Gifts of the King

Matthew 9:9-34

Welcome!  Glad to see all of you here this morning!  We’re in the middle of a series on the book of Matthew entitled “The Kingdom of Jesus.”  In the decades before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, expectations grew for the Messiah who would bring the kingdom of God to earth.  For centuries, prophets had written about the coming King and kingdom, but the age of the prophets had seemed to end. Life in Israel at the time of Jesus was difficult as a result of foreign occupation and interference. Matthew gives us the fantastic true story of how in the midst of trying times Messiah had come.

I had the opportunity to share the first message in the series back in December.  We observed then that Matthew, though an author of one of the four gospel accounts of Jesus life and ministry on earth, doesn’t show up often in the Bible.  Four of the six times his name is mentioned, it is in a list of the twelve disciples.  He shares this place of relative anonymity with Mark who also is only mentioned a couple of times in the Bible.

Today, we do see Matthew appear in the passage.  In fact, he is in the verse on your programs.  “Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”  A bold action of faith.

Let’s pray and get into this exciting passage from Matthew 9 in God’s Word about Jesus our King.

Lord God, thank You for coming into our world.  Thank You for changing lives.  May You speak into our lives today and guide us.  We pray in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. – Mathew 9:9

Jesus was going on from the healing of a paralytic.  As Jesus is going, he saw Matthew.

Matthew was likely a typical tax collector, a local man, in this case a Jew, employed by Roman authorities to collect taxes for them.  Since they worked for Rome and they were also known to extract unreasonable payment, tax collectors had a bad reputation.  Tax collectors weren’t the only Jewish people collaborating with the occupying Romans, but they were certainly the most visible.  In fact, they were often considered traitors. 

Rome’s tax collecting scheme was really a devious one.  People would bid to be the tax collector of a certain city or district.  The Roman authorities would take the highest bidder.  Then, the tax collector would pay the Roman authorities according to the negotiated contract.  He would live on whatever he collected above the agreed upon amount.  Some tax collector’s grew quite wealthy because they had the force of the Roman occupying army behind their activities, and they extorted far more from the people than what was in their contract.

We don’t know exactly what kind of tax collector Matthew was, most likely a typical one seeking advantages for himself.  Since there is archaeological evidence that even fish taken from the Sea of Galilee were subject to taxation, it is even possible that Matthew was a tax collector of the fishermen among Jesus’ disciples:  Peter, James, and John. 

So, here is Matthew … sitting at the tax collector’s office … under a contract to the Romans.  Jesus is walking past in the street.  He looks over and says, “Follow me.”  There really is no going back for Matthew.  Peter, James, and John can go back to fishing and Peter even did for a time.  It happens so quickly, I feel like we can gloss over or miss the fact that Matthew immediately followed and left his old way of life behind.

Jesus calls to us, too.  “Follow me.”  He does not conceal from us though that there will be sacrifice, a denial of our old self.  But what can compare to Jesus?  The whole world is nothing in comparison to the joy and eternal life in knowing and following Him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:10-13

Similar to the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus comes and has dinner with Matthew.  The guests are comprised of a mix of Matthew’s circle of friends and Jesus’ disciples.  The Pharisees, of course, thought this was contemptible.  I don’t think the tone of their question indicated that they wanted to understand more fully Jesus’ love for all people.  Rather, they were critically judging Jesus as lacking understanding and being a sinner himself.

Jesus however is not put back by their question.  He describes what many of the Pharisees were really like.  They were like doctors who didn’t want to be around sick people.  Many of them wanted the sick people to get well, but they didn’t want to face any risk of becoming infected themselves. 

Instead, he answers them with a quotation from the Old Testament book of Hosea (6:6).  In Hosea’s time, people were continuing to offer sacrifices at the temple, but they had abandoned mercy and compassion.  Hosea also explains that they had abandoned mercy because they had given up on the truth and knowing God.  Jesus has come and “God has demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  We all need Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) to live lives characterized by mercy and loving others.

