The Mute Shall Speak. (Matthew 9: 32-38)

A Mute Man Speaks

32 As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon possessed. 33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marvelled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!” 34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”  (Matthew 9: 32-34)

This short little story of a man who is demon possessed and is unable to speak, most Bible commentators suggest that the mutism was a result of demon possession in this case. That was the lived experience of this man and the family and community around him as it tells us it was the community around him that brought him to Jesus and Jesus casts out the demon but look at the reaction of the crowd. Instead of rejoicing they say he has done this by the power of the ruler of demons, meaning Satan himself. Instead of saying wow he’s the Messiah, look at what he has done. Rather than bow the knee to the Messiah, they accuse him of being an agent of Satan.

This is the beginning of something that is going to develop and will reach it’s nadir in chapter 12. This will become a climactic moment in the Gospel of Matthew and in the life of Christ.  At any rate these Pharisees and some of the people even though admitting they have never seen anything like this in the history of Israel, the attribute it to demonic activity. The religious leadership and much of the crowd looked at Jesus and they saw a miracle. Even the Pharisees look at Jesus and they recognized that what he had done had put him in a league of his own, they say he was someone with power, yet they were too set in their ways to change their outlook. Too proud of their self-satisfaction, too willing to submit to prejudice to see who Jesus really was. They saw no need for change their superior attitude but they also hated everyone who wished to challenge their perspective at what they had seen. 

Please make note of what we have seen so far, we have just run through these three miracles, but you may remember I suggested a while back that there are nine miracles in these two chapters, and at the end of each group of three there is a word about the discipleship. In a sense that happened at the end of the this cycle of miracles also, so let’s look just a moment at the concept of the discipleship that is offered here in the next verses that follow.

The Compassion of Jesus

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  (Matthew 9: 35-38)

This little is the second subsection of Matthew deals with Jesus going about practicing his ministry which consisted of preaching and teaching. We’re told in verse that “he looked at the crowd and he was moved to compassion”. One authority on Greek words says that this is the strongest word for pity and compassion in the Greek language. it describes compassion that moves someone to the deepest depths of emotion. Jesus looks at all the throngs of people and he was deeply moved with compassion. He had as we would say a gut reaction it tells us here that he saw they were spiritually scattered, weary, in distress they were confused and worried. Someone who said they were exhausted in the vain search for happiness. Notice it also says in the passage that they were scattered, that word means they weren’t where they where they were born anymore, they were from all over and had become like sheep without a shepherd. As anyone who has farmed sheep will tell you a sheep without a shepherd are confused and lack direction. Sheep are in fact pretty stupid animals, they need a leader. So, Jesus sees them people as sheep that are lost and hurting because they don’t have a knowledge of God. It was not just their physical needs but their spiritual condition, their lack of nurture and guidance and protection that he is concerned about. Their so-called spiritual leaders have not been properly taking care of them and that leads Jesus to feel compassion for them.

Businessmen today see the crowd as nothing more than people to sell too. Politicians also look at the crowd and just see a pool of voters, but Jesus looked at the crowd and he saw them as lost sheep and felt the deepest spiritual compassion for them. There was nothing quite so dangerous to a meaningful our faith life than a loss of empathy for other people. If we see other people and begin to view them as annoying, an interference or an interruption, a hindrance to us going about our busy life, then we are in spiritual trouble. 

Jesus saw them as lost and needing help, at the same time pointing out the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  To be using the metaphor of lost sheep, means that what they need is somebody to go tell them how to find their way home and make things different for them. Doing that will be hard work, which is why he says “Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. So, pray not just for the lost sheep, but also pray that for more of the harvest to come in pray that God we’ll send out workers.  The ultimate is being a disciple is that you care deeply about the spiritual needs of others.  I would like to simply submit to you that because Jesus Christ is the revealed here at the true Messiah, that these two chapters demonstrate just what kind of a Messiah he is.

