"Broken" Faith

And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

Sermon

Good Morning Church! I was glad when they sad to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

SO it is probably not a secret because I know that I have said it before, but often when I start a series, I don’t know if every pastor is like this, But when I start a series, Going into it there are passages that I… less looking forward to than others. That’s the nice way to say that. And those are usually the really difficult ones, or the ones that are controversial, or have subject matter that is difficult or hard to hear. But there are usually other sermons that I just look forward too. For whatever reason, there is something about that passage or section that I really look forward to preaching.

Well today I am happy to declare is the second kind of passage. Today we are looking at Matthew 9:18-26. And the reason that I have been so looking forward to this is because this is a very unique and interesting passage. It is sort of two stories, it is really one story, it is a narrative mixed with another. Matthew is doing some very cool things here today. As with many stories in Matthew, many of us are familiar with this passage. It is the one with the Little girl being raised form the dead and the woman being healed of a lifelong bleeding issue. AS I said Matthew 9:18-26 we will just read it then take a look at it this morning.

Matthew 9:18–26 ESV

While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler 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 rose and followed him, with his disciples. And 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, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler’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 arose. And the report of this went through all that district.

These are the words f the Lord for us this morning, lets begin with a word of prayer.

PRAY

So what makes this passage interesting, among tons of other things, what I was excited for, is that this is, in some sense a broken narrative. WE have one story, the man whose daughter has died that Jesus will raise from the dead, and right in the smack dab middle of that story Matthew has given us another one, this woman with the discharge of blood for twelve years. And what I look forward to is when we get a passage that has interesting literary things. And then you get to ask: why would Matthew do this, and you get to dive into sort of grammar and puzzling out why is this passage this way? And after spending time puzzling those questions and more a particular beauty comes out.

Matthew uses a broken narrative, a narrative sort of broken in tow with something in the middle to teach us something about broken faith.

To put this passage in context because it is always critical that we do that, there has been this sort of growing buildup of what Jesus is doing. Jesus has done, up to this point, just about everything. He has calmed the storm, he has cast out demons, healed a paralytic. he has forgiven sin, or at least claimed to forgive sin, he has called disciples to follow him, he has done miracle after miracle. and there is this growing sense that we might want to ask: “What else can Jesus do?” or rather “Is there anything that Jesus can’t do?”

And now we get to what must be the greatest most powerful miracle of Jesus. If Jesus can do this one… well then what else ca we say, there is NOTHING he cant do. and just to be clear, the “this one” is bring someone back to life. The other miracles its POSSIBLE that we could chalk it up to something else maybe. Like calming the storm, maybe that was a coincidence, storms stop eventually after all. Casing out demons, well later we will see, the pharisees attribute that power to Jesus being the Lord of demons, that makes no sense, but hey, it is a way to not have to admit who jesus is. Maybe he is just a “healer” but that type of person exists… i guess. But to be able to bring someone back from the dead… that one defies explanation.

And s part of the story is asking: wait, can jesus do that? but before we get to an answer the story breaks, it pauses. Spoiler alert, we already read it, he can do that he does do that. But the broken story begins to then tell us something about how jesus might work. and we are introduced to characters who might teach us when we approach this savior who can do these things… how do we do that? What is the proper mindset? how do we understand how WE then interact with, in some way, how we are ministered to BY Jesus in another way. How do we understand what we do with a savior who can do these things.

And so today what I would like to do is walk through this particular telling of this story. Asking some questions, mostly looking at the characters, looking at what we can learn, and seeking to apply this then to our lives.

We start with the first new character in this: A RULER.

A RULER

Now this is very fascinating. Matthew says: “when he was saying these things” - what are these things? They were the parables. He was teaching John's disciples, teaching about the kingdom, telling kingdom type things, BEHOLD a ruler came in an knelt before him. What is fascinating is that Matthew just says that “ a ruler came in”.

We actually know, from Mark and Luke’s telling of this exactly who this is. And so many times you will see, even as I read commentary's and listen to and read sermons on this passage, they go to mark and Luke and you find that this ruler s a man named Jairus. we know from Matthew's telling that he is not just a ruler in general but that he is a man of prominence and power in the synagogue. so we could know who this is. But Matthew just says a ruler. And so instead of going to Luke or mark to help us fully understand. why don’t we ask: why wouldn't Matthew give us the same details. Why don't we need to know, from Matthews POV at least, who Jairus is? why don’t we need to know what sort of ruler he actually is. I think there are twofold reasons: 1) that’s not Matthews point and so he does not want to distract, but 2) i think there is something beautiful going on here.

This is because the ruler is then playing a role. As a ruler he is a man with power and authority. as a ruler, one who rules, he is one who is used to, on one hand getting what he wants, but more foundational, BEING ABLE TO GET WHAT HE WANTS! SO simply put, by just telling us “a ruler” the role he is playing is of a powerful person who has no power. and so he comes to one that he HOPES does.

