Certain friends brought their friend to Jesus to heal him; there was no way for them to get closer to Jesus so they had to move to the roof and remove it letting him down. The man was healed based on the faith of their friends. This is to tell us that sometimes, we get certain things not by our faith but by the people that are surrounding us. As Jesus was in the process of healing the man, He said to the man “Your sins are forgiven”, this got the people thinking. Jesus knew their thoughts and spoke to them according to what was in their thoughts. There is the ability to know the thoughts of people also. People will not stop questioning us concerning what we do as Christians because as they are not part of the Faith, it seems strange to them.
They murmured as to why Jesus was forgiving sins, but Jesus made them aware that He was the son and God and He had the power to forgive sins also. Then He went on to call Matthew a tax collector, who in those times were hated. The Jews never liked the tax collectors because they saw them as sinners, but this is the same Matthew that wrote this book we are reading now. That which we see to be useless, if God takes hold of it, He will make us know the mistake we made by not valuing that thing; though Matthew was regarded as a sinner Jesus called Matthew to follow Him and Jesus made him into a disciple and gave him power on the day of Pentecost as well.
The Pharisees came to question again why Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners, then Jesus made them aware that He came to the sick, thus those who are nit well. For those who are well do not need physicians but those who are sick. They were sinners but Jesus was talking about sickness, this means anytime we sin we become sick spiritually and it takes a Physician to make us well. But here is the case that we sin and we rather run away from the physician, anyone who gets sick and runs from the doctors who can prescribe medicine for him or her to be well falls deep into that sickness. Jesus is the only Physician that treats Sins as sicknesses but the devil will never make us see Him as a Physician but rather a Punisher. Many of us, when we sin, we start feeling condemned that Jesus is angry at us, so we even feel too heavy to approach Him, we feel too guilty to go to Him but let me assure you, that is what sin does by the control of the devil.
The devil makes sure that he places all these accusations on us to make us feel that Jesus is angry at us, we are condemned and stuff but I want to tell you by what Jesus, that “He is the Physician to those who are not well”. Don’t think Jesus is the Punisher who is willing to make you suffer because you disobeyed Him, that’s a wrong image of the Father through the Son; He is a Physician that is willing to treat you from that sin and make you well. It’s only the Son that treats Sin because He is the Physician that specializes in treating sicknesses, particularly That sickness called Sin. Know also that the more a patient decides not to go to the Physician to get treated of their ailment, the more that sickness spreads and worsens and even affects other parts of their bodies. A patient cannot also be treated if they don’t see themselves to be sick, because apart from the fact that people will randomly go for checkups, it will be hard for someone who is not sick to go to the hospital to be treated. The more we sin and accept not that we have sinned, the more we don’t see the essence of the physician.
Sometimes we feel that certain sicknesses are minor issues and can also go by themselves; but that minor pain can develop into a very big issue that can even last for years. That is one reason why John would say in 1 John 1:9 that 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins; how can someone confess their sins if they haven’t realized that what they did was a sin? how can someone as for forgiveness if they haven’t regretted and repented from that they had done? So, as He is faithful and just to cleanse us, we also have to be faithful to realize our sins; Regret and Repent from them and then ask for forgiveness, that is when the Jesus the Great Physician will perform a cleansing on us by washing away all our unrighteousness. We as believers have many advantages yet we don’t even see, a believer gets convicted when they sin, the Holy Spirit makes us know when we have sinned so that we go to Jesus the Great Physician for Healing. It doesn’t matter what we have done, God is not Angry at us waiting to punish us, but He is waiting for us to accept that thing which we have done and come for Him to treat us from all that sickness and make us well. After these things, Jesus was there then a ruler came to Him saying, his daughter was dead and that He should come and lay hands on her so that she will come alive.
As Jesus was moving, a woman with the issue of blood for 12 years was also around, this woman said within her spirit that if only she could touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole. According to Luke, this woman had spent all that she had on physicians and she wasn’t made well, but now here is Jesus who referred to Himself as a Physician. God becomes to you who you want Him to become. Yes, because the last time some of the people didn’t see Jesus as the son of God but as the son of the carpenter, whose brothers are there with them and because of that, He couldn’t perform much miracles in His Own Town. Some saw Him to be a healer so they brought their friend and Jesus healed their friend, this ruler also saw that He could bring back the dead by coming to touch her daughter, this woman also saw that, I don’t need Him touch me but I rather have to touch Him for Healing and indeed her faith made her well. There are levels of Faith and the level of your Faith determines how God will work in your Life, if you have faith that it is only a certain issue that He can perform then He will perform in only that direction as well.
