06/06/2026
Feasting on the Word-June 7, 2026-A Healing Touch
Matt. 9:9-30
Matthew 9:9-13 New International Version
The Calling of Matthew
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:18-26
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
Where or from whom do you seek help in finding healing for yourself or others?
Today is the beginning of the Christian church season called Ordinary Time (or the Season after Pentecost).
The Scripture passages used in worship during this season focus on living as Jesus’ disciples. The liturgical color is green, symbolizing growth.
Opening Prayer - Merciful God, by your Spirit, open our hearts and minds to your healing power. Amen.
Concentrating on Matthew 9:9–13; 18–26,
Matthew 8:1–9:34 presents a collection of healing miracles that follow Jesus’ delivering of his Sermon on the Mount. The healings depict the compassion and mercy toward others demanded by Jesus in his sermon. The healings also represent a crossing of social boundaries firmly entrenched within both Roman society and Jewish law. Jesus both touches and is touched by those considered “unclean” according to Jewish law.
Sidebar - Matthew’s original readers were wrestling with how to be faithful to Jesus Christ in a changing world and in difficult circumstances, and the Gospel of Matthew was a first-aid manual for this church in the midst of a struggle.
Matthew has a unique structure that sets it apart from Mark and Luke in that the Gospel writer has arranged his material into five long discourses or teachings.
Read verses 9–10.
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
How would Matthew, the tax collector, have been viewed in first-century culture?
After reading today’s Scripture, what emotions from each of the characters do you feel? The Pharisees, Jesus, the young girl, Matthew, the sick woman?
Who are the unclean in these accounts? Who thinks of them as unclean?
Might it be that sinners recognize their own need, while those who see themselves as righteous are too full of pride to comprehend their need for God’s graceful mercy? . . . We all are sinners, but the sinner who understands her need is different from the sinner who claims to need no assistance; the former welcomes Jesus into her life, while the latter slams shut the doors of hospitality. . . . Jesus does not claim to have done anything to have made [the woman] well, nor does he require anything of the woman; instead, he acknowledges that her faith is the agency of her healing. . . . Likewise, it seems as though it is the faith of the father, a leader of the synagogue, that is the agency that leads to his daughter’s revivification.
How would you define the terms righteous and self-righteous?
What do you think about the idea that faith is the agency involved in these two healings?
With a compelling analogy between sinfulness and sickness, Jesus presents himself not only as a healer who goes looking for sinners in spiritual need . . . but also as the one to whom those with physical problems can turn. . . . Both those who are outcast and those who are part of the social establishment find in Jesus a compassionate heart. . . . The correlation to a Sunday service is easily made: no matter who is sitting in the pew, no matter what ordeals congregants are undergoing, this passage gives assurance to everyone that Jesus is available and eager to provide healing.
Reflect on the following:
“Both those who are outcast and those who are part of the social establishment find in Jesus a compassionate heart.”
How can we extend a hand to those who need us? This week, reach out to those on the margin in some way. Offer help.
CLOSING – Today we offer prayers for those we know and love: for our community, for our nation, and for our world. Amen
