Reading Matthew with Missional Eyes

 Every missionary effort starts with prayer. It cannot start with programs and preaching,  or with carefully laid out plans. Those things are essential and needed, but the first and most important thing is always to pray. 

“Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

It is interesting that Jesus, looking with the crowds and being filled with Compassion by God’s Spirit, tells His disciples to pray. He could’ve just sent them. After all, He has divine prerogative. Besides, they are His followers. They would certainly do whatever He wanted them to do, and they’d do that of their own free will. They had made the choice to follow, so it would not have been out of place for Him to tell them to go and make disciples right then and there. But He does not. He tells them instead to pray. 

More than pray, He tells them to petition the Lord on account of two observations. Firstly that the harvest is ready, and secondly that there were not enough workers for it. Surely the Lord clearly knew that very well. Jesus knew it. His disciples may not have seen what He saw, but just before He told them to pray, He had just commented in their hearing, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” So we know that He both knew the time had come to begin the harvest, and He knew that there were not enough workers. Yet He asks the disciples to pray and tell God these same two facts. 

The late Armin Gesswein said, “Prayer is not everything, but everything is by prayer.”  What he meant is that everything in God’s Kingdom is by prayer. God – in His sovereignty – has chosen to only act in response to prayer. To then accomplish His will, we need to listen to Him prompt us as to what and how to best pray. That is true in every circumstance (to Armin’s point), but most especially true regarding the mission of God. 

After all, the mission of God is His mission. To save lost souls is not something we ourselves can do. We can go, and we can preach, and we can minister in His Name. But we cannot quicken the dead, and all those we reach with the Gospel are dead in their sins. We cannot reach into someone’s soul and liven it just enough to hear the Good News. And even if we could, we could not arrange all the circumstances of their lives so that right then just happens to be the right time for the message to be heard, so that they willfully respond to the Good News. That is all God’s work. It is not our work, but it is a work we participate in by His great grace to us. Praise His Name, when we do participate, He is faithful to do His work!

But we must first participate by praying. Praying about the harvest, and praying about the need for workers. When we do that, the Lord begins the greater work. The work of changing us into people who see the world as He sees it, and who see the opportunity as He sees it. We pray, and He changes our hearts. Then we begin to see what participation really is. And only then can we participate in that harvest. 

So we pray for the harvest, and we pray for workers of the harvest, so that we ourselves might be made into harvesters, and so that we might be partnered with the Lord of the harvest. 

Our prayer for them becomes the very tool God uses to change us, so that we might be used in His harvest. Amen.

Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to empty us.

D.L. Moody

APPLICATION: Intentionality

We first pray for the harvest. Then we pray for harvesters. Then we find ourselves ready to join in the harvest. So…pray!

Jesus is going throughout Israel, teaching and preaching and healing. Moved with   compassion as He sees the crowds, He makes an observation, “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”” 

Jesus’ analogy does not require a background in agriculture to understand. He is saying that there are many, many people who are ready to come into the Kingdom of God. He is also saying that there are only a few workers actually doing the Kingdom work of helping people enter His Kingdom. The ‘harvest’ of souls is plentiful, but the reapers of souls are few. 

One might think that with Jesus saying that over 2000 years ago, by our day it would be a very different circumstance. Sadly, that isn’t so. We may now have the technology to finally count how many different people groups there are (~16000), and we may now have communication tools like radio, television and the web, and travel technology like high speed trains and jets that previous generations could only dream of. Yet to our day only ~9000 of those people groups have a viable expression of Christ’s Kingdom. 

That means that ~7000 people groups do not have any expression of Jesus in their heart culture, and some of those 9000 groups have but a handful of viable expressions – even though people groups can number in the tens and hundreds of millions of souls. 

It is true that there is a great mission effort underway. But it is also true that there are increasing political and cultural roadblocks toward that effort, and a huge demonic effort by the enemy to lull Christians into complacency and consumerism. Most sadly, many born-again believers never even try to share their faith, and the very great majority will not make even modest efforts to cross cultural barriers for Jesus Christ. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” is an observation that is just as true today as it was when Jesus said it to His handful of disciples over 2000 years ago. 

