NOTES for Mat 9:18-38
Today’s reading continues the story of the Kingdom entering the world. Jesus walks through the world, bringing with Him a fullness of life never before seen on earth. Where this life appears, there is no room left for sickness or death. A woman who has suffered from bleeding for many years is healed (vv. 20–22); the daughter of the synagogue elder (the ‘ruler of the synagogue’) is raised from the dead (vv. 23–26); the blind receive their sight (vv. 27–31); those who are possessed are freed from the power of dark forces (vv. 32–33). And all this happens naturally, as though of its own accord, without any special effort; His appearance alone is enough for a miracle to take place. Where the fullness of life and the fullness of the Kingdom are present, there is no place for sickness or death. Of course, the Kingdom is only beginning to enter the world; it has not yet been revealed in all its fullness, and so the world too has been transfigured only in part. Its nature has only begun to change, and this process will be completed at the end of time. Yet even this world, not yet fully renewed, is healed of its ailments when it comes into contact with the Kingdom. One cannot live forever in a world that has not been transfigured, but one can be healthy in it and not die before one’s natural time. Everyone who comes into contact with the Kingdom receives this fullness of life that is possible at the present moment. Of course, such contact also requires trust in the One who brought the Kingdom into the world; both healings and raising from the dead become possible only through the faith of those who turn to Jesus (vv. 18, 22, 29). But how deep is this faith? How much do the blind men He healed, for example, trust Jesus (v. 27)? It would seem that their faith was deep: after all, they received their sight, and, in the Savior’s words, they received it ‘according to their faith’ (v. 29). But then something strange happens: the very same Man who healed the blind men asked them to say nothing about what had happened to them (v. 30). Yet they cannot keep silent (v. 31). It would seem that, if you trust the One who has healed you, fulfilling His request—which, after all, is not particularly difficult—should go without saying. But it turns out that trust is not so simple. The two blind men certainly had it when they longed for healing. Now, however, once the healing has taken place and they are no longer blind, they no longer take the requests of the One who healed them seriously. Everything has changed, and what mattered before has now ceased to matter. Before, they listened to Jesus’ words with the greatest attention, and had He required anything of them in order to be healed, they would undoubtedly have done everything exactly as He said. But now that the problem has disappeared and their goal has been achieved, they have forgotten what bound them to Jesus. With that, their sense of responsibility has disappeared as well: the formerly blind men no longer do what Jesus told them to do, but what they themselves consider right. It is easy to desire the Kingdom when there are problems in one’s life, and the more serious the problems, the easier it is. It is much harder to remain faithful to it when the problems disappear and life becomes wonderful again.