Matthew 9:35-36 Jesus and ministry--our perfect example part 1

When I was a manager for a pizza place, I would occassionally train employees how to make pizzas or specifically how to get the pizza dough ready to make a pizza.  I had a specific process I would go through.  I would show them the process from beginning to end pretty quickly.  I then would go slowly, step by step, so they could see exactly what I was explaining.  Finally I would let them do it with my supervision.  Most of the time, the results were awful.  I was also evil back then and I would make them eat what they made.

My point, however, is that I showed they how to do something before I set them to do it themselves.  As we close out of the narrative portion of Matthew chapter 9, we prepare to move into Matthew 10 where Jesus sends out His 12 apostles to preach.  Obviously, the men He called as His apostles were not professional clergy.  Levi (Matthew) was a tax collector, Simon the zelot was probably like a solider or mercenary, James and his brother were fishermen.  These guys had never been missionaries and I think that's a good thing to remember as we read these two verses.  What Jesus did is what He was going to call them to do.  Therefore, it seems reasonable that He would demonstrate what He was going to call them to do.  What a privilege they had, to see God in human flesh minister and preach the gospel.

First of all, notice in verse 35 that Jesus went where the people were.  In churches, we're often encouraged to invite people to come to worship services with us.  Rightly so, I might add, because if you're in a good church no matter what is being preached the gospel is going to be proclaimed.  However, bringing people in so someone else can share the gospel is not what we're called to do.  We're called to go out and take the gospel to the people.  Jesus did just that.  He took the gospel to the cities with lots of people and to the vilages with smaller populations.  And being that if you got somewhere in that day, you walked, he must have done a ton of walking.  He didn't stay in some ivory tower posting thoughts on social media like a blog (ouch!), but rather He went out of His way to proclaim the life changing truth of the gospel.

Notice, what He did when He went from place to place.  As we continue to read verse 35, we see He taught in their synagouges.  Man, what I wouldn't give to have been a fly on that wall.  Can you imagine what a privilage that was--to hear the very God of the universe teaching.  And what grreat compassion it shows.  Jesus, being God in human flesh, could have commanded, or even demanded, obedience and then punished immediately anyone who wouldn't submit.  Instead, He came, took His time, and taught them.  What a kind, gracious, loving act for the Savior of the world to do.  And notice, He went to the synagouges--their houses of worship.  He went to the people who thought they were reglious, or wanted to know about God, and graciously gave them precious instruction in righteousness.

Notice, He also went around proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.  Now, we don't have recorded in this text verbatium what He said, but there is only one gospel.(Galatians 1:6-8) despite what some people like Brian McLauren and Rob Bell would have you believe.  There is no question that the gospel Jesus preached is the gospel that Paul preached and the gospel that John Wesley preached and the gospel that John Calvin preached.  God is holy and man is sinful.  Because of our sin, we deserve punishment, but for those who repent of their sin and place their faith in Chirst (or in the case of the people Jesus preached to, faith in what God had promised) God has promised to save them.  When we read in scripture the exhortations to go and proclaim the truth that Jesus saves, we can know that Jesus isn't asking us to do anything that He Himself didn't do first.

Matthew 9:32-34 Evil Motives Can Blind Your Eyes

When someone who claims to be a Christian is shown what God’s word says and they reject it (because they don’t want to obey it), you can pretty well bet (a) they’re not a Christian or (b) they are rebelling against God and will be punished (Hebrew 12:6).  Oh, you’ll see them do all sorts of verbal gymnastics (i.e. Galatians 6:1 isn’t a command) but when they can’t prove through what’s said in the text on the page, they’ll resort to name calling.  In our text today, we see the same sorts of things happening—the Pharisees see evidence of who Jesus is but because of the evil motivation of their hearts, they reject the truth.

First of all, notice with me that again that people brought someone who needed to be healed to Jesus (Matthew 9:32).  I think we can conclude from the times we’ve read in this gospel of Matthew where people brought sick folks to Jesus to be healed that word had spread about the miracles He performed.  This didn’t spread as fast as Twitter or a viral YouTube video, but none the less, people knew that if they or someone needed to be healed, Jesus could do it.  In fact, he’d made lame people walk, blind people see, raised the dead all in the span of this chapter.  He didn’t seek to draw attention but the miracles were so spectacular that people took notice.  I guess that’s part of human nature.

