Yeshua is the Messiah who can stop our bleeding us and give us a healthy life! Yeshua is the Messiah who can restore us to life! Yeshua is the Messiah who can restore sight to the blind! Yeshua is the Messiah who is greater than the demons and can free us from their deceptions, evil influences and control! Yeshua is the Messiah who faithfully carried out His ministry in spite of the opposition of those who should have supported Him the most.
Yeshua is The Most Important Person Who Ever Lived! Yeshua is The Most Relevant Person Who Ever Lived – even for those of us who live 2,000 years His arrival into this world, followed by His very special death, and His burial, and His resurrection and ascension back to the right hand of God the Father! Everything about Yeshua, and everything He did and everything He said is extremely important and relevant to us – even in the 21st century.
We are in Matthew 9. Yeshua is in northern Israel having interactions with various people and groups. Let’s continue with verse 18: While He was saying this (responding to a question from John’s disciples about why His disciples weren’t fasting), a synagogue leader came and knelt before Him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put Your hand on her, and she will live”. Yeshua got up and went with him, and so did His disciples.
This leader of the synagogue had some faith in the young Rabbi. He knew that Yeshua was close to God. He knew that the God of Israel was using Yeshua to heal the sick. He was confident that Yeshua could even raise his dead daughter back to life.
The confidence this man had – that God could use Yeshua to raise the dead – is even more remarkable when you understand that in the long history of the Jewish people, God had only used a couple of prophets to raise the dead. This raising-the-dead kind of miracle was very, very rare.
In spite of this, this leader of the synagogue believed that Yeshua was like one of those great prophets who raised the dead. He believed Yeshua was like an Elijah or Elisha, and God could use Yeshua to bring his dead daughter back to life – if only the Rabbi could touch his dead girl.
This man’s faith in Yeshua, and the humble acknowledgment of Yeshua’s superiority that he demonstrated by kneeling before Him, motivated Yeshua to respond to his request. And faith in Yeshua, and knowing that He is greater than us, still motivates Yeshua to respond to human beings!
But, before the young Rabbi arrived at his house, another important incident took place that reveals who Yeshua is and what He is able to do for us. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed”. Yeshua turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter”, He said, “your faith has healed you”. And the woman was healed at that moment.
How horrible to bleed like this for twelve years. That is a long time to be sick. Think of the physical weakness this bleeding must have caused, and the discomfort, and the embarrassment; and since it made her unclean, think of the isolation from synagogue and Temple her bleeding caused. She tried doctors and remedies, but nothing helped. But, baruch HaShem – praise the Lord, she knew that the God of Israel had sent this wonderful young Rabbi to His people, who had an amazing gift of healing, and if she could only make physical contact with the edge of His cloak – probably the Rabbi’s tzit-tzit, she believed that God would miraculously heal her. And she was right! She touched Yeshua and was marvelously and miraculously healed! A healthy life was instantly restored to her!
Humanity is like this bleeding woman. Our life energy is oozing out of us. We are spiritually sick, weak, unclean and unable to get close to God. Our spiritual bleeding is uncomfortable and embarrassing and prevents us from living the way we were designed to live. But Yeshua is the Messiah who can stop our bleeding us and give us a healthy life! To be healed, like this woman did, we simply need to touch Him – and we touch Him by knowing who Yeshua is and transferring our loyalties to Him.
Matthew redirects our attention to the other event that is taking place with the leader of the synagogue and his dead daughter. When Yeshua entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes (these were Jewish ways of mourning at that time, and they were mourning because the girl had died), He said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep”. But they laughed at Him.
The mourners laughed at Yeshua because it was obvious that the girl was dead, and they thought it humorous that the Rabbi was an ignorant man who didn’t know the difference between death and sleep. But they laugh was on them! They were the ignorant ones. Yeshua not only knew the difference between sleep and death, but also knew something they didn’t – that the dead girl would shortly be restored to life. Therefore her condition was closer to sleep from which one awakes, rather than death which is a permanent cessation of one’s life. And, that is exactly what happened. After the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.
