Men of Faith (Matthew 9)

The characteristic words to define faith in Hebrews 11:1 are “assurance” and “conviction.” If our faith is real, it provides us with “assurance” and “conviction” of God’s will being fulfilled in its time, leading us to glory in Christ Jesus.

We live by faith, not just for our hope but also in everyday circumstances. We be­lieve cars on the other side of the road won’t run into us. We don’t actually ‘know’ they won’t but we get into our car in the belief they won’t. We believe an airplane will fly into the air before it gets to the end of the runway. We don’t actually know that our plane will lift off, but we board it and place our lives in the hands of the crew and the mechanics of the aircraft, based on the evidence of all the other planes that become airborne on takeoff. We believe that stepping off a cliff will cause us injury, sufficient to prevent even the most daring person from doing so. While we can’t always prove the things we believe, we can often be assured of them and convinced of them…that is faith. On that basis, we live our lives in the hope of being welcomed by Christ into his eternal Kingdom.

Christ heals the paralytic at his home

Matthew 9 begins at Christ’s “own city”, which we learn from the parallel account in Mark 2 is Capernaum. He was at his home, and great crowds had gathered there. A paralytic was brought, carried on his sleeping mat by four men, but upon arrival they are faced with the problem of how to get to Christ through the multitude of people. So a plan is devised to lower him through the roof. Consider the faith of the paralytic who would risk such danger to be lowered through a roof. Can you imagine him being raised, probably by ropes, to the roof, and then the roof being dismantled with a hole large enough to lower a man horizontally through it? If at any time the paralytic falls off of his mat he will be severely injured or even die since his paralysis would prevent him from breaking a fall by use of his limbs. But… he had faith sufficient to take such a risk. He believed Christ would make him well. Christ does heal the paralytic by telling him that his sins are forgiven. This is consistent with the thinking of those times, that their fate in this life was directly related to whether God viewed them favorably or not. This is most likely because the blessings and curses that prophesied how Israel would prosper or perish according to their obedience to God’s laws.

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not known” (Deut 11:26-28).

“And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ” (John 9:2).

Many uninformed people today still believe that same principle, and find them­selves wondering how could God allow bad things to happen. We recognize that in this life, often it is evil men who prosper, and the good suffer. So we must con­clude the blessings and curses of the law were relevant to Israel collectively, not as individuals. Christ’s correlation of sin to our mortal infirmities was correct as illustrated by the conversation of the text we read here in Matthew 9.

Christ healed the paralytic through forgiveness of sin. This was to instruct him and those who witnessed it that the Christ had the power to forgive sins, and thereby remove the curse of sickness and corruption from our flesh. This also foreshadows the atonement. Christ has the power to forgive our sins and to bring healing upon us, in order to bring forth spiritual health. Sicknesses are obvious infirmities of the flesh. Sin is an inconspicuous infirmity of the flesh. Both are present in our fallen fleshly nature until we turn to Christ to heal us.

The crowd reacted with fear (Matt. 9:8). They were not prepared to accept the Son of God, their Messiah. The Scribes (and Pharisees per Luke 5:21) react with scorn. We read in Matthew “And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ ” This is the first recorded time the priests criticize Christ.

Jesus enrolls Matthew among his disciples

You might remember when the tax collectors came to John to be baptized and asked what must they do, he replied: Luke 3:12-13, “Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than is appointed you’ ”.

Matthew (Levi) was a tax collector, considered to be the lowest person in society of that time. The term “tax collector” is used almost synonymously with “sinners”. Consider the following passage, how it uses the terms “tax collectors” and “sin­ners” almost interchangeably.

“And as he sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were sit­ting with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners’ ” (Mark 2:15-17).

Matthew would locate in Capernaum, on the highway that led from Damascus to the coastal cities, collecting duties on goods shipped by road or across the Sea of Galilee. While the Roman officials themselves collected the land and poll taxes, the tax on transported goods were contracted out to local collectors. Matthew was such a person, or else he was in the service of one. These middlemen paid an agreed-upon sum in advance to the Roman officials for the right to collect taxes in an area. Their profit came from the excess they could squeeze from the people. This may have made them the most hated of all publicans as they would be in a position to make great profits from the leading men of commerce. Matthew was one of these lowly publicans.²

Each of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke record Levi being called just after the paralytic is healed at Christ’s home. Levi was a person who required healing of a different type. Jesus specifically calls out this person, who is lowest of the low in society, in order to make a point. He came to heal sinners. What could make this more obvious, than to convert a tax collector (or tax collectors as he was later found to be instructing many tax collectors at a feast for him at Matthew’s house).

For Matthew to get up and follow Christ required great “conviction” of faith. To follow righteousness would require Matthew to give up collecting more than re­quired. If he lost his job for poor performance, then it would be very difficult for a former publican to find another job. Yet, at some point he apparently did give it up. After teaching for 15 years in Palestine, he, according to tradition, went to teach in the foreign countries of Ethiopia, Macedonia, Syria, Persia, Parthia and Medea.