So, when these people brought a “demon possessed man who was mute” to Jesus, Jesus cast out the demon.  Healings were rare.  I think the only recorded instance of an exorcism outside of the New Testament was when David played to soothe Saul (I Samuel 6:13).  So, what Jesus did was extraordinary not only for the time that the Pharisees and the people lived; it was extraordinary for any time and place.  Now, knowing this, the people rightly concluded “Never was anything like this seen in Israel”.  I don’t mean to suggest that all these people had saving faith, although some of them might, but certainly some of them realized that Jesus was the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6).  The implication of their statement is “We know the prophets came from God and were empowered by God.  This Man is doing greater things than they did.  He must be sent from God too”.

Now, the Pharisees who knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, knew what the crowds knew and saw what the crowds saw.  Their conclusion—“But the Pharisees said, ‘He casts out demons by the prince of demons.’”   Friends, they had all the truth they needed to conclude who Jesus was and because of their foolish pride they ignored the truth and decided He was from Satan.  It is a very, very dangerous thing to reject the truth of Christ—that He was the substitute, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, and that it is only by faith in Him and repentance from sin that anyone can be saved.  If you reject that, as the Pharisees did, you reject it to your eternal doom.

Look at the evidence, friend.  If you haven’t trusted Christ, do so today.

Matthew 9:27-31 Coming Out of the Darkness

I told you that you shoulda used Lifeboy.

I was born with cataracts so I spent about the first 18 months of my life blind as a bat.  Two other times over the years I’ve had eye surgery and had to be led around by other people to get anywhere, so when I read the healings in the gospels involving blind folks, it warms my heart.  Because, one day, in heaven I will get a new resurrection body and both of my eyes will see clear as day and let me tell you I am looking forward to it.  The men we read about in these verses were blessed because not only did they get their sight because of their faith in Christ; they got their sight in this lifetime.

Notice with me that after Christ walked by them in verse 37, they cried out to Him for mercy.  In particular, observe the title they used to call Him—“Son of David”.  Now, from this we can assume these men had saving faith.  They believed Jesus was the Messiah sent from God and likely knew, as was prophesied in Isaiah, that the Messiah would open the eyes of the blind.  Unlike what is taught by Word of Faith heretics, their genuine faith did not cause them to be healed miraculously.  Rather, it drove them to seek out Jesus and appeal to Him for mercy and healing. 

Being blind is a limiting disability now but being blind back then meant you had to depend on others—family, friends, and strangers.  It was impossible to work.  Instead, you had to beg.  You were at the bottom of the social and religious totem pole, so to speak, and many people would assume you had been cursed by God (John 9:2).  But physical blindness is less severe than spiritual blindness (II Corinthians 4:4) and in many ways it is a picture of what spiritual blindness is like.  A person who is spiritually blind is helpless and hopeless, unable to see their sin and need for a Savior.  These men had their physical eyes opened and sought the Messiah to have their physical eyes opened. 

In Matthew 9:28, after Jesus entered the house, they followed him, demonstrating their faith with their persistence.  Giving them an opportunity to verbalize their faith, He asked them if they believed He could heal them.  He didn’t ask if they thought He was willing, but rather was He able—“Do you believe I am Who you say that I am?”  When they answered “Yes, Lord”, He compassionately touched their eyes and they were healed.  Of course, He could have healed them without touching them, but perhaps, because they were blind, He gave them a touch so they could know that He did respond to their faith. 

In any case, their eyes were opened.  I can imagine their excitement.  During my recovery from my last eye surgery, I was unable to see much of anything for two weeks.  I was scheduled to preach and bought a Giant Print NASB so that I could see.  I remember the sheer joy of being able to open that Bible and read God’s word after having been worried I’d never see again.  These men had been blind, probably from birth, so their joy even eclipsed mine.  A whole new world opened right before their eyes, literally.

