Raised Up

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

RAISED UP

Matt 9:18-26

18 While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. 20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." 22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment. 23 When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, 24 he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.

NIV

Matthew gives us a two-for-one situation here. First, we have the ruler’s daughter going on, but in the process, the woman with the issue of blood touching the hem of Jesus’s garment and is healed. Maybe it would be best to take one at a time for Matthew does not deal much in detail about this woman who touched the hem of His garment but spends more time with the ruler’s daughter. Let’s do the same for now, and then next we will go into more detail about this woman. It is interesting the ruler’s daughter is already dead when he goes out to find Jesus, knowing somehow, believing, that Jesus can bring his dead daughter back to life. We do understand the belief of the Jews that the spirit of a person who dies hangs around for three days. That was the significance of the fact Jesus waited four days before raising Lazarus from the dead. Mary and Martha were worried because their brother's body had already started to stink, knowing, of course, his spirit had left the grave, and no longer was around. So it would not be out of the question that if the girl had just died, the ruler might have been concerned that Jesus get there right away. Although their belief about the spirit is unfounded, it still would have played a part in their lives. Nevertheless, he believed Jesus could raise his daughter back to life. That is a lot of faith. Jesus got up and went with him. Unlike the centurion who simply asked Jesus to say the word, this man needed Jesus to come and put his hands on his daughter and Jesus did go with him. Jesus could have said, “Go, your daughter is alive” and sent him on his way, but Jesus took the time to do as the man asked to go with him to his home and raise his daughter. Isn’t that just like Jesus, to answer this man’s need? Of course, when they arrived at the house and it was filled with mourners and Jesus told them to leave because the girl was not dead, they laughed at him. There are always going to be people who laugh at the idea that Jesus can do all that he does. It also seems to be a bit prophetic that those who laugh at Jesus get put outside, that is they do not get to go inside the kingdom. But the story here is this daughter and Jesus does simply take her by the hand and she gets up, alive and well. This is the Jesus we serve. This is Jesus who died for our sins. This is the Jesus who heals all who come to him. This is the Jesus who is alive and sits at the right hand of the Father and has told us to ask anything in His name and it will be done for us. So why do we have such a difficult time believing he will heal us, especially in this time of this dumb covid situation? Why shouldn’t we just ask to be healed from this infirmity we have, this pain, this illness? Jesus can raise people from the dead, of course, he is going to raise us from the dead on that day we take our last breath. But in the meantime, we should be healed.