SS01-15-06
“LIFE MATTERS.” MATT. 9:18-31, 36-38.
MATT. 9: 18-19, 23-26, 20-22, 27-31, 36-38.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO MATTHEW 9.
In the past two lessons we have learned that work and money matters. Today we look at the annual, “Sanctity of Life Lesson,” Titled “Life matters.” Yet every day we are confronted by the fact that not everyone values human life. Abortion, euthanasia, physical and sexual abuse, and violent crimes are some of the practices that point to the devaluation of human life in contemporary society.
God created and values human life and sent Jesus to redeem us and to give us life full and abundant. Jesus always affirmed the value of people’s lives. Following His example, believers are to be involved in promoting human life, health, and wholeness.
The third Sunday in January has been designated Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Article XV of the Baptist Faith and Message, 2000 reads in part: “We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.” The Bible passages that speak most directly to the issue of abortion are Psalm 139: 13-16 and Jeremiah 1: 4-5, and we often study these passages on this Sunday. However, the Bible is a book of life that affirms sanctity of human life in many ways.
For this week’s lesson we are looking at four examples of Jesus’ actions and teachings that show He value human life, health, and wholeness. His restoring of Jairus’s daughter to life shows He valued human life.
His healing of the woman with a chronic illness shows His concern for health. His healing of the two blind men shows His concern for wholeness of life.
His words about compassion for the crowds exemplify the kind of concern we should have for helpless and struggling people.
Think back to our last presidential election. Many issues that usually are discussed in a sanctity of human life lesson were at the forefront of the campaigns. Abortion on demand was a hot topic. The pros and cons of stem-cell research were debated. Terrorism and violence were discussed. How to provide quality of life for all of our citizens was argued. Many commentators said that our nation had moved to a more conservative position.
The values of faith and religion were openly discussed by many people. Yet our society today is strongly and emotionally divided over some issues that pertain to the sanctity of human life. We have legalized abortion. Some even have suggested legalizing a “right to die with dignity” law (euthanasia) and also advocated death for those with a low quality of life. This lesson today discusses how Jesus looked at the sanctity of human life.
In the narrative for today’s lesson in Matt. 9: 36, Matthew described people as weary and worn out, The word weary is used to mean “distressed,” “harassed,” “worried,” “troubled.” It is a picture of people who are weary of body and despondent in mind from being harassed by t hose who should have helped them.
Here in Matt. 9:36 the word “weary” is a perfect passive participle, which means their condition was thorough and persistent and was caused by someone or something else other than themselves. They were hopelessly distressed.
The word translated worn out means “to cast down” or “to prostrate” as if from a mortal wound. The word is used to describe people who have been mishandled and are lying helpless like wounded sheep. This word is in the same tense as the first one, again indicating that their condition was due mainly to a lack of compassionate and proper leadership.
Today’s lesson focuses on several miracles that emphasize Jesus’ involvement in promoting human life, health, and wholeness. These miracles deal with death, a long-term illness that brought social ostracism, and a physical handicap.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 9: 18-19.
How do you feel about interruptions in your life? Matt. 9 gives beautiful examples of Jesus’ positive responses to interruptions. He seemed to view them as opportunities for ministry. You will remember in last Sunday’s lesson, in the midst of Jesus answering a question asked by some of John the Baptist’s disciples as to why Jesus disciples did not fast. Jesus explained that people did not fast and mourn when the bridegroom was with them. His disciples would fast later when the bridegroom was taken away from them.
A man interrupted to ask Jesus to make his brother give to him his portion of an inheritance. Jesus pointed out that he did not come to judge legal or family matters. Jesus then continued to speak to the crowd, warning them to be on guard against greed and telling them life did no consist in having an abundance of possessions.
In today’s lesson a man barged into the group where Jesus was teaching and fell to his knees before Jesus. The man blurted out that his daughter was dying and begged Jesus to come and lay His hand on her to restore her to health. Mark 5:41-42 describes the daughter as a “little girl” of 12 years; and Mark 5: 22 identifies the man as Jairus, one of the lay synagogue leaders who planned services of worship and cared for the building; a position of great trust and respect.
Since he was in the synagogue in Capernaum, he probably had seen some miracles and heard some teachings of Jesus in that synagogue. He also knew that the religious leaders were increasingly hostile to Jesus. Yet the man Jairus came to Jesus, knelt down and pleaded with Jesus for his daughter’s life.