We must not forget that we are left on earth for a particular reason. That reason is to pursue God’s mission. The whole point of the Christian life is Christlikeness, but what is Christlikeness without participation in what Christ was and is doing? Jesus is on mission – working the ‘fields’ of people, reaping a great multitude of people from every nation and tribe and language and tongue. To this very day – by His Holy Spirit – Christ inspires and prompts, leads and directs people that they might be able, gifted and encouraged to join in the harvest effort. 

We do not cease being God’s own if we know Jesus but do not engage in His mission. The thief on the cross was still saved, after all. But we do miss the much deeper experience of Him if we do not enjoin His effort. We miss the joy of fruitfulness if we do not join His effort. We miss a greater experience of His peace, a greater experience of His power, a greater experience of His presence if we do not join His effort. Worse of all, we miss the eternal reward of having put our hand to the task for His glory. 

Perhaps in the here and now, that seems to matter little to us. It does not seem like we are losing out much by not participating in the mission of God. But if we bring our Lord little in the way of eternal glory, what should we expect that we get to share in with Him when we get to eternity?  

“According to thy faith be it unto thee” was Christ’s great law of healing and blessing in His earthly ministry. This was what He meant when He said “with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.”

A.B. Simpson

APPLICATION: Intentionality

If the Lord has given to you a season of planting for His glory, then be about planting. If the Lord has given to you a season of watering for His glory, then be about watering. If the Lord has given you a season of harvest for His glory, then be about harvesting. And if the Lord has given you a season of cold winter suffering for His glory, then be about suffering.

We’ve all seen large groups of people. The stadium packed with fans. The  main  square/street in town completely filled with partiers or protestors. The line-up of cars stretched out to the horizon in a traffic jam. The great mob of people rushing to and fro in a mall in December. We’ve all looked out over a city from a high place, and wondered at the great numbers of people who call that place home. 

What do you think of when you see the crowds? Do you think of the great quantity of food that is needed to sustain them? Do you think of the ill intent of some among them? Do you think of the mindlessness of the mob and wonder if common sense has a home there? What emotions fill your heart when you see them? Wonderment? Frustration? Fear? Anger? Matthew recorded for us what Jesus saw when He looked at the crowds, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

God looks out at the crowds, and He knows the needs and hurts and disappointments of each one. He knows how sin has twisted and distorted life for every individual that the Spirit formed from conception. He looks and sees a vast graveyard of the walking dead of humanity. For they are all dead in their trespasses and sins. Completely helpless to do anything at all to rescue themselves. Worse, they are harassed. The enemy of their souls is not content to sit idly by and watch them stumble into eternal destruction. He and his minions do all they can all the time to further entangle them in sin and foolishness. He constantly lies to them, telling them they are not worthwhile, not loved, not noticed or cared for. Worse still, he constantly incites those he has oppressed and possessed toward ever more destructive behavior, furthering both their own misery and the misery of all around. 

Jesus looks out to the crowds and sees how the enemy is harassing them. He sees how unable they are to help themselves. He notes that they are but sheep being led to the slaughter, and those He Himself had appointed to shepherd them to safety are absent. Unaccounted for. The shepherds have chased after sin too. They have fed their pride, and in their arrogance they distain the crowd and care nothing for them. The crowd is shepherdless. 

Jesus sees these things, knows these facts, and is filled with compassion.

After you strip away the obvious, and after you look beyond the petty motivations, and after you look past the all too human faults, you see the true condition of people. 

That is a spiritual exercise. An exercise which does not yield a conclusion so much as it yields a feeling. A deep, entirely spiritual emotion, whelming up from the soul. It is not an emotion you can walk away from or shake off, because it is God’s heart for people. It is compassion, and as John Nolland said, “Compassion involves so identifying with the situation of others that one is prepared to act for their benefit.” 

Those who lead and those who govern must have this same compassion for the crowd they look upon. Without God’s heart for those we lead – without compassion – one’s behaviour becomes entirely motivated by one’s own condition. 

And that – well, that never works out for the best. 

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

APPLICATION: Intentionality

What do you see when you look upon those you lead? Does God’s heart for them well up within you? Ask God for more of His heart for those you influence, that you might lead well. 

In Matthew 4, the Gospel writer summarized Jesus’ early ministry; “Jesus
Photo by James Ahlberg on Unsplash went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Now he writes, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”

Between those two summaries, Jesus has done much. He provided the bulk of His teaching to the crowds, healed diseases, demonstrated sovereignty over the wind and waves, casted out the demonic, forgave sin, called Matthew into ministry, raised the dead and restored sight to the blind and speech to the mute. In short, between those two summaries Jesus has completely fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy of Messiah.

