NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

CHAPTER NINE

Part III

Verse 17: “Also, people never pour fresh wine into old wineskins. They would break, the wine would spill out, and the wineskins would be ruined. People always put fresh wine into new wineskins, which won’t break, and the wine stays good.”

Our Lord’s third parable would certainly be understood by those in the crowd who had vineyards. The longer wine is stored in skin flasks the more mellow it becomes. But freshly pressed grape juice tended to expand as it fermented in the first three to five days because of the yeast. In the same way, the wine of the new covenant could not be contained by the worn out flask of the old covenant. So in other words, Christ did not come to patch up the old sacrificial Law, nor did He come to inject new blood into an anemic sacrificial system for redemption. Rather, He came to spread a new spotless robe of righteousness over our shame, and to provide powerful, revitalizing, cleansing blood to flow through our spiritual veins and into our newly cleansed hearts.

Here is what Early Church scholar Jerome believed our Lord intended for His audience to understand: “What Jesus is saying is this: Until a person has been reborn and, having put aside the old person, puts on the new person, he cannot observe right fasting and the precepts of temperance. Otherwise, through undue self-denial one may lose even the faith one seems to possess. Christ gave two examples: the garment and the old and new wineskins. The old ones denote the scribes and Pharisees. The patch of shrunk cloth and the new wine signify the gospel precepts, which the Jews cannot observe, else a worse tear is made.”¹

When it comes to the condition of the old wineskins mentioned by Jesus, we can see this in how the Gibeonites tried to trick the Israelites: “They gathered together old wineskins that were cracked and broken. They put these old wineskins on the backs of their animals. They put old pieces of cloth on their animals to look as if they had traveled from far away…Look at our wineskins. When we left home, they were new and filled with wine. But now you can see that they are cracked and old. Look at our clothes and sandals. You can see that the long journey has almost destroyed the things we wear”.² Even the dedicated Psalmist compares himself to such an old wineskin by saying: “Even when I am like a dried wineskin on the trash pile, I will not forget your laws.”³

So some may ask, how does this compare to our acceptance of something that we are not familiar with such as new hymns, altered forms of praise and worship, explanations of what Jesus did and taught? We need not be too hasty in dismissing these things because they are new, when in fact they may be fresh and more invigorating traditional ways. But at the same time, they do not make obsolete accustomed forms of worshiping God, studying His Word, and doing His will. But this was not the case with the blood of Christ in the New Testament with the old worn-out wineskin of the Old Testament. This would require that Jesus be crucified each day for each sin committed by each person. And as we can see, that would tear the whole thing apart.

Verse 18: While Jesus was still talking, a leader of the synagogue came to Him. The leader bowed as he greeted Him and said, “My daughter has just died. But if you will come and touch her with Your hand, she will live again.”

Now Matthew tells us that during this encounter with the disciples of John the Baptizer and the Pharisees, Jesus was mercifully interrupted by a leader of the local synagogue who needed immediate help. It is highly possible that Jesus taught in this synagogue, since He came to His new home town of Capernaum where He now lived.⁴ Unlike the Centurion who came earlier,⁵ the synagogue leader’s daughter had already died. Both Mark and Luke say this synagogue leader’s name was Jairus.

Today most Jewish synagogues do not have a single leader, but are run by a committee established by the congregants. In the United States, the leader of this committee is called the President. It is worth noting that this President is almost always a Jewish layman as opposed to a person with theological training who has been taught the Talmud, Code of Jewish Law, and other classical texts of Jewish scholarship, such as a Rabbi.

In one document the Jews discuss the leaders in the synagogue and their responsibilities. For instance, if there was no Levite available to do his duties, then a “kohen” (priest) could take his place in reading the Scriptures. They also speak of “the seven.” Then comes “the scholars” who are appointed as “Parnasim”. This is the plural of Parnas. In Galilee the office of Parnas was connected with the political organization of the town and its title denoted usually a general leader of the people and sometimes also a member of the council. Elsewhere, the function of the Parnas was that of a charity overseer.

We are not told their specific position or task, but it is clear they were part of the hierarchy.⁶ This may have influenced the selection of “the seven” in Acts 6:3-4. In this case, since Jesus spoke in many of the synagogues in His area, there is a good possibility that Jairus was a friend, especially since upon arriving, he immediately bowed in reverence before our Lord.

Another reference to the role of the head of the synagogue reads as follows: “How were the blessings of the High Priest following the completion of the sacrifices on Yom Kippur pronounced? The synagogue attendant takes a Torah scroll and hands it to the head of the synagogue. The head of the synagogue hands it to the deputy [of the High Priest], and he in turn hands it to the High Priest”.⁷ I’m sure that none of this influenced our Lord’s response which was always based on compassion.