Then John's disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” – Matthew 9:14-15

It seems like the disciples are being “hit on both sides.”  On the one hand, the Pharisees are judging Jesus and them.  Now, John’s disciples are asking questions, too.

Before we talk about John’s disciples, I’d like to make an observation about questions.  I already said that the Pharisees were asking the disciples their question in a judgmental way.  I say that because the behavior of the Pharisees generally and Jesus’ descriptions of and answers to them indicate that they have wrong judgmental attitudes.

I want to give a word of caution though.  Be careful discerning the reason behind questions people may ask you.  I’ve been goofing around on Elijah’s red ukulele some in the evenings for a couple of weeks or so.  One night this week, Melissa and I were coming back from Anderson, and she asked me why I had started trying to play the ukulele.  For whatever reason, it seemed out of the blue to me.  I interpreted the question that she was indirectly telling me that it wasn’t the best use of my time.  We talked it through, and she was just asking me the question out of curiosity and to make conversation.  Hey, why are you playing the ukulele?  No big deal.  The whole conversation maybe took two minutes tops.  I’ve been playing the ukulele during snatches of time in the evening while Elijah’s getting ready for bed, or I’m waiting on the dog to go out, or whatever.  (Elijah getting ready for bed is a multi-step process involving most if not all of the following, putting away any clothes that were washed that day, putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, finding as many siblings as possible to tell good night, telling Mommy good night, trying to get me to give him piggy backs between one or more of the above, me checking on him to make sure he hasn’t gotten derailed from the mission of going to bed and/or me reading a chapter of a book aloud before finally praying and singing a song and turning out the lights.)  Struggling to find a chord on the ukulele seemed better than perpetually spending those intervals looking at my phone which has been my typical practice.

So here, in the case of John’s disciples, we can note that they direct their question to Jesus rather than the disciples.  They really want to know what is different about Jesus.  John was not like the Pharisees.  He was not hypocritical.  He sought God and spoke the truth.  He called sin “sin” whether it was done by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, or King Herod himself.  And yet, John and his disciples had practices which were similar to the Pharisees at least externally.

As we saw earlier in the gospel of Matthew, John’s lifestyle was one of self-deprivation (locusts and wild honey, anyone?) and his ministry emphasized humble repentance.  This also included fasting.  The Pharisees also fasted.  Luke 18:12 indicates fasting twice a week.  But they fasted to impress one another and themselves with their “spirituality.”  John’s disciples and the Pharisees externally shared the practice of fasting, but their reasons for and heart attitudes during fasting were not similar.

It would have been easy for the disciples to have a wrong understanding, to feel criticized, or to be defensive if they couldn’t see the bigger picture.  The wrong view would be everybody is fasting, what’s wrong with us (or Jesus)?  Instead, Jesus speaks into the situation.  Both John’s disciples and the Pharisees are fasting but Jesus’ disciples are not.  What’s different about Jesus?

Jesus is different.  Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) Following Jesus, his disciples were already living in the experience that John sought to prepare the people for.  John preached, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”  (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3)  The bridegroom, our Lord, has arrived.

We know now that Jesus has risen from the dead, and we live in the time when Jesus has ascended to be with the Father.  He has sent his Holy Spirit, our Advocate, Counselor, and Comforter.  It is appropriate to fast as an opportunity to draw near to God, to pray, to depend on Him.  As Carl explained a couple of weeks back, “it’s not about how long you fast, but about the simple fact that for one meal, you fed on God rather than food. If you never fast longer than this, that’s fine, that’s great. Don’t let fasting become a competition or training. It’s not about beating your personal best!”

Jesus continued to expound how He is different with two parables or examples.

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” – Matthew 9:16-17

We don’t do much patching nor do we save wine in wineskins these days, so maybe a bit of explanation is in order before we try to tackle the parables’ meaning.  It’s not that we are completely unaware of these things, it’s just that we aren’t frequently sewing things with our own hands.