Some ancient sources say that fathers placed value only on sons. Girls were ignored. This was not true of Jairus. He obviously loved his only daughter. She should have had her whole life ahead of her at age 12, but she was at the point of death. Jairus believed that if Jesus laid his hand on the dying child, she would live. Schooled in the O.T. Jairus knew that life is important. It is a precious gift from God. He wanted his daughter to live.
When Jairus interrupted the Lord Jesus, He did not rebuke the man. He did not tell Jairus to wait his turn. He did not ignore him. He showed no irritation. Instead He gave the distraught man his full attention.
Jesus responded immediately to this earnest plea. When He heard the words of this distraught father, Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. According to Mark, those disciples were Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. Jesus probably was sitting at the table in Matthew’s home, when the synagogue leader came to Him. From that table where He was witnessing to tax collectors and other sinners, Jesus got up and went to minister to a dying girl. The Master values human life because life was important to Him. The Lord’s response is what we would expect of One who deeply values human life. The Lord also was responding to the father’s faith.
I wish I knew exactly why the Lord does not heal all children. A funeral director once said, “I deal with death all the time; but when the deceased is a child, it just doesn’t seem right.” I agree.
However, the Bible affirms that the Lord does all things well. He can take then worst events of human experience and weave them into a pattern for accomplishing His good purposes. As we keep trusting Him, He grants us peace.
On the way to Jairus’s house, Jesus paused to heal the woman who touched Him in the crowd that was with Him. This must have been a trying time for Jairus. He felt that each second counted as his daughter’s life hung in the balance.
Then, after healing the woman, some people came from Jairus’s house with the heartbreaking news that the girl was dead. They said that Jairus need not trouble the Master any further. They assumed that death had the girl in its icy grip, and no one—even Jesus---could break that grip.
Jesus encouraged Jairus not to give up. Jesus told him in Mark 5: 36 “Be not afraid, only believe.” Luke 8:50 says, “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.”
The story resumes at the leader’s house in vs. 23.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 9: 23-26.
The scene that greeted Jesus, the leader, and the disciples must have been a great blow to the leader. As they approached the house, they saw the flute players and a crowd crying loudly. These were the signs of death. The poorest Jewish families hired at least two flute players and one wailing woman to conduct the mourning process. Their presence and activity indicated that the little girl was dead. The crowd that gathered raised their voices loudly in wild wailing and screaming in the outer court of the home. In addition to the paid mourners, there were probably some sincere mourners.
Jesus took charge. He told the crowd to leave, claiming that the child was sleeping. The crowd laughed at this Man who seemed to be totally out of touch with reality. People recognized death when they saw it, and they knew the girl was dead. Of course, Jesus was not saying the girl literally was asleep: He meant He would awake her from death.
1 Cor. 15:26 says “Death is not a friend but an enemy.” Jesus conquered sin and death, and He will deliver us from the icy hand of death. The story of Jesus resurrecting Jairus’s daughter affirms the value of life. Many people consider human life cheap. Murder, euthanasia, suicide, and abortion---all testify to that fact. On this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, let us affirm life including preborn life) as the precious gift of God.
After clearing the crowd from the house, Jesus took the girl by the hand and restored her to life and health. Though the Lord Jesus instructed her parents in vs. 56 not to tell anyone what had happened, the news of what Jesus had done spread throughout that whole area.
Jesus demonstrated His concern for human life by restoring life to that young girl. We also need to be concerned enough about human life to guard and protect the lives of children today, both born and unborn.
Jesus’ restoring this young life has implications for us about guarding and protecting the lives of children both born and unborn. On Jan. 22, 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe vs. Wade. The court ruled that an unborn child is neither a human nor a person and therefore is not protected under the Constitution.
The Bible calls that ruling into judgment. God’s Word recognizes no distinction between a person who is born and one who is in the womb. In other words the person who exists outside the womb is the same person who originated at the moment of conception inside the womb. God created humans in His image, and therefore each individual is of supreme value.
God the Creator has a special purpose and design in making each person. Therefore, the Bible stresses the importance of human life and cries out for the protection of all humans. While abortion on demand is not the only sanctity of human life issue, it certainly is among the most critical.
