Healing A Paralyzed Man
9:1-7
Jesus had been on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, having crossed over to avoid the crowds. ((8:18) In this story, he crossed back over to Capernaum on the northwestern shore. Matthew wrote that he (Jesus) came to his own city because Jesus had moved there from Nazareth.
Peter lived in Capernaum. Jesus may have stayed with him. The following story may have occurred at Peter’s house.
This story of healing a paralyzed man is the same story recorded in Mark 2 and Luke 5. Matthew abbreviated the story, leaving out details that were not relevant to the point he wanted to make. Matthew does not tell us about the friends digging through the roof and dropping the man in front of Jesus.
But, Jesus is confronted with a paralyzed man who has been brought to him by friends. Jesus was impressed by their faith. The paralytic and his friends believed Jesus could and would heal him.
Jesus addressed the man as “my son”. This does not imply a familial relationship; it is simply an affectionate term used by a man to address a younger man.
But, rather than touching the man and healing him, Jesus declares his sins forgiven. This implies a connection between the man’s sins and his paralysis. However, this is not the point if the story either.
The point of the event is to show Jesus’ authority. We see this from the context. In the previous stories, Jesus showed his authority over disease, over demons, and over nature. Here he shows his authority to forgive sins.
So, Matthew moves on to the point. He noted that there were some scribes present and they began to say to each other that Jesus was blaspheming. They believed, rightly, that only God can forgive sins. Since Jesus was declaring the man’s sins forgiven, he was claiming to be God.
Jesus knew their thoughts. This may have been part of his divine nature, but it could also be that he knew the scribes and how they thought, so he knew what they were thinking and saying.
Jesus called their thinking evil. It is evil because they are denying Jesus’ divinity (that he is God). (4) Note the contrast: first he discerns the faith of the paralytic and his friends, now he discerns, knows, the evil thoughts of the scribes.
He confronts them with a question, saying which is easier, to say sins are forgiven, or to say rise and walk, healing the man. (5)
In our view, we would say it is easier to say your sins are forgiven, because that is not something you can see. But in the view of the scribes, it was more difficult to say your sins are forgiven because only God could do it.
So, Jesus agreed to do the easier thing: he said rise and walk, and the man did. Yet, how could Jesus do this? A man of God could not commit blasphemy in one breath and declare healing, a power from God, in the next.
Jesus, therefore, proved his ability to do the more difficult thing by doing the lesser thing. He proved his authority to forgive sins by demonstrating his authority to heal disease. He is the Son of Man. He is also God with us, Immanuel, whom God sent to save his people from their sins. This is exactly what the angel of the Lord said to Joseph: you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”. (1:21)
Calling Matthew
9:9-13
As Jesus left Capernaum, he came upon a tax booth, likely at the border between the territories of Philip and Herod Antipas. If one were bringing goods from one territory to the other, one would be required to stop at the tax booth and pay an excise tax on those goods.
Matthew was a tax collector. He was sitting in the tax booth, responsible for collecting the taxes. Tax collectors were often despised in Israel for cooperating with the Roman oppressors. In addition, they made an income from those collections and many were dishonest. They were considered sinners by the Pharisees.
Matthew was, therefore, an unlikely candidate for disciple of a rabbi. But, Jesus had authority to forgive sin. He called Matthew to follow him and Matthew immediately followed. (9)
Matthew evidently threw a party to introduce Jesus to his friends. He invited many tax collectors and other sinners. Sinners may have included those who did not follow the strict rules of the Pharisees, but otherwise kept the law. That is what the New International Version tries to convey by putting the word “sinners” in quotation marks.
They all reclined at a dinner table with Jesus and his disciples, probably in a courtyard in front of the house. Matthew must have been wealthy to have a table big enough for all these people.
The Pharisees observed the dinner. They saw Jesus dining with all these sinners. Jesus and his disciples risked ceremonial defilement for eating with sinners. They asked the disciples why Jesus, their teacher, ate with these people. This question was more of an accusation than a search for information.
Jesus heard them and took the opportunity to reply. He replied with a medical metaphor. It is the sick who need a physician, not those who are well. (12) He meant, sinners were the exact people who needed a savior. Therefore, the savior went to them.
Jesus then quoted Hosea 6:6 from the Septuagint. The word translated as mercy is “hesed”. It often means covenant love. The English Standard Version in Hosea 6:6 uses the term “steadfast love”. The point made in Hosea was that although the Israelites had continued to perform the rituals of temple worship, they had lost the meaning and the requirement to love God.
Jesus was, therefore, telling the Pharisees they were more aligned in attitude with those apostate Israelites of Hosea’s time than with true worship. Their belief in their righteousness was misplaced as was their concept of the Messiah. Jesus corrected both. His mission was to save sinners. Those who refused to see themselves as sinners excluded themselves from salvation and the kingdom.
The Old v. The New
9:14-17
Some disciples of John came to Jesus asking why his disciples did not fast. They noted that both they and the Pharisees fasted. The Jews had invented many fast days beyond that required in the Law.
Jesus heard the question and answered with 3 metaphors:
1. Wedding guests with the bridegroom
2. New cloth patched on old garments
3. Old wineskins with new wine.
Jesus said he is the bridegroom. He draws on the Father calling himself the bridegroom in the Old Testament (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20)
As long as the bridegroom is with the wedding guests, there is no mourning. But when he is taken away (the Ascension) they will fast.
Jesus pointed out that you do not put a new piece of cloth that is not pre-shrunk as a patch on an old garment, for it will put away from the old cloth and make a new tear. When I was a little boy, my parents were very frugal. They would buy blue jeans (denim pants) for me to wear and they would buy them too long for me so I could grow into them.
At first, I would have to roll up the bottoms to the correct length. But as I grew, the cuffs would get shorter and shorter until I did not need to roll them up. But, sometimes the knee would wear out before I outgrew the length. My mother would iron on a denim patch to cover the hole.
But, if the patch was not pre-shrunk, or my mother did not wash it, it would shrink and create a new tear. That is sort of what Jesus is talking about. You do not patch old cloth with new cloth.
Lastly, wineskins were made from animal skins. As they got old, they got stiff and less pliable. As the gases from new wine fermenting stretch the skin, it will rupture the old skin and ruin both the skin and the wine. So you put new wine in new wineskins that are pliable and can expand with the gases and not rupture.
Jesus was saying he brings something new. His kingdom is not just a graft onto the old covenant. There is a new relationship with God that obviates the need for the old ceremonies and observances.
We can love, fellowship with, and obey God if we are in Christ.
We do not require priests, temples, or sacrifices of animals to do so.
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