I find the shrinking of clothes to be a mystery.  Some things shrink and some things don’t.  To maintain and improve the reputation of their products, clothing manufacturers want to minimize the amount of shrinkage that can happen after you start washing and drying new clothes.  There are a number of variables they try to control from how the cloth is made to pre-stressing the cloth to stabilize its behavior.  Sometimes you will see clothes, particularly jeans, advertised as pre-shrunk.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I got three new T-shirts for the boys’ robotics team.  I happened to be wearing one of them yesterday while working on the message.  That shirt seems to have been relatively unaffected by washing a couple of times.  However, another of the shirts seemed noticeably shorter after one washing and drying.

So the shrinking of cloth is a problem of the ages.  In this case, Jesus says people well understand that you can’t put an unshrunk or unstable patch on an already stable garment.  It will just create worse problems.

In ancient times, wine was often stored in goatskins, essentially a leather bag.  Through use, the leather would be stretched and lose its flexibility.  Ultimately, the skin would be hardened to the point that it couldn’t be stretched or expanded any more.  New wine is still fermenting and will continue to emit gases.  The storage container must be able to withstand this pressure either by its strength or it must stretch and get bigger itself or some combination of the two.

Jesus did not come to patch up the old covenant.  He came to complete it, to make it new.  The NIV Study Bible says it this way, “Jesus brings newness that can’t be confined within the old forms.”  Jesus was bringing about a new body, the church, which would bring Jewish and non-Jewish people together in unity throughout the whole earth.  It’s as if the covenant of the Old Testament law has been planted and will now grow and in fact is growing into a mighty tree.  The seed’s purpose is being fulfilled in greatness, the Kingdom of Jesus.

This passage used to concern me.  Even in my early twenties, I worried that I was an old wineskin unfit for being filled with the “wine” of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).  At some point, God showed me that I don’t have to be worried or afraid.  Instead, He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5) including us.  II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  I can be changed.  As Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Likewise, II Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

As you seek Him, allow Him to change and transform you.  And both you and His Spirit within you will be preserved.

We’re going to read now about a succession of four miracles.  Before we do, I want to remind you that the preceding chapter of Matthew (chapter 8) included many miracles of Jesus: healing many different people, calming a storm, driving out demons.  There is no one like Jesus.

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. – Matthew 9:18-19

A synagogue leader was one who had administrative responsibilities such as looking after the building and supervising the worship.  Some synagogues had multiple leaders, but most had only one.  Not only is his question is remarkable, he also kneels before Jesus.  This is a posture of worship.  Jesus does not reject this.  Again, Jesus is the Son of God.  He is not simply a man.

Obviously, this leader has faith in Jesus.  I wonder if the man had heard about Jesus raising the young man back to life in Nain.  It precedes this event as told in the book of Luke.  Or had this man who no doubt had heard the Old Testament read again and again in the synagogue think of Elijah and Elisha who had raised children from the dead?  Was he thinking, hoping, and believing passages like Isaiah 26:19 which is part of a song that will be sung by those who come to the Lord in distress.  In fact, it says the people at that time could barely whisper a prayer.  Doesn’t that describe a parent who has lost a child?

LORD, they came to you in their distress … they could barely whisper a prayer. … But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise--let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy. – Isaiah 26:16, 19

Maybe the synagogue leader was impacted by all of these.  Jesus is moved to respond.  He does not delay but comes along and brings his disciples.  And yet, our story has another story imbedded in the midst of it.  This is one of those events which contributes to the believability of God’s Word.  If you were making this stuff up, you wouldn’t likely think to imbed another story right in the middle of the first one unless it really happened like that.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. – Matthew 9:20-22

As I read this freshly in preparing the message, I was challenged.  I often feel as though I am at a point where there is simply more to do than can possibly be done.  I’m not sure if my situation has changed all that much over the years, but rather my appraisement of my situation may be what has changed most.  In the past, it felt easier for me to rest in the Lord.  God is working all things out to the good even when sometimes situations are chaotic and just weird.

