Matthew 9:1-17

Photo caption: “I say to you: Stand up.” Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin, Germany. Tom Faletti. 24 June 2024.

Matthew 9:1-8 a paralyzed man is forgiven of his sins (and healed)

Jesus returns home to Capernaum, the city he moved to after he started his public ministry (Matt. 4:13).

Matthew leaves out some details we are familiar with from Mark’s version of this story – for example, in Mark’s telling, they let the man down through the roof of the house.

What does Jesus see in the men who are carrying the paralyzed man?

What does he say first to the man (verse 2)?

Why would Jesus focus on the man’s need for forgiveness from his sins?

Why do the scribes react so negatively?

Mark explains why they think he is blaspheming.  They are saying to themselves, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7, NRSV)  Unstated but probably also in their minds is that sins are forgiven through sacrifices offered in the Temple.

Note that if Jesus were merely human, his claim would indeed be blasphemous, because sin is, at root, an offense against God, and only God can forgive that.

Note also that blasphemy is a serious charge.  Jesus will ultimately be charged with blasphemy when the religious leaders use it to call for his execution by crucifixion (Matt. 26:65).

How does Jesus respond to the scribes in verses 4-5?

Some people find Jesus’s statement confusing.  The key to understanding it is to picture how easily people could check to see if the statement is accurate.  It is easy to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” because no human can verify whether your words have made it happen.  But it is hard to claim that a paralyzed person is now able to stand up and walk unless you actually have healing powers, because the evidence will clearly show whether you are telling the truth or lying.

For a purely human person, which is easier: to tell someone their sins are forgiven or to tell them they are healed and can now walk?  Why?

In verse 6, Jesus says that healing the man will help the scribes know that Jesus can forgive sins.  Explain how this is so.

It is only at this point that Jesus now heals the man.  How might this conversation have been important for the man to hear, before he was healed?

How do you think the man felt, having his sins forgiven and his body healed?

How do you feel when you experience God’s forgiveness?

In John 20:22-23, Jesus gives to the apostles the power to forgive sins.  How do you see this power flowing through the church today?

How do the crowds react to what Jesus has said and done?  How is their reaction different from the reaction of the people in the town where the demon-possessed men lived?

How does this story ratchet up even further the power and authority Jesus is showing?  How is forgiving sins an even greater power than stilling a storm or ordering demons to leave a man?  And how does that demonstrate just how great is the authority that Jesus has?

Go back to verse 2 for a moment.  The man was only able to have this encounter with God because some friends brought him to Jesus.  How are friends important to our faith?

Are there some friends of yours who might need a little help from you to bring them to Jesus so that they can have an experience of God?

Introduction to Matthew 9:9-17: Jesus’s relationship with tax collectors and fasting

Having related 3 more miracles, Matthew again takes a break to bring us two more conversations between Jesus and those around him.  In both cases, Jesus is trying to give religious leaders a clearer insight into his purpose or mission.

In each of these two dialogues, Jesus presents three arguments in response to a challenge.

Matthew 9:9-13 going to a party at a tax collector’s house

What good thing happens in verse 9?

In Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27, the tax collector’s name is Levi, and in Mark 2:15 and Luke 5:29 the party takes place at Levi’s house.  The fact that in the Gospel of Matthew this man’s name was changed to Matthew suggests that there may be some connection between this Gospel and this man.  However, as our Introduction to Matthew explains, this tax collector is probably not the actual author of this Gospel, even though some sayings in this Gospel may have been handed down from him.

Tax collectors (also called by their Roman name “publicans”) were responsible for collecting local taxes in Roman provinces and remitting the taxes to Rome.  In Israel, they were Jews who were usually despised for two reasons  First, they were seen as collaborators with the imperial overlords who oppressed them.  Second, they were seen as extortionists.  Tax collectors did not receive a salary.  To become a tax collector, they had to win an auction where they made the best bid to collect the most taxes for Rome, and they had to deliver on the amount of taxes they promised.  The only way they could make money was by collecting more taxes than they had to remit to Rome.  They were allowed to use whatever means were necessary to collect the taxes,  and since the more they collected the richer they became, the system was highly vulnerable to abuse.  Many tax collectors used extortionist methods to enrichment themselves at the expense of their fellow countrymen.  As a result, they tended to be wealthy and hated.

The term “sinners” is used repeatedly in the Gospels.  It includes people in a variety of occupations, including camel drivers, herders, and physicians (who expose themselves to blood and other impurities that might make them ritually unclean) (Benedict T. Viviano, “The Gospel According to Matthew,” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, para. 61, p. 649).  H. L. Ellison indicates that there is a place in the Talmud where a list of sinners includes gamblers, people who engage in usury, criminals, and tax collectors, among others (H. L. Ellison, “Matthew,” The International Bible Commentary, p. 1131).  In both cases, the word appears to focus on people who have made persistent business or vocational choices, not people who have committed individual sins in their private lives.

