I like to open my blog articles with stories that highlight the scripture passage we are studying. In today’s passage, I have stories that reveal that Jesus is active in our day, just as He was when He walked in Galilee.
There are two accounts of Jesus healing in Matthew 9. One involved raising a dead girl back to life, and the other was the instant healing of a woman who had suffered for 12 years. The woman’s need for healing interrupted Jesus’ journey to help the child.
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.
Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.
Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that moment (Matthew 9:18-22).
The good news of God’s rule on earth is that a touch from Jesus is all that is needed for healing to take place. I expect that there are thousands of examples of Jesus’ healing touch taking place on a daily basis. After all, God is a loving heavenly Father who wants His children to be well.
I was part of a weekly prayer meeting with pastors in the Kansas City area for several years. On one occasion, one of the pastors complained of intense foot pain. Like the woman in Jesus’ day, he had been to several doctors and specialists to no avail.
As we were taking a break to get more coffee from the church office, one of the pastors asked if he could pray for this man. When we came back with steaming cups of coffee, the pastor with the painful foot was crying. His tears were not those of pain, but of joy. In the length of time it took us to walk a few steps to get more coffee, God had healed his foot.
The pastor who prayed for our friend had once been a medical doctor. He left the medical profession to take up healing through prayer and is the Chaplain Emeritus for St. Luke’s Hospital. For him, the way God manifests His presence and reality is by healing the sick.
Whether it was the crowd walking with Jesus to the leader’s house or people today, one way God reveals His character, power, and love is through healing. We can praise Him for that.
Raising the Dead
Raising the dead for Jesus is no more difficult than healing a woman with a long-standing health issue.
When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed at him.
But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district (Matthew 9:23-26).
In one sense, I don’t have any stories to tell about Jesus raising people from the dead. In another sense, I have hundreds of accounts where Jesus has taken the spiritually dead and given them eternal life.
When we think about it, the little girl had to face physical death later in life. The good news is that those who have received spiritual life will never experience eternal death. Here is how Paul wrote about this fact:
(1) Spiritually Dead: The little girl was physically dead and required a touch from Jesus to come to life. We are spiritually dead because we have rebelled against God and followed the rebellious path of the devil and demons.
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient (Ephesians 2:1-2).
(2) Made Alive with Christ: Jesus reversed the power of death for the child. He is motivated by mercy, love, and grace and actively takes us from a place of sin and death to be raised and seated with Him in heavenly places.
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-5).
(3) Saved by Grace: No one would expect the girl to be able to help herself. After all, she was dead. By analogy, those dead in sins and trespasses are unable to help themselves. They need what only God is willing to graciously give us.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
While we can’t boast in personal spiritual achievements, we can boast in God’s mercy, love, and grace.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 