Saturate: The Church as Resurrection (Matthew 9:18-26)

Chad Richard Bresson

The Table of Los Fresnos

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The Fountain of Youth

The idea that you can drink certain waters and live forever is found in many cultures… the fountain of youth. Here in the Americas the name Ponce de Leon became attached to the fountain of youth. He supposedly landed in what we now know as Florida looking for the fountain of youth even though there’s no record of him ever saying or writing that he was search for the fountain of youth. Again… part of the legend. In fact, Ponce de leon, like the other Spanish explorers, were after something not so mythical… gold.

But the legend of the Fountain of Youth has persisted for thousands of years because we all know death to be the enemy. Death has a 100% success rate. And so, we are always looking for ways to crack the code… to figure out the death problem so that we can live forever.

We are again in Matthew 9 this morning, as we consider just what the church is and does from the book of Matthew. We’ve considered the church as a community and as a family and gathering, as a and as a hospital. Closely related to the church as a hospital is our subject this morning from the passage we just read. And along the way, we’re going to see what Jesus is doing about the death problem.

Jesus heals

Jesus has bee travelling from town to town… his message is one of love and hope: the kingdom of God has come near… because I am here. Jesus is the Messiah the Old Testament talked about. The kingdom of God has come to earth in the person of Jesus… it is a new day… it is a new age… the new creation has begun. And that new creation shows up in Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and healing. Jesus ministry of healing is reversing the old order. Sickness and disease have met their match. And the biographer, Matthew, wants us to see that wherever Jesus goes, there is healing.

A Death in the family

But it’s more than sickness and disease. The new order of things in the new creation involves something deeper, tackling something far more sinister than disease and sickness. The end result of sickness and disease that goes unchecked is death. In fact, death is the final result for all of us because of our rebellion against our creator. We all die. It is the common denominator we all share with every other single person on this planet. Here’s what Matthew says:

Matthew 9:18 One of the leaders came and knelt down before him, saying, “My daughter just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”

There’s a lot of interesting stuff here but we’re only going to highlight a couple of things… while we often find people kneeling in front of Jesus, this is one of the few instances in which we find a leader kneeling in front of Jesus. Unlike the other biographers, Matthew doesn’t identify the leader here, meaning he doesn’t want us focusing on that detail. The kneeling posture is one of faith. This leader believes that Jesus can raise the dead. He’s already figured out that if Jesus can heal sickness and disease, Jesus must hold the keys to life itself.

The other point, which we will come back to… is that he’s convinced that Jesus must touch his daughter. “Come, and lay your hand on her”. And while this passes right over us as Americans living in 2025, Matthew’s audience probably got a little uncomfortable. Jesus is a rabbi. Jesus is a religious teacher. If you’re in a position of religious authority, you simply do not touch dead bodies. Touching a dead body in that world meant you were ceremonially unclean… you were not allowed to be in the temple for a period of time and you had to undergo a cleansing by temple workers.

It’s interesting that when someone dies… all protocol is thrown to the wind. This leader doesn’t care. His daughter has died and he wants Jesus to touch his daughter and raise her from the dead. The man’s faith is remarkable.

Jesus heals (saves)

Jesus and his disciples take off for the ruler’s house, but along the way there is an interruption, and it’s the interruption that shows us just what we’re to make of all of these stories about Jesus and his healing.

Matthew 9:20–21 A woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years approached from behind and touched the end of his robe, for she said to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I’ll be made well.”

We’re not told precisely what the issue is here, but most likely has to do with the parts of the body responsible for childbirth. And she’s had this sickness for 12 years… the leader’s daughter has died… and this woman is on her way to dying. Death and disease are everywhere in this story. And she’s convinced if she just touches Jesus’ robe, she’ll be made well.

And notice the touching again. And once again, what’s happening here is problematic with the religious leaders. Old Testament law said women going through their monthly cycle were unclean during the cycle. That meant they weren’t supposed to be in the temple. It meant they couldn’t be touched. And they, too, had to go through a ritual to be allowed back into the religious services. She wants to touch Jesus. Jesus becomes unclean, religiously speaking to be touched by this woman. This woman is throwing all protocol to the wind… she believes Jesus can heal her and save her from death.

And here’s what happened:

Matthew 9:22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Have courage, daughter,” he said. “Your faith has saved you.” And the woman was made well from that moment.”

Again… Matthew doesn’t provide a lot of the details that the other Gospel biographers have for this story. Because Matthew wants us to see something here. But the result of the woman touching Jesus is that the woman gets her wish. She’s made well. And the word there for “made well” is the same word as “save” or “rescue”. And the use here is every bit the double meaning it sounds like. Jesus tells her “your faith has saved you”. The woman was saved from that moment. There is something spiritual happening here. It’s not the faith that causes the healing… the faith receives the healing as a gift. And in that moment Jesus heals… Jesus saves. Like the leader, this woman’s faith is remarkable. Matthew doesn’t use the word kneel here, but the posture is the same… the end of the robe… she’d have to be kneeling or practically kneeling to touch the robe. Like the leader, the woman has heard the stories about Jesus and believes him to be the true Messiah come from heaven and she wants Jesus. She wants what he provides. She wants him.

