Come. Kneel. Ask

7 July 2025   Matthew 9:18-26

“Courage, daughter; your faith has made you well.” Matthew 9:22

Power happens when we recognize what sort of a man Jesus is.

The disciples often didn’t get it: “What sort of man is this?” they asked (Matthew 8:27).

• He was the sort of man who cleansed Jewish lepers, and healed the slaves of Roman soldiers (8:1-13).

• He was the sort of man who calmed storms at sea, and cast demons out of crazy men and into herds of pigs (8:23-34).

• He was the sort of man who healed paralytics by forgiving their sins, andturned traditional religious teachings on their heads by his own authority (9:1-8, 14-17).

• He was the sort of man who invited tax collectors, prostitutes and the most appalling sinners to dinner because they needed what He had (9:9-13).

In short, He was the sort of man who is God. The people who understoodthat became witnesses to fantastic acts of power. They still do.

The synagogue official (other gospels name him Jairus) came to Him with the most desperate human problem of all – his daughter was dead. But Jairus understood that Jesus was the sort of man who is God, so he came, he knelt, and he asked Jesus to lay hands on his daughter to make her alive again. Jairus wasn’t stupid – he was a respected official of the synagogue, after all. He understood the finality of death – everybody in those days did – and he understood the wildness of what he was asking. How could he not? Along the way a woman with a 12-year gynecological problem,  aproblem which undermined not just her health but deprived her of her community because it made her ritually unclean, approached Him. She knew how desperate her problem was, but because Jesus was the sort of man who is God, she came, she knelt, and she asked for healing. Both got what they asked for, because power happens when we recognize what sort of man Jesus is, viz. the sort of man who is God.

You’d think that if people knew that the man who was God was in the neighborhood, they would come, and kneel, and ask, too. But many are not willing to recognize Jesus as that sort of man. Some are willing to give Him credit for being a “great moral teacher,” but so what? That is not a way of respecting Him, but a way of not respecting Him. We have a long history of ignoring great moral teachers. Who pays attention to Socrates, or Aesop anymore? Some people say He is a bad moral teacher because he turns so many traditional moral teachings upside down. “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you…” (cf. Matthew 5:17-48) is not the kind of thing that good moral teachers say. Some want to treat Him “compassionately,” suggesting that He is just a poor man who is a couple of horses short of a rodeo. Some are impressed with His power, and want to see it again, but only sometimes. They want Him, but only sometimes. They are dazzled by the “bread trick,” but they don’t want the submission that comes with it.

They don’t understand what sort of man He is. They don’t accept what sort of man He is. They don’t come, they don’t kneel, they don’t ask. And so they don’t receive His mighty acts of power.

Power happens when we recognize what sort of man Jesus is. He is the man who is also God.

If you knew that a man who is God was in your neighborhood, who could forgive all your sins and heal all your diseases, who could make all the evil around Him run for its life, who could show you the meaning of this life and the only sure way to the next, what wouldn’t you do to get close to Him, would you hesitate for a moment to come, and kneel, and ask?

He is in your neighborhood. There is a red candle burning next to where He is waiting – He left the light on for you.

Come. Kneel. Ask.