That was why Jesus was shocked when the man said, you don’t need to come to me but speak the Word and my servant will be made whole(Matthew 8); because all the people Jesus met, they were seeking for the touch of Jesus before healing could manifest but this man rather wants Jesus to speak so, Jesus was shocked concerning his faith. This woman has been wasting all her money on physicians for her sickness to be healed, but what Physician Jesus was talking about was in relation to sickness, but I am sure this woman knew that Jesus was not just a Physician to sinners who have sickness but literally He can heal her from her sickness. She paid money in the previous times but this time she transacted it with her faith just as Isaiah 55 says we should come and buy without money. We transact in the realms of God with our Faith for without Faith it is impossible to please God.
If Faith is a substance and Faith comes by Hearing the Word of God; then the more we hear the Word of God the more the substance of Faith in us gets increased to be able to transact. I don’t know what this man heard but the substance of his faith made him aware that Jesus can raise the dead, the woman might also have heard Jesus saying that He was a Physician; so, though she had no money but has heard something which has given her a substance to transact business with,she had to go for the move. She heard and moved, but we hear it and don’t move because we doubt that God can do. Everything in the Bible that God did, if God doesn’t change then He has the Power to do it again but we rather limit Him because we haven’t actually heard what He did. We only know of a few, so when what we are going through is not in that scope of what we heard, we feel God cannot do. But He said “Is there anything too hard for Me”. There were three acts of Faith here in Matthew chapter 9. Where the faith of others made someone well, where the man wanted Jesus to touch her daughter and where the woman herself touched Jesus. There is a certain level of faith that others believe certain things for us and it comes to pass; where we ourselves don’t believe certain things but the faith of others around us causes that thing to come to pass.
There is the level also where we believe that God needs to come into the situation and indeed, He comes into that situation. And there is the level where we ourselves bring God on board. The woman’s faith was with the If of the now, the man’s Faith was with the If the future. Because, the man believed that if Jesus comes and touch her daughter, she will come back to life but the woman also believed that if I touch Jesus now, I will be made well. Are you waiting for God to come on board or you will bring Him on board? Just like on the sea, Jesus was on board but they didn’t bring Him on board while HE was asleep. They were in jeopardy before they brought Him on Board and immediately HE came, there was a stillness. How long will we wait for the situation to get worst before we bring Jesus on board. Know that till Peter realized that he was sinking and called out to Jesus, he would have kept on sinking There is another thing also here, the woman tapped into the healing of another person which has similar description as hers. According to Mark 5:42 the little girl was 12 years and this woman has also suffered this issue of blood for 12 years.
Jesus was not moving because of her but she felt that “we share certain things in common so I can also drink from this well”. Many of us, our answers don’t lie on God coming down to cause a change but it lies in the testimonies of others. But here is the case that we don’t value testimonies anymore, so we don’t get to know what the LORD has done for people. They both shared the number 12 so, the woman also drew from that well, though Jesus was going to raise the dead, she knew that her matter can also be handled by this same Jesus. Psalm 119:24 says Psalms 119:24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors. David takes counsel from the testimonies of the LORD and delights in them. That was one reason why he could fight Goliath, he went to the battle with a testimony that “This same God who saved me from the bear and lion will save me from this uncircumcised Philistine”. The woman tapped into that which she desires when she saw someone receiving a similar thing. But we are in a church, where, when the LORD does something for someone and we need similar we cannot tap from what He has already done. We want God to do different thing forgetting that that door has already been opened. If He has opened the womb of someone who couldn’t give birth and we also need a child, we need to tap from that person’s testimony rather than using the long path.
Testimonies are shortcuts to provoke that same Power and Authority that worked on that issue to come unto us. Remember what Elisha did when he was parting the Jordan... In 2 Kings 2:14, And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over. He saw his master part the river Jordan with the mantle and also knew that His Master served the God thus the LORD of Israel. So, when he got to the Jordan, he took the mantle and called that same God that did it for His Master and he experienced the same thing. Someone will be wanting a breakthrough and will be in church while someone receives a Word on that same thing, they will sit down quiet waiting for their names also be mentioned before they receive theirs special. You are playing. The woman didn’t wait for Jesus to give her special attention, as long as she saw that she shared something in common with the little girl, she even tapped hers first before the little girl could even receive hers. The violent then shall take it by force.