Matthew 9a

The Gospel according to Matthew

1-2.  The ancestry and birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

3-4.  Jesus’ ministry begins; John’s baptism, Satan’s temptations, first disciples called.

5-7.  A summary of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, crowds were astounded.

8-9.  A summary of Jesus’ healings; the authority of Jesus is questioned and defended.

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At the beginning of Chapter 8 we figured out that the key issue was going to be the question of authority. The crowds thought that Jesus taught as ‘one having authority, and not as their scribes.” That is a set-up if I ever saw one. Who is going to argue with what the crowds say? The scribes, the Pharisees, and anyone else who has a bit of authority they don’t want to lose.

So, Matthew gives us first stories that demonstrate Jesus’ authority to heal, whether inside Israel (healing a leper) or outside (healing the Roman centurion’s slave), authority over nature (calming the stormy sea), and authority over the supernatural (casting out the demons). If that isn’t enough, now Chapter 9 will complete the grand slam with more healing stories, and a resurrection story. That should settle the question: Does Jesus have the authority to carry out his ministry?

9: 1.   And after getting into a boat he crossed the sea and came to his own town.

Jesus makes the return journey across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. What does “his own town” mean? Matthew has recorded earlier that “he entered Capernaum” (8:5), and that “Jesus entered Peter’s house” (8:14). Then they all leave for the trip across the sea (8: 23-27). Now Jesus comes back to his ‘own town’.[1]

This might raise a question about Jesus’ earlier claim in 8: 20 that he had “nowhere to lay his head” (8: 20). Perhaps ‘staying with a friend’ does not count, but more likely Jesus was just trying to emphasize the itinerant nature of his ministry. He is constantly on the move, so often he has nowhere to lay his head. Remember that he fell asleep in the boat.   

9: 2-8.   And some people were carrying to him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, child; your sins are forgiven.” Then some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Stand up, take your bed, and go to your home.” And he stood up and went to his home. When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

This is the familiar story from the Gospel according to Mark where the friends tear a hole in the roof to let the man down to a beleaguered Jesus. Apparently, Matthew has a different point to make because he has left that part out.  The issue is ‘authority’ again for this word appears twice in the story. This time not just authority to heal or to exorcize demons, but the authority to forgive sins. And not just to forgive someone who has sinned against you, after all Jesus has never seen the man, but rather to forgive sins from God’s perspective. This is something new. Jesus has healed people, but he has not connected their condition to their sin.

Overall in Scripture, including the stories of Jesus, both sickness and misfortune can be the result of sin, or sin can create consequences that are bad, or sin may have nothing to do with it. We should not always assume that sin causes sickness (lot of healthy sinners out there), or that sickness is always the result of sin (lot of sanctified people still get sick). This time, though, Jesus seems to make the connection: to get well this person needs spiritual healing as well as physical healing.

And, that is the point. The scribes immediately question whether Jesus has the authority to grant God’s forgiveness for sins. Does he? Actually, it seems like a network of decision-making. First, in the story, we have “their faith.” What does that have to do with it? Second, we have Jesus taking on the role of a father, perhaps ‘The Father’, in addressing the paralytic as “child.” Third, even in the face of the man’s obvious problem, and the lack of a confession or request for forgiveness, Jesus dispenses God’s forgiveness. How many people are involved now? Is sin and sickness social? Of course it is. Sin and its consequences is never individual.

Then the scribes try to stop the forgiving-healing process. However, Jesus knows the key question: Which is easier, to say that your sins are forgiven (for which there will be no visible evidence), or to heal a paralytic (which will be verified when people see it)? I will let you decide, but the crowds clearly saw that God had given ‘authority’[2] to this man.  

9: 9-14.   As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

This event has little context, but it does serve as an introduction to the following incident that further questions Jesus’ authority, and it provides a teaching moment for the Pharisees as well as for the disciples. BTW: Matthew is called Levi in the other gospels.  

9: 10-13.   And as he reclined at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Is Jesus a physician? He implies such. The Pharisees calls him a ‘teacher’, and they have been willing to consider that Jesus has that much ‘authority’. But now, with these recent challenges, they are looking for ways to undermine his authority. They imply that, if he were a teacher of the law, he would not sanction the company of tax collectors and sinners.

Notice first that these categories divide society into people who are sinners and people who are not sinners. I wonder who is on the ‘not sinners’ side in this dodge ball game? It would seem that the word ‘sinners’ was thrown around like the way some people use the word ‘migrant’ or the word ‘homeless’; it implies more than it says. Or, as is sometimes claimed, certain categories are ‘code’ words for other categories that cannot be named in polite society.   