And so, it is a comfort to me to reflect on Jesus being faced with this “interruption” to his urgent and important support of the synagogue leader.

One thing that I do feel is different from the past is the sense of urgency.  My work is often constant thinking of how to be faster and more productive all the time.  There are certainly urgent situations in our lives that require us to take action.  But constantly dwelling on trying to be faster or do more can be contrary to the ways of God.  Worrying about the fact that we can’t do more is definitely contrary to the ways of God.  I thought of Isaiah 28:16.  There is a song based on the King James version, so I started there.  “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.’ ”  The first part of that verse is referring to Jesus.  He is the foundation, the tried stone, the precious cornerstone, dependable and sure.  The last phrase refers to the one who believes in Jesus.  If you believe in Jesus you will not “make haste.”  Different translations are helpful to see the meaning.  The New King James version says, “Whoever believes will not act hastily.”  The New Living Translation says, “Whoever believes need never be shaken.”  The New International version says, “the one who relies on [the Stone] will never be stricken with panic.”  The English Standard version says, “Whoever believes will not be in haste.”  The Christian Standard Bible says, “the one who believes will be unshakable.”  There are footnotes in both the Christian Standard Bible and the New American Standard Bible that say, “the one who believes will not hurry.”  And finally, the New American Standard Bible says, “He who believes in [the Stone] will not be disturbed.”  Over in the New Testament, the same verse is quoted in Romans 9:33 and I Peter 2:6.  The final phrase of the verse there says, “the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame,” (NIV and others) … “will never be ashamed,” (KJV) … “will never be disgraced,” (NLT) and “will never be disappointed.” (NASB)

I liked the New International version.  “The one who relies on [the Stone] will not be stricken with panic.”  We should turn to the Lord in times when we are anxious.  I appreciated the letter that Carl put together for the church family about the coronavirus.  It takes a proper view of a serious situation that can lead to anxiety if we aren’t careful to evaluate perhaps even take our thoughts captive.  Let me read the letter.

...the prudent gives thought to his steps. – Prov. 14:15b

Dear Church Family,

As the coronavirus (CoVid-19) shows signs of spreading in the United States, we want to encourage you not to give in to fear but to live by faith and take measured and appropriate action. We encourage you to keep updated using reliable sources of information such as the Center for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov) and SC DHEC (https://www.scdhec.gov).

Currently, we plan to continue assembling together in person. Plans for “meeting” online and guidance for encouraging one another using other technologies are being discussed should the situation escalate to the point that such measures are warranted. Please be assured that no microbe can separate us from the love of Christ or from the love of and care for one another. You are our dear family in the Lord!

In our gatherings, we encourage you to adopt the following basic guidelines:

1.    Do not attend church if you are ill with cold/flu symptoms.

2.    Wash your hands frequently – with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Dry well with a paper towel. Use a dry towel to turn off the water and open the bathroom door. Hand sanitizers can also be helpful.

3.    Sneeze or cough into the crook of your elbow or a tissue, not your hand. Throw away tissue and wash hands after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose.

4.    Feel free to “bump elbows” instead of hugging or shaking hands.

In addition to taking the above precautions, please pray for the medical professionals and government officials in South Carolina who are working hard to prepare for the situation that the virus enters our state. If this situation comes to pass, please pray that God grants them wisdom and grace to contain its spread. Finally, please pray that God would give us His peace and that we would be His ambassadors of hope to a worrying world.

Let us be both prudent and faith-filled.

And so Jesus does not ignore the woman in haste to go with the synagogue leader.

