Matthew 9

When we considered the healings that Christ performed recorded for us in Matthew 8, we made the connection between the physical trouble that people face and the spiritual problem of sin. Is this idea of physical predicaments as metaphors for spiritual troubles too speculative? Does Jesus make the connection between His merciful acts that relieve physical difficulties, and His role as the One who saves His people from their sins? In the opening of this ninth chapter we have a very memorable account that makes just that connection. Some friends of a paralytic brought the ailing man to the Savior so that the man could be physically healed. They were hoping that Jesus could make the man walk. I wonder if they were disappointed when the Lord said to him, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."

There were others, some of the scribes who were there at the time, that were very alarmed by what the Lord said, but for a different reason. They thought that it was blasphemous. They considered Him to be making an inappropriate claim to be God, thinking that only God could forgive sin. Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and went ahead then to do what the man himself surely wanted. He said, "Rise, pick up your bed and go home," and the man did! But before He said these words, He explicitly connected this miracle to the fact that He had the authority to forgive sins.

The next story that Matthew records takes us away from the metaphors of physical healing, and moves us to the root issue of sinners finding a place in the Lord's kingdom. The sinner in view was Matthew, the author of this gospel. We know nothing of any ailment he had, or of any demonic attack that was affecting him. All we know is that he belonged to the class of men that were considered traitors to their people, and abusive of the poor, the tax collectors. Matthew was a Jewish agent of Roman interests who made his money enforcing the taxation system on his own people, a nation that was under the subjugation of the Roman Empire. This man would have been considered utterly corrupted by Gentile contact, and was certainly morally suspect. Yet Jesus called Him to be one of His disciples with the simple words, "Follow me." Not only did Matthew listen as an individual; we hear that many tax collectors and others who were considered outside of the purity of covenant life were soon eating with Jesus.

Once again, there were those who were puzzled by the Lord's actions. The Pharisees needed to accept the concept that the Messiah would come to call and to save sinful people, rather than simply vindicating those who were very convinced of their own righteousness before God. Even the disciples of John the Baptist wondered about the behavior of the one that John had referred to as the Lamb of God. Jesus told them that He was right to celebrate with His disciples, since He had come as the Bridegroom, as the loving Messiah of a new world of resurrection celebration. Of course there would be changes from the way of life under the Age of the Law, when the people were awaiting the coming of the King. Now the King was here, and He referred to His holy love of His people using the language of a Husband with His betrothed bride.

Whether healing a woman who secretly touched the fringe of His garment, or even raising a little girl from the dead, or giving sight to two blind men, there can be no doubt that there was something very new, powerful, and wonderful in the works of Jesus Christ. The report about Him could not possibly have been contained. This had to be the Son of David, but the people seemed to be largely unaware of the Scriptures that Christ was fulfilling in these great actions of healing and deliverance. Here was a very amazing man, but who was He? Could He actually be the long-expected one who would sit on David's throne? Would this man take over Jerusalem? Why was He doing the things He was doing? Why was He saying the things He was saying? Why was He upsetting the people He was upsetting? More fundamentally, if He was the Messiah, why was He so humble, and why was He so good?

The Pharisees simply could not accept Him as their Messiah. This Man was a challenge to their position. The disdain and secret envy that they had for Jesus of Nazareth was very hard for them to entirely hide or contain. As the empty tomb would one day demand an answer that they could not really admit to, the resurrection-age glimpses shining forth in His ministry of divine healing demanded some kind of explanation. When He healed a mute man by casting out a demon from him, they suggested that His power to cast out demons came from the prince of demons. This was the biggest lie that could be told, but it does display that something obviously was happening in the ministry of Jesus, and that they did not have any better answer than this that they could come up with to explain what seemed to them to be unexplainable.

This powerful opposition to the work of the Messiah could in no way stop the far more powerful demonstration of the kingdom in the life of the King. This kingdom was moving forward in the Lord's amazing teaching, and in the way that he healed every disease and affliction. Eventually the kingdom would move forward through the agency of men who would preach a message as laborers for the Lord's harvest. The ultimate gathering of the Lord's good fruit of elect people would eventually call for the compassionate work of multitudes in His church over many centuries. But something even more powerful than these healing miracles of Christ and the preaching miracles of His church needed to take place in between these two miracles. The Son of God needed to deal with our sin through His own death as the Lamb of God. This dying and rising of Jesus is the powerful hinge between His miracles of healing and His use of His church in gathering sinners. This cross and resurrection, and the God-Man who accomplished them, is our only hope in our every need. He has forgiven our sins. We shall truly rise up from the grave and live forever in our eternal home.