Jesus turns it on its head. Where should a doctor be found if not among the sick? This lesson speaks volumes. The Anglican church, in its 18th century prime, was the church that the upper class attended, but not the poor. They couldn’t afford to rent a pew. That is why John Wesley went to the coal mines and preached to workers as they got off shift, in the open field. Wesley said, ‘Go where you are needed; in fact, go where you are needed most’.  

 The whole of salvation history has involved God calling sinners back to himself, and recruiting followers to do the same. Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, which says: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” The laws, the rituals, and the sacrifices were never the end, the ultimate goal. They were rather guides, rituals meant to lead people to repentance so they could seek out others who were in need of repentance and healing.

Paul says that, Israel “did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works” (Romans 9: 31-32). Paul considers that “the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3: 24). This agrees with Jesus’ statement here that the ultimate goal is steadfast love laced with the knowledge of God. The prophets knew that, but First Century pharisaism was missing the point.  

Jesus has declared that he has come to preach repentance before God because the Kingdom of God is near. The Kingdom had come to “those who were conscious of their need of it, and who were humble and penitent enough to receive it.”[3] Today, the doctor can’t even try to heal me unless I show up in the office or the emergency room admitting that I am sick and I need help. The metaphor still applies. So why do we show up at church pretending to be all right?

9: 14-17.   Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Notice in the last two stories that Matthew has told, someone arrives with the question “Why?” The issue is ‘authority’ again. Why, or by what authority, do you do this?

This time John the Baptist’s disciples are on the same side as the Pharisees. Remember that, according to the other gospels, John the Baptist is in jail and perhaps rethinking what he has done and who Jesus is. Is John still mourning the inactivity of God and thus still fasting?

When he was giving instructions during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself taught his disciples how to carry out the three obligations of the devoted life: alms-giving, prayer, and fasting. So, it may come as a surprise to some that a person who is calling others to repent because the Kingdom of God is near, himself prays but does not fast. Is this temporary or a persistent practice?

As with Jesus’ comments to the two aspiring disciples (8: 18-22), the issue is not just ‘authority’ but also ‘urgency’. Jesus implies that his time on earth teaching and healing as an invitation to the Kingdom of God is an unusual time, and it may be brief.

Then Jesus makes an allusion to a wedding feast, which is a celebration of the presence of the bride and groom. A wedding is not an occasion for fasting. Notice that Jesus has joined fasting to mourning, and neither is appropriate at a wedding. Fasting is a way of focusing our attention on our persistent need for the presence of God. Feasting is a recognition that someone important has arrived. It is Jesus, who is God’s servant announcing that God’s Kingdom has arrived. Celebrate now because things are now under control; Jesus has the authority.

The allusion to God as a bridegroom goes back to Isaiah:

“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your Husband, the LORD of Hosts is his name; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called” (Isaiah 54: 4-5).

Yet, there is no identification of the Messiah as the Bridegroom.[4] That is new wine, that the Messiah is the Son of God. If this revelation is poured into old wineskins, like rituals, sacrifices, and fasting, then the new wine will ferment and break social conventions apart. At the same time, Jesus offers a note of warning about the ‘urgency’. The Bridegroom will be taken away.

Still, the times call for new wineskins, new understandings and new practices that will preserve the good news for generations to come. That is the point of the kind of ‘authority’ Jesus has. It does not depend entirely on the old, what has happened and what has been written in the past. The good news of the arrival of the Kingdom of God will itself ferment in society and change things considerably, and so it cannot be contained in the Law and the Prophets. Such was the preparation for the Kingdom, but now that the Messiah who is the Son of God has arrived, things will be different. We will have to learn new ways of being devoted to God; specifically practicing the love God (in all God’s ways) and demonstrating love for our neighbor (as God defines love for all).

[1] In Greek, idian polin. The first word gives us ‘idiosyncrasy’ which means ‘individual’, ‘distinctive’, or ‘peculiar’. The second word is familiar to us since it is attached to many cities. In the noun form the word is ‘polis’, as in Indianapolis or Minneapolis. So, this certainly means Jesus’ ‘own town’.

[2] The Greek word is exousia, which can mean ‘force’, ‘capacity’, ‘competency’, ‘mastery’, or ‘strength’. It is often applied to kings and emperors, meaning that they have the right to do something, and they have the power to accomplish it.

[3] R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1973. Page 97.

[4] Ben Witherington, Matthew, page 201.