Humanity is like this young girl, dead before her time. God created us with the potential to live forever, but because our first parents disobeyed the Lord and joined the rebellion of the fallen angels, they and all of their descendants became subject to an early death. We are not just a little sick, but dead, due to our trespasses and sins. And like this girl, we are incapable of restoring ourselves to life. But Yeshua is the Messiah who is capable of restoring us to life when we are completely incapable of that! When He takes us by the hand – we will get up like this girl. We will rise and be restored to eternal life! And Yeshua is able to take us by the hand when we understand that He is the Messiah, and the Prince of Life, and commit ourselves to Him and His Father.
As Yeshua went on from there, two blind men followed Him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” These two men knew things about Yeshua. They knew that Yeshua was a descendant of King David. They also knew that Yeshua was a prophet and that God could use Him to heal their blindness which prevented them from living a normal life. They may have believed Yeshua was the Messiah. And so they persisted following Yeshua until He helped them. When He had gone indoors, the blind men came to Him, and He asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this”? “Yes, Lord”, they replied. Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Yeshua warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this”. But they went out and spread the news about Him all over that region – which is not what Yeshua wanted.
Humanity is like these two blind men. Because of the catastrophe in the Garden of Eden, we are spiritually blind. We can’t function the way we were designed to. We can’t see the light, we can’t understand the truth. Our understanding has been darkened. Our thoughts about God and the way to fix our greatest problems are confused and chaotic. But Yeshua is the Messiah who can restore sight to the blind! When we understand that He is Messiah, Son of David, and we persist in coming to Yeshua until He hears us and touches us, then our spiritual sight will be restored! We will be able to understand the truth, understand the Three-In-One God and the way of salvation. Our spiritual eyes will be open and things will start making sense. The Bible will become alive to us. We will know what to believe and not believe, what to do, what not to do, how to live in a way that pleases God.
After the Holy Spirit used Yeshua to restore the sight of the two blind men, Messiah forcefully told them to keep the news about their healing, private. You might think that out of gratitude and respect, they would honor the request of the Son of David. But they didn’t. Sadly, all too often the Church has acted like these formerly blind men. Yeshua has restored our sight. We know that He is the Messiah and the Lord and we should do what He tells us to do, but we ignore what He wants and do what we want – which makes things more difficult for Him. Let’s not be like that. Out of gratitude and respect for who He is and what He has done for us, let’s be obedient. Let’s do what He wants us to do.
The long awaited Seed of the Woman had finally arrived on planet Earth and His profound teachings and His miracles were making a huge impact on the nation of Israel. But the more success Messiah had, the more opposition Yeshua encountered – especially from those who should have supported Him the most. While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Yeshua. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. Demons, which are fallen angels and evil spirits, are real. They are real and they are evil and their goal is to destroy as many human beings as they can. They do that by controlling nations, and by deceiving people so that they stay away from the truth that can save them; they destroy us by tempting individuals to do what is wrong, by influencing them in the direction of evil. In extreme cases, they can even possess an individual and really harm his life – like in the case of this man.
Humanity is like this demon-possessed man, controled and unable to speak. Because of the Fall in the Garden of Eden, we joined the rebellion of the fallen angels and transferred our loyalties to the demons. That put us under their control. The whole world is under the control of these evil spirits. And their control is harmful. Their control hurts us in so many ways. Their control makes us mute – prevents us from speaking the truth about the Three-In-One God, the truth about the Word of God, the truth about the way of salvation.
But Yeshua is the Messiah who is greater than all of the demons and can free us from their deceptions and evil influences and control! If we know that Yeshua is the Messiah, and we become loyal to Him and His Father, the Seed of the Woman will crush the heads of those satanic serpents and free us from their control bring us under the good authority of the Kingdom of God. Our mouths will be opened and we will be able to speak the truth, praise the God of our salvation forever and ever!
A God-empowered man driving out a demon who prevented a human being from speaking, so that a man who was not able to speak was suddenly able to speak, was a powerful and unusual occurrence, and the people there knew it. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel”. And they were right. But not everyone there was happy with the young Rabbi who was able to do these amazing things. The Pharisees who were there, who in many ways were the closest to Yeshua – sadly, tragically, were opposed to Yeshua, and didn’t believe He was a prophet sent by God to free us from the control of the demons. They had another explanation why Yeshua was able to cast out evil spirits from people. But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that He drives out demons”.
