103: Healing in His Wings

BEMA Episode Link: 103: Healing in His Wings
Episode Length: 38:42
Published Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2019 01:00:00 -0800
Session 3
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings finish the ninth chapter of Matthew, seeing a handful of stories where Jesus brings shalom to the chaos of others.

Healing in His Wings Presentation (PDF)

Discussion Video for BEMA 103

Transcript for BEMA 103

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 103: Healing in His Wings - Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

Episode: 103 - Healing in His Wings
Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings Focus: Matthew 9:18-38, Numbers 15:37-41, Malachi 4:1-3, Ezekiel 34

This episode explores the final section of Matthew 9, examining several healing stories that demonstrate Jesus bringing Shalom (peace, wholeness) to people’s chaos. The episode focuses particularly on the cultural and textual context behind the woman with the issue of blood who touches the tzitzit (tassel) of Jesus’s garment, connecting this act to messianic expectations from Malachi. The discussion emphasizes how Jesus’s actions are always rooted in and commenting on the Hebrew Text, revealing him as someone who knows and fulfills Scripture while challenging the religious establishment’s failure to shepherd God’s people.

Key Takeaways

Everything Jesus does and teaches is a commentary on the Hebrew Text, not just random wisdom or miraculous acts
The woman with the issue of blood deliberately touched Jesus’s tzitzit (tassel) based on her knowledge of Malachi 4:2, which speaks of healing in the Messiah’s “wings” (kanafot)
Jesus uses the “messianic secret” strategically based on location - freely allowing miracles to be shared in pagan areas but restricting them in the religious triangle where misunderstanding could cause problems
The religious leadership (Pharisees) had failed as shepherds of God’s people, leaving them “harassed and helpless” as described in Ezekiel 34
The “harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” may not be about evangelism but about God’s abundant blessings not reaching the people who need them most (the mamzer - outcasts)
Understanding the cultural context of items like the tallit and tzitzit is essential for grasping the full meaning of Gospel stories

Main Concepts & Theories

The Tallit and Tzitzit

The tallit is the prayer shawl or outer garment worn by Jewish men based on Numbers 15:37-41, which commands God’s people to put tzitziot (tassels) on the kanafot (corners/wings) of their garments. These tassels served as tactile, physical reminders of:

Their identity as God’s people
Their covenant obligations to obey God’s commands
Protection under God’s “wings”

In first-century Jewish culture, these tassels were worn on the outer garment. Today, some Jews wear a tallit katan (small tallit) underneath their clothing like a sandwich board. The rabbis had to work out how to find “corners” on circular robes, which led to the development of rectangular prayer shawls that naturally had corners for the tassels.

Healing in His Wings - Malachi 4:2

A messianic legend existed among first-century Jews based on Malachi 4:2, which states “for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” (ESV). The Hebrew word kanaf means both “corner” and “wing,” creating a wordplay between:

The corners of the garment where tzitzit are placed
God’s protective wings
The healing that would come through Messiah’s “wings”

The woman with the issue of blood, having been unclean and excluded from temple and synagogue worship for 12 years, knew her Text well enough to recognize this messianic sign. Her deliberate touching of Jesus’s tzitzit was an act of faith declaring, “I believe you are Messiah because there is healing in your kanafot.”

The Messianic Secret

Jesus’s inconsistent responses to publicity about his miracles follow a pattern based on location:

In pagan areas (Decapolis): Jesus tells people to go and tell everyone what happened
In the religious triangle (Galilee): Jesus tells people not to tell anyone and conducts healings privately

This strategy reflects Jesus’s awareness that:

The religiously self-righteous Jewish establishment would misinterpret and resist his ministry
People steeped in religiosity would call his miracles demonic rather than recognize God’s work
The broader Jewish religious culture was not ready to process the implications of outcasts being brought into the assembly
More groundwork needed to be laid before public proclamation would be effective

Sheep Without a Shepherd - Ezekiel 34

Jesus’s compassion for crowds who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” directly references Ezekiel 34, which condemns Israel’s shepherds (religious leaders) for:

Only taking care of themselves rather than the flock
Not strengthening the weak, healing the sick, or binding up the injured
Not bringing back strays or searching for the lost
Ruling harshly and brutally over God’s people
Allowing the sheep to be scattered with no one to search for them

Jesus’s healing ministry directly addresses each of these failures - he strengthens the weak, heals the sick, binds up the injured, brings back strays, and searches for the lost. His actions demonstrate what true shepherding looks like in contrast to the Pharisees’ misguided focus on obedience at the expense of compassion.