So what can Christians do? Here are four suggestions. First, understand and share the biblical teachings on the sanctity of human life. Second, become one of the volunteers who staff more than 3,000 Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the U.S.A. or offer financial support to one of them.
In addition to providing pregnancy tests and counseling, these centers often offer a full range of services. These include helping women to obtain housing, maternity and baby clothes, baby equipment, prenatal and postnatal medical care, legal assistance, financial support, and information about adoption.
They even offer advice on how a woman in school can continue her education. Third, find out what other services in your area may be available to provide alternatives to abortion and volunteer to help in one of them. Fourth, offer love, encouragement, and support to individuals struggling with an unplanned pregnancy. Why do any of these things? God has declared that human life is important!
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 9: 20-22.
As Jesus was on his way to Jairus’s house, He was interrupted by a desperately sick woman. She was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years. Matthew’s account is concise. More details are found in Mark 5: 25-34 and Luke 8: 43-48. The woman had been hemorrhaging for 12 years. She went to one physician after another, but none could help her. Instead, she got worse. And the visits to seek medical help had used all her money. To make matters worse the Jewish Law in Lev. 15: 19-33 considered her ceremonially unclean. Anyone who had contact with her became temporarily unclean.
Thus she was chronically and hopelessly ill. Many people with chronic illnesses can empathize with this woman. She must have felt deep despair. She must have heard about Jesus and the people He had healed. She probably tried to think of some way she could see Jesus and seek His help.
Then she saw Jesus heading for the house where Jairus’s daughter was dying. He was surrounded by his disciples and a crowd of people. Although an unclean person was supposed to avoid such crowds, desperate situations call for desperate measures.
She decided to join the crowd and to work her way in until she was right behind Jesus. Then she intended to touch His clothes. She believed, If I may but touch his garments, I shall be whole. So she touched the hem of his garment or the tassel on His robe.
Mark told us that Jesus felt power go out of him. The woman also felt something. Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was cured of her affliction. Jesus asked, “Who touched My robes?” His disciples responded to Him, “You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, “Who touched Me.”
The woman was terrified that Jesus sensed what she had hoped to do secretly. She came and fell down before Jesus and the crowd and explained what she had done and why. Jesus then told her “Daughter, be of good comfort; they faith had made thee whole.” No doubt many people in that crowd had touched Jesus or His robe, but only one came with courage and faith and was healed.
We need to acknowledge that an absence of healing does not automatically mean and absence of faith in the Lord’s ability to heal. Few would question Paul’s absolute faith in Christ. Nevertheless, the Lord did not heal Paul’s thorn in the flesh,” but provided grace for him to live with it. (2 Cor 12: 7-10).
The woman’s despair was changed to joy. The Gospels contain the accounts of many healings by Jesus. These testify to His authority over decease, His compassion for the sick, and the value of health. Much of His ministry was devoted to healing people’s illnesses. He takes no joy in human suffering, though that is a part of human life.
Good health is something many people take for granted, until they lose it. Many people suffer from chronic illnesses that they will have the rest of their lives. Surveys show that health care is one of the top concerns of people today. This is increasingly true as the population ages.
Many of you have probably already selected your Medicare D Plan to assist with your prescription drugs. We have people in our church that pay as much as $700 per month for prescription drugs. You may even know some that pay more than that.
As Christians we are responsible for doing what contributes to our own health and well-being, and we are also responsible for helping others do the same. As Christians we should promote human health---including diet, exercise, and regular medical checkups.
Remember that Jesus in Matt.25: 35-36 spoke of coming again as the Son-of-Man who would commend and reward those who gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, acceptance to the stranger, clothes to the naked, care to the sick, and visitation to those in prison.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 9: 27-31.
Jesus had a high regard for the wholeness of human life and wanted everyone to have both physical and spiritual life. In the miracle recorded in the verses of this section, Jesus healed two blind men of their blindness. He met physical needs as well as spiritual ones. So must we.
On the way to Jairus’s house, Jesus healed the woman of her bleeding. On the way from Jairus’s home, Jesus met the needs of two blind men. Blindness was a problem in Jesus’ day. Things such as diet, the wind, the sand, sanitation, and the lack of preventative medical care probably contributed to the problem. Jesus had compassion on the blind men who were limited in their ability to function effectively in society.