The Pharisees were among the most religious and most observant of the Chosen People. These spiritual leaders should have understood and appreciated Yeshua the best. But they didn’t and they became some of His fiercest opponents. These Pharisees who witnessed Yeshua driving out demons concluded that the supernatural was indeed occurring with Yeshua, but it wasn’t because God was empowering Him. No, the explanation was that Satan, the leader of the demons, was empowering the Rabbi from Nazareth. Yeshua was on the side of evil. A person has to be very far from God, very far from truth, very far from salvation to see these wonderful things done by Immanuel – God With Us, and conclude that the One who was doing these great miracles was a servant of evil.
And, this teaches us a very important lesson – that people can be close to God in form, yet far from Him in substance; that a person can be deeply religious, outwardly very Jewish or very Christian, and still be very far from God and truth and salvation. Most of Israel’s political leaders and spiritual leaders were far from God and insensitive to the great thing that was happening. They were not recognizing that Yeshua was the Messiah sent by God, the ultimate Prophet, Priest, King and Savior; our great Helper and Healer. Yet, in spite of their opposition, Yeshua faithfully carried on His ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And those of us who know Him must do the same. We must faithfully carry on His same mission which He has entrusted to us, in spite of misunderstanding, in spite of opposition from those who should be encouraging us the most.
Yeshua went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. And we must do the same, as best as we can, teaching people who are receptive to the truth, the truths of the Word of God. Then there is proclamation, which is different than teaching. Proclamation is declaring the truth that is focused on salvation to a more general audience. Proclamation is more like witnessing or street evangelism or taking out an ad in a paper. We are to be engaged in proclamation – proclaiming the Good News that there is a real and better Kingdom with real and better Kings – the High King – God the Father, and His Son – King Yeshua. We are to be proclaiming that humanity is in rebellion to these Kings and we are part of an evil, demonic kingdom, and every human being needs to make a personal decision to transfer his loyalties to the Father and the Son and to Their kingdom.
Teaching. Proclamation. Then there is helping – the various ways of helping others in practical ways, demonstrating the love and goodness of the kingdom of Heaven. That’s what Yeshua faithfully did – proclamation, teaching, healing – and that’s what we need to focus our energies on – because King Yeshua is in Heaven, at the right hand of His Father, High King, and we have been given the responsibilities of proclaiming the good news about the Kingdom of God, and teaching, and helping human beings. Are you doing that?
Sadly, just as there were few good spiritual men and women among the Chosen People who were helping Yeshua do that when He was here among us, there are still all too few today. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field”. Messiah commands us to pray that God would raise up men and women to enter the harvest of humanity; to help suffering humanity in practical ways; to proclaim the truths about sin and salvation; to teach those who respond to the proclamation of the good news about God’s everlasting kingdom.
Let’s pray more and more for that, and let’s offer ourselves to be part of the answer to those prayers, and let’s prepare ourselves to be workers in the salvation and education of human beings. Amayn?
Yeshua is the Messiah who can stop our bleeding us and give us a healthy life! Has He stopped your bleeding? Are you spiritually healthy. Do you know the Lord, and are you serving the Lord, and living in a way that pleases Him?
Yeshua is the Messiah who can restore sight to the blind! Has He restored your sight? Can you see the Three-In-One God? Does the Bible make sense to you?
Yeshua is the Messiah who is greater than the demons and can free us from their deceptions and evil influences and control! Has He transferred you from their authority to His authority? Is He helping you discern and then avoid their deceptions? Is He helping you resist their temptations?
Yeshua is the Messiah who can restore us to life! Has He restored you to life? Do you know the Living God and know that you will live forever? He who has the Son, has the life. Can you say: I have the Son and I have the life – eternal life?
Yeshua is the Messiah who faithfully carried out His ministry in spite of the opposition of those who should have supported Him the most. Are you carrying on His ministry which He entrusted to His followers? Is it important to you to proclaim the good news about the Kingdom of God, and teach people the things you have learned, and help others in practical ways? And, are you doing those things? I hope so. Let’s pray.