The Advancing Kingdom Text: Matthew 15:29-31
Introduction: The King on His Mountain
We live in an age that is profoundly embarrassed by the supernatural. Our sophisticated secularists, and more than a few timid Christians who want their approval, have tried to domesticate Jesus. They want a respectable Jesus, a philosopher king, a moral teacher, a gentle guide who offers therapeutic suggestions for self-improvement. They are quite comfortable with a Jesus who gives the Sermon on the Mount, so long as they can treat it like a set of high-minded platitudes. But they are deeply uncomfortable with the Jesus who comes down from the mountain and actually demonstrates that He is, in fact, the King.
The modern world wants the ethics of the Kingdom without the King Himself. But the two are inseparable. The authority of the teaching is demonstrated by the authority of the teacher. And in the gospels, Jesus repeatedly demonstrates His authority not just with His words, but with His works. His miracles are not arbitrary parlor tricks. They are calculated, strategic, and theological invasions. They are signs of the Kingdom. They are declarations that the rightful King has landed in enemy-occupied territory and is beginning the work of liberation.
This passage in Matthew is one of those moments. It is a frontal assault on the kingdom of darkness, a direct refutation of the lie that this fallen world, with all its sickness and brokenness, is the final word. Here, on a mountain in Galilee, the King sits down, establishes His court, and begins to reverse the curse of the fall. He is not just patching up a few broken bodies; He is showing the world what His reign looks like. His Kingdom is not one of abstract principles; it is a Kingdom of tangible restoration, of wholeness, of life conquering death. This is not just a feel-good story about a compassionate healer. This is a report from the front lines of a cosmic war, and it is a declaration of certain victory.
The Text
And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
(Matthew 15:29-31 LSB)
The King's Court (v. 29-30a)
We begin with the setting. Jesus establishes His position of authority.
"And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others..." (Matthew 15:29-30a)
Notice the deliberate echoes of the Old Testament. A mountain is never just a geographical feature in Scripture. It is a place of divine revelation and authority. Moses went up on the mountain to receive the Law. Elijah went to the mountain to hear from God. And now Jesus, who is greater than both, goes up on the mountain. But He does not go to receive a word; He is the Word. He goes to establish His throne. His sitting down is a posture of kingly authority. He is not anxiously pacing; He is reigning. He is not a wandering healer, surprised by the crowds. He has taken His seat, and the world is coming to Him.
And who comes? The crowds. And they are not coming for a lecture on ethics. They are coming because they are broken. They bring with them a catalog of human misery, a parade of the effects of the fall. The lame, the crippled, the blind, the mute. This is the state of humanity apart from God. This is what sin does to the world. It breaks things. It cripples, it blinds, it silences. This is a picture of our spiritual condition before Christ. We are lame, unable to walk in His ways. We are crippled, unable to do what is right. We are blind to the truth and mute in our praise.
The world sees this procession of brokenness and offers two options: stoic despair or sentimental pity. But the gospel offers a third way: hope. These people are not just bringing their problems; they are bringing them to a person. They are bringing them to the one place in the universe where brokenness can be made whole.
The King's Power (v. 30b)
The action that follows is simple, direct, and absolute in its authority.
"...and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them." (Matthew 15:30b LSB)
There is a beautiful simplicity here. They laid them at His feet. This is an act of desperation, but it is also an act of submission and faith. They are acknowledging their helplessness and His authority. They are placing the brokenness of the world at the feet of the world's true King. This is where all our problems must ultimately be brought. We must lay our sins, our sicknesses, our griefs, our shattered plans, and our broken hearts at the feet of Jesus.
And what is His response? "And He healed them." There is no fanfare, no incantation, no struggle. Matthew reports it with a sovereign finality. The verb is comprehensive. He healed them. All of them. The power of the Kingdom flows out from the King, and it is not a partial power. It does not fail. It is not limited by the severity of the case. The curse is deep, but the King's power is deeper still. He simply undoes the work of the devil. He speaks, and shattered limbs are restored. He commands, and blind eyes see. He touches, and silent tongues sing.
This is a preview of the final restoration. This is what the Kingdom of God does. It makes things right. It does not just forgive sin; it eradicates the consequences of sin. This is why our hope is not some ethereal, disembodied existence in the clouds. Our hope is the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come, a world where there will be no more lameness, no more blindness, no more sickness, and no more death. These healings are down payments on that final promise.
The Kingdom Displayed (v. 31)
The result of this display of power is twofold: astonishment and worship.
"So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel." (Matthew 15:31 LSB)
First, they marveled. Of course they did. They were seeing the world being put back together right before their eyes. The fundamental laws of the fall were being suspended and reversed. The mute were speaking, the crippled were restored, the lame were walking, the blind were seeing. This is the great reversal. This is the gospel in miniature. What sin silenced, Christ gives voice to. What sin broke, Christ restores. What sin hobbled, Christ enables to walk. What sin blinded, Christ gives sight to.
This is a direct fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy" (Isaiah 35:5-6). When the crowds saw this, they were not just seeing a miracle worker. They were seeing the promised Messiah, the promised King, doing what the Messiah was prophesied to do. They were seeing the Kingdom of God arrive in power.
And this leads to the second, and most important, response. "They glorified the God of Israel." This is the proper end of all of God's works. They are done for His glory. And notice who they glorify. Not a generic deity, not a vague "higher power." They glorified the God of Israel. This is crucial. This is the covenant God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who made promises to His people. Jesus is not introducing a new religion; He is the fulfillment of the one true religion. He is the God of Israel in the flesh. The power He is demonstrating is the power of the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who spoke from Sinai, the God who promised to send a Redeemer.
This is a polemic against all other gods. The gods of the pagans were impotent. They could not heal, they could not restore, they could not give life. But the God of Israel, incarnate in His Son, demonstrates that He alone is God. He is the Creator, and therefore He has the right and the power to be the Re-Creator.
Conclusion: The Unstoppable Kingdom
So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must see that the King is still on His throne. The same power that healed the crowds in Galilee is at work in the world today through His gospel. The primary way He heals now is by healing our souls. He takes spiritually blind eyes and makes them see the glory of God in the face of Christ. He takes spiritually lame feet and enables them to walk in newness of life. He takes spiritually mute tongues and causes them to sing His praise. Every conversion is a miracle of this same magnitude.
Second, we must understand that this Kingdom is an advancing Kingdom. The work that Jesus began on that mountain, He is continuing through His church. We are His hands and feet in the world, called to bring the healing of the gospel to a broken and hurting world. This means we should have a robust confidence. We are on the winning side. The King has already demonstrated His power over sin, sickness, and death. The final victory is not in doubt.
Finally, our response should be the same as the crowd's. We should marvel, and we should glorify the God of Israel. We should never lose our wonder at the gospel. We should never treat the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life as commonplace. It is the greatest miracle of all. And it should lead us to worship. Our lives should be lived in such a way that others see our good works, our love, our joy, our steadfastness in the midst of a broken world, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. The King has established His court, and He is making all things new. Our only proper response is to bow at His feet in joyful submission and give Him all the glory.