Matthew 9:32-34 - Homilies By J.a. Macdonald

Two devils.

We have just seen two blind men in agreement. We are now introduced to two devils in diversity. Here is the dumb devil. Here also is the devil muttering blasphemy.

I. HERE IS A COMPARISON OF TWO SAD CASES .

1 . The dumb demoniac.

(a) He has no voice for prayer.

(b) He has no voice for praise.

(c) He has no voice for testimony.

2 . The blaspheming Pharisee.

(a) Because he did the best works on the best of days.

(b) Because he condescended to eat with publicans and sinners.

(c) Because he did not fast in deference to rabbinical tradition.

(d) Because he proved that he has power on earth to forgive sins.

(a) The miracles as facts could not be disputed. It is too late in the day for the modern sceptic to dispute them.

(b) The Pharisee had no other way in which to evade their evidence but to trace them to the worst possible authorship.

(c) The malignity of Beelzebub is in the libel. And how much better is the sceptic who traces the miracles of Christ to natural causes? Is not the influence of Satan still hidden under what are called natural disorders?

II. THE MORE SUBTLE PROVES THE SADDER .

1 . The dumb devil is driven out.

2 . The multitudes marvel.

(a) The healing of the profluvious woman.

(b) The restoring of Jairus's daughter to life.

(c) The imparting of vision to two blind men.

(d) And now the expulsion of the dumb devil from the demoniac.

(e) To these he immediately added many more ( Matthew 9:35 ).

3 . The blaspheming devil holds his own.

Matthew 9:35-38 and Matthew 10:1

The compassion of Jesus.

This comes remarkably before us in this paragraph. We have it in both its aspects, viz. the human and the Divine. Note, then—

I. THE HUMANITY OF THE COMPASSION OF JESUS .

1 . His compassion was moved by the multitudes he saw.

2 . His compassion was moved by the condition in which he found them.

(a) By disease and sickness.

(b) By demoniacal possession. The demoralization of the nation as described by Josephus was fearful.

(a) Not that they were without synagogues. It was in visiting synagogues Jesus saw the multitudes. In the abounding of Churches there may yet be a famine of the Word of God.

(b) Not that they were without scribes. These were in every city, yet they despised and neglected the flock (cf. Jeremiah 23:1 , etc.; John 7:49 ).

(c) Human traditions were substituted for the Divine Word. To this day Jewish teachers combine to make void the Word of God through their traditions. So do apostate Christian teachers.

3 . His compassion moved him to prayer.

II. THE DIVINITY OF THE COMPASSION OF JESUS .

1 . This brought him down from heaven.

2 . It is manifest here in the authority of his preaching.

3 . Or , the miracles by which he attested it.

(a) Evincing power over visible nature.

(b) Dominion over the invisible world.

4 . In his delegation to his disciples of authority to preach.

(a) That the harvest is the Lord's.

(b) That he only can qualify and commission true labourers—labourers worthy of the work.

5 . In his delegation to his disciples of miracle-working power.

(a) "Unclean spirits" are distinguished here from "all manner of disease and all manner of sickness."

(b) The design of the gospel is to vanquish the devil and cure the maladies of the world.