Of course, as we read in Matthew 9:30, Jesus knew what could happen as a result of their excitement.  These men, likely as not, were going to go shouting as loudly as they could to everyone they could tell what Jesus had done.  And, as we’ve seen in this gospel and others, when Jesus heals people, crowds form.  These crowds of course had some people who had genuine faith in the Messiah.  However, some of the people were just looking for a good show or a free meal.  Because the gawkers would pose an impediment to His ministry, Jesus wanted to avoid them so He commanded the men to keep quiet about this healing.  Of course, as we see in verse 31, these men, who had enough faith to be healed by the Messiah, disobeyed Jesus.  In the end though, are we really that different, brothers and sisters.  God reveals Himself to us in His word and calls us to repent of our sins, trust Christ, and walk in a manner consistent with our faith (Colossians 1:10) but we still struggle with sin and disobedience.  Praise God, however, that just like these blind men who were healed, God still loves us and forgives us when we sin because we are His children.

Matthew 9:23-25 Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life

I am an auditor which means I make my living as a professional skeptic.  When someone in an entity I am auditing brings me evidence supporting something they are telling me, my natural reaction (after years of doing this job) is “Yeah, right”.  I scrutinize their evidence and always try to independently verify its accuracy.  That’s just how I roll.  So, it’s not hard for me to imagine people who heard about Jesus performing miracles not believing what they heard.  He has, in Matthew’s gospel, healed a sick person from far away, healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, cast out demons, and healed the lame, in addition to His other healings.  However, while people heard about this, there were many of them that had not actually seen it with their own eyes, so they couldn’t verify it firsthand.  When you add to that what Jesus was going to do in this miracle, it’s not hard to imagine that some people doubted—dead people just don’t come back to life.  Of course, as we will see, there is a profound difference between someone who doesn’t believe something is possible until they see it and someone mocking our Lord as He went to heal Jairus’ daughter. 

The scene at Jairus’ home could best be described as bedlam.  Matthew 9:23 tells us that a large crowd of people had gathered—professional mourners and musicians who were called on to mourn for the dead.  In fact, if one goes over to the Middle East, you can still see this kind of funeral today.  Now, as Christ arrived on the scene to perform this miracle, He made an announcement.  In Matthew 9:24, He told them to leave because the girl wasn’t dead but rather she was sleeping. 

There are a few observations I’d like for us to make here.  First of all, notice that when Christ spoke, He spoke with authority.  He didn’t ask them to leave, he ordered them to leave.  When Christ speaks, He always speaks with authority since, not only is He the Son of God, He is God in human flesh.  Now, we don’t hear Christ’s voice audibly, we do hear the voice of Christ in with written word of God.  As Martin Luther said “Let the man who would hear God speak read holy scripture”.  Secondly, Christ isn’t speaking literally as if the child was just deep into a REM cycle, having a good dream, and didn’t want to wake up.  He was using a common euphemism where death was referred to as sleep.  Also, He likely meant that her death wasn’t a permanent condition.  She hadn’t died so as to remain dead.  Rather, she had died and now Christ, who is the Life, was there to raise her back to life. 

One final consideration as we come to this awesome miracle in verse 25—I can’t speak for everyone out there who read this blog, but for myself, until I started studying this passage, I don’t think I realized how spectacular an occurrence this was.  Really, the gospels only record three times where Christ raised someone from the dead—the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-17), the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-46—which was the miracle that made the Pharisees say “Ok, we’ve had about enough of this”), and this child being raised from the dead.  In other words, resurrection was rare.  When people died, they stayed dead and nothing could be done to change that.  So, when this happened, it was a totally unexpected, startling event.  Even for someone reading only this gospel for the first time, this is completely unusual. 

