At the touch of Jesus

We're going to read from God's Word now, so please open your Bibles or unlock your devices.

Turn to Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

We're going to read from verse 18 through to verse 34.

Now while he was saying these things to them,

Then 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 the 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.

And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud,

Have mercy on us, son of David.

When he entered the house, the blind men came to him.

And Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this?

And they said to him, Yes, Lord.

Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it done to you.

And their eyes were opened.

And Jesus sternly warned them, See that no one knows about it.

But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man, who was mute, was brought to him.

And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke.

And the crowds marveled, saying, Never was anything like this seen in Israel.

But the Pharisee said, He casts out demons by the prince of demons.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Well, let's pray as we come to God's word.

Father, I pray that whatever blindness to Jesus remains in our hearts,

or whether there are people here this morning or watching on Zoom

who are still completely blind to who you are,

I pray that your miraculous power that you worked that day,

that we just read about, that you would work it today.

So breathe life into us and open our eyes to see your son even more,

that we might have life in him.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Well, when, you probably know this, but when entering a mosque,

there's a washing ritual you've got to do.

I think it's called hoodoo.

I don't know if I've said that right.

I probably haven't.

But before entering the holy place,

worshippers have to wash their hands and their feet.

They're stepping into sacred space.

It's not just in Islam that there's this external washing

as a requirement to enter the presence of the holy.

Anthropologists have found that in diverse cultures all over the world,

cultures where they don't seem to have any connection in history,

there's this distinction between unclean and sacred

in all these different cultures.

And it's the same in Jewish roots as well.

Have you ever tried to read the Bible from go to woe, from Genesis through?

Genesis is pretty interesting.

And then Exodus, the first half is just riveting with all those miracles.

And then the second half is you struggle a bit.

And then you get to Leviticus.

I mean, have you tried to read Leviticus?

It's just law after law after law of how to worship God.

People often stumble at that point.

And I think we can kind of have a canon of Scripture within the canon.

We kind of just put Leviticus to the side.

It's too difficult.

But if we leave Leviticus out,

we're going to miss a really big point about God and worshipping him.

The point of Leviticus, if I was going to summarise it,

is that God is completely holy.

You cannot approach him on your own terms.

He sets the terms.

He is completely clean.

You better be clean before entering his presence.

If you want the enjoyment of fellowship with God

and the blessings that flow from living with him,

that's the point of the temple,

you better be clean.

So let me just pick out a few verses from Leviticus

about those who are disqualified.

So in Leviticus 13,

the person with leprosy must wear torn clothing,

crying out,

unclean, unclean.

He shall live alone.

His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

He's outside the people of God.

Leviticus 20 says to Israel,

you shall be holy to me for I, the Lord, am holy

and have separated you from the nations that you shall be mine.

They've got to be different.

They've got to be distinct.

In chapter 21, God says to the priest,

no one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people

by touching them, in other words,

except in the case of a close relative.

In chapter 22,

the unclean are cut off from worshipping and eating

in God's temple, in God's house.

If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations

approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord,

while he has an uncleanness,

that person shall be cut off from my presence.

I am the Lord.

Do you get the picture?

It's, you must be clean.

If you were to enjoy God and his blessings,

you must be clean if you want to be part of God's people.

I think a non-religious Australian at this point

will be thinking that's the problem with Christianity.

That's the problem with religion.

It sets up these arbitrary rules

and those who believe in them will exclude and mistreat

anyone who doesn't fit with their view of the world.

It's exclusive.

It's oppressive.

So what's our current culture's alternative?

What's going to make for a society where everyone belongs

and can thrive?

A prosperous society.

I think we say this.

Our culture is trying to do this.

We let every individual person be their own ultimate standard of their life.

You have your standard.

I have my standard.

There is no great standard that we have to all meet.

You have your own.

As long as yours doesn't harm anyone else.

Does that sound about right?

In other words, I think our culture is trying to go,

everything is clean.

Every opinion, every lifestyle, every action, every choice is clean.

We're all clean.

We all belong.

Just don't harm anyone else.

It kind of sounds good.

But removing the ultimate standard creates a big, big problem.

Who decides what harms someone else?

Who makes that decision?

How do we decide where to draw the line between an individual exercising their freedom

and what's doing harm to others?

I'm going to suggest we have no idea.

There is no reference point.

We're groping around in the dark.

It sounds good, but it's making us blind.

Now, I'm not...

I didn't come up with this.

It's like listening to a podcast with Jonathan Haight.

Jonathan Haight, a social psychologist.

He's an atheist.

Just, I want to put that out there.

This is not a Christian.

This is an atheist social psychologist,

and he's done heaps of research into morality in cultures around the world.

This is his conclusion of our current time.

So he's saying that after social media came in,

and not social media...

Anyway, we won't get into that,

but after social media came in,

it creates this echo chambers where we just listen to people like us,

and it's fracturing us, he's saying.

We're not actually in community across the entire community.

We create our little subset of community.

So after social media have done that,

and journalism, instead of all this great journalism going on,

we need instant news.

So he says that for the New York Times,

he had a friend who worked in the New York Times,

and they sent out a memo saying,

every story has to have something to do with race.

That's not news.

That's not news.

They had to spin it to do with race,

because people will listen to that.

So he's saying before these happen,

social media, how we're using it at least,

and journalism,

here's what he says.

There was this period before that that grounded us to truth,

or rather gave us a process by which we could make progress towards truth

and weed out terrible ideas.

I see it fading away.

What controls our morals in our culture is an equality debate,

but intimidation.

So Jonathan goes on to say this.

The dynamics of social media allows a small group

to weaponise their moralism

and to intimidate others into silence.

We don't need a change of generation.

He's not blaming the generation.

We need to change the dynamics

so that bad ideas don't dominate and intimidate.

So I think Jonathan agrees.

The way we're doing things,

we just don't know how to work out what's good and bad.

We just try and intimidate each other.

So religious rules, that doesn't work.

It excludes.

You're in if you disobey, you're out.

But then everything is clean.

It's not working either.

It's fracturing us.

We have no idea what's right and what harms others.

We can't work it out.

We need a better way,

and I think we see that better way.

We see a glimpse of it in Matthew chapters 8 through 10.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

This is the better way.

These chapters describe what Jesus' mission to save the world is all about.

So after the Sermon on the Mount,

where he says that you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,

he doesn't lower the bar.

Do you notice something about all these people that encounter Jesus?

So in chapter 8,

who's the first person who is included in the kingdom?

It's a leper.

A cut off from community and temple worship.

It's the leper who's made clean.

And then we have a Roman,

not a Jew.

And Jesus says that many from all over the world will recline in the kingdom,

and many of the Jews are going to be outside.

Then we have a woman who could not enter the inner core of the temple.

Then we have demon-possessed men who are living outside in the tombs.

We have a paralytic who clearly was cursed by God for his sin.

And then he has dinner reclining with tax collectors and sinners,

disgusting, defiling in the eyes of the Pharisees.

And Jesus says,

I haven't come to call the righteous but sinners.

It's the unclean who are in the kingdom of God,

enjoying the blessings.

And this comes to a head in our passage today.

We get more uncleanness,

just receiving blessing.

So what happens if a person with COVID comes into contact with someone who is healthy?

Which direction does the transmission go?

Does the healthy person transmit their health to the COVID person and make them healthy?

Of course not.

That's why there's fear in the air at the moment.

It's the disease that transmits and contaminates the clean.

In Leviticus 15, a woman having an extended discharge of blood.

Every bed she lies on, everything she sits on is counted as unclean.

Whoever touches these objects, let alone touches her herself, will also be unclean.

And this miserable woman in her story has been bleeding for 12 years.

She's like the leper.

Cut off from people.

Cut off from community.

Cut off from worship in the temple.

The other Gospels talk about how she spent all she had.

The temple couldn't help her.

Doctors couldn't help her.

She's hopeless.

Hopeless.

Separate, you see.

Like the paralyzed man, she was probably tormented, not only by her condition, but fearing that she would be under the curse of God for her sin now and in the life to come.

Totally desperate, she does something according to the old law that I would call wrong.

If you're under the old law, what she does is wrong.

She comes up behind Jesus and touches his clothes.

She's just made him unclean.

Hasn't she?

Jesus turns and sees her.

And I wonder if that phrase, sees her, is just loaded with meaning.

He knows her.

He sees her pain, her anguish under the curse.

He sees her.

Take heart, daughter.

Your faith has made you well.

Instantly made whole.

She's clean.

Instantly made whole.

Instantly in the community of God.

Instantly able to worship God in his temple.

She's clean.

By the mercy of this man who touched her.

The curse of sin that the old covenant could just tell her, you are unclean.

By the touch of Jesus, the unclean is made holy.

It goes the other way around.

And then we've got a little girl who's just died.

If there's any sign of the curse of God on sin, it's death.

In Jewish culture then, they would hire professional mourners,

which is still the practice in some cultures today,

to just give expression to the depth of grief in the family.

Now, I think we try and hide death in our culture.

A lot of people try and call death natural.

It's just a part of life.

That doesn't comfort me much.

Death is horrible, the Bible says,

because we were made to enjoy life with the internal one.

It's the ultimate enemy to fellowship.

No longer any opportunity for connection.

Funerals are the greatest reminder of the curse on sin in this world.

We're faced with our own mortality,

that we will stand before God as judge one day.

I won't forget when I was a teenager in a night church service,

and the pastor makes an announcement that a 12-year-old girl in the church

had just been killed in a motorbike accident.

There was just silence in the room.

Some started to cry.

Most were just in shock.

Imagine someone standing up.

Go home.

The girl is just asleep.

I kind of don't understand why they laughed.

Why didn't someone punch him in the face?

That is such an inappropriate thing to say at a time like that.

The story, Don.

You might have the reputation of a great healer.

Only God could raise the dead.

And he took the lifeless girl by the hand,

and instead of death contaminating his holy hand,

his holy hand breathed life into her dead body,

getting her up.

As if a dad just waking his little girl up ready for school that day.

It was that simple.

I couldn't imagine the emotion of the parents.

It must be like,

I knew I wouldn't make it through today.

Cleo this week.

It must be,

you thought your daughter was dead.

It must be amazing.

This is an understatement,

but something new is here.

Someone new is here.

So what does this mean about who Jesus is

and what his mission is all about?

So far people have called him teacher.

Others have gone further and called him Lord,

but they probably don't recognise him as God,

but just master.

Jesus uses the phrase son of man,

the Daniel 7 figure,

but here we have two blind men

being the first to recognise him,

son of David,

the promised Messiah,

bringing all the kingdom blessings,

King and Saviour.

Now,

if you were to lose any of your five senses,

which is the last one you'd choose to lose?

For me,

it would be blind.

It would be sight.

If you want to cry,

then watch the Netflix show,

Notes on Blindness.

It's,

I do recommend it.

Just take some tissues with you.

But this professor,

it goes blind in his adulthood.

There was two moments that just struck me

that it's not just the difficulty

of getting through the day

that is so bad about blindness,

but actually it got in the road of relationships.

In a sense,

it cut him off from relationships.

So there's two things he talked about.

At Christmas time,

his kids were opening the presents,

but he,

dang it.

He had to walk out of the room.

He couldn't see the smiles on their faces.

It cut him off from his family.

There's another one.

I can't get it out.

But,

these two blind men

would have felt very much

under the curse of God.

Cut off.

Not just difficult life,

but cut off

from the relationship with God

and in community.

Unable to worship at the temple.

Leviticus 21.

No one who has a blemish

shall draw near

a man blind or lame.

They couldn't go in.

Cut off from relationship with God.

And in Jewish thinking,

they would have known,

this is curse on my sin.

And they cry out

to Jesus,

have mercy on us,

son of David.

And I just wonder,

are they saying more than

have mercy

as in take away our blindness?

Of course they want that.

But I wonder if they realise,

have mercy on me,

a sinner.

Again,

Jesus touched,

the curse is instantly

taken away.

What would they have known

in that moment?

One of the first things

their eyes would have seen

was Jesus' face.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they shall see God.

They knew in that moment

they were not under God's curse.

They knew in that moment

that the blessing they'd receive

was because of Jesus' mercy.

They knew in that moment

that calling him

the son of David,

the promised Messiah,

that they had been

seeing him correctly.

And I think that's why

Jesus tells them,

don't tell anyone.

He can't be saying,

don't tell anyone

that you can see again,

go around pretending

you're groping around.

They couldn't hide that.

I think he must be saying,

don't tell anyone

that you have seen me correctly,

that I am the Messiah.

But what do they do instead?

Having received such mercy,

they can't help themselves

but spread his fame.

So as God promised

in Isaiah 42,

where Israel,

the nation of Israel,

had failed to obey God's law,

the law was loudly crying out

to all Israel,

unclean,

unclean.

But God promised

a new servant,

a suffering servant.

Isaiah 42,

I will give you

as a covenant

for the people,

a light for the nations,

to open the eyes

that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners

from the dungeon,

from the prison

those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord,

that is my name.

My glory I give

to no other,

nor my praise

to carved idols.

The unclean

are made holy,

mourning is turned

into joy,

the blind can see

God's face

at the touch of Jesus.

All the new wine

of the kingdom

is coming through

Jesus.

You won't find it

anywhere else.

So how do you belong

in God's house?

How do you thrive

in his presence

to receive all

his blessings?

It's not

our culture's way

of every person

for themselves.

Trying to convince

yourself that

everything you do

is clean and acceptable.

When you feel ashamed,

just accept who you are,

what you've done,

what you think.

That doesn't work.

But it's equally

not the religious way.

Trying to wash yourself

by obeying

an external set of rules

and then God owes you

blessing.

It's neither of those

two ways.

To belong in God's house

you must experience

Jesus' mercy

for yourself personally,

his touch in your life.

There's no bargaining

with Jesus,

there's only begging.

I think some here

this morning

are trying to downplay

the wrong things

you've done,

trying to accept yourself

on your own terms.

That's not the way to go.

Remember that

12-year-old girl.

There will be a funeral

for you one day.

The curse on sin

is unavoidable.

But

if you are connected

to Jesus,

he will take you

by the hand

and make you rise up.

You can't avoid

the curse on sin.

You can't pretend.

It will catch up with us.

You need the touch

of Jesus

to save you.

I think others here

are probably feeling

incredibly ashamed

of themselves,

feeling incredibly

unclean,

unworthy to look

God in the face.

But

like the woman

who's bleeding,

if all the hope

you can muster

is just touch

the edge

of his garment,

thinking he's going

to be so angry

with you.

It doesn't matter

how confident

you are.

That's not

the important point.

The important point

is,

is Jesus

trustworthy

to save you?

And we see

clearly

that he is.

He sees you.

Take heart,

daughter.

Your faith

has made you well

because your faith

was in me.

It doesn't matter

how much faith

you got.

It's the direction

of your hope

that matters.

Then there might

be others here

feeling like

their situation

in life

is just cursed.

Every step

you take,

everything just

seems to

not go well.

Is this passage

saying,

you just need

more faith

and then life

will be better?

I think the notion

in some Christian

circles is that

if you have

enough faith,

God will heal

you and

prosper you.