Is Matthew’s decision to follow Jesus a good thing even if he is a tax collector?

Are there times when we are skeptical about people who count themselves among the followers of Jesus?  How do we deal with that?

Why is it significant that Jesus dines at Matthew’s home?

What is the Pharisees’ complaint against Jesus in verse 11?

The Pharisees were devoted to strict observance of every tiny detail of the Law, with great concern about ritual purity.  They would never have entered the home of a tax collector or sinner, much less eat with them.

Matthew has now brought into the light the opposition of both scribes and Pharisees to Jesus.

Jesus offers 3 arguments in response to the Pharisees’ concern.  First, he uses the analogy of healthy and sick people (verse 12).  How does this analogy fit the situation of going to this dinner party?

Are we “well” or “sick”?  Explain.

What might we do when we realize that we and others are a combination of well and sick?

Jesus’s second argument (verse 13a) uses a quote from Hosea 6:6 in which God says he desires mercy, not sacrifice.  What does that mean?

The prophet Hosea, speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel, was trying to call back to God a people who had rejected the Davidic line of kings, set up their own worship practices in place of worship in the Temple, and tolerated and often embraced the worship of other gods.  The Pharisees, in their response to Jesus, are rejecting the Messiah in the Davidic line who is, like Hosea, trying to bring a wayward people back to God.  Jesus echoes Hosea in saying that mercy is the first thing on God’s mind.

How can we embrace Jesus’s call for mercy in our lives?

Jesus’s third argument (verse 13b) is that he came to call sinners, not the (self-)righteous.  We might find it uncomfortable to be counted among either of those groups.  Is there a third option besides “sinners” and the “(self-)righteous”?

How is Jesus’s statement that he has come to call sinners, not the righteous, a direct appeal to those who complained?

How can we embrace more fully the attitude of the Lord who welcomes sinners, comes for the sick, and extends the mercy of God?  What is something specific that you can do differently or do more consistently to by like Jesus?

Matthew 9:14-17 John’s disciples and fasting

Jesus encounters a third complaint, this time from the followers of John the Baptist.

What is the complaint in verse 14?

Jesus offers 3 arguments in response to this question about fasting.  First, he notes that people don’t mourn at a wedding (verse 15).  What is the meaning of this seeming non-sequitur?

Jesus is the bridegroom, and his disciples are the wedding guests.  They do not need to fast while he is present.

When Jesus refers to himself as a bridegroom, it evokes several Old Testament Scriptures where God is described as a bridegroom, including Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:20; Hosea 2:14-20.

When Jesus says that later they “will” fast, is that an order or just a prediction/prophecy?

Jesus’s second point is that you don’t sow a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak (verse 16).  What is wrong with doing that?  What is Jesus’s point?

What does the unshrunk cloth stand for, in this analogy?  What is the old cloth?

What are we?  Where do we fit in the analogy Jesus offers?

Jesus’s third point is that you don’t put new wine in old wineskins (verse 17).  What is wrong with doing that?  What is Jesus’s point?

What does the new wine stand for, in this analogy?

What are the old wineskins?

What are we?  Where do we fit in the story Jesus tells?

How can we welcome the “new wine” in our lives and live as new wineskins?

What about the “old wineskins” who live among us?  Is there hope for them?  What can we do with them?

Note: In 9:15, Jesus gives his first hint of his coming death: “The days will come. . . .”  These hints will get stronger and more explicit as we continue in Matthew.

Take a step back and consider this:

In the story of the paralyzed man, the man’s friends bring him to Jesus and the scribes are resistant to Jesus’s authority.  In the story of the party at the home of the tax collector, the Pharisees are indignant that Jesus has befriended these obvious sinners.

Whenever Jesus is confronted with a person, he begins with the fact they are created by God and loved by God, and therefore worthy of receiving our welcoming and love.  He always sees the whole person – not just one thing they have done, or one aspect of who they are.

Therefore, when he sees the paralyzed man, he sees someone who needs both healing and forgiveness.  When he sees the tax collector, he sees someone who could be an apostle.  When he sees the tax collector’s dinner companions, he sees people who are more than what they currently seem to be.

And he wants to befriend them all.

How can we put on Jesus’s eyes and see the fuller story of every person we meet, rather than rejecting people because parts of their story are objectionable?

Who are you willing to befriend?