
They don't want to love and save them. They want to reject them and cast them out. Jesus, on the other hand, wants to save them, rescue them, bring them into the joy of his kingdom. How much more wonderful and attractive is Jesus than the Pharisees? They think they're healthy.

[00:42:55] - [Speaker 0]
They think they're righteous, but he's living out what true righteousness is. And if they can't get on board with that, they'll be the ones who are cast out into utter darkness. After this, Jesus is approached by people who, we hope, are slightly more on board with Jesus than the Pharisees. They're the disciples of John the Baptist. Back in chapter four, we heard that John had been arrested.

[00:43:28] - [Speaker 0]
In fact, that's what had prompted Jesus to move to Capernaum. A lot of John's disciples will end up as followers of Jesus, but at this stage, these men just seem to be trying to figure Jesus out. With John locked up, they may even be looking to Jesus to see if they should join up with him. For now, though, they're confused. They ask Jesus in verse 14, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?

[00:44:01] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus' response is basically, because it's party time, you don't fast at a party. That doesn't make any sense. He says, can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. The groom here is Jesus himself.

[00:44:22] - [Speaker 0]
He's the one who everyone's been waiting for. He's the one John the Baptist was preparing people for. It's so exciting that he's here. By contrast, in the Old Testament, fasting was often associated with sadness and mourning and grief. The fact that John's disciples are still fasting means they've missed something.

[00:44:45] - [Speaker 0]
They haven't understood how significant Jesus is. Like the Pharisees, they're in danger. Of course, Jesus' disciples will fast in sadness and grief because there's a time when Jesus will be taken away from them. This is the first mention of that in Matthew's gospel. It's the first note in a tune that'll reach its crescendo at the cross.

[00:45:15] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus gives John's disciples a gentle warning. He compares the old way of thinking and doing things and the new way with him. He says they're completely incompatible, and he does it by using two quick images. In verse 16, he says, no one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

[00:45:45] - [Speaker 0]
Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No. They put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. Basically, in both images, there's something stretchy and something not stretchy. If you put the stretchy thing with the not stretchy thing, the not stretchy thing will break.

[00:46:10] - [Speaker 0]
They're incompatible. John's disciples will need to make a choice. Are they going to stick with their old way of thinking and doing things or come on board with this new way? You can't do both. It just won't work.

[00:47:01] - [Speaker 0]
As Jesus is talking to John's disciples, a desperate man, a leader of the people, a father, rushes in and kneels before Jesus. He makes a truly remarkable request. In verse 18, he says, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. The first stage of grief is denial. What this father's been through is so terrible.

[00:47:31] - [Speaker 0]
As a father, I can imagine begging a helpless doctor, surely there's something else you can do. But this man isn't in denial. He's expressing genuine faith, genuine trust that Jesus can do what he asks. What's just as remarkable as the man's request is the fact that Jesus and the disciples just get up and go. There's no question of whether Jesus can do it.

[00:47:58] - [Speaker 0]
No complaint about how touching a dead body normally makes you ritually unclean. If you aren't close enough to hear the conversation, but you can only see the response, you might think the man's asked something simple like, can you come and give your opinion on my new donkey? But, no, Jesus has been asked to come and raise a dead girl to life. And he says yes. The journey is interrupted.

[00:48:29] - [Speaker 0]
There's a woman who's also in a desperate situation. She's suffered from bleeding for twelve years. It's hard to imagine how drained and exhausted she must be. As well as that, she's also had the problem of being richly unclean for twelve years. In the Old Testament, blood could make you unclean.

[00:48:49] - [Speaker 0]
So for one week a month, women were richly unclean. They had to perform a cleansing ritual to become clean again. Just to reiterate, it doesn't mean that they were more sinful at that time. The uncleanness was a physical symbol to remind people of the consequences of the real problem, the problem of sin. This woman hasn't been unclean for one week in four, though.

[00:49:18] - [Speaker 0]
She's been unclean for twelve straight years. And yet, just like the father, she shows remarkable faith in Jesus. She doesn't want to bother him. She sneaks up through the crowd and touches the end of his robe. Matthew tells us why she does it in verse 21.

[00:49:39] - [Speaker 0]
He says, she said to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I'll be made well. If she thought that about anyone else, it would be useless, but she's put her trust in Jesus. Jesus turns around and sees her. He says, have courage, daughter. Your faith has saved you.