By Just calling hi a “ruler” and having this man. .. and this is what truly happened… but the way Matthew tells us… is that he comes before Jesus, he kneels before him in humbleness. SO at the get go this is a ruler bowing before Jesus. We know that makes sense, for Jesus is king of king and lord of Lords, but tat this point in the story of Matthew they don’t fully know that. So here a ruler bows before this rabbi, teacher, and a controversial one at that (i mean, he claims divine power and doesn't even fast while eating with sinners, I men come on man). And the picture then is the powerful man with no power who is in fact desperate.

Maybe he has tried everything. We know that it is is daughter who has died. SO what wouldn’t he do? As a ruler he would have access to money and resources that other people might not have access to. What doctor has he not called? there is not one in the area! what remedy, what method what route has he not pursued? he has tried all of them but none worked!

So this man is our first picture of broken faith, but here I don’t mean the faith is broken, but he himself is a broken man with nothing but faith. And so his faith is then all that keeps him going. In reality he “SHOULD NOT” be here. He SHOULD be preparing the funeral. He SHOULD be taking time and mourning. there was actually a week long period, we talked about this briefly with the man who asked to bury his father., There was a week long funeral service that started the moment that a person died. So he SHOULD have been mourning and taking care of affairs and making sure all was right there he SHOULD have been mourning there SHOULD have been if she just died he SHOULD NOT have been out and about looking for Jesus but here is a desperate and broken man with a desperate faith looking for Jesus. A broken heartbroken man, the grief of all griefs placed upon him and he comes before the savior. “My daughter has just died.” come and lay your hand on her, she will live.

Part of, I would say broken faith shown in this man is the thought: come lay your hand on her so she will live, because she just has to. He goes to jesus and says: my daughter has just died! DO SOMETHING! you are my last and only and final hope. Put you hand on her, she will live again, that's what I need! So the broken comes with faith. And he comes on behalf of his daughter. and if we are willing to say that this man is emblematic of all people who face things they feel broken and powerless to change, the this daughter can become emblematic as well.

We do’t know that she’s twelve (mark tells us that) we don’t know its his only daughter (Luke tells us that), Instead it is just his daughter. That is what Matthew wants us to know. Because the details don;t matter here, its the pain and what she could be. We all feel powerless a the pain of dire and desperate situations find the picture in this young girl. She is not just bad situations, but the worst. She is the result of living in a broken world. She is emblematic of Child sized coffins. She is the sorrow that parents have experienced since Adam and Eve Lost their child to senseless violence in Genesis 4. She is a picture of the weight of grief that crushes us when or children are sick and we cannot do anything to help her. When we look around and all we can do is mourn the brokenness of the world. This is this mans daughter and she is dead. Every miscarriage, every coffin that is too small, they shouldn’t have to make them that size the unfairness and brokenness on display here in this mans daughter.

And in broken faith over the brokenness of the world a broken man comes to Jesus. and verse 19 the is the best thought we could ever have. Jesus rises and follows him. There is not a word. Jesus doesn't say sure, i will go. HE just rises and goes. and then we have brokenness being replaced by hope, and faith. He is coming. Jesus and his disciples walking to this man’s house.

So imagine you are desperate and broken but all you need is the savior to come and touch her hand. Just lay your hand upon her maybe that will work. ad jesus begins to follow him it seem that this mans trust and faith will be rewards, but alas, that is not how our story goes. there is an interruption.

It takes the form of a woman

A WOMAN

Matthew wants us to really wrestle with this thought. it as if he is saying: you oh ruler you may understand the DEPTH of sorrow and grief, You may understand that. But lets introduce another character, lets introduce the woman. Facing this bleeding issue for twelve years, Outcast form society, unclean no one will touch her, no one will look at her. she is unable to have any sort of normal relationship or life. If you RULER understand the DEPTH of sorrow this woman understands a LIFE of sorrow. And she too wants to be healed.

So she sneaks up, and touches just the fringe of his garment. It is very beautiful, which I have said a lot today, but his is a beautiful story ad we can’t miss what happens here. She touches the hem of his garment, and this is what she thinks. We are given access to her thoughts: she says:

Matthew 9:21 ESV

for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.”

It I am able just to touch just the hem of his garment, just the tassels dangling form the edge of his garment, if I just get that access to that power, then I will be healed. Again we know from other telling, that she has tried everything, seen every doctor, so in some sense she has s similar thought to the ruler: this is my last hope. So yes she is broken, but I want us to see her broken faith a little differently.

What is different about the woman and the ruler, is that the ruler comes to Jesus, bows i worship, kneels before him and asks Jesus, the source of power, to perform a miracle. This woman has sort of, we could say, superstitious thoughts. “Well I will just touch his garment, maybe his garment has power maybe the garment can heal me.” In truth his garment has NO power. the power all comes from Jesus. and so jesus takes the time to point this out. Jesus turned and looks at her and says: take heart daughter. It is interesting to note this is the only time that Jesus calls anyone daughter in this way. this is a term of affection, and endearment. He looks at here with compassion and care and love, but then says this: YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL.