What boldness and faith the woman has here.  There is a whole dynamic related to her bleeding including perpetual ceremonial uncleanness that would prevent her from touching people or even being in a crowd of people.  That’s why she comes secretly.  She fears she would have been turned away if she said why she was there.  She is confident that merely touching Jesus’ cloak will be enough, and indeed, it is!  There is comfort that we can draw from this woman’s approach.  Her plan and understanding were not perfect, but Jesus overcomes these because her trust is in Him.  He in fact explains to her that it is her faith in Him that made her well and not power in his garments.  May we too place our trust in Him.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. – Matthew 9:22-26

Playing pipes is playing wind instruments like flutes.  The noisy crowd was likely mourners weeping and wailing.  Often times, these were hired.  It may seem strange to us, but people were professionals at mourning and would be paid to do this.  Practices like this are still carried out in some parts of the world today.  Tradition among the Jews required no less than two flutes and a wailing woman, so even the poorest families paid for these.

The laughter that they laughed could be described as scornful laughter.  The sudden switch from mourning to laughter certainly makes it seem they were paid or going to be paid.  Of course, the child was dead.  Who would pay for mourners and musicians of someone who was asleep?

Nevertheless, the crowd is put outside.  Jesus goes in and raises up the child by the hand.  What was that moment like for the father and mother?  Amazing joy!  Jesus doesn’t heal every sickness nor does he raise every person who dies in childhood, but He has defeated death so that everyone who has faith in Him will be raised to life.  We should not forget this.

The good news keeps coming.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

“Yes, Lord,” they replied.

Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region. – Matthew 9:27-31

This title “Son of David” was associated with the Messiah.  God gave a promise to King David that there would always be one of his descendants to sit on his throne forever.  Therefore, the Messiah was also to be a Son of David.

Their plea is for mercy.  These two men did not come with a list of merits or accomplishments.  They came simply for mercy.  “Please help us.”

As the synagogue ruler believed that Jesus could raise his daughter from the dead, so did these two blind men believe that Jesus could restore their sight.  Jesus even declares that their healing be according to their faith, their belief.

“According to your faith” does not mean “in proportion to your faith.”  Instead, the intent is “Since you believe, your request is granted.” (Carson)

They couldn’t keep it secret.  The news spread just as it had from Jesus’ earlier miracles.

While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.” – Matthew 9:32-34

It turns out there may be a bit more behind the saying, “nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel,” than the fact that this was obviously a miracle allowing a mute man to speak.  There was a thought among the Jews about demon possession that to remove a demon it was necessary to get the demon to speak its name.   We see Jesus ask the name of the demon back in Matthew 8.  If a demon caused a person to become mute, it was generally believed that the demon could not be removed.  In this case, Jesus drives out the demon without having the demon speak its name.  This adds a bit more to the basis for “nothing like this has ever been seen.”  Jesus has done something which the Pharisees would have said previously was impossible.  Subsequently, the Pharisees are at work on a way to try and discredit Jesus.  Instead of celebrating and worshiping, they try to play it off.

That brings us to the end of our passage for today.  It’s amazing.  In a short time, Jesus has called Matthew out of a life contrary to the ways of God.  He has explained that He is “the bridegroom” who is doing a new work beyond what has previously been understood.  In short, He is making the way of salvation available to the whole world.  He has raised a girl from the dead, healed two men of blindness and driven a demon from a man allowing him to speak.

The chapter reminds me of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Return of the King In book 5 chapter 8 titled “The Houses of Healing,” one of the city’s nurses recalls a legend, which says, “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.”

During his lifetime, Tolkein repeatedly explained that The Lord of the Rings trilogy is not an allegorical retelling of the bible or people in it, but the characters and plot of The Lord of the Rings are bound to natural law and objective truths not inconsistent with Christian belief.

What then should a king look like?  Jesus is the perfect king who calls us to follow Him.  He has the power to heal, to raise back to life, to defeat death itself.  Our faith in Him will not disappoint.  He is the sure foundation, our precious cornerstone.  May we all ever and always trust in Him alone.  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we look to you this morning and every day.  May we place our lives in You and build upon You as our foundation.  Help us to take up our cross each day and follow You.  This we pray in Your Name.  Amen.