For Isaiah had prophetically written, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” Truly, chapters 5-7 of Matthew are good news, and all of it was preached to the poor! Every time Jesus saw a point of Law He saw something of the character of God. So all of Jesus’ teaching – whether beatitudes or greater explanation of the Law – points to a God who loves His created children and wants the very best for them. So much so, that He calls us to be His reflection for others.

Isaiah had written, “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” So Jesus has ministered to those who were crushed in spirit. He healed the leper. He healed the centurion’s servant. He healed Peter’s mother-in-law. He healed the paralytic. He healed the woman who had almost lost hope on account of her persistent bleeding. He raised Jarius’ daughter – who was dead and beyond hope – to life.

Isaiah had written, “He has sent me to […] proclaim freedom for the captives.” So Jesus freed those who were captive to demonic oppression and possession. He ministered to the demon-possessed at the beginning of His teaching, and again at Peter’s house, “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word.” He cast out the demons from the two demon-possessed men in the Gadarenes, and also from the man who was mute.

Finally, Isaiah had written, “He has sent me to […] proclaim […] release from darkness for the prisoners.” To that point, Jesus restored sight to the blind and speech to the man who was mute. From the absence of sensory input to the absence of ability, Jesus has released, freed and restored.

Matthew is not even halfway done writing his Gospel, but already we can see how Jesus truly and fully fulfilled the prophetic mandate of Messiah!

Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.

Henri Nouwen

APPLICATION: Intentionality

We are Christians. The word means literally, ‘little Christs’. How are we fulfilling the Messianic agenda? Are we bringing the Kingdom of God to others today and celebrating that the Kingdom of God can come through us, or are we about our own agenda and still waiting till He appears in power? 

Jesus has been ministering to all who are brought to Him and to all who sought Him out. Each and every time, those He touched, those He spoke to and those around Him were better off. Every time people met Him they could see, hear and experience the Kingdom of God breaking in. Jesus is anointed of God and He leaves a trail of evidence behind Him that He is anointed of God. The poor have heard good news preached, the prisoners of sin have been freed, the blind have their sight restored, those oppressed by demonic spirits are released. The lame walk, and the mute speak again! It truly is exactly as Jesus said it was in His first public address (see Luke 4:16-21).

One might think that such profound works of God would lead people to draw obvious conclusions. But they do not. In fact, though they are being ministered to constantly, the crowd is simply “amazed”. Their conclusion (as it is) is simply a remark that no one has ever seen anything like what is happening before. They are so caught up in what is going on they do not see or appreciate that God Himself has come to Israel. They only want to see more, to hear more and experience more. To them, Jesus is a traveling festival of cool stuff.

That’s disappointing for sure. Far worse though, is that the better educated and more capable are coming to conclusions. Negative ones! “The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”” Sadly, the Pharisees to this point have not even had a face to face conversation with Jesus. They’ve just talked to His disciples, and that only to criticize Him.

Ministry begins with the work of blessing people with the reality of God. That blessing is a mirror that reveals truth. Both the truth of God, and also the truth of who those being blessed really are. It reveals God because it is an act of God, done by the power of the Spirit of God, by the anointed of God. So it always draws a crowd. Some in that crowd will see God in the blessing and immediately recognize that they belong with Him (and so are changed). But the great majority are ambivalent about God. They see the works of God and are amazed, but they not changed. The blessing means as much to them as a street festival performance. They see the work of God but they cannot recognize it for what it is because their ambivalence toward Him clouds their sight. At most, they’ll take advantage of the blessing as just a random blessing (for no particular reason at all).

Sadly, a few will go much further in the wrong direction by reflecting their own rejection of God. They damn what is happening without even speaking to those involved, reacting to the blessing with hatred because they’ve already given their souls over to their own darkness. Even more sadly, some of those are the very ‘servants of God’ that society looks to for guidance and direction in the things of God.

Time, power and money will make you more of what you already are. That’s why the work of ministry is so important. Blessing people with the reality of God at least lets them see who they are, before they etch that character in the stone of eternity.