The crowd’s response is not altogether unexpected—the verse tells us they laughed.  Now, because the verb “laughed” is in the imperfect tense, we shouldn’t understand that they just had a good chuckle over Jesus’ statement.  “Oh, this guy can’t tell the difference between a dead person and someone who is asleep.  What a hoot!”  This was a mocking that went on and on, just like any crowd of people is likely to do.  You can almost hear a sing-song kind of “nanny, nanny, boo, boo” start up by the crowd—“She’s not dead, she’s sleeping.  She’s not dead, she’s sleeping.  Bwahahahahahah”.  They mocked the idea that Christ could save this girl.  They didn’t just doubt Him, they made fun of Him.  Therefore, He commanded them to leave, and then went in to see the child. 

As Christ went in to where the girl was laying, he took her hand in His and she came back to life.  The other gospel writers provide more detail (i.e. only James, John, Peter, and the girl’s parents were permitted to come with Him, He spoke to her in Aramaic) but the important point remains the same.  This little girl who I’m sure meant the world to her parents had died.  Now, because of the compassion of our Savior, she was restored to life.  As miraculous as this was, though, an even greater miracle can occur today.  Someone who rejected God and the gospel can place their faith in Christ and repent of their sins and God will save them—He will resurrect them from being spiritually dead and bound for eternal torment in hell to being spiritually alive and bound for eternity in heaven.  Praise God that He is still in the business of raising the dead.

Matthew 9:20-22 Jesus, Our Compassionate Savior

I love to read the gospels because I am always reminded of how compassionate the Lord Jesus is toward us.  While obviously His most compassionate act was when He died on the cross as our substitute when He bore God’s wrath for our sins, His miraculous healings also demonstrate how tenderhearted He is.  I’ve been going through a lot the past year or so.  At times I have felt lost, unwanted, unloved, and useless.  As I look at the healings in this chapter of Matthew and I see how kind Jesus was to the people who needed Him, I see all over again why He is called the Good Shepherd—He truly cares for His sheep. 

As we noticed last time in Matthew 9:18-19, Jesus was en route to the house of a Jewish Synagogue leader whose daughter had either just died or was about to die.  So, while He, the father of the girl, and His disciples were headed to the man’s house, He was interrupted by a desperate woman—a woman who had suffered for 12 years. 

We’re not told exactly what the disorder she suffered from was, but we are told it was “a discharge of blood”.  Speculation about what the discharge was would prove fruitless, in my opinion.  If God had wanted us to know, He would have inspired the gospel writers to tell us.  Suffice it to say, however, that this constant flow of blood made her an outcast from society.  She couldn’t work.  She couldn’t socialize.  She was totally alone.  And she was desperate. 

First of all, she was desperate because she was cut off from contact with people.  According to Leviticus 15:25, she was perpetually unclean and therefore anyone she came in contact with also became unclean.  Add to that the obvious hygiene problems she must have had and you can imagine she must have been miserable.  Secondly, as we read the other gospel accounts, we find she was desperate because she had tried all kinds of treatment for her condition and had spent all she had in doing so (Mark 5:26) without seeing any relief.  A first century rabbi notes the kinds of “treatments” she had to endure. 

"Take of gum Alexandria, of alum, and of crocus hortensis, the weight of a zuzee each; let them be bruised together, and given in wine to the woman that hath an issue of blood. But if this fail, "Take of Persian onions nine logs, boil them in wine, and give it to her to drink: and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this fail, "Set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her hand; and let somebody come behind and affright her, and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this do no good, "Take a handful of cummin and a handful of crocus, and a handful of faenu-greek; let these be boiled, and given her to drink, and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this also fail, "Dig seven trenches, and burn in them some cuttings of vines not yet circumcised (vines not four years old); and let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let her be led from this trench and set down over that, and let her be removed from that, and set down over another: and in each removal say unto her, Arise from thy flux."

Can you imagine the heartbreak she must have felt every time one of these treatments failed?  She was beyond hopeless.  There was no light at the end of the tunnel and the only one who could truly help her was the Great Physician.  We’re not told how she knew how to find Him, or how she knew about Him.  For that matter, we’re not told what she knew about Him.  But we are told that she had enough faith to touch the “hem of His garment” (probably some tassels on His robe).  We read in Matthew 9:21 that she knew at least that He had healed others and believed that He could heal her as well.  So, in faith, she touched Him. 