Bishop Hilary gives his interpretation on how all of these incidences of healing wove together to prove a spiritual point. He writes: “The prayers of the ruler, the faith of the woman, the gathering of the crowd in the house and the shouting of the two blind men, as well as the bringing of the deaf and dumb demoniac … are all interrelated. The ruler here is understood to be the law. He prays to the Lord for the people. The law has nourished them on Christ in the expectation of His foretold coming, and He restores life to the dead girl. Now we do not read of any ruler who was a believer. Hence the person of this praying ruler may rightly be taken as a model of the law. The Lord promised to help him, and He made good on his promise.”⁸

While that is an admirable analysis by the Bishop, what Jesus did here for this leader of the local synagogue was intended to show that He was sent from God, and He could do for them what no priest operating under Jewish law could do. Therefore, since the Scriptures did indicate that the Messiah would be one of such power and authority, they should start believing what He said and live by faith, rather than believe what the Torah said and live under the law.

The request for Jesus to touch her by His hand was already a part of Jewish tradition for those who ministered as healers.⁹ Apparently, Luke found out that this girl was Jairus’ only daughter, and that she was about twelve years old. This description fits well with standing Jewish tradition that we read as follows: “From the day of a girl’s birth until she becomes twelve years old, she is called a minor and/or a baby.”¹⁰ This certainly condones why a father often refers to his only, or youngest daughter, as “my little girl” or “my baby.”

So what we have here in this portion of the life and ministry of our Lord, is not a case of the Son of God being interrupted, challenged or put upon at the whim and fancy of passersby, but I am convinced that it was all part of God’s plan. None of these people just bumped into Christ, they were led to Him by their search for an answer to a question or need, like a person lost in the darkness gravitates toward the light. This is evident even today when we see the difference in the reaction of people to the power and presence of Christ in the midst of His people when they just happen to show up or when they come with a need and desire for His touch.

Verses 19-21: So Jesus stood up, and His followers went with the man. While on their way there was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. She came close behind Jesus and touched the bottom of His coat. She was thinking, “If I can touch His coat, I will be healed.”

It is noteworthy that we mark the statement: “Jesus stood up.” This takes us back to verse ten where we see Jesus reclining in Matthews house having a meal. Once you put that in your mind, then all the things that occurred up until now will be given a different perspective as our Lord interacted with the Pharisees, the disciples of John the Baptizer and what He was doing when this ruler of the synagogue came and bowed down before Him.

We find in one Apocryphal Gospel this woman is called “Bernice,” or “Beronice” in Egyptian Coptic, or “Veronica” in Latin.¹¹ This woman’s condition of constant hemorrhaging no doubt left her anemic, weak, breathless, and hardly able to walk any long distances. So she waited by the road for Jesus to pass by. Today her diagnoses might be termed “menstrual or postpartum bleeding.” The fact that it had gone on for twelve years no doubt was a constant source of frustration and left her too frail to even do the duties of a mother or wife. This condition was thought so important, that the Jewish Mishnah contains an entire section devoted to it.¹²

So in the text is appears that she waited until Jesus passed by where she was standing and came up behind Him to touch the tailing hem of his coat. According to what the Rabbis said, such a woman was considered unclean during this period. As such she was not allowed to participate in any religious functions, feasts, and if someone touches her, they become unclean.¹³ I’m sure this may have been on her mind when she thought of touching Jesus. But her faith told her that instead of her making Him unclean, His power would make her clean instead. This is also true when we read that Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself. Our uncleanliness did not affect Him, but His purity affected us.

Chrysostom believes that the reason this woman wanted to secretly touch Jesus’ garment is because she was ashamed of her hemorrhaging condition. As such, she did not want to be seen as flagrantly violating the law which forbid her to touch anyone for fear of making them unclean, so that is why she had reservations about approaching Jesus openly. I agree with this early church scholar on this point, but not on his conclusion. Chrysostom states: “For this reason she remained hidden. She concealed herself. In this respect she had not yet understood his ministry; otherwise she would not have thought it necessary to remain concealed.”¹⁴

Yes, there is good reason to believe that she stood unnoticed in the crowd lining the street as Jesus passed by. But I am more convinced that she chose to touch Jesus secretly because of all the reasons cited before pertaining to her condition and uncleanliness, and also because in her eyes He was such a holy man, even being the Messiah, that in her humility she did not want to proverbially sit at the table with those who had been invited, but merely catch any crumbs that might fall within her reach.¹⁵

To me one of the important facts here is that she didn’t see the need of asking Jesus to heal her. She had faith enough to believe touching Him would be sufficient. This was no doubt one of the reasons why after Jesus felt the power go out of Him, He turned and contributed her healing to such faith. This truly brings out what our Lord would say later to His doubting disciple Thomas: “Great blessings belong to the people who believe without seeing me!”¹⁶ So it is today, we can be healed without having to see Jesus in the flesh. It’s only a matter of reaching out by faith to touch Him, especially when we feel His presence so near.