Day 284 (Matthew 9, Luke 7) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara-Leigh 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 harassed 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'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?