The Harvest and the Workers

The traditional interpretation of “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” as a call for more evangelists or clergy may need reconsideration. An alternative reading suggests:

In biblical texts, harvest represents God’s blessing, not unsaved people
The only place “workers” and “harvest” appear together is in Ruth, where workers gather the harvest but also where the poor (like Ruth) glean what’s left behind
Jesus may be saying God’s blessings are abundant, but no one is gathering them to distribute to those who need them
This fits Matthew’s agenda of highlighting the mamzer (outcasts) who are being overlooked
The point may be less about recruiting more clergy and more about ensuring God’s abundant provision reaches the harassed and helpless

Examples & Applications

The Woman’s Chutzpah

The woman with the issue of blood demonstrated remarkable courage (chutzpah) by:

Pushing through a crowd when she may have been ritually unclean
Deliberately touching a rabbi’s garment despite her status
Risking social condemnation to act on her knowledge of Scripture
Persisting in faith despite 12 years of exclusion from religious community

Her story shows that knowing Scripture deeply - even when excluded from formal religious education and assembly - can lead to life-changing encounters with God.

David and Saul’s Tzitzit

When David cut off the corner of Saul’s robe in the cave (1 Samuel 24), he wasn’t just cutting fabric - he was cutting off Saul’s tzitzit. This explains David’s guilt because:

The tassel symbolized Saul’s obedience to God
The tassel also represented God’s protection over Saul
David felt he had presumed to decide Saul was no longer under God’s protection
The act carried much deeper spiritual and symbolic weight than a simple cloth-cutting

Professional Mourners

The culture employed professional mourners who:

Knew appropriate songs, hymns, and prayers for grief
Helped families navigate the one-week mourning period
Provided structure and guidance during loss

Rather than being a strange custom, this practice recognized that grief requires guidance and community support - something modern Western culture often lacks.

Location Determines Strategy

Jesus’s ministry demonstrates that:

Context matters when sharing truth
Some environments are more receptive than others
Religious self-righteousness can be a greater barrier than paganism
Strategic wisdom is needed about when and how to share

This applies to modern believers who must discern appropriate contexts and methods for sharing faith rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

Messianic Prophecies and Jewish Interpretation: Study rabbinic literature on messianic expectations in the Second Temple period, particularly regarding Malachi 4:2 and the “healing in his wings” tradition
Ritual Purity Laws: Examine Levitical purity laws regarding bleeding, skin diseases, and other conditions to understand the social isolation experienced by people Jesus healed
The Blind Men and Son of David: Investigate potential textual connections between blindness, the title “Son of David,” and messianic expectations (particularly 2 Samuel 5 and David’s statement about the “blind and lame”)
Ezekiel 34 and Shepherding Imagery: Study the complete chapter of Ezekiel 34, along with Jeremiah’s prophecies about shepherds, to understand the prophetic critique of Israel’s leadership
Ruth and the Harvest: Examine the book of Ruth as a model for how God’s abundant provision should be shared with the vulnerable and marginalized
Matthew’s Mamzer Theme: Track throughout Matthew’s Gospel how Jesus consistently prioritizes and includes those deemed unfit for the assembly (mamzer)
The Tallit Through History: Research the development of the tallit from ancient times through the Second Temple period to understand how Jewish practice evolved
Remez and Rabbinical Interpretation: Study the rabbinic interpretive technique of remez (hinting) and how Jesus uses subtle textual allusions to make profound theological points
Compassion vs. Legalism: Analyze the tension between strict Torah observance and compassionate application throughout the Gospel narratives
Prayer Shawl Traditions: Examine modern Jewish prayer shawl practices and their connection to ancient customs to better understand Jesus’s cultural context

Comprehension Questions

What is the significance of the woman with the issue of blood specifically touching the tzitzit (tassel) of Jesus’s garment rather than just touching Jesus himself? How does this connect to Malachi 4:2 and messianic expectations?
How does Jesus’s use of the “messianic secret” differ based on location, and what does this reveal about his strategic approach to ministry? Compare his instructions to the Decapolis demoniac with his instructions to the blind men in the religious triangle.
What does Ezekiel 34 reveal about the failures of Israel’s religious leadership, and how does Jesus’s ministry directly address each of these failures? Give specific examples from Matthew 9.
Why might the traditional interpretation of “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” need reconsideration? What alternative meaning could this phrase have based on its textual connections?
How does understanding that Jesus’s every action is rooted in and commenting on the Hebrew Text change how we read the Gospel stories? What questions should we be asking as we study Jesus’s words and deeds?

