"18 While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." 19 Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.
Jesus is able to dramatically change lives, but be assured, this requires effort on our part, we must surrender our will to His. It seems today our lives are so busy, we don't often have time for helping other people, in turn we don’t have time for Jesus. In Matthew 25:45, Jesus said "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." Let me tell you something, the work of Jesus will always be available for you! Since the fall of man, mankind has been cursed with pain and sickness and death. Someday the curse will be reversed, but until then people have been wanting to experience His miraculous healing power. Never once does He turn them away. Therefore, we must make ourselves available for Him.
Many of us have experienced the pain of losing some we love, a deep pain. That’s how it is in this life. That is what the curse of sin has done to this world. That's consequences of sin and feeling the pain of it, that's all part of it. All things in the world were created for the good of man and the blessing of man, but because man was deceived by Satan's lies, he sinned. Sadly, all these years later, mankind is still buying into Satan's lies, leading him further and further away from the Truth of God.
In our incredible passage today, Jesus is dealing with the issue of life and death. In different ways, we in both the case of the woman and the case of the little girl, life had ceased. I'd like you to notice that Jesus, as He often is, interrupted. He always makes Himself available for those in need. These miracles were the verification of Jesus' power to reverse the curse. Let's examine the text to see what happens.
"While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.
And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage 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 garment, I will get well." But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." At once the woman was made well."
While Jesus was still at Matthew's house having dinner, something for which He was criticized. John’s disciples came and asked Him about fasting, as He was answering their questions, Jairus came and asked Him to come. Matthew's account doesn't give us all the details, we learn them in Mark and Luke's parallel accounts. Matthew stays focused on the main issues, Jesus has power over death. He wants us to understand the power of Christ. If you have been following along with us in our study of Matthew, you know that Matthew’s focus has been to give us verification that Jesus is the Messiah, He is the promised King and has the power to establish His Kingdom. He fulfills the Old Testament prophesies. By the way, Jesus did not heal all of them because they were all worthy by any stretch of the imagination, He healed them to demonstrate there is no limit to His capacity. He's been healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, making the lame walk, dealing with demons, and forgiving sin; all demonstrating His power in the physical and spiritual and moral world. Here we see that Jesus can raise the dead.
You will remember, in John 11, as Jesus who stood at the grave of Lazarus, "Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Jesus *said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha *said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Now, getting back to our text, as we pointed out earlier, each instance was an interruption for Him. Never once does Jesus say, "Excuse Me, I'm busy, can't you see I'm already in the middle of something important here, you'll have to wait your turn." No, He stops what He's doing and addresses their concerns. I believe this is a very important lesson for all us today. Jesus is showing us how He dealt with people in need. We see His tenderness, His loving kindness, His sensitivity, and His gentleness. I believe this is a pattern for all of us.
Let's look at verse 18, "While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." The synagogues were ruled by elders, they were the spiritual leaders, men of great influence. They were given the responsibility to make sure all the public worship was conducted properly. We know that Jesus had been answering John's disciples about the question of fasting, when Jairus comes to Jesus and interrupted Him, I believe this speaks to us about Jesus’ accessibility. He didn't stay inside a synagogue as some elite preacher, He was in the streets, in people's homes, He was accessible to people in need. He didn't keep them at arm’s length as we often see today.
Just try getting next to someone in position of power and authority today, you have to go through an entire chain of people who say they will pass on your request. Jesus moved among the people. John 1 says He pitched His tent with men. He had compassion on people. Can you imagine, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe, Almighty God in the flesh made Himself available to all people while the C.E.O of every corporation believes himself to be too important! What a comfort to all us to know that God is accessible whenever we need Him. In fact, He encourages us to commune with Him daily. What a tremendous privilege! To imagine, that many would avoid the intimacy of His presence is beyond my comprehension.
The next thing I'd like you to notice is he "bowed down before Him. He bowed down to give reverence to Him. It's the Greek verb "proskynéō," it means to prostrate ones self before a superior; he worshiped Him. I believe this demonstrates that God had already been working on His heart. After he worshiped Him, then he said "My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." The other Gospel writers tell us that she was 12 years old. Matthew's account is again focused on Christ. By the way, in the Jewish culture of that day, at 12 years and 1 day, it meant that you were a woman For a male, it was 13 years and 1 day. This validates what women have said along, they are ahead of us men as far as maturity.
And, so this man says "but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." He realized that he had a need, his motives weren’t completely pure. He was desperate, his daughter had just died. Therefore, he took no regard for his position in the synagogue, he swallowed his pride and came to Jesus. That's what it takes for people come to Christ. Unless you understand that you have a need for Christ, you're not going to come. It is my prayer that all of you would realize that you are in need of Him. That is why I believe that the true Gospel must be preached, so that people will realize their need of Christ.
In verse 19, we see Jesus' response "Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples." Sometimes the Lord wants us to meet the need of an individual and other times, I believe He intends to drive them to see their need for Him. Where is a tremendous need in the life of an individual, He makes Himself available to the individual. First, they have to recognize their need is beyond their own ability and resources. That's when they come to Christ.
Jesus was on a mission, He was already on His way with His disciples to help this man's daughter when we come to verses 20 and 21, "And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage 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 garment, I will get well." In Mark's parallel account in chapter 5, he tells us in verse 24, "And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him."
Allow me to expand on a very important point that I made earlier, here we that Jesus was not only available, He was not only accessible, He was also touchable. Jesus was touchable. In that day, women didn’t just go around touching men. The verb used here in the original text is "haptó," it is the same word used in John chapter 20 verse 17, when Mary had gone to the empty tomb and saw Jesus and grabbed hold of Him and Jesus said "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’" So this woman didn't merely a touch Him, as the translation implies she really grabbed Him. It is important to note, what would appear at first to be an interruption becomes an opportunity to save.
In Luke chapter 8, he fills in the details. "And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, "Who is the one who touched Me?" And while they were all denying it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You." But Jesus said, "Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me." When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed."
This would have been a very serious issue from the Jewish point of view, I won't belabor the point, you can read it for yourself on your own time in Leviticus 15. Everything she sits on, everything she wears and every person who touches her is unclean. Once again, we see there is a person who has a desperate need. She had already done everything she could. In Mark 5, he writes she "had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse." This women realized she had a desperate need and she touched the fringe of His cloak. I know that some of you today have a need, but you haven't yet gotten to place where your desperate, when you finally do, you'll do anything you can to get to Jesus.
That brings us to verse 22, "But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." At once the woman was made well." This woman was healed immediately because she had faith, Jesus said that faith as small as a mustard seed would move a mountain. I'd like to point out that in the original text it uses the word "sṓzō," which means rescued or saved. That's not the normal word for healing which is "iaomai." Jesus healed many people of many things, He healed in many places, but He only saved those who had faith. Faith is always a gift from God.
In Closing..
Jesus is available; He’s accessible. And He is touchable, for those who are willing to reach out to Him, realizing they have a desperate need. Not only did Jesus make time to minister to others, but He was willing to minister to those who were banished from society, shunned by others, and were considered to be unclean. Jesus sets a pattern for all of us today, He was compassionate, caring and sensitive to the needs of those around Him. And He loved them and made time for them. May we all learn from His example.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen