Day 284 (Matthew 9, Luke 7) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we recounted the story of the paralytic man whose friends carried him to Jesus for healing. We first read this story in Luke 5 and Mark 2. Luke's and Mark's accounts of the people's response are consistent with each other, but they seem to vary from what we read from Matthew today. Luke said, "'Amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe.'"

And Mark said, they were all amazed and glorified God. But today, Matthew says something that seems to contradict that. He says, when the crowd saw it, they were afraid and they glorified God. So which is it? Were they amazed or were they afraid? Yes, there's no contradiction in these accounts and here's why. If you are with us for the Old Testament, this will be a bit of a refresher from way back on day 36.

When scripture tells God's kids to fear him, it isn't about terror. Terror makes you run from something. That's contradictory to God's entire objective of drawing near to his people.

The kind of fear scripture describes when it talks about fearing God actually conveys reverence and awe. It's joy adjacent. It has the effect of drawing us to God, not away from him. It's the way we feel about the Grand Canyon. We take long trips to get to it, stand on the edge of it with our eyes and mouths open wide, taking it all in, while simultaneously being fully aware that it has the power to kill us. This is awe and delight and respect. This is the kind of fear we're supposed to have toward God.

Many of us will have to reframe how we think of the phrase, the fear of the Lord. For those who know him, the fear of the Lord is comprised primarily of delight and awe. For those who don't know him, the regular kind of fear is fitting because his wrath remains on them, like Jesus said in John 3.36.

Next, Matthew recounts the time when Jesus called him to be a disciple. You can probably see how closely this mirrors the accounts we read of Levi's calling in Luke 5 and Mark 2, which is one of the reasons we believe they're the same guy. It's possible that Jesus gave him a new name, like he did with Simon Peter, or maybe he already had two names, like Nathaniel Bartholomew, Nate Bart for short.

The Pharisees harass Jesus for eating with sinners like a tax collector, and his response shuts them down. He says, "...those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."

Go learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Matthew isn't sick. In fact, he's well enough to throw a dinner party with Jesus as the guest of honor. But he's definitely a sinner. And that's why Jesus is drawn to him. Jesus acknowledges Matthew's sinfulness to them and says, look,

Sinners don't scare me. They're the whole reason I'm here. Next, we read a series of stories in both Matthew and Luke that show us some interesting and possibly confusing things about healing and the cultural mindset of the day.

First, Matthew tells us about a ruler in the synagogue. We find out in other Gospels that his name is Jairus and that his daughter, who is dying, is 12 years old. He kneels in front of Jesus, which is a huge deal considering he's a religious leader, and asks Jesus to do something about it. Jesus agrees, but while they're on the way there, Jesus gets sidetracked. Well, it's only a sidetrack if you're Jairus. For Jesus, it's all part of the plan. And for the woman he runs into along the way, it's an answer to prayer. She

She's been sick for as long as Jairus' daughter has been alive. This woman is ceremonially unclean, so she can't go to the temple, and this disease makes her a social outcast too. But if you're Jairus, these things seem way less important than death. It probably seems to him like Jesus doesn't care or he's got more important things to do and he's ruining everything.

As Jesus is walking past the woman, she grabs his prayer tassel, the fringe of his garment, like in Deuteronomy 22, because she thinks that all she has to do for healing is touch him like he's a good luck charm. But the thing is, she's not fine when she touches him. She isn't healed until he takes action. We'll circle back around to this in a minute. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old girl is breathing her final breaths.

When Jesus arrives at Jairus' house, we see that his family has already hired mourners to stand outside their house wailing. This is a profession, by the way. Maybe like being an actor who has a contract with the mortuary? Anyway, their wails turn to laughter when Jesus says the girl is just sleeping. There's no way this family would hire mourners if the girl has just taken a snooze. Don't be ridiculous, Jesus.

But Jesus isn't denying her condition. He's just saying her body doesn't have the final word. He does. He made her body. So he goes in, takes her by the hand, and she rises. In the two other synoptic gospels, one seems to indicate more that she was at the point of death, not actually dead.

Most scholars say the girl was alive when Jairus left her side to come find Jesus, but then dead by the time Jesus arrived. And that seems to make sense across all three accounts. But if you want more info, check out the short article we've linked to in the show notes. If Jesus did raise her from the dead, this is the first time in his public ministry that he does that. If she was only at the point of death, then no worries, because he covers the whole power over death thing later today with the widow's son.

Next, he heals two blind men and tells them to keep quiet. But of course, they tell everyone. Then he takes a road trip to a town called Nain. As he's entering the city, he passes a funeral procession. The only son of a widow has died, so now there's no one to provide for her. On top of the grief of losing her son and her husband, this is probably a death sentence for her too. Jesus knows this, and he feels compassion. This

This woman doesn't ask Jesus for anything. She probably doesn't even know who he is or what he's capable of, but he raises her son from the dead. The last story we'll cover today brings us a shocking turn of events. A Pharisee invites Jesus over for dinner. And while he's there, a woman of the city who was a sinner crashes the party. That phrase is probably Luke's subtle way of saying that she was a prostitute. Not only is Jesus drawn to sinners, sinners are drawn to Jesus.

Simon the Pharisee is repulsed to have her in his home and can't believe Jesus is letting her touch him. But she weeps as she anoints his feet with oil that probably costs more than she makes in a year.

Jesus speaks to Simon's thoughts and makes a point by asking a question, as is his way. Jesus acknowledges that she's a sinner. That's not news to her. She knows that. It's part of why she's crying. We're all sinners. And the greater our awareness of our need for God, the greater our joy and gratitude will be in knowing him. If we pride ourselves on being morally upright, we'll miss out on that joy and gratitude. The more we can find ourselves at square one, spiritual poverty.

the more we'll be able to grasp all the blessings of knowing him. What was your God shot today? Mine was in the necessity of Jesus taking action. A few times in today's reading, Jesus said things like, your faith has healed you, but there's far more going on there than meets the eye. This happens a lot with Jesus. There are often many layers to what he's communicating. In order to see what he's communicating, not just what he's saying, we have to look at the whole story he's telling us.

If their faith healed them, Jesus wouldn't have had to show up or take any action at all because their action of belief would have been sufficient. But it wasn't. Jesus is necessary. He has to make it happen. And beyond that, we've seen that he heals people who don't even have faith at all, like the dead man and the dead girl.

He heals people who don't ask for it. He heals people who don't ask for it but do have faith and people who do ask for it but don't have faith. There is no formula. This is not a combination lot. It's a relationship with a compassionate God.

Our faith, on its own, cannot heal, no matter how strong. But the object of our faith can. Faith in my faith is impotent idolatry. And frankly, I don't know the future. I don't know what's best. I don't know what his plan is. So if I'm trying to mantra myself into healing, that sounds a lot more like demanding something instead of asking for it. And Jesus says, ask, not demand. Demanding is setting myself up to be the God who calls the shots.

But God honoring faith has a goal. It terminates on an object. And it's not what we're believing for. It's who we're believing in. Faith in my faith is foolish. But faith in my God, who is powerful and loves me, is worship. He's where the joy is. Did you know we have a printable version of our whole reading plan? Many of you use our plan on the Bible app, and a few of you use our daily posts on Instagram stories to keep up.

you can have your very own printout or even just download the PDF if you don't have a printer. That way, if Instagram ever gets glitchy, you'll still know what chapters to read next. Just go to thebiblerecap.com forward slash start and look for the printable plan in step two. The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.