There are no miracles of the giving of sight in the O.T. nor in the New after the Gospels….But in Jesus’ ministry there are more miracles of giving sight than of any other single category. Only Matthew tells of these two blind men. Matt. 20: 29-34 tells of a similar incident later in Jesus’ ministry, which is also recorded in Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18: 35-43.
After Jesus left Jarius’s house, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, “Thou son of David, have mercy on us.” Opening the eyes of the blind was one sign of the age of the Messiah. The title the blind men use of Jesus, son of David, is one way of calling Him the Messiah. The Messiah fulfills God’s promise to David of a descendant who would reign over an eternal kingdom.
The men asked Jesus for mercy. The Jews often associated sickness, disability, and trouble with guilt for sin. These men certainly wanted to have Jesus give them sight, and by their acknowledgment and plea they may have indicated that y also wanted forgiveness of their sins.
The men did not ask for pity or sympathy but for mercy. Their cry for mercy indicated they felt no sense of meriting or deserving healing. They voiced no complaint about any injustice in their blindness. Their appeal for mercy was an appeal to Jesus’ love and grace.
The blind men addressed Jesus as Son of David, using a royal Messianic title. Isaiah had prophesied in Isa. 35: 5 that when the Messiah came, the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
In Jesus sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4: 18) He had declared that He had come to do several things, of which one was the “recovery of sight to the blind.” Identifying Jesus as he Messiah from the royal line of David, the blind men were declaring that the promised time for such healings had come.
Jesus did not respond to them until they came into the house. We are not told whose house. Jesus asked them, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” When they said they had such faith, they called Jesus Lord. Lord can be a title of respect for an important person or it can be used of God. When used of a human it is often translated “sir.”
At this point they are giving the term all the meaning they can put into it. They are respectful and certain. We should not overlook the fact that being blind they could not have seen anything that Jesus had done. They had to depend on what people told them. Yet they came through with a definite and positive faith.
Jesus touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith be it unto you.” As a result of Jesus’ compassion and power and in response to their faith the two blind men, their eyes were opened. Matthew emphasized faith in each of these miracles of healing. He reported that the synagogue leader came to Jesus believing Jesus could heal his daughter. The Lord told the woman with the issue of blood that her faith allowed Him to heal her. Now, he told the two blind men that He would heal them in response to their faith in Him. Jesus was not rewarding the quality or amount of their faith but the presence of their faith in Him and His power.
Notice three things in common among the three miracles in Matt. 9: 18-31. In each case someone desperate came to Jesus for help. In each case the desperate people exercised faith. In each case there was a divine touch related to the needy person (in two cases Jesus touched the needy one and in one case the woman touched Him.)
Jesus then said something they probably didn’t understand at the time----Jesus straightly charged them, saying, “See that no man know it.” Jesus sternly warned them, ‘be sure no one finds out!’ Jesus had given them a strong injunction by His look, in His tone of voice, and in what He said.
Jesus had come as the promised Messiah, but He did not encourage the use of that title because He had come to be a different kind of Messiah than the kind many people wanted. But the two men who received their sight “went out and spread the news about Him throughout the whole area.”
One can understand their joy and desire to tell others. But they disobeyed the Lord. Soon the whole area around Capernaum heard about the healing. The irony of this situation is that Jesus told them not to tell other and they disobeyed. He tells us to tell others, and we often disobey. Perhaps Jesus desired to avoid winning an inadequate or falsely based loyalty, one based merely on His ability to do the miraculous.
The Jews were looking for the coming of a political messiah who would meet their needs politically with their enemies and physically concerning their human needs. Jesus did meet physical needs, but He came to seek and save those who were lost spiritually.
After Jesus miraculously fed the 5,000, Jesus chided the crowd, saying, “You are looking for Me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26).
Jesus had to discourage people from following Him for the wrong reasons. His compassion moved Him to meet human needs, but He came foremost to provide us salvation from the penalty of our sins and to give us eternal life. People still identify with Jesus for wrong or inadequate reasons. Those reasons hinder such people from understanding the true meaning of Jesus as the Savior and the Lord.
The two blind men, who were made whole, represent people who are disabled or handicapped in some way. This passage shows the concern Jesus has for such people. It also challenges people who are handicapped to have faith in the Lord---the hope that a cure may be found and an expectation of wholeness in heaven (Rev. 21: 4-5).
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 9: 36-38.