Personal Summary

This episode powerfully demonstrates that the Gospel narratives are far richer than surface-level readings suggest. The woman with the issue of blood wasn’t just desperately grabbing at Jesus in a crowd - she was making a deliberate theological statement based on deep knowledge of Scripture, declaring her belief that Jesus was the Messiah promised in Malachi who would bring “healing in his wings.” Her 12 years of exclusion from religious community didn’t prevent her from knowing the Text; instead, it may have deepened her hunger for it.

Jesus’s strategic use of the messianic secret reveals his awareness that religious self-righteousness can be a greater barrier to truth than outright paganism. The very people who should have recognized him - those steeped in Torah and tradition - were the ones most resistant to what God was doing. Meanwhile, those deemed unfit for the assembly - the mamzer, the outcasts, the ritually impure - were the ones pressing in with faith.

The episode’s exploration of shepherding imagery from Ezekiel 34 exposes how Israel’s religious leaders had failed God’s people, leaving them “harassed and helpless.” Jesus’s ministry becomes a direct counterpoint to this failure, as he strengthens the weak, heals the sick, searches for the lost, and brings Shalom to chaos. His compassion stands in stark contrast to the harsh, brutal religiosity that scattered the flock.

Most challenging is the reinterpretation of “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Rather than a call for more evangelists or clergy, this may be Jesus lamenting that God’s abundant blessings aren’t reaching those who need them most. The harvest - God’s provision - sits waiting while the overlooked and marginalized go without. This reading aligns perfectly with Matthew’s consistent theme of Jesus prioritizing the mamzer and redefining who belongs in God’s Kingdom.

The episode reinforces a crucial hermeneutical principle: everything in the Gospels is rooted in the Hebrew Text. Jesus isn’t offering random wisdom nuggets or performing miracles merely for spectacle. Every word, every action is commentary on the ongoing story God has been telling through Scripture. To truly understand the Gospels, we must ask not just “what did Jesus say and do?” but “what Text is Jesus commenting on, and why?”

Original Notes

Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
- The Sick Woman
  - A woman, likely unclean, touches Jesus’ cloak in a crowd. Why?
  - Jews were instructed to wear cloaks that had tassels on its corners. Numbers 15:37–41.
  - These tassels were there to remind God’s people to remember all of his commands so they would obey them and be consecrated to him.
  - Vocab:
    - Tzitzit: Tassel
    - Kanaf: Corner
    - Tallit: Garment or Cloak
  - David cuts off the corners of Saul’s garment. The message was that Saul was not being obedient. David ends up feeling guilty because the tassels also represent God’s protection and in David’s eyes, who is he to decide whether or not Saul is under God’s protection?
  - The woman’s bleeding, depending on its kind, would have made her unclean according to Levitical law. She would not have been allowed to assemble with others in the temple or in a public crowd. She’s a mumzer. She’s certainly not supposed to touch the garments of a Rabbi.
  - Regardless, she pushes through the crowds and grabs the tassels of Jesus. This takes chutzpah given the situation. Why does she touch his tassels though?
  - She is looking to be consecrated to God. Numbers 15. There’s more though. It’s in the Text. Malachi 4:1-3 ESV.
  - “But for some who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” Malachi 4:2. The word for wings here in kanaf which is also the word for corners in the phrase, “tassels on the corners of your garments.”
  - A small group of Jews believed that when the Messiah comes, according to Malachi, one of the ways that people would know that he was Messiah is that there would be healing in his kanafot. The woman walks right up to Jesus who she believed to be the Messiah and grabs his tallit, his prayer shawl, his tzitzit.
  - Mark tells us that Jesus felt the healing leave his body and asks who touched him. Regardless of what that’s like for him to feel the healing leave him, Jesus knows that someone knows their Text.
  - It would be more difficult for her to consume the Text than others because of her bleeding. She wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go to synagogue. She would have had to devote herself to learning the Text with intention.
  - This story is rich with context that we often misunderstand.
- Raising the Dead Girl
  - Synagogue leader’s daughter has died, there are hired mourners, and Jesus tells the mourners to go away because the girl is not dead but asleep.
Jesus Heals the Blind and the Mute
The Workers Are Few
- Ezekiel 34: A condemnation of the leaders, the priests.
- Jeremiah 24 or 25? The shepherds are failing God’s flock
- There are so many references in the Text to sheep without a shepherd.
- The misguided focus on obedience without compassion is creating sheep without a shepherd.
Questions
- Head
  - Research Tassels on the Corners of your Garments.
  - See what we can find on the debate about whether or not Jews in Jesus’ day would have worn tallit and what that tallit might look like.
  - Discuss the Messianic Secret. Geography and Audience? What else?
  - DID ANYONE LOOK INTO THE FOLLOWING REMEZES?
    - Son of David encountering a blind man.
- Heart
  - How do you relate to the characters in the stories?
  - Which character do you relate to the most and why?
- Hands
  - What are we supposed to learn and take away from these stories?
  - Which story resonates with you the most and
  - Which story challenges you to go and be something unique that you weren’t before? Which one challenges you to do some of those things that you haven’t already been doing.

