Matthew 9:18-26 Flute players shouldn’t laugh.
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 1, 2019, Matthew 9:18-26
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district.
(Understanding the Text) Here is another of Matthew’s summaries of a story that has more details in other gospels (Mark 5:22-43 & Luke 8:41-56). After reading this far in Matthew, I am learning not to take his story as proof when the details differ from other gospels. Instead, I see that Matthew has a tendency to summarize and leave out information in a way that gives a false impression if you do not know the other gospels, but if you know the other gospels you realize what he is doing. It is not a false report. Instead, it is a person thinking others know the details, so if he puts it all together in one statement, they will know what it means. For example, according to the other gospels, the ruler did not know that his daughter had died when he first knelt at Jesus’ feet. He said that his daughter was dying or at the point of death. It is not important to Matthew to tell us that the man’s name was Jairus and that he was the ruler of the synagogue. Matthew is providing evidence of Jesus’ miracles and those details are not important. He is telling the story with the fewest possible words. Another example of this is that Matthew does not mention the crowds surrounding Jesus when the woman touched Him. We get the impression that there was just the disciples, Jesus, and the ruler of the synagogue traveling down the street when the woman touched Jesus. Instead, from the other gospels, we know that they were accompanied by a great crowd that pressed in around them as they traveled and the disciples thought Jesus was being unreasonable when He first stopped and asked who had touched Him. Matthew’s purpose here is just to show that even touching the hem of Jesus’ robe could heal through faith and that when a ruler humbled himself before Jesus asking for help, a dead girl could be brought to life, even in the face of others’ disbelief. Matthew does not give us the full colorful narrative. Instead, the accountant in him is adding up miracles of various kinds in order to bring overwhelming proof that Jesus was the Messiah. He assumes that even unbelievers are already familiar with details of the stories or can get them elsewhere, but they may not have realized how many different kinds of signs the Messiah had done.
So what lesson is Matthew giving that is not given with better quality in the other gospels? What is the Spirit trying to show us in Matthew’s account? The only pattern that I can see right now is that Matthew is giving samples of Jesus performing different kinds of miracles to show that Jesus was not a one-trick pony but instead was unmistakably the Messiah with the power of God. He shows that these are not just stories made up by a few followers. For example, at the end of this account, he states that the whole district knew about the two miracles. However, I am sure that there is more to it than this one pattern.
I guess God uses narrative rather than focused lesson because more learning can be fitted into narrative. When I read the details in the other accounts, I focus on the event. When I read Matthew’s summary, I only focus on the fact that another miracle occurred without being drawn in more deeply to consider other aspects of the situation, like imagining the woman’s faith and hope and despair as she tremblingly touched a piece of the fringe on Jesus’ robe. Commentaries didn’t give me any new insights. Maybe the point is simply the roller coaster ride of miracles that are meant to overwhelm us with their diversity and quantity to believe that Jesus has earned our faith many times over.
(Application / Revelation of God / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to give people the details of my walk with You rather than trying to focus in on summaries of quantities of miracles in order to prove a specific point. I don’t have to teach the people only one lesson. If I emulate you, I will be telling stories with lots of details that give many lessons besides the main lesson. Your character and story has so many layers that each time we look at You we can see a new aspect or lesson that we had overlooked in the past. I’m not sure what new lesson that Matthew has here, but I know that there is a reason that You had him put this story into his account when You had already inspired Mark to write it in a much more detailed way and would inspire Luke to do so also. I just am not seeing the lesson yet.