My Walk Through the Book of Matthew by Annette Godtland

A Mute Man Speaks (Matthew 9:32-34)

32As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. 33And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, "It was never seen like this in Israel!"

34But the Pharisees said, "He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons."

It seems that demon possession was as common at that time as other illnesses and afflictions. Some afflictions, like this man's muteness, were caused by demons. Jesus healed man's illnesses and afflictions for their physical bodies, He cast out demons for their minds, and He forgave their sins for their souls. There is nothing Jesus doesn't have power over

I was interested in what kinds of things were marveled at so far in the book of Matthew. It follows an interesting circle of wonders. Here are all occurrences of the word marvel so far:

In Matthew 8:10, when the Centurion expressed his faith in Jesus' ability to command away the illness without even going to his servant, Jesus marveled and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"


In Matthew 8:27, when Jesus calmed the wind and the sea, the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"


In Matthew 9:8, when Jesus healed the paralytic and demonstrated that He had the power to forgive sins, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.


And now, in Matthew 9:33, when the demon was cast out and the mute man spoke, the multitudes marveled, saying, "It was never seen like this in Israel!"

First Jesus had not seen such great faith even in Israel. Then His disciples see the great power Jesus has but they cannot understand who Jesus is. Then the multitude see the incredible power Jesus has, but assume that the power was simply given to a man. Finally we are back full circle when they compare this awesome power with what was written of Israel. The journey of Israel, which I outlined in the first chapter of the book of Matthew, which tested their faith, should have been the greatest faith ever, yet Jesus sees greater faith in this centurion. The journey of Israel, which showed the awesome power of God to guide His people to the promised land, should have been the greatest demonstration of power ever, yet Jesus is demonstrating even more power. Israel was not the highest example of faith and the power of God as was assumed. Everything was changing, even their foundation, the journey of Israel, which they based many of their beliefs on is not as rock solid as they thought.

A footnote with the text for Matthew 9:8, said that the NU-Text uses the words "were afraid" instead of "marveled". I think all the uses of the word "marvel" when referring to Jesus' disciples and the multitude are implying some amount of fear. They did not understand. And without faith, what you do not understand causes fear.

And what are some of the ways we cope with that fear? One way is through denial or rejection. Here the Pharisees are trying to explain the reason nothing like this had been seen in Israel is because this is by the power of the devil, not God. They refuse to accept that Jesus is doing God's work. As the people are getting more overwhelmed and awed by what Jesus is doing, the Pharisees are getting more negative and more vocal in their claims of who they believe Jesus is. Their misunderstanding without faith is leading them further astray.

So how do we learn to recognize what we see, rather than get turned in the wrong direction like the Pharisees? How do we keep from getting influence by those who appear to use very logical claims to dissuade us from our beliefs? How do we control our fear of that which we do not understand? There is one answer for all of these, and that is faith.

The Pharisees claimed that God's work that Jesus was doing was by the power of the devil. Are we fighting against those kinds of claims today? No, but in this day and age where science has advanced so much, it almost seems that God's work is being explained away by science. Today we need faith as much as ever to not be lead astray by the logic and explanations of those without faith. No, I don't think science is wrong, but science sure shakes up the foundation of what our faith is built on. Just because we can now understand some of the processes of God's working, does not mean we cannot still be awed by what God put in place. The foundation of Israel was shaken, the foundation of our faith will be shaken, but our faith must still stand strong.

Actually, maybe the reason the foundations of our faith have been so easily shaken throughout the centuries is because there is only one thing our faith should be founded on, and that is the word of God. Anything else may crumble.