[00:50:01] - [Speaker 0]
And instantly, she's healed after twelve years of pain and suffering, twelve years of uncleanness. Jesus doesn't simply use the word that means healed, though. He doesn't say your faith has healed you. He says your faith has saved you. And, yes, she has been saved from sickness, but it's more than that.

[00:50:26] - [Speaker 0]
She's been saved from uncleanness, and faith in Jesus also brings salvation from sin. She has not misplaced her faith. So what about the dad who wants his daughter raised to life? When Jesus and the disciples and the dad arrive at the house, their ears are struck by a wall of sound. There are official flute players and a crowd lamenting loudly.

[00:50:54] - [Speaker 0]
People at this time are expected to hire official mourners when their loved ones die, and the ritual for this dead girl is already in full swing. Jesus says something very awkward. In verse 24, he says to the mourners, leave, because the girl is not dead but asleep. Some people have been tempted to think, ah, silly ancient people. They didn't even realize that the girl wasn't actually dead.

[00:51:23] - [Speaker 0]
It's good Jesus showed up and stopped it all before she was buried. That's a very arrogant modern take on the past. It's also not true. Throughout the New Testament, death for people Jesus saves is called sleep. When I teach kids about this, I say, what's the difference between death and sleep?

[00:51:43] - [Speaker 0]
And they always get it right. You can wake up from sleep. Well, when you have the lord of life as your king, he will wake you up. Every single Christian who's ever lived will wake up to eternal life when Jesus returns. And we're about to get a taste of that now that Jesus has arrived at this house.

[00:52:06] - [Speaker 0]
The mourners, of course, don't understand any of that. They just laugh at Jesus. They're bundled outside, though, and Jesus goes in to where the dead girl is lying. He reaches out, and he takes her by the hand just as the dad had asked. And as we've seen throughout this whole episode, instead of her uncleanness passing onto him, his cleanness passes onto her.

[00:52:33] - [Speaker 0]
And Matthew is so concise with his words. If you read it too quickly, you'll miss the astounding nature of what happens. He simply says, and the girl got up. Which girl? The girl who died.

[00:52:48] - [Speaker 0]
She'd been dead before Jesus arrived, but once Jesus was there, she had life. Unsurprisingly, news about this remarkable event spreads throughout the whole area. As Jesus moves on, two blind men start following him begging for mercy. Interestingly, they address him with a title we haven't heard since back in chapter one. They cry out, have mercy on us, son of David.

[00:53:18] - [Speaker 0]
The title son of David is used twice in chapter one. An angel uses it about Joseph in the Christmas story. He says, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what's been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. In a sense, it's merely stating that King David is Joseph's ancestor. But, of course, because it's King David we're talking about, there has to be more to the story.

[00:53:46] - [Speaker 0]
God had promised David that a descendant of his would rule with peace and justice forever. So anyone in that family line is interesting, if only to ask, is he the one? Matthew also uses the title, though, in the very first sentence of his book as he's introducing us to Jesus. He says, an account of the genealogy of Jesus. Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

[00:54:18] - [Speaker 0]
By linking it with the title Christ, which effectively means chosen king, Matthew's saying, Jesus isn't just any son of David. He's the son of David, the fulfillment of the promise, the true king of Israel. And it seems that that's what these two blind men mean. In fact, they're the first humans in the gospel to recognize Jesus as that. The phenomenal authority that Jesus has been displaying has been getting people thinking.

[00:54:48] - [Speaker 0]
Strangely, Jesus doesn't spin around and say, well done. You got it. You understand. In fact, he basically ignores them until he gets inside a house, and they follow him in. In this more private space, he asks them in verse 28, do you believe that I can do this?

[00:55:08] - [Speaker 0]
Of all the people who have come to him in the last couple of chapters, this is the first time he's questioned anyone's belief. Usually, he's just really happy about people's faith. I think it's another sign that he's treating these people who seem to have worked out the truth very cautiously. They replied, yes, Lord. Jesus touches their eyes and says, let it be done for you according to your faith, and their eyes are opened.

[00:55:38] - [Speaker 0]
In other words, they really do trust Jesus, which is great, and they seem to have worked out who he is, which is also great. It's one of those beautiful ironies that the blind men are the first to see who Jesus really is. But Jesus doesn't want them telling anyone. We're told he warns them sternly, be sure that no one finds out. He'd asked the same thing of the leper back in chapter eight, but here it's much more emphatic.