Ministers are powerless people who have nothing to boast of except their weaknesses. But when the Lord whom they serve fills them with His blessing they will move mountains and change the hearts of people wherever they go.

Henri Nouwen

APPLICATION: Intentionality

How are you bringing the blessing of God to others today? Are you ready for the responses – both positive and negative? 

One would think that in our modern world, everyone who cannot speak or is mentally disturbed in some way is a victim of circumstance. We are taught to see their condition as entirely medical and clearly beyond the level of care all but the most highly trained can offer. Often it is, but that does not negate the fact that these conditions can also be spiritual in nature. Even if their medical condition is beyond us as a society, the spiritual condition has a remedy that all God’s people can put into effect. For the spiritual must always bow to the Name of Jesus.

Every disciple of Christ has His authority to cast out the demonic, and every disciple of Christ can at least pray for healing.

In our reading of Matthew to date, we’ve just seen Jesus find a home to rest in after raising Jarius’ daughter from the dead. Once there, two blind men asked to be seen. When He healed them, He warned them not to tell anyone, so His journey out of town could be unhindered by the crowds that sought Him everywhere He went. But when the formerly blind men left the house, they spread the news about Him all over. The result was a crowd waiting in the morning with at the sick and possessed. “While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.””

This is not just another case of Jesus casting out the demonic and speaking physical health into someone. It is a ministry to one who was considered beyond help, because a mute person is someone who has never had the ability to speak, or has lost that ability through physical damage. To ‘cure’ that would be to rebuild their vocal cords. If they’ve never spoken before, it would also require many, many weeks of speech therapy! Yet in one moment of power, Jesus casts out the demon, repairs the physical body and gives their ability to speak. It is a three-for-one spiritual healing!

The result of this deliverance ministry is not only another soul made completely well. It is also the amazement of the crowd. In fact, the crowd is so astonished they take note that this particular level of healing had never been seen in Israel. That was true. This kind of trifold healing had never been done before.

Israel had seen people raised from the dead (notably the widow of Zaraphath’s son whom Elijah raised, and the Shunammite woman’s son, whom Elisha raised), and Israel had seen a mute person speak again (notably Zechariah), and Israel had seen many demoniacs delivered (all of them by Jesus). But this case stands out even more than all those, because this particular fellow’s condition was thought to be totally beyond help. But as it turned out, Jesus was well able to speak peace and health to even this level of disability.

Our Lord is not limited by precedent. He can do what has never been done before. He can bring health to even the most hopeless of cases. He is as unlimited in ability to influence and change our world as an author is to influence and change the world they created on the page.

Our high and privileged calling is to do the will of God in the power of God for the glory of God.

J.I. Packer

APPLICATION: Worship

The day is quickly coming when all disease, handicap and injury will be made moot forever. Praise God that all at once, the dead in Christ will rise, the mortal will put on immortality and the corruptible will put on incorruptibility. 

After restoring their sight, Jesus gives some rather strange and solemn instruction to the formerly blind. “Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.”

Any reader of Matthew’s Gospel who comes across this text immediately wonders why Jesus would want this particular miracle to be kept from public expression. He gave no such warning to the woman who was healed of her bleeding. He made a spectacle out of healing the paralytic. He healed many to whom He gave no such instruction (4:23, 8:16). So why the sudden silencing? Shouldn’t those who have been blessed be free to thank God through testimony? Aren’t they actually even obligated to do so – to give Him glory?

Such questions are not answered in the moment. What is, and what we know, is that God’s will for these particular few (the formerly blind) was that they not tell anyone. They do so anyway.

On the one hand we can of course sympathize with the formerly blind. Everywhere they went people would ask, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” and they would have to respond with, “Yes, I used to be one of the beggars by the road out of Jericho.” The conversation would inevitably lead to the question, “How is it then that now you can see?” It would appear to us to be worse than dishonest if they did not give God glory for how Christ healed them. Yet the fact that Christ specifically told them, “See that no one knows about this” cannot be ignored.

They may have gone on from there and been confronted with the inevitable question about their sight. They may have been thrilled that God sent Christ to them, and even more thrilled that because of their encounter with Him they could now see. But in answering the inevitable question about their newfound sight, they were disobedient. Joyful perhaps, but disobedient all the same, and joy is no substitute for obedience.

