Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity (2023)
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Matt 9:18-26
Matt 9:18-26
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we approach the end of the Church year, and in our Gospel lesson today we are reminded of what Christ brings to His Kingdom and the blessings He bestows upon the people of God, and how He has torn down the dividing wall of hostility that exists between God and man in his person. In our lesson there are two miracles that take place but they point to the same work that Jesus has come to accomplish for us.
Clean and Unclean
There were many things that could make you unclean.
There is a great list of things that can make a person unclean. It could involve the things you eat, illnesses that you might contract, contact with dead bodies, the union of husband and wife, there’s a long list and the reason it was so detailed is because
Entering God’s presence while unclean, you risked death.
For God’s holiness isn’t just a concept or an idea, but it God’s essence, and who He is. God is Holy and that which is unclean cannot stand before his presence, and so the Old Testament is concerned about removing uncleanness so that you might receive God’s blessings.
To be clean, there were washings, and sacrifices.
Sometimes it was a simple matter of bathing and then you would be unclean only till the end of the day, and in other cases, it required the shedding of blood.
The Unclean
The woman was unclean because of her bleeding.
What that meant for her was that she was unclean. This is from Leviticus 15:25-26 when a person has a discharge of blood that doesn’t stop. She shall continue in her uncleanness, and every bed she lies on shall be unclean, everything she sits on, and whoever touches these things shall be unclean. That person has to wash not only themselves, but their clothes too. She couldn’t even enter the temple lest she die.
This affected not only her, but her family.
Who could visit her, live with her, to do so would mean you were being affected and cut off from God’s blessings, the Gospel of Mark and Luke tell us that she visited doctors seeking to be cured adn spent all she had, and no one was able to cure her, so when she hears of Jesus, if only she can touch his garment.
Touching a corpse made you unclean.
We know the ruler’s name from the other Gospels to be Jairus, and he asks Jesus to come and save his daughter who has just died. He doesn’t stay to grieve but goes to find Jesus, that He might save her from death. What parent wouldn’t do that for their child?
What is Jesus asked to do?
To lay his hand on the child and restore her life. Jairus knows that Jesus has the power, and the authority to do this, but what would typically happen if you touch a dead body? Well you become unclean, but Jesus goes with Him.
Christ Makes Them Clean
Jesus brings healing to these people.
Both to the woman, and to Jairus’ daughter. The woman is healed the moment she touches his garment and what she had hoped and longed for, and spent all of her money to have, is given her as she grasps his garment. Jesus takes the young lady by the hand, and says Talithi Cumi, which means little girl I say to you arise.
Why is Christ able to heal them?
He is Word that became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, and isn’t Jesus holy as God is holy? So why is it that these people who were unclean and were not able to enter into the tabernacle and the presence of God were able to receive God’s blessing, and holiness and healing, and they were not punished?
To be clean and receive God’s holiness required sacrifice.
There had to be blood that was shed for their cleansing, a life that would end to protect them from God’s wrath against sin in order to receive God’s blessings. Well
Jesus is the Lamb of God.
who takes away the sin of the world. It Jesus’ sacrifice that covers us so we might receive God’s holiness, and stand before God’s presence and receive all spiritual blessings.
The Uncleanness of Sin
Sin is the reason that death and disease are here.
I know we we try to find the cause of death, or the reason we have a disease, and we can see the connections between flesh and blood, but the heart of the matter is sin.
Each illness reminds us that sin affects our body.
We tend to separate the physical and spiritual as though the two don’t interact or aren’t connected, but when Adam and Eve were corrupted by sin, it was because what they physically ate. That violation of God’s wordcorrupted them body and soul.
We would have been cut off for eternity.
That was the affect of sin, for the people needed to offer up sacrifice after sacrifice in order to just come into the presence of God, but to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and stand before the throne of God for all eternity, how many goats, lambs, or oxen would it take that you might remain there forever? That’s why Christ came.
Christ Makes You Clean
The washing in Leviticus points to baptism.
It foreshadowed what God was going to use to make us clean and acceptable in his sight, as He would wash away not just the uncleanness of our bodies, but of our souls.
They required many washings, but you only one.
One faith, one Lord, one Baptism, that is all that is needed to wash away your sins. For there you are born into the kingdom of God, as God claims you as his dear child.
The sacrifices are replaced by the cross.
For there is our high priest, who offers up himself and his perfect life, and sheds his blood so that we might be forgiven. The people received from the sacrifice a portion of that meat that had been brought into God’s presence, that they might have fellowship with God at His table. What has God given you?
The body of Christ is placed in your hand.
Why is it that we want to receive the body and blood of Christ? Because Jesus gives to us forgiveness of sins and that holiness and righteousness of God that we lack, and so we have hope.
That’s why the Scriptures speak about death as sleep.
For wherever forgiveness of sins is present, there we have life and salvation. So when we partake of the body adn blood of Christ, eternal life is given to us again and again.
A Final Note
What did the Father do for his daughter?
He brought her plight to Jesus and went forth to seek Him for Jairus knew what Jesus had done for others in his ministry. Now Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the father, but we know that He still cares for each of us here. This is why
We include people in our prayers.
For this girls plight was beyond her father’s help, and so he brought her concerns before Jesus. Some ask why is our prayer list so long? Well because there are many people that we as the body of Christ wish to bring before Christ that they might receive help.
The world may not think much of it.
Indeed, people will mock us for just praying about things, instead of doing something meaningful, because they don’t think prayer has any purpose or value here in life. But that’s because they don’t believe in God.
We pray because there are times that we are powerless.
We know that Jesus cares, we know that He will not always spare people from illnesses or death, indeed there were many sick in Israel that were not helped, but we bring them before Him and ask for His help.
So my brothers and sisters in Christ, may we learn from this passage what Jesus has done for us, and how He has made those who are unclean, clean by his body and blood, by that sacrifice that He offered up. For just as He healed this woman, and raised this young girl from the dead, that is what He will do for you in His eternal Kingdom. Look ahead to that Kingdom and do not lose heart, but continue to receive the medicine of eternal life, the body and blood of Christ that you might receive all of God’s blessings for your body, and soul. In Jesus name. Amen.