Then, as quick as you could snap your fingers, the very instant she touched Him in fact, she was made well.  She could tell in her body that something was different—her disease had been cured.  She probably would have expected a rebuke from the crowd.  In fact, the other gospels that record this miracle (Mark and Luke) state that she was timid about coming forward.  Jesus wasn’t offended, however. This was no accident.  She wasn’t healed by Him passively.  No, this was a divine appointment and Jesus noted that He healed her because “your faith has made you well”.   

Now, this doesn’t mean that all those who have saving faith will be healed of their diseases and it certainly doesn’t mean that healing miracles are available today.  It does teach us those that when Jesus performed miracles such as this healing, they were proof that He was Who He said He was—the Son of God.  They also show His love and compassion for people (“Take heart, daughter”). 

Have you repented of your sins and trusted in Christ’s death and resurrection to save you from God’s wrath?  If you haven’t, consider how kind and merciful Jesus was to this woman and know that He will show that same kindness and compassion to you if you will only place your faith in Him.

Matthew 9:18-19 Surely He Has Borne Our Grief

In Matthew chapter 8, we read several accounts of Christ healing people of various ills. Some people teach, wrongly, that supernatural healing is normative for Christians and cite Christ’s healing ministry as proof that physical freedom from sickness is somehow part of the atonement. However, the evidence in scripture, not to mention the life experience of millions of Christians living and dead all over the world proves quite the opposite. Because of the effects of sin, our bodies and this world are both corrupted and therefore subject to disease and death. However, during His ministry on earth, Christ healed people not just to demonstrate compassion on them and certainly not to allow them to live their “best life now”. Rather, the primary reason was to be obedient to God and demonstrate that when He claimed deity, He wasn’t just making stuff up—it was true and the miracles were the proof.

As we come to our text in Matthew 9, we need to keep those truths in focus as we attempt to interpret the text. What Matthew is teaching us here is not that, as Christians, we will never get sick. Rather, he intends for us to understand that Jesus is God and as God can do things only God can do. The fact that people knew He was able to do these things is pretty evident. While He was correcting some misconceptions on the part of the Pharisees and John’s disciples (Matthew 9:11-17), He was approached by a leader of the local synagogue whose daughter was close to death (Matthew 9:18). Now, Matthew just gives us the general details about the scene—the man came to Jesus, worshipped Him (“knelt”—proskyneō 4352) and begged Jesus to come heal his daughter. Mark and Luke fill in the details for us as they did in Matthew 8:5-12. The man’s name is Jairus and his daughter was on the verge of death. Matthew records that the synagogue leader says his daughter “has just died”, but the English translation doesn’t really do the Greek justice—it could just as easily mean “by this time she must have died”.

Now, remember when Jesus healed the centurions servant, the Roman soldier refused to allow Jesus to come to his home, He claimed he was unworthy and cited Jesus’ authority in the matter. “If I have authority over soldiers, I don’t have to be present to make sure something is done. Likewise, since I recognize your authority over disease, I know you don’t have to be present for the disease to obey you” he essentially said. The man, who was considered a “dog” to Jewish people, had faith enough to trust Christ to heal his servant.

Observe here (Matthew 9:18), this man who knew God, knew the scriptures, and apparently recognized Jesus as able to heal His child, or else why would he have risked his position in Jewish religious life to call on Him, came to Jesus, worshipped Him, but needed Him to come to where the girl was dying so that He could heal her. He didn’t have the faith to believe that Christ could just speak, where they were, and heal his little girl.

