The Miracle Worker

“The Sign of Jonah”

(Matthew 12:22-50, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 16, 2007)

Matthew 12:22-50 ²² Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. ²³ And all the people were amazed, and said, "Can this be the Son of David?" ²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons." ²⁵ Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. ²⁶ And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? ²⁷ And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹ Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. ³⁰ Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. ³¹ Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³² And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. ³³ "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. ³⁶ I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, ³⁷ for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." ³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." ³⁹ But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. ⁴³ "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. ⁴⁴ Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation." ⁴⁶ While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. ^{47 48} But he replied to the man who told him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" ⁴⁹ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Introduction – The Miracle Worker

In 1882 a nineteen-month old child contracted a devastating fever which almost took her life. While she survived, she was left blind, deaf, and mute. Until she was seven years old she lived in a condition that she later described as “being at sea in a dense fog.” In 1887 her parents hired a teacher, Annie Sullivan from the Perkins Institute for the Blind, to work with their daughter Helen. The child at first only responded with rage to the efforts of her teacher to help her to connect language in the form of signed letters, with the senses that she did possess. Then at the turning point of her life, young Helen Keller was able to connect the feeling of water with the signed word that Annie was teaching her.

The concept of language had finally registered in her heart and she ran to a nearby tree and eagerly received the signs for the letters of a second word, and then on to the step of her front porch to have the letters “S T E P” signed into her hand. In the movie dramatization of her story known as “The Miracle Worker,” Annie Sullivan yells for Mr. and Mrs. Keller to come out of their home to show them what has happened with their daughter, and as the young girl is embraced by her parents, she learns the words “Mother” and “Papa.”

Helen Keller went on to learn how to speak. By touching Annie’s mouth and throat, Helen eventually learned how to use her own voice. After seven lessons she was able to say her first sentence: “I am not dumb now.” Helen went on to learn not only English, but also French, German, Greek, and Latin in Braille. Annie Sullivan died in 1936, Helen lived for 32 years more, dying in 1968, at the age of 88. She is one of the most well-known women of the twentieth century, and the story of her progress has been a tremendous inspiration to many people. It is the story of a long battle against overwhelming odds over the course of many years, a battle that required much perseverance, and that ultimately had a remarkable ending.

In startling contrast to this account, a blind and mute man was brought to the Son of God so many years ago and without any trumpets, and seemingly with absolutely no effort, Jesus Christ healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. The story of Helen Keller is very inspiring, yet at least in some way we can relate to it. The story of Matthew 12 is simply miraculous. It is supernatural. It’s a story of a different world, of a new kingdom. The people who were there did not know what to do with it. They said, “This couldn’t be the Son of David, could it?” The Greek construction that they used anticipates a “No” answer to that question. It was just too hard to believe that the Messianic King was right there.

What is the difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan?

Not everyone was thrilled about what they saw. All of them had to question the source of this miracle. It was undeniable that something supernatural had occurred. The Pharisees claimed that the power that Jesus possessed came from the Kingdom of darkness. They gave the credit to Satan or Beelzebul, a name that seems to have come from a God of the Philistines. Perhaps meaning something like “the Lord of the flies,” the name was eventually used in Hebrew literature as an alternative designation for the devil.

The Bible tells us that there are two kingdoms all around us. (Read Ephesians 2:1-10). We were once following the prince of the air, Paul says in the Ephesians. He is now at work in what he calls the “sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” This is the kingdom of darkness. By the mercy and love of God we have now been made alive to a new and different kingdom. We have been saved through our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and God has “seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Even while we live here on this earth with everyone else, we are now a part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Since it was acknowledged that the man that Jesus healed was under some kind of horrible demonic oppression, the Pharisees and scribes were very ready to conclude that Jesus must be from the kingdom of the demons, and that it was from the highest authority among that dark realm that Christ had accomplished this healing. Jesus answers this charge by saying that the overturning of demonic oppression cannot come from the kingdom of demons. Instead it is by the Spirit of God that demons are defeated, and the amazing recapturing of territory that had been in the hands of an enemy is a sign that the kingdom of God has come upon you. There are certain things that can only happen through the power of God, and the defeat of Satan’s kingdom is clearly one of these things. There are two Kingdoms that are at war with each other. The coming of Christ and His striking ministry of miracles is nothing short of an overturning of the Kingdom of Satan and an establishment of the Kingdom of God.

The idea of war may seem appealing to some as long as no one has to die, but that is not the way it usually works. The horrifying truth of how the kingdom of God needed to be established was with the death of the hero of the Kingdom. We turn away in horror at that thought. It can’t be that this would be necessary, could it? Jesus himself said, “Father, if there is any other way, take this cup from me.” But there was no other way, and the Kingdom came through the death of the Son of God.

How do we display the signs of the Kingdom that we belong to?

Given that there are two kingdoms, one of Satan, and one of God, it is a very important question as to what kingdom a person belongs to. We are either with Jesus, or not with Jesus. Calling the work of the Spirit the work of the devil is not a good indication of our natural right to be children of God. The tree is known by its fruit, and we should be showing forth the fruit of God’s kingdom in our lives if we believe that we are in the Lord’s household.

Consider your own life. From the reality of your heart; you think, you speak, and you live. This is a very frightening thought. I remember the first time I read through the New Testament and I came to Matthew 12:36. The idea that I would be accountable to God for careless words was more than I could bear. This should lead us to a certain desperation. There seems to be ample evidence that by all rights we (along with all the Pharisees, and all humanity [save One] should belong to the kingdom of Satan. Is there a way out of this, at least some way to get to neutral ground? Yet this passage excludes all neutral ground, and neutrality would not help us. Somehow we need to die to sin and a new life must come, a life of true righteousness. By our own words we will only be condemned.

How is it that bad people can end up in the Kingdom of God?

The only way for a man who has spoken idle words of sin and judgment to be judged acceptable in the sight of God is through the cross. There the sinless One who had nothing of the Kingdom of Satan in Him, took our foul sins upon Himself. We have been marked as those who are cleansed by the blood of Christ, as brothers of Jesus through faith in His Word. In Him we celebrate that our sins have been forgiven, and that our hearts have been cleansed.

The Pharisees and scribes wanted a sign from Jesus that day. Jesus eventually gave the greatest of all signs – the sign of Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of a sea creature, and then came up from that grave in something of a resurrection. How can there be hope for the condemned? Someone greater than Jonah is here, someone greater than Solomon is here even now. Your hope for life can never come from cleaning up your act and defeating your “demons.” Your hope can only come by your identification with the resurrected Lord of the church. His resurrection from the dead was the ultimate miracle from another world. This is what we need in order to take away our blindness and to enable us to sing the praises of God as those who are dumb no more.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Why were the Pharisees so sure that Jesus was an agent of Satan?

2. What does it mean to speak against the Holy Spirit? Have we done this? What are the consequences of this?

3. Why is God right to judge our careless words? What would He find if He were to judge our words?

4. What is the point of the story about the demons that repossess a man, and about the true brothers and mother of Jesus at the end of chapter twelve?