This woman is healed. Death is no longer on her doorstep… and Jesus and his disciples and the crowd continue on to the leader’s house, Jesus goes into the house and this is what happens:

Matthew 9:25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

Jesus takes the girl by the hand and the girl got up. Jesus raises her from the dead. What began with the leader kneeling results in the resurrection of his daughter. Two people… a leader and a woman… two people in desperate circumstances… two people throwing caution to the wind because that’s what faith in Jesus looks like. But the leader and the woman are not the heroes of the story.

Jesus is life

The hero here is Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just heal. Jesus resurrects. Jesus is life itself. The creator of the world. The one who first breathed life into Adam at the dawn of the world now breathes life into a little girl. Matthew is answering the question: Is Jesus really the guy? And yes, the One the Old Testament promised that would come and make all things new and reverse the old world order of things is now here in the person of Jesus.

In a very short period of time, Jesus himself is going to be raised from the dead. What we see in this story is that He is the resurrection and the life. He is the resurrection and the life for those who are dead and for those who are dying. It’s who he is.

In fact, he walks into that house and the crowd is wailing loudly and they got the band of flutes going. All the noise. And Jesus says this:

Matthew 9:24 “Leave...because the girl is not dead but asleep.”

Of course the girl is dead, but that’s not the point here. Jesus uses the word asleep because that’s what death is when there is a resurrection on hand. Matthew says they mocked Jesus here. They are only seeing things through the lens of unbelief. They’re convinced death has no answer. Death is final. Death has the last word. But in walks the very one, the Only One, for whom death is at its own end. Jesus is the death of death. Death is not the end all be all. Death doesn’t get the final word. Jesus gets the last word for sickness and death.

We have to pause here in this room and just see this girl again breathing. Smiling. With Jesus. In our world, death is everywhere. So much of life is death. Seems like every week so far this year… someone we know. Last week, a loved one. Death is part of our existence. And we live in a culture in which so much energy and money is spent on cheating death. We’re absolutely bent on pushing the visit from the grim reaper further and further down the road. Disowning death. Dumbing death down. The relentless pursuit of slowing down the inevitable. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining health. In fact, that’s a good thing. But the reality is that every single of one of us will die one day.

But death will not have the last word. We are all in need of a resurrection. But there’s something else we’re supposed to see here. I think this is why Matthew leaves out a lot of the details in this story:

Jesus heals and raises the dead with his touch

I don’t think we could overemphasize this enough. That’s why this section of Matthew telling us about Jesus going from town to town is a showstopper. It’s breathtaking. It’s jolting, even for Matthew’s first audience. It’s what keeps these events from become stories about the spectacular. It’s not just Jesus healing this woman who had been sick for 12 years. It’s not Jesus raising this girl from the dead. It’s his touch. We can’t miss this.. Jesus isn’t interested in simply healing us or giving us life. He does do that. But he wants to touch us. He wants to be in close proximity to us. There is no such thing as personal space with Jesus. His personal space is our personal space… all the way to the point about Jesus touching us with his healing and life-giving power.

There are other miracles Jesus does where he speaks… and those points are to be made, but in this day and age of a lack of personal touch, we’ve got to come into this passage and see Jesus and the necessity of touch. We came through the COVID epidemic and touching and not touching became a big deal. We were already distant from one another.. and now we have a pandemic where distance is increased. And people like their distance. I was standing in line at Walmart a few months ago, and didn’t realize I was too close to the guy in front of me.. I was distracted on my phone waiting my turn and I hear this guy say: Do you mind? LOL I was in his personal space.

Jesus is all about us being in His space. And what’s fascinating about these stories is that Jesus was willing to break the religious laws in order to touch. Touching the diseased. Touching the dead body. He’s willing to be unclean in order to make clean. In fact, as he does this, he is bringing an end to all of those cleanliness laws because the Ultimate Clean has come and taken the uncleanness of his people onto himself because he is willing to touch the unclean… that means us. Are you kidding me?

Saturate: Resurrection

We come through those doors every Sunday in need of a resurrection. We’re in need of a doctor. We’re in need of a healer. We’re in need of a resurrecter. The Bible says the law kills. We’re reminded of our sin. We’re reminded about how we just don’t measure up to God’s standards. We’re dead people. This is what happens in baptism. The old man, the old dead man who is full of sin is killed. And the new man rises from the dead in the new life Jesus gives. And so we come here, we confess our sins and we receive the healing touch of Jesus in His Word preached and the sacrament of the table. The worship service is little more than the resurrection of dead people, every Sunday.

Church is where resurrections happen. People talk about church as a pick-me-up. I often here people say they go to church to get their batteries recharged. Nothing wrong with this. I get it. But this is so much more than that. We come to church to receive forgiveness and life. For Jesus to provide his resurrection touch on us again. We leave this place as resurrection people totally loved by Jesus.

And in mission, then, we saturate our community with life… with the forgiveness that people need. Mission is providing life and resurrection for the dead. And it must involve touch. We take Jesus touch from here to touch other people’s lives with the Gospel. And a helping hand. With empathy. People need our touch. People need a hug. because this is what Jesus has done for us. There is so much death and destruction all around us. People need us to give them hope, to give them encouragement, to give them Jesus, to give them life. Let’s be Jesus’ touch for our community as we saturate Los Fresnos with the life of the resurrection.

Let’s Pray

The Table

This Table provides forgiveness, life, and salvation. This is where Jesus touches us with his love and his grace and mercy. This table is a death… but this Table is also our resurrection. It is a celebration meal. Jesus tells us he loves us… again.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.

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