Matthew 9: Purpose of Healings

430 matthaeus 9 purpose of healingMatthew 9, like most of the other chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, reports on various events in the life of Christ. This is not just a disorderly collection of reports - Matthew sometimes adds history to history because it is a wonderful complement. By means of physical examples spiritual truths are shown. In chapter 9, Matthew has summarized a number of stories that can also be found in the Gospel of Mark and Luke - but the teachings of Matthew are much shorter and more concise.

The authority to forgive sins

When Jesus had returned to Capernaum, “they [a few men] brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven” (v 2). In faith the men brought him to Jesus to be healed. Jesus devoted himself to the paralytic because his greatest problem was not his paralysis but his sins. Jesus took care of that first.

“And behold, some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes God” (verse 3). They thought only God could forgive sins, Jesus was taking it too far.

"But when Jesus saw their thoughts, he said, 'Why do you think such evil thoughts in your hearts? What is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, Get up, take up your bed and go home. And he got up and went home” (V 5-6). It is easy to talk about divine forgiveness, but it is difficult to prove that it has really been granted. So Jesus performed a miracle of healing to show that He had the authority to forgive sins. His mission on earth was not to heal all people from their physical diseases; he didn't even heal all the sick in Judea. His mission was primarily to announce the forgiveness of sins - and that he was the source of forgiveness. This miracle was not intended to herald physical healings but, more importantly, spiritual healing. "When the people saw this, they feared and glorified God" (V 8) - but not everyone was happy about it.

Eating with sinners

After this incident, “He [Jesus] saw a man sitting at the tax office, whose name was Matthew; and he said to him: Follow me! And he arose and followed him" (v. 9). The fact that Matthew sat on customs indicates that he collected customs duties from people transporting goods through an area—perhaps even from fishermen bringing their catch into town to sell. He was a customs officer, a toll collector and a "highway robber" hired by the Romans. Yet he left his lucrative job to follow Jesus, and the first thing he did was invite Jesus to a banquet with his friends.

“And it came to pass as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat at table with Jesus and his disciples” (verse 10). That would be like a pastor going to a party at a fancy mafia mansion.

The Pharisees observe the kind of society Jesus was in, but they didn't want to confront him directly. Instead they asked his disciples, "Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (v. 11b). The disciples may have looked at each other in amazement and finally Jesus answered: "It is not the strong who need a doctor, but the sick". But go and learn what that means (Hosea 6,6): »I delight in mercy and not in sacrifice«. "I came to call sinners and not the righteous" (verse 12). He had the authority to forgive - spiritual healing also took place here.

Just as a doctor intervenes for the sick, so Jesus intervened for sinners because they were the ones he came to help. (Everyone is a sinner, but that's not what Jesus cares about here.) He called people to be holy, but He did not ask them to be perfect before calling them. Because we need grace so much more than judgment, God wants us to show more grace than judging others. Even if we do (say, sacrifice) all that God commands but fail to show mercy toward others, we have failed.

The old and the new

The Pharisees weren't the only ones who marveled at Jesus' ministry. The disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus: "Why do we and the Pharisees fast so much and your disciples do not fast?" (verse 14). They fasted because they suffered because the nation had become so far removed from God.

Jesus answered, “How can the wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast” (V 15). There is no reason as long as I am here, he said - but he implied that eventually he would be "taken from them" - by force - then his disciples would suffer and fast.

Then Jesus gave them an enigmatic proverb: “No man mends an old garment with a rag of new cloth; because the rag tears off the dress again and the tear gets worse. You don't put new wine in old bottles either; otherwise the skins will break, and the wine will be spilled, and the skins will spoil. But new wine is poured into new bottles, and both are preserved together” (vv 16-17). Jesus certainly did not come to "fix" the Pharisees' regulations on how to live a godly life. He was not trying to add grace to the sacrifices prescribed by the Pharisees; nor did he attempt to introduce new ideas into the existing set of rules. Rather, he started something completely new. We call it the New Covenant.

Raising the dead, healing the impure

"When he was speaking this to them, behold, one of the leaders of the church came and fell down before him and said, 'My daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her and she will live'" (v. 18). . Here we have a very unusual religious leader—one who trusted Jesus completely. Jesus went with him and raised the girl from the dead (V 25).

But before he got to the girl's house, another person approached him to be healed: "And behold, a woman who had had the flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the hem of his robe. For she said to herself, If only I could touch his robe, I would be healed. Then Jesus turned and saw her and said, Take heart, my daughter, your faith has saved you. And the woman was made whole in the same hour” (Vv 20-22). The woman was unclean because of her flow of blood. The law of Moses did not allow anyone to touch her. Jesus had a new course of action. Instead of avoiding her, he healed her when she touched him. Matthew sums it up: Faith had helped her.

Faith had made the men bring their paralyzed friend to him. Faith motivated Matthew to quit his job. Faith led a religious leader to ask for the resurrection of his daughter, a woman to have her blood flow healed, and that the blind asked Jesus to see (V 29). There was ailments of all kinds, but one source of healing: Jesus.

The spiritual meaning is clear: Jesus forgives sins, gives new life and a new direction in life. He makes us clean and helps us to see. This new wine was not poured into the old rules of Moses - for a separate work has been created. The mission of grace is central to the ministry of Jesus.

by Michael Morrison


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