The conclusion to the blind men’s story is not unique. Much of the Old Testament story of God’s people is a story of the disobedient. From humankind’s earliest days, God’s people are blessed and then given instruction – and then promptly disobey that instruction! It was so with Adam/Eve, with Noah’s descendants, with all Israel through the period of the Judges, with Saul, with Solomon and virtually every King the prophets were sent to. Sadly, this trend continues to today. Every pastor, preacher and faithful Kingdom worker can know from experience that blessing and instruction do not guarantee the obedience of those who were blessed and instructed. They only guarantee that someone was blessed, and that someone was instructed.

We must not consider the sacrifice of praise a substitute for obeying the Voice of God! As Samuel had once warned, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

There is a time to testify. There is also a time to hold back – and if God tells us to hold back, hold back we must.

When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him.

Elizabeth Elliot

APPLICATION: Intentionality

If Samuel’s warning has any meaning at all, is is that obedience to God’s specific direction comes before all else. What is God telling to you do? What is He warning you not to do? 

Two blind men have followed Jesus and called out after Him. When He went inside, they sought a private audience with Him. “He [Jesus] asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored.”

Jesus responds to the blind men, because they have sought Him wholeheartedly and in faith. They have followed him along the road from Jarius’ house, they have seen Him as Son of David and grasp that He is well able to restore their sight. But after all that, they are still not healed. Not until they confess their belief. There is something about confession – about testifying of your faith – that changes one’s experience of Jesus!

Earlier, Jesus had told the woman on the way to Jarius’ house, “your faith has healed you.” Her faith in Jesus is what healed her. Yet her faith in Jesus did not heal her until she touched Him. Taking action because of faith that strengthens that faith! Even if that action is something as simple as confession. As Hannah Smith once wrote, “Confession, it seems to me, is one of God’s ways of strengthening us in our faith. In this, it is just like it is in justification: if we do not confess it, the sense of it becomes weakened in our own minds.”

How true! Without confession – without testimony – faith is weak. But with testimony and by taking the action of speech, faith is made strong. Confessing your faith in Jesus enables the power of the Holy Spirit to do a work in your life.

In their commentary, Lange, Far, Hurst and Riddle note that confession has power, “Because it: 1. makes inward faith irrevocable; 2. Breaks loose from unbelief; 3. Unites with believers, becomes flesh and blood, and, in a good sense, acquires worldly form, worldly power, and the power of manifestation; 4. Pledges itself to full consistency in word and deed, life and death.”

Confession of Christ is the testimony of the Spirit, and therein lies its power. The late Henry J. Foster noted, “Every great religious awakening affords many examples of the power of testimony, even when that testimony is nothing more than the story of the speaker’s conversion and his “present experience.It has often been from rude lips a mighty power with cultured people. The facts of the Gospel story, told with freshness and reality, and with the power of the Spirit of God, have, from Pentecost onwards, been very effective preaching,—the most effective. Christian speculation has its time, and place, and value. There is a philosophy of Christianity. But the working force, the real lever-power, of it lies in its “testimony.””

To that we can only say, “Amen!”

Trials and tribulations only come into your life to test you, so you could make some testimonies out of them

Edmond Mbiaka

APPLICATION: Intentionality

When did you last testify to God’s power working in your life? Let it be that we speak often of His work, so that we might see His work in the lives of those around us! 

In the opening verse of Matthew, the Gospel writer introduced us to Jesus as “Jesus
Photo by Jana Shnipelson on Unsplash Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” He also took pains to ensure that we understood the lineage of Jesus as coming through David, giving us His whole family tree. These are important details, because to call someone a son of David is much more than calling them a Israelite. David was the God-appointed king of Israel, so to call them a son of David is to call them a rightful Prince (or King) of Israel. As if to drill that fact into our minds, as His story began unfolding, the angle of the Lord spoke to Jesus’ earthly father and called him, “Joseph, son of David.” That is a supernatural affirmation of Jesus’ Davidic lineage!

Matthew looks back with hindsight and tells us these things with confidence. But in His early ministry, Jesus was not seen as Israel’s rightful King. To this point in Matthew’s narrative (9:27) He has raised the dead, made the lame walk and preached the Good News to the poor, but He is not yet seen as the Messiah of Isaiah 61. At least, not by most. Most only see a prophet. A miracle worker. A man worth listening to. It is ironic then, that as Jesus leaves Jarius’ and his newly resurrected daughter, He encounters two people who do Him for who He is, even though they are blind. “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!””