Vs. 32-34 tell of Jesus healing a demoniac who could not speak. Vs. 35 summarizes the ministry of Jesus as teaching, preaching, and healing. He ministered in all the towns and villages.
Vs. 36 tells what He felt when He looked at the crowds of people---he was moved with compassion on them. That is, whenever He looked at people, He was deeply concerned for them. This is the word used in Luke 15:20 of the father of the prodigal son when the son returned. It also was used of Jesus when He saw the heartrending grief of the widow whose only son had died in Nain.
Jesus felt this way because they fainted, and were scattered abroad. They were “weary” and “worn out,” “Harassed” and “helpless,” “distressed” and dispirited” as sheep having no shepherd. The imagery is that of shepherdless sheep, sheep wounded and torn either by hostile animals or by thorn bushes and the like, and then prostrate and helpless.
Sheep are defenseless animals. Without a shepherd they are vulnerable to any attack. Even without predators they are in trouble if they have no shepherd, for they are not good foragers. They need a shepherd to lead them in green pastures and beside still waters.
Maybe Matthew was thinking of Numbers 27: 17 where Moses asked God to provide a person to succeed him and lead the Lord’s people so they would not be like sheep without a shepherd. A shepherd’s task was to feed, comfort, heal, guide, and protect their sheep.
Israel’s religious leaders were not providing that ministry. The New Living translation says, “their problems were so great and they didn’t know where to go for help.”
Jesus saw them through the eyes of the shepherd from whom they had gone astray. They were His sheep. The parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:3-7 tells how a shepherd sought to find one lost sheep. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. The extent of His search led by way of the cross.
Others look at the same crowds, see them as shepherdless sheep and are moved with greed. These are the people who prey on others—especially on those who are most vulnerable. They are the criminals and con men that seek to fleece or even to kill the sheep. Many people look at crowds of people and see and feel nothing. This includes those false shepherds who fail to care for the sheep.
In vs. 37-38 Jesus made the same point using a different analogy. He painted a picture of a harvest field with only a handful of workers to gather in the harvest. This pictures the vast multitudes of people who need to hear and heed the gospel. But only a few witnesses are telling the good news.
Many have not heard, including many in every part of the world, but especially among unreached people groups. Jesus summed it up by saying, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Then He said, “Pray yet therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
Matthew recorded in Matt. 10: 1-7 that Jesus commissioned the 12 disciples as apostles and sent them to the lost sheep of Israel with the message of the kingdom. Later, He called and appointed 70 others to go and preach the message of the kingdom. When the Lord ascended into heaven, He charged His followers in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and peach the gospel to the whole world.” The 12 and the 70 Jesus sent out were not nearly enough. He needs many faithful workers to gather the harvest.
Although the primary application of this passage is to Christian witnessing, the pictures of the plight of the shepherdless sheep fit many human situations.
On this particular day we are focusing on sanctity of human life. The failure to value human life results in many distressed and downcast people. Most civilized people recognize the deadliness of acts that devalue and destroy human life, but here are two opposing views about whether the unborn should be equally valued and protected.
One group places priority on the rights of the post-born. Among these rights is the freedom to choose abortion as a way to end an unwanted pregnancy. The other group champions the right of those who are given no choice by the first group—the unborn child. This group believes these unborn babies have right to life. This issue has resulted in many casualties, chiefly the millions of human beings (now estimated to exceed 50 million) whose lives have been ended before birth. The casualties also include the people who feel the guilt of having had an abortion. God surely looks at people on both sides of this issue and is moved with compassion. He also points to the need for people who will do their part to protect human life from conception to death.
Life mattered to Jesus. And we as Jesus followers need to have His perspective on life as it relates to the questions of abortion, Euthanasia, physical and sexual abuse and violent crimes.
You and I cannot meet the needs of any one individual, much less fix the broken systems of society that may contribute to human suffering. But not being able to do everything does not justify doing nothing. Let’s this day ask God to reveal to us ways we can promote human life, health, and wholeness. As He calls to mind or otherwise reveals to us situations and people, let’s reach out in love. As we act with compassion, the Lord of the harvest will bless our efforts.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM PROVERBS 4 AND MATTHEW 15 WE WILL LEARN HOW GOD LOOKS AT CHARACTER. CHARACTER IS IMPORTANT A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>