I’ve said repeatedly there are nine miracles in these two chapters, and they’re broken down in three groups of three. In the first cycle Jesus heals a man with leprosy and another man who is paralyzed, followed by Peter's mother-in-law, thereby demonstrating that he has power over sickness. In the second cycle he calms a storm, and he casts out a demon and he forgives sin, demonstrating that he has power over nature and the effects of sin. In the third cycle, which we’ve looked at these last 2 days he has raised somebody from the dead, he cured blindness and he casts out another demon demonstrating that Jesus has power over not just the effects of evil one but death itself .

I am suggesting that the point of these recent chapters is to show that Jesus is the ultimate Messiah, because he has power over disease, he has power over demons, he has power over death, in fact he has power over everything. Wouldn’t you like someone on your side that has that kind of authority, authority over nature, over disease, and that person is of course Jesus God’s only son and messiah, saviour of the world. That is what Matthew is trying to say here.

The second observation I want to make about these two chapters as a unit is that we saw throughout little hints of opposition appearing. This is only the beginning, there is more to come. When he cast out the demon on the east side of the sea of Galilee the opposition was to get him to leave the region. He then also faced opposition in the form of criticizing him for eating with sinners. The Pharisee questions where he got his power from, attributing it to Satan, and then some former disciples of John the Baptist questioned his practice. I want to establish this idea and plant this seed in your mind because we move through the Gospel of Matthew, we see the beginning of opposition starting here but it will end up in the crescendo of him being rejected the nation of Israel and crucified on a cross at the hands of the Romans. You can’t read these two chapters without being struck by the fact that Matthew was giving us one miracle after another, and it’s clear that he’s doing that to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, but at the end of each one of these cycles he makes a point about discipleship, about what this practically means when we choose to follow him. 

At the end of the first cycle of miracles he told us the excuses why some people choose not to follow Him. At the end of the second cycle of miracles he does the same and at the end of the third cycle of miracles he looked at the crowd sees their great spiritual need and is moved from the depths of his being with compassion. The need is great, and harvest truly huge, and he tells us to pray to the that the Lord of the harvest that he will send more laborers. The heart is that these chapters are telling us what that Jesus has power over death itself, but the ultimate response to that should be of making a choice to follow him and going out laboring in the field and offering that good news to others.

Maybe we spend so much time about praying for our own needs or the needs of our loved ones, that we sometimes forget to pray for others to come and help us with the labour. Maybe we should add that to our prayer list, “Lord give us people that know how to labor in the field, Lord send us carers, Ministers, teachers, preachers and evangelists.

Our Call as Disciples.

In the next passage in Ch 10 verse 1 we will begin to see Jesus sending his 12 disciples out. Sending them out to do the work of the harvest. He called his first 12 disciples, and he sends them out. So today if you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ well let me tell you it is because of someone else going out and labouring in the field on your behalf at some point. The ultimate in being a disciple of Jesus today is that you not only pray for laborers but at the same time become one yourself. That you become involved in the harvest, and you tell people about Jesus Christ yourself. Jesus says follow me, but did he say follow me and I will solve all your problems? No. Did he say follow me and I’ll make you rich? No. What did he say, follow me, and I will make you to be fishers of men. I submit to you until we become followers who are also fishers, we are not really fulfilling our call. Jesus may be the ultimate Messiah, but we are not the ultimate disciples until we learned how to fish.

Martin Luther had a friend, and they came to an agreement Martin Luther would go into the battle called the Reformation and the friend would stay in the monastery and pray for Martin Luther. That’s the way they began, then one night the friend had a dream he saw a vast field of corn as big as the world and he saw one solitary man who was seeking to reap it all by himself. It was an impossible and heartbreaking task then he caught a glimpse of the reaper’s face, and the single man out in the field reaping was Martin Luther. The next time Luther saw his friend, the man said I must leave my prayer life and I must get to work, and he did just that. He left the monastery, and he went to go help Martin Luther in the business of the reformation of the church and to introduce people to the reality of God justifying us by faith alone in Christ alone.

What I am suggesting that we need to become those kinds of disciples, the ones that pray and then go and do it.  Pray for a good harvest and the go and begin reaping.