When criticized by the Pharisees, Christ responded: “Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matt 9:13, from Hos.6:6: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings”).

Faith is better expressed by love and mercy than by asking forgiveness. We too are like Matthew the tax collector and we are like the paralytic. We are sick in our sins and must turn to Christ, who has been granted the power to remove our sins and heal our flesh. He will do so if we show faith.

Why don’t the disciples of Jesus fast?

The disciples of John questioned Jesus as to why His disciples do not fast (vs.14). They asked this because in those days of Pharisaical legalisms two additional weekly fasts had been added on Mondays and Thursdays. The Pharisees observed these fasts as did John’s disciples but they wondered why Christ’s disciples did not fast.

Christ’s reply: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. And no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved” (Matt 9:15-17).

Just as unfermented wine would burst old wineskins that lacked the elasticity to manage the expansion of the fermenting wine, the priests patching up the Levitical Laws with their own legalisms would not be acceptable to God.

The allusion to the wineskins also makes the point “And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ” (Luke 5:39). This seems to suggest the priests who have grown comfortable with the law will not be willing to accept a new law (wine) or gospel and thus the“The old is good”.

Christ’s allusion to the Bridegroom was a reminder to John’s disciples of John’s own words about Christ.

“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full.”( John 3:39)

Christ brings out that the time for fasting will come when the bridegroom is taken away by violent death. True fasting results from a sorrowful heart, not ritual or tradition.

The woman with a hemorrhage for 12 years is healed

Jesus is approached by a woman who has had a hemorrhage for 12 years.

“ for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well.’ Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well” (Matt 9:21-22).

According to Levitical Law: touching one who has an issue of blood shall make you unclean.

“When a woman has a discharge of blood which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening” (Lev 15:19).

This is the second time Christ has done something that, according to the law, should make him unclean. However, rather than Christ becoming unclean the unclean person becomes clean. The first time was recorded in the previous chapter (Matthew 8:2-4) when Christ touched a leper and made him clean.

Third healing

There is a third instance of Christ making another clean by his contact. A ruler (of the synagogue “Jairus” Mk.5:21-22) comes humbly beseeching him to lay his hand upon his daughter who just died. Christ’s response is: “the girl is not dead but sleeping” (Matt 9:24). This is an obvious statement to indicate what he was about to do.

Scripturally, those who will rise again are said to be sleeping. (e.g. Lazarus, John 11). Those who do not know God are already considered dead (Mat.8:22 “Leave the dead to bury their own dead”.) So Christ “went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose” (Matt 9:25).

This was the third instance of Christ doing what the Levitical Law said should make him unclean by touching a dead body.

“And there were certain men who were unclean through touching the dead body of a man… Whoever touches a dead person, the body of any man who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him” (Num 9:6, 13).

Yet, rather than Christ becoming unclean or cut off, the dead are raised to life and Christ remains clean and undefiled.

By the faith of Jairus, his daughter was brought back to life, one of many examples that testify that freedom from death comes through faith. The other lesson we can derive from these miracles is the evidence and assurance it provides us that Christ is the means by which we are saved. Christ was not required to follow the cleansing rituals of the law for a person who touched a leper, dead person or person with a flow of blood. It therefore shows God’s approval of him and provides us with “assurance” that he is the one God has chosen to save us.

Two blind men healed

Later we read of two blind men who cried out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David” (Matt 9:27).

“Son of David” is a Messianic designation, and was also somewhat of a political designation for those times. Christ did not acknowledge them until he entered the house where he could reward them in private for their faith.

“When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith be it done to you.’ ” (Matt 9:28-29).

This illustrates for us the correlation between Faith and healing. We must be faith­ful for the blood of Christ to have its full healing effect upon us.

Dumb demoniac healed

Next, a dumb demoniac was brought to him and healed. Here we see Scripture make another correlation between illness and sins. We have infirmities of our flesh because we are sinful. While some medical practices might improve the situation, the root cause cure is to remove the sinful nature from our flesh by baptism into Christ’s blood. The true healing will be realized in our resurrection unto glory.

“And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean” (Num 19:19).

We are healed of our spiritual uncleaness on the third day (our baptism) and healed of our physical uncleaness on the seventh day (resurrection).

The crowds who followed him felt his compassion.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36).

His compassion was manifest, both in his relentless instruction of the Gospel message, and his healing them of their physical and spiritual infirmities. His compassion prompts him to make the point to his disciples and to us:

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt 9:37-38).

Jesus was urging his disciples to carry on the work of true discipleship.

As the Disciples of Christ today, we can express our faith through the preaching of the Gospel, obedience to God’s word, fellowship with one another, and focus on Christ’s kingdom first in our lives. So as we break bread and drink wine in remembrance of our Lord Jesus, it should help us remember the faith of those who were healed of their physical infirmities, that we might have faith that our spiritual infirmities can also be healed.