[00:56:09] - [Speaker 0]
It could be that Jesus doesn't want all the attention and requests to heal. I think it's more likely, though, that he doesn't want these men to go around telling people who he is, that they were healed by the son of David or the Christ. It's a loaded title, and there are lots of misconceptions about it floating around. Even John the Baptist and Peter get confused about Jesus' role, and Jesus doesn't wanna feed that confusion. Whatever his reason, the men don't heed the warning.

[00:56:43] - [Speaker 0]
We're told in verse 31, they went out and spread the news about him throughout that whole area. As they're heading out the door, a demon possessed man who can't speak is brought to Jesus. Matthew doesn't bother to describe Jesus casting out the demon. By now, he's shown us enough evidence of the phenomenal authority of Jesus. Instead, he focuses on what happens afterwards.

[00:57:11] - [Speaker 0]
A question's raised about where Jesus' authority comes from. We're told in verse 33, when the demon had been driven out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed saying, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. You can hear their excitement, but then the Pharisees chime in. Up until now, the Pharisees have been asking questions about Jesus. They've been trying to figure him out.

[00:57:39] - [Speaker 0]
Now we hear their conclusion, and it's not very positive. They know he eats with tax collectors and sinners. They know he and his disciples ignore religious practices like fasting, which they think are so important. They can't actually deny his miraculous authority, and so they say in verse 34, oh, he drives out demons by the ruler of the demons. What a shocking miscalculation.

[00:58:09] - [Speaker 0]
They can't accept that they might have anything wrong, and so they have to find an evil explanation for Jesus' authority. And here it is. He's getting it from Satan. And yet, does that fit with anything we've seen? It's an explanation for where the authority comes from, but does it stack up with how Jesus uses his authority?

[00:58:35] - [Speaker 0]
Does Satan really care about healing the sick, showing compassion to the weak, kindly rescuing the possessed, forgiving sin, saving the disciples on the lake, raising the dead? Of course not. Satan is a murderer. He leads people to death, not to life. Throughout the Old Testament, who do we see who's kind, gentle, loving, concerned for the weak and the poor and the vulnerable, desperately keen to save people from their sin?

[00:59:07] - [Speaker 0]
It isn't Satan. It's the faithful God. That's the best explanation for Jesus' authority. It shows why people are right to put their faith in him. It isn't simply trusting that he has authority.

[00:59:21] - [Speaker 0]
It's trusting that he'll use that authority for good. That when you mention your sick servant or long term disease or dead daughter, he'll actually care. It's so different to what we normally see in the world. Studies have shown that the moment people get any kind of power, their empathy immediately drops for the people they have authority over. It's almost mathematical.

[00:59:47] - [Speaker 0]
It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, old or young, what culture you grew up in, if you get power, you immediately become more selfish. And yet with Jesus, he has all the power in the world. Authority over creation, authority over sickness, authority over demons, authority over sin, authority over death. And yet there's no one more compassionate and kind and caring. It's out of this world.

[01:00:25] - [Speaker 0]
It can only be traced back to our faithful, loving God. Jesus doesn't respond to the Pharisees. Instead, we're told in verse 35, Jesus continued going round to all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd. Again, he's so godlike in his compassion and care, in his sadness and distress at the lost people around him.

[01:01:07] - [Speaker 0]
He wants to see more and more people come into the joy of the kingdom, and so he tells his disciples to pray, pray for more workers, more shepherds, more people to help seek and save the lost. He says, the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. It's a prayer that we need to continue to pray today. If we're to have the same compassion as Jesus for lost people, if we have the same joy at seeing people saved, coming to faith in the lord Jesus, then we should pray for more workers.

[01:01:49] - [Speaker 0]
As well as praying, Jesus prepares to send out more workers, his own disciples. But that's a story for next time. Thanks everyone for listening. I hope the show's been really helpful for you. And if it is, would you consider writing a review on your listening app?

[01:02:23] - [Speaker 0]
It really doesn't have to be long. It could be, thanks, Dave, or keep it up, Dave. The more written reviews, though, the more the app will recommend the pod to other listeners. Also, would you consider donating to this ministry? I now have five podcasts.

[01:02:39] - [Speaker 0]
I heard about a conversation the other day where someone asked a fellow podcaster if the money had been raised for their new season. They really wanted a new season of that podcast, but they also said, oh, I've never given any money to a podcast, which I get, but I also still need to eat, and I wanna keep telling more people about Jesus. So if you are able to give some support and help this ministry keep going, head to faithfulgod.net/donate. That's faithfulgod.net/donate. Keep trusting Jesus.

[01:03:14] - [Speaker 0]
Bye for now.