The blind men heard the crowd talking about Him, and they recognize that He is bringing about the Kingdom of God. They ‘see’ Jesus as Son of David, and are so filled with hope that they determine to follow and call out that He might notice them. They have set the eyes of their hearts on Jesus. Not only do they see Jesus as Son of David, they also see Jesus as able to restore sight; “When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied.”

The irony of this moment has to be seen in the light of the greater context of all that is happening. For many were at the feast at Matthew’s house and followed Jesus out of wonder of what He would say next. They were there when He healed the woman with the issue of blood, and many followed Jesus out of wonder of what would happen next. They were there when He literally raised the dead at Jarius’ house, and many followed out of wonder of what He would do after that. All of these people were getting an emotional high listening to Him speak God’s truth, and out of watching Him do the miraculous.

But they weren’t really perceiving what that was happening. To them, it was mostly a matter of all the really cool ‘stuff’ happening around Jesus.

The blind men see what is really going on. They see how it includes them. They see Jesus as Son of David. They see One able to restore their sight. Best of all, they see clearly enough to recognize Him as Lord.

And this is the sad reality; Sometimes the blind see much more than those with eyes.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

Helen Keller

APPLICATION: Intentionality

What draws us to worship? Is it the really cool stuff happening in our church? Or is it our Lord? What draws us to pray for revival? Is it that we desperately want really cool stuff to be happening in our church? Or is it our Lord? 

Jesus has come to Jarius’ house to see about his daughter, whom Jarius left  on her  deathbed to seek for Jesus’ help. As Jesus arrives, He sees flute players and a crowd – all the signs that she is has not only died, but has been dead long enough for the family to call friends and family and to start formally mourning. It would’ve been at least a few hours, likely the better part of a day. Knowing He was to raise her, He tells the crowd to go away. As Matthew puts it, “After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.” 

Matthew’s Gospel is beautifully understated. Matthew does not tell us what Jesus said, the details of her age or how the girl began walking around. Nor does Matthew speak of her parent’s reaction, nor Jesus’ further instructions. The fuller story can only be pieced together by merging Mark’s, Luke’s and Matthew’s accounts. But the details that Matthew leaves out are not necessary to his purpose for writing the Gospel. 

Matthew wants his readers to grasp the big picture without unnecessary distraction, and the big picture of this short episode is that Jesus raised the dead! That such news spread all through the region is a given. Even though Jesus had “gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this.” Those who saw the girl after the fact (perhaps even the professional mourners who had been playing dirges for the family) could not help but see her playing in the street later. Jesus had visited her, and this girl who had been dead, and who everyone knew was dead, was made alive! 

Every Jewish reader would have known that raising the dead is not something that the average prophet could do. In fact, Ezekiel had not done that. Jeremiah had not done that. Isaiah had not done that. Even Samuel and Noah and Abraham didn’t do such things. Jesus has just done what only the prophets Elijah (in 1Ki 17) and Elisha (in 2Ki 4) had done, and no one else in the history of the world prior. That is a very big deal indeed! It far overshadows all the details involved, because it speaks to God’s approval and participation in a particularly powerful way. 

More than that though, in Jesus’ case it also added tremendous credibility to His message. He had been preaching that the Kingdom of heaven was near. The signs Jesus has performed to date – the preaching to the poor, the sick that were made well, and the miracle of the paralytic walking – are but lead ups to this greater evidence of the Kingdom of heaven: The dead are raised!

One must not get so caught up in the tremendous excitement of the miracle that we forget to look at the full picture. When the Kingdom of heaven is finally fully and physically established here on earth, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things [will have] passed away.”  All that Jesus does – His preaching, His ministering and His miracle-work  – is toward that very end. He (Jesus) will bring it to that conclusion. When He does, the joy we have at one miracle will be magnified a trillion-fold, and the glory of Christ will finally be fully realized by His people.

Amen.

We mourn for our present lot, we are comforted in hope: when the present is passed by, of our mourning will come everlasting joy, when there will be no need of consolation, because we shall be wounded with no distress.

Augustine of Hippo

APPLICATION: Worship

God is coming back soon, and bringing His recompense with Him. What joy shall fill our hearts on that final day!