While He Was Saying These Things
Matthew 9:18-26
November 19, 2023 anno Domini
The two miracles of the text happen, “While Jesus was saying these things to them.” What things was Jesus saying? To whom was He saying them? If the Holy Spirit had St. Matthew write down, “While He was saying these things,” then these things are important to these miracles.
Jesus had just told three little parables in response to a question about fasting. The Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples fasted, but they noticed Jesus’ disciples did not fast and so they asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast?”
Jesus answered with three parables:
Parable 1: Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast.
Parable 2: No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made.
Parable 3: Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed.
In the first parable Jesus says his disciples aren’t fasting because they are enjoying a Wedding Feast. Jesus has come to wed Himself to humanity. He’s going to lay down His life for His bride so she can live. In Biblical times wedding celebrations could last for days. You don’t fast at feasts. You’re going to show up for Thanksgiving and tell grandma – I’m not having your famous pumpkin pie or your homemade bread – I’m fasting. Better if you stay home then. You’re insulting your host. So, if Jesus shows up, it’s time to feast. He’s going to be serving up the Kingdom of God in abundance – forgiveness for all your sins. Eternal life. He’s going to raise your body and cure every health problem you have – even the ones you don’t know about. If you don’t want to feast on Jesus, you’re insulting God.
In the second and third parables Jesus contrasts the old and the new. If you have an old garment, you’re not going to patch it with new cloth. The first time you wash it, the new cloth will shrink, tear away, and the garment will be worse than before. When wine was ready for fermenting it was put in fresh animal skins – the skins allowed for the expansion as the wine fermented. If you put the wine in a dried-out skin – the wine and the skin would be ruined.
Jesus is contrasting the Old and New Testaments. He is not saying to throw out the Old Testament. His arrival completes the Old Testament and ushers in a New age, a new time, a New Will and Testament for your life from God. Why would we have a Passover meal when we have the Lord’s Supper? Why would we sacrifice lambs when the Lamb of God has been sacrificed? Why would we live and act as if Christ has not come, has not died, has not been raised?
While Jesus was saying these things (these three parables) behold. I’ve told you before, whenever you hear that word behold, stop daydreaming and check back in to the sermon. There are two “beholds” in the text. “Behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him…” And then two verses later, “Behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.”
Behold, both people are not acting in the old ways. When a father loses a daughter to death all he can do is weep and mourn, call Benson Funeral home, and make burial arrangements. That is exactly what is going on at this ruler’s house, but this man knows a new and different time has come. The Son of God has come down to earth as the heavenly Bridegroom to love His bride and bring her back to Him. He bears a new robe of righteousness to replace our filthy old rags of sin. He abundantly pours His forgiveness out like the new wine at the wedding of Cana. So, the father of this girl doesn’t do the usual, old things. He goes to Jesus and asks for Jesus to come, to cross the threshold of his house, to lay His hand on his daughter, and bring the Wedding feast into his home. He expects life from Jesus instead of death.
On the way to the funeral, Jesus is delayed. A woman sneaks up behind Him and touches His robe. She too was not acting in the old, familiar way. We can only imagine what she endured with her bleeding for twelve years. She would have seen every medical specialist, flown to Egypt because someone heard about a cure there. She had exhausted her money, her hope, and because bleeding made her unclean she had to keep herself away from others. So where do we find her? In a crowd, daring to touch a man, a Rabbi. Normally that would make the man unclean, but these aren’t normal times. God is present in the flesh of Jesus, and she believes it. If only I touch Him, I will be healed and she was. Another woman united to Jesus, receiving gifts that can only come from the heavenly bridegroom.
When Jesus finally arrived at the man’s house, the funeral was in full swing. They had already paid the funeral director who provided two flute players and a professional wailing woman to announce the death. Jesus announced a new reality – life. “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” When you believe in Jesus that’s what death is – a little sleep for your body until He awakens you in the resurrection.
The Son of God has come into the world, and He has brought us to a new time, the New Testament. Do you believe it or are you living in your old ways? Could anyone tell that you aren’t part of the crowd of sin and death and despair? Imagine what the crowd thought of that man asking Jesus to raise His daughter, or that woman thinking her 12-year affliction could end with a touch. Do you act as if Christ hasn’t even come or that if He did, He’s dead in the grave? Do you live like an old maid never thinking of your heavenly bridegroom? Or do you rejoice that not only has Son of God God wed Himself to human flesh, but Christ has taken you to Himself by taking your sins away? Are you content with the filthy garments of your sin or are you living like someone robed in the righteousness of Christ, awaiting His return to take you across the threshold of heaven? Are you satisfied to sip the flat and sour wine of this world which promises a buzz but leaves you hungover? Or do you desire to drink deeply of the Cup of Christ, where His living blood flows to quench your thirst for forgiveness, life, love, and His salvation. Live believing this. Christ has come and He will come again. He has brought you into a new age, a new time, a new life. The old is passing away, the new has come and is coming again. In the name of Jesus. Amen.