As Father’s Day approaches this Sunday, we are all remembering the men in our lives who have impacted us in a positive way. When we think of influential men, the primary example is Jesus Christ. In our Connect Groups this Sunday, we are going to study a powerful passage of Scripture in Matthew 9.The theme that runs throughout the entire chapter is “Faith in Jesus produces forgiveness of sins leading to spiritual healing“. Spiritual healing is very hard to see because of the vague nature of the spiritual world. As physical beings, the spiritual world is often hard for us to understand. That is why the Bible often uses the physical to explain the spiritual. Baptism is an example of this. In the act of baptism, we are able to see and understand something profoundly spiritual. Jesus transforms our spiritual lives when we place our faith in Him. The old way of life dies and we are resurrected to a new way of life in Christ. Baptism is a physical picture of this spiritual truth. The same can be applied to physical sickness. We understand sickness and the need to be made well. We have all experienced this. On the other hand, we are all spiritually sick from birth because of our sin nature. Because this is a spiritual condition, it can be difficult to wrap our minds around this spiritual sickness. Jesus uses physical healing in the Gospels to point to a great spiritual truth, we can be healed from our spiritual sickness through faith in Him. Jesus heals a man in Matthew 9, but, instead of telling the man he is healed, He actually tells him that his sins are forgiven. The physical healing is a physical picture of this spiritual truth. In order to be healed spiritually, we must have our sins forgiven. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, He forgives our sins leading to our spiritual healing. After forgiving the man’s sins, Jesus walks up to another sinner, Levi, also known to us as Matthew, the author of the Gospel that carries his name, and calls him to follow Jesus. In essence, Jesus offers forgiveness of sins to Matthew and Matthew accepts the offer. He places his faith in Jesus, has his sins forgiven, is healed spiritually, and then begins to follow Jesus as a disciple. Immediately, Matthew brings Jesus to his home, invites all of his sinful friends, and throws a party. The sinners who attend love spending time with Jesus. They know that they are sinners and they admit that they need to have their sins forgiven. This is the context for the rest of this chapter.
I. Jairus needed forgiveness of sins
Jairus was supposed to be a man who understood faith, lived by faith, and helped others to understand and live by faith. This was not the case. His ancestral religion just bound him to traditions and enslaved him. He was spiritually sick and did not realize it. He needed forgiveness of sins and was unable to admit it. His names means enlightened by God. The origin of his name meant one who shines. Jairus had the ability to be enlightened by God because of his position in the synagogue. He had never been enlightened. Jairus needed to learn to have faith and it took a crisis to get his attention and cause him to look to Jesus Christ for salvation (rescue). Being the father of two little girls, there is really nothing else that hurts me more than seeing my girls hurting. This man’s little girl was sick and there is nothing that he could do about it. He was at the mercy of the sickness and he had to humble himself and beg Jesus for mercy and grace. Jesus feelt compassion for both Jairus and his little daughter. This reminds me of the first of the Beatitudes where Jesus taught; “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven“. This is how we are to come to God, with nothing to offer and only to receive, like a beggar with nothing to his name. No one has anything to offer God but, we seem to think that we do and that keeps us from being enlightened. Jairus came as a man poor in spirit. Jesus was not too busy for Jairus. Jesus wanted to enlighten Jairus and He was ready to do so but, the crowds were great and His attention was distracted by a women who also needed enlightenment. In the middle of the story with Jairus, the Gospel writer, Matthew, interrupts the story with another incident, the healing of the sick woman. It seems that Jesus and Jairus were separated before Jesus could enlighten Jairus. This was an obstacle for Jairus but, he did not give up. After Jesus healed the sick woman, Jairus found Him again and begged Him to heal his daughter. Jesus, once again, was ready to enlighten Jairus so that Jairus could live out the meaning of his name, the enlightened one who shines. Another obstacle presented itself while Jairus was talking to Jesus. One of Jairus’ servants come up to him and informed him that his daughter was dead. Jairus began to lose heart. Jesus reached out to him and encouraged Jairus to believe in Him. Jairus had nothing left but to believe. Jesus went to Jairus’ house and saw the girl. He brought her back to life. This is an amazing miracle but, it is not the most amazing miracle in the story. The fact that Jairus was enlightened and came to faith in Jesus Christ, that is the greatest miracle in this story. His life was transformed and he was able to shine the light of the Lord to all who were around him. This falls in line with the main teachings of Matthew 9. Jairus heard the message of the Gospel. He understood the message of the Gospel because Jesus explained the message to him. Jairus believed in Jesus Christ, the central character of the message of the Gospel. His life was changed. He was created to be enlightened and shine the light of the Lord but, because of his sin nature, a nature that we are all born with, he was not able to live up to his calling. Jesus fixed that through faith. Jairus had a testimony to share with all.
Have you ever experienced such desperate times that you were driven to your knees to cry out to God for help, like a beggar? Do you realize that God uses tough situations to force you to turn to him and cry out in desperation? How do you respond? Do you continue to kick against the goads or, do you give in and cry out for help? Jairus stopped relying on everything and turned to the Lord for help.
II. The sick woman needed forgiveness of sins
In the middle of the story with Jairus, Jesus was interrupted by the crowds. During this interruption, Jesus was touched by a woman who had been hemorrhaging for many years, 12 to be exact. She was enslaved to this problem. She wanted and needed to be rescued and the Rescuer was just a few feet away from her. The only problem was that she was lost in the crowd. She believed in the power of Jesus, that if she could just touch Him, she would be healed. We have already seen that Jesus wants to release the people from their sins. He was preaching a message of repentance, faith, forgiveness of sins, following Him, and learning how to take that same message to others. Jesus was in the process of making disciples and I really believe that this was a teaching moment for them. No matter how large the crowds become, do not ever forget the individual who makes up the crowd. Teach the crowds but please, focus on the individual. The woman was healed, not simply by the concept of faith. She was healed by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in itself is not powerful. The object of our faith is what is important. When our faith is placed in the person of Jesus Christ, then that faith is powerful. Jesus offered peace to this woman and He offers it to everyone who comes to Him in faith. Do you come to Jesus and place your faith in Him? Do you realize that the power is in Christ, not in faith? Are you willing to risk all to attain Christ? What has the Lord revealed to you in this passage about your own faith?
III. The blind men need forgiveness of sins
All of the people mentioned in this passage are important. Jesus cares for and loves them all. Even though the crowds are massive, Jesus never loses sight of the individual in the crowd because the crowd is made up of individual people. These blind men are no exception.
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 9:27)
The blind men had a physical sickness. They knew it and so did everyone else around them. They also had a spiritual sickness that they may not have been aware of at that time. The people around them could see their physical condition but not their spiritual problem. These men overcome all of the obstacles and cry out to Jesus for mercy. They had heard about Jesus. They knew that He was different from all of the other spiritual leaders. They recognized Jesus’ lineage, that the Messiah had to come from the family tree of King David. They did not ask for physical healing. Instead, they begged for mercy. The word mercy means, “not getting what you actually deserve“. They asked Jesus not to give them what they deserved because of their sin.
28 When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” (Matthew 9)
They placed their faith in Jesus Christ as the Lord, Supreme Ruler. They surrendered to Him. Not only did Jesus heal them physically, more importantly, He healed them spiritually. He forgave their sins. They asked for mercy and Jesus showed them mercy and grace. He did not give them what they deserved and He also gave them what they did not deserve, the forgiveness of sins.
What about you, my dear friend, can you relate to Jairus, to the sick woman, or to the blind men? Do you realize that you need mercy from Jesus Christ? Are you willing to acknowledge who Jesus is, surrender to Him, and beg for His mercy and grace? You may not have a physical sickness but I know that you have a spiritual sickness because we all do. We were born with it. We all need the forgiveness of sins. What keeps you from experiencing the forgiveness of sins? Are you ready to follow Jesus the way that Matthew did? Are you willing to introduce your friends to Jesus the way that Matthew introduced his friends to Jesus?
May the Lord help us to have compassion on the individual at all times, sharing the Good News of the Gospel of Christ with all in whom we come into contact.
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