It's cruel.

It is cruel

teaching.

It says to

parents who

have lost

their child,

if only you

had more faith

your daughter

would live.

That is cruel.

It says to

those with

chronic illness,

God would

ease your pain

if only you

had confidence

he would.

He's not,

some take

that phrase,

according to

your faith

be it done

to you.

It's not

saying according

to the strength

of your faith,

if you

have 60%

faith,

I'll give

you 60%

blessing.

He's saying

because your

direction of

your hope

is in me,

your faith

is in me,

then all I

am is yours.

What actually

makes Jesus

look as great

as he really

is,

is those

times where

life is far

from blessed

on the outside.

but you

still know

that you

are fully

loved by

God and

will dwell

in his

house forever.

That kind

of hope,

that kind

of deep

joy that

can sustain

you through

just awfulness,

that makes

people around

you go,

Jesus must

be great.

Something

else is

your life.

That is

true sight,

seeing past

your circumstances

to see

Jesus.

So do

you see

him?

The blind

men,

simply by

what they've

heard about

Jesus,

were crying

out,

have mercy

on me,

have mercy

son of

David,

promised

Messiah.

And in

the face

of Jesus,

they saw

complete

acceptance

by God

and they

couldn't

help but

spread his

fame.

all of us

speak about

what we

love.

We can't

help it.

If you

talk to me

long enough,

I will

bring up

Liverpool,

soccer.

You can't

help but

talk about

the things

you love.

I think

Matthew

compares

the blind

men's

response to

the last

section of

the mute

man to

make us

think,

who else

should have

seen the

Messiah

clearly?

Who

should see

him

clearly?

First,

you've got

the Jewish

crowds.

They say

never was

anything like

this seen

in Israel.

They are

seeing the

signs clearly.

They know

their history.

Moses did

miracles,

Elijah even

raised the

dead,

but nothing,

nothing is

like this

man.

Nothing is

what we're

seeing here.

Something new

has arrived,

but they

don't take

the obvious

next step.

surely the

king had

come.

A bow

pointed this

out at

elders.

Why didn't

they say

never was

anyone like

this seen

in Israel?

They don't

take that

step from

seeing the

signs to

who is

this man.

The fact

that they

are blind

is confirmed

in the next

section,

which we'll

look at

next week,

that Jesus

has compassion

on the

crowds because

they're like

harassed and

helpless

sheep without

a shepherd.

They need

the gospel

still.

They need

mission.

They're still

blind.

But then

you've got the

experts of

the things

of God.

They do

come to a

solid conclusion.

He casts

out demons

by the

prince of

demons.

They should

have at

least been

scared of

him.

I think

they come

to this

conclusion

because Jesus

has already

shown himself

to be an

unclean

man.

He eats

with tax

collectors and

sinners.

He's got

to be

unclean.

And so

if he's

unacceptable

to God

and he's

doing all

these powerful

things,

he's deceiving

people.

He must be

evil.

To admit

he was the

Messiah would

be to admit

that he was

fulfilling the

law and to

admit that they

weren't fulfilling

the law,

that by his

mercy he was

fulfilling the

law and that

they needed

his mercy.

evil.

They weren't

willing to

admit that.

They are so

blind that

they call

good evil

because they

were unwilling

to admit that

they were

unclean and

needed him.

The experts

should have

known Isaiah

42 as the

Lord calls

out to his

people Israel,

hear you

deaf and

look you

blind that

you may

see.

I think

Matthew

connects these

verbal conclusions

with healing of

the mute man

to leave you

and I with a

challenge at

this point in

the gospel.

What will we

say about

Jesus?

What is our

conclusion at

this point?

Will we say

son of David

have mercy on

me, make me

clean?

If you can

see him, you

will praise

him.

If your

mouth doesn't

praise him, you

must still be

blind.

And

unfortunately we

can't sing.

evil

as

as

as

said,

you

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