Miracles of Jesus

Miracle	Matthew		Mark		Luke		John
Healing Miracles
Man with leprosy	8:2-4	Secret	1:40-44	Secret	5:12-13	Secret
Roman centurion’s servant	8:5-13	Silent			7:1-10	Silent
Peter’s mother-in-law	8:14-15	Silent	1:30-31	Silent	4:38-39	Silent
Two men from Gadara	8:28-34	Silent	5:1-15	Share	8:27-35	Share
Paralyzed man	9:2-7	Silent	2:3-12	Silent	5:18-25	Silent
Woman with bleeding	9:20-22	Silent	5:25-29	Silent	8:43-48	Silent
Two blind men	9:27-31	Secret
Mute. demon-possessed man	9:32-33	Silent
Man with a shriveled man	12:10-13	Silent	3:1-5	Silent	6:6-10	Silent
Blind, mute, demon-possessed man	12:22	Silent			11:14	Silent
Canaanite woman’s daughter	15:21-28	Silent	7:24-30	Silent
Demon-possessed boy	17:14-18	Silent	9:17-29	Silent	9:38-43	Silent
Two blind men (including Bartimaeus)	20:29-34	Silent	10:46-52	Silent	18:35-43	Silent
Deaf mute			7:31-37	Secret
Demon-possessed man in synagogue			1:23-26	Silent	4:33-35	Silent
Blind man at Bethsaida			8:22-26	Secret
Crippled woman					13:11-13	Silent
Man with abnormal swelling					14:1-4	Silent
Ten men with leprosy					17:11-19	Silent
The high priest’s servant					22:50-51	Silent
Official’s son at Capernaum							4:46-54	Silent
Sick man at pool of Bethsaida							5:1-9	Silent
Man born blind							9:1-7	Silent
Miracles showing power over nature
Calming the storm	8:23-27	Silent	4:37-41	Silent	8:22-25	Silent
Walking on water	14:25	Silent	6:48-51	Silent			6:19-21	Silent
Feeding the 5,000	14:15-21	Silent	6:35-44	Silent	9:12-17	Silent	6:6-13	Silent
Feeding the 4,000	15:32-38	Silent	8:1-9	Silent
Coin in fish’s mouth	17:24-27	Silent
Fig tree withered	21:18-22	Silent	11:12-14, 20-25	Silent
Large catch of fish					5:4-11	Silent
Water turned into wine							2:1-11	Silent
Another large catch of fish							21:1-11	Silent
Miracles raising the dead
Jairus’s daughter	9:18-19, 23-25	Silent	5:22-24, 38-42	Secret	8:41-42, 49-56	Secret
Widow’s son at Nain					7:11-15	Silent
Lazarus							11:1-44	Silent

Matthew 8:4

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Matthew 17:9

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Mark 1:44

“See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

Luke 5:14

Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

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S3 103: Healing in His Wings

Healing and Harvest [38:42]