It is important to Jesus and Matthew by telling us this in this way. This woman was not cured by some magic of any kind that emanates form the garment of Jesus. He thought was in fact misplaced. She thought I will touch this mans garment and magically I will be healed. But no! The cure has been the result of the power of Jesus and it came to here, jesus tells here and us clearly, because of FAITH.

But here is the note: her faith is a broken faith. And heres really is a faith that is misfiring and not exactly focused right. He faith should be focused ONLY on Jesus, in some sense she has misplaced her faith thinking there is some external thing around Jesus that has power when it is really Jesus. But yet Jesus heals her and says your faith has made you well. Let me be clear, I am not saying that just have faith in SOMETHING and that is good enough. What I m saying is you will not be judged by the perfection of your faith, just the object, it must be Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon says this: she was ignorant enough to think that healing went from from him unconsciously; but yet her faith lived despite her ignorance, and her faith triumphed despite her bashfulness.

She looked to jesus, she may have had a few wrong ideas about him, but she looked to the right source. And the lesson here that we have got to learn, it is critical we understand this. What matters not always the force or perfection of our faith, what matters is not always the perfect doctrinal thoughts collected and said perfectly in regards to your faith, what matters is ALWAYS the object of your faith. And for this woman, as it MUST be for us, it was jesus.

Though she thought wrongly that his garment had power too, and she thought, we get this a lot from the other tellings but it is here, he faith was timid and she thought she could sneak. I will just touch the hem, no one will know, i will then be able to sneak away in the crowd. But despite her sort of confused beliefs about how exactly Jesu worked and what he dd for her, he was still her savior.

We often like to pride ourselves, and i will raise my hand here as guilty as charged, as always having to have the exact right doctrine. We want to say it just right. and we want to be clear in our doctrinal distinctiveness and we want t make sure that we are able to adequately describe all the exact ad finer points of theology. and while I believe that is a good and worthwhile pursuit. While I think it is good right and yes necessary to speak rightly about what scripture teaches and what we believe, ultimately we ARE NOT SAVED BY RIGHT DOCTRINE, we are saved by grace through faith.

We are not saved by our ability to rightly articulate the finer points of reformed theology and understanding what exactly that means. We are not saved by our ability to rightly describe all the theories of atonement. We are not saved by being able to correctly espouse the correct eschatological views and we are thankfully not saved by knowing what the word eschatological means. We are saved by our savior. Jesus Christ our Lord

and the he is faithful to teach s and grow us and sanctify us. Look here with this woman he is faithful t tell her hey, be clear on this, your FAITH HAS SAVED YOU. And that is the point here, that even broken faith saves you if it is in THE SAVIOR

THE SAVIOR

And here is our hope, he is the savior that saves the broken.

If we just look at the story in the entirety: what happens? This man’s daughter dies and Jesus raises her from the dead. this woman has been suffering under the curse, for lack of a better word, of this bleeding issue for 12 years, and JESUS cures her! for both of these people the ruler and the woman Jesus is the perfect savior. and he heals them in their broken faith.

to this ruler, Jesus has given him the greatest gift he could ever ask for. he brings his daughter back form the dead. As i said before, this is the greatest miracle that Jesus will perform. Up until he himself raising form the grave this is the big wow miracle in all of Matthew. Because NO ONE can do this. we know that one you are dead you are dead. People don’t come back from the dead. But wait, they do when Jesu is around. and so, as I was talking bout eschatological things, heres one we are sure of: we know they WILL when Jesu comes back. How can we be so sure? because here he proves he has the power. SO we can say like Paul in 1 Thessalonians , as broken as we are, we do not mourn like those with no hope. This broken man, with no where else to go finds himself going to the only place that could help him. He found a savior who is near to the broken hearted.

to this woman, herself broken by society, by the world, but even in her own faith, Jesus is still the perfect savior for her too. Trust in him, and only him. The savior comes.

The simplicity of the healings is worth noting. Matthew 9:22

Matthew 9:22 ESV

Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

He says the word and she is healed. He then shows up to this girls house the rulers house. There are mourners, making a commotion. Probably a very very loud commotion. there were traditions and rabbinic teachings that demanded that you pay extra people to cry and play the flute so your mourning would be more loud and help you mourn. “Go away, Jesus says the girl is not dead but sleeping.” and they laughed at him.

There is another note to be made. the ruler looked to jesus and saw his only hope for the impossible happening. And when Jesus announces he is doing the impossible everyone laughs. everyone but I would guess the ruler. When those words came out of Jesus mouth, Shes not dead, I am sure his heart lept within him. So Jesus goes in and take her by the hand

No pomp or circumstance, no great challenge for Jesus, he takes her by the hand and she arises. He is a powerful savior, he is an able savior savior. He saves those who are broken,. He causes dead hearts to come alive. He reaches towards the broken hearted with broken faith and he heals them he teaches them he changes them he saves THEM! he is a good and wonderful savior. Come to him in your brokenness, come in faith and find your perfect savior. Lets PRAY!