Laughable, Demonic, or the Savior of the World—Matthew 9:18-34

While some found him laughable and others called him demonic, Jesus proved that he is the Savior of the world.

The passage right before this ends with Jesus' point that new wine is for new wineskins, because if you put new wine into old wineskins, the skins will burst. What happens next is a rapid-fire demonstration of Jesus' "new wine": the power of the kingdom of heaven which he brings to earth to save people from their problems. But you could say that the new wine encounters some old wineskins. Many people in the passage, instead of rejoicing at what Jesus is doing, have no place for it in their lives. They won't accept it and they can't take it. They hear his claims, and they see his miracles, but they respond by laughing at him or accusing him.

C. S. Lewis (and probably others before him) made the argument that Jesus must either be a lunatic, the devil, or the Son of God. There's no middle ground for someone who made claims like Jesus made. And we see more or less the same argument laid out here. Either Jesus was laughable (like some in this passage thought), or he was demonic (like others claimed), or he was the Son of David, the Savior.

So which is it?

Let's start with the story of the ruler whose daughter had died. The Pharisees and John's disciples may want to debate with Jesus about the company he keeps and the behavior he encourages, but this man wants one thing: "Come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus goes.

But as he is on his way, he encounters someone else. "A woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment." There are two ladies in this story, the ruler's daughter, and this ailing woman. The daughter, the other Gospels tell us, is twelve years old, just growing into a woman, and her father is a ruler of some kind. She is a girl from the upper crust of society, soon to be of marriageable age. This other woman is alone, and her health is gone, after twelve years of illness. In a way, the young woman and the old woman are opposites. But Jesus pauses his journey to help the young lady of high society, and he says to the ailing woman, "'Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.' And instantly the woman was made well.

Now Jesus goes on to the ruler's house, and when he gets there, people are playing the flute, a traditional feature of mourning in first-century Judaism. This is like Jesus showing up at the funeral. And he says, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." Now, the response of the crowd is very important. They laughed at him.

But Jesus went into the room where the girl was and took her by the hand, and she arose.

Why did the crowd laugh? They are like the old wineskins in Jesus' analogy in the last passage. They are set in their ways, and have no room for Jesus in their lives. There's no use in pouring the new wine into the old wineskins: it is wasted on them. When someone else's daughter dies, they do not desperately long for the arrival of one who can raise the dead. They are content to go about their ritual of mourning, so content that when a man comes along and says that the girl is alive, they do not weep all the more because they are sure she is dead: no, they laugh. They are not looking for a Savior, and when he comes, they will not accept him.

But the girl's father and the woman with the flow of blood are different. The difference is that they have faith, but they are able to have faith, in part, because they are desperate. Earlier Jesus said he came not to call the righteous, but sinners. He might have also said that he came not to call the satisfied, but the desperate: not those who are satisfied with comforts of this sick and evil world, but those who long for the comforts of the kingdom of heaven.

What about you? Are you satisfied with a world of sin, sickness, and death? Are you satisfied with a world where children die before their parents and pain continues year after year after year? Do you find the alternative laughable -- that the God who made all that is good in the world might send a Savior to make right all that is wrong?

Let's turn next to the story of the mute and demon-oppressed man. (We'll come back later to the two blind men.) Matthew is careful to show us that Jesus has power over every area of life. We've seen him calm a storm, cast out demons, forgive sins, cause a paralyzed man to walk, raise the dead, heal a bleeding woman, and give sight to the blind. Now we see him cast out another demon and give voice to a mute man.

But the Pharisees are old wineskins like the crowds at the ruler's house. They have no room for this. "He casts out demons by the prince of demons," they say. In other words, the demons only listen to Jesus because he is in league with their master the devil. The crowd may have thought Jesus was funny, but the Pharisees say he is wicked.

Interestingly, these seem to be the two main reactions to Jesus' followers today. People think Christians are ridiculous, or they think Christians are wicked. It makes no difference (often) if they see the good news of Jesus filling people with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and truth. They are set in their ways, and have no room for a Savior in their lives. Like the crowd and the Pharisees, they are already satisfied. They are not desperate, so they have no room for a new hope.

Or, to put it another way, because they are not blind, they cannot see. And that brings us back to the story we skipped over, where two blind men follow Jesus from the ruler's house. Were they among the crowds who laughed at him at first? We do not know. Perhaps they were, but now their laughter has stopped. Or perhaps they were listening, not laughing, wondering, can it be true? Whatever it is, they have put two and two together, and the blind men have seen what others have not. Isaiah the prophet foretold the coming of the one who would give recovery of sight to the blind, the Son of David.

And so the blind men follow him. Others haven't realized it, but they know who he is, so they call out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" Perhaps because they use these words, "Son of David," because they know more about him than he himself has announced, he first takes them into the privacy of a house, and then he asks them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they say, and he touches their eyes, and they can see.

Then he tells them sternly not to tell anyone. What's the secret? Not that he healed the blind, I think: after all, people know that he cast out demons and raised the dead. No, the secret is that he is the Son of David, the Christ. Jesus wants to announce this at the right time, at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He does not want them to make it public before the right time.

But they do, or at least they "spread his fame through all that district." I'm not sure how hard to be on them about this. On the one hand, it is very serious to disobey a command from Jesus. On the other hand, their exuberance about the Savior is far better than the unbelief of those around them.

So what about you? Do you agree with the Pharisees that Jesus was a wicked man? If you think that, why? Is it because you understand him better than the desperate people in this passage, the ruler, the woman with the flow of blood, and the blind men? Or is it because, like the Pharisees, you have no place for him in your system: you are satisfied with a world where dark powers rob a man of speech, and you have no place for a man who comes to cast out the darkness and give voice to the mute?

If so, let me help you gain some desperation. The Bible says that our plight, the trouble we all share, is just like that of the sick, the blind, the mute, and the dead. Worse: we have all sinned, and until our sin is taken away, we are all slaves of sin and enemies of God.

But Jesus came to save us, not just from sickness, blindness, deafness and death, but also from sin. The blind men knew that he was the Son of David, come to save Israel, but he knew that he was more than that: the Son of God, come to save the world. He could raise the dead with only a word, but to take away sin, he had to do something else: he himself had to die, to lay down his life in the place of sinners. On the third day he rose again from the dead, and if the resurrection of a twelve year old girl meant years of happiness for her and her family, well, the resurrection of Jesus means eternal life for those who trust in him.

Is it too good to be true? Should we laugh? Should we accuse? Those who are not desperate for him will find it hard not to. May God give us the gift of desperation for a Savior, and of faith in Jesus. The ruler knew, and the woman knew, and the blind men knew, and God's word says, and his church believes, that he is the Savior of the world.

Pastor Nate Jeffries