However, this lack of faith doesn’t dissuade Christ. Out of His love, compassion, and obedience to His Father, Jesus agrees to go and brings His disciples with Him. As we read this and contemplate on the situation and Christ’s response, we should be touched by the compassion that Christ shows here and elsewhere for those who are sick and hurting. We should also be thankful that even when our faith is weak and we find it hard to trust Christ, Christ still loves us and accepts us where we are. He truly is our faithful High Priest.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007

Matthew 9:14-17 A Pair of Skewed Perspectives—John the Baptist’s Disciples part 2

The Pharisees had a wrong perspective about Jesus and what He taught. They perceived that He was not up to their standards of holiness because He ate with people they considered sinners. They also believed that they were themselves righteous. Of course, we know that there is no one who is righteous—we all stand before a holy God justly condemned for our sins apart from faith in Christ and His finished work. However, it wasn’t just the Pharisees that did not understand Christ. The disciples of John the Baptist also had a skewed perspective. As we saw the last time we looked at these verses, the disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus about fasting. He helped them come to understand that His disciples did not fast because, first of all, it wasn’t time for them to be fasting. Let’s take a look at another reason why His disciples didn’t fast like John’s disciples did.


In verses 16 and 17, Jesus used two illustrations that pretty well everyone in the Middle East would have understood. He told these disciples, in essence, that the new truths He taught didn’t fit with the Jewish religion as they practiced it. In verse 16, he compared the truth of the gospel to a piece of new cloth. Trying to fast as the Pharisees and priests taught while believing the gospel that Christ preached would be like taking that new piece of cloth that was not shrunk and sewing it onto an old coat that had a tear. When the patch shrunk, and it would shrink, it would pull away from the coat and make an even bigger tear. One cannot take the truth of the gospel and pair it with forms of external, man-centered self justification and not expect a problem. The Pharisees and religious leaders taught that it was by keeping the law and ceremonies that a person was made right with God. I don’t think that Jesus is forbidding anyone from fasting but rather he was giving the proper perspective on it. A person cannot be made right with God because they observed some ceremony. Trying to do that is disastrous—it just doesn’t fit.

In like manner, He said trying to take the new wine of the gospel and pour it into the old forms of the religion practiced by the Pharisees would be a complete waste. The truth of the gospel could not be contained by those old forms and customs. The gospel of forgiveness of sins based on faith and repentance could not fit with the doctrine of self-atonement. Because true righteousness is received through faith as a gift it could not be earned through human work. Therefore, the gospel was, and is, incompatible with the attempt that many people, even some of them believers, make to secure their right standing with God by being good. As I had preached to a congregation before, salvation is not about right doing producing right being but rather it is about right being producing right doing.

How sad it is when people try to justify themselves by being religions. It is vain, futile, and ultimately, as Jesus says here, leads to ruin. The gospel that He preached was a pure, life giving gospel that actually saves not a works based gospel that only serves to remind a person that they’re never good enough. We are not good enough to stand before a holy God, but because of the finished work of Christ on Calvary, we are declared righteous. Brothers and sisters, may we rest securely in the finished work of our Lord. As He said from the cross, “It is finished”.

Matthew 9:14-17 A Pair of Skewed Perspectives—John the Baptist’s Disciples part 1

John the Baptist was a pretty interesting character. He probably wouldn’t have been invited to preach in our churches if he was around today, which wouldn’t make much of a difference to him, I would bet, because he’d be in the “boondocks” or some part of town that most of us wouldn’t be caught dead in preaching the gospel. His disciples, as we observe here came to Jesus with questions that were born out of a skewed perspective just like the Pharisees—skewed ii a different direction, perhaps, but skewed none the less. In short, the disciples of John had an incorrect perspective on the situation of Jesus’ disciples and the scope of Jesus’ ministry.


First of all, notice their perspective on Jesus’ disciples. They ask Jesus in Matthew 9:14 why His disciples do not fast as the disciples of other teachers did. Now, observe the tone they used. It doesn’t appear that they were accusatory or combative. They were just asking a question—clarifying. Furthermore, while the Pharisees fasted according to Jewish tradition on holy days as well as regularly during the week, it’s possible that at this point when they spoke to Jesus that John’s disciples were grieving the loss of their teacher after he was executed by Herod the Great. Therefore, they may have been asking Christ why His disciples were not fasting to mourn with them, since he was Christ’s cousin, or they may have been asking why they didn’t follow the same ceremonies as the disciples of other teachers.

In any case, Christ loving clarifies His disciple’s situation for them. Please notice, as I’m sure you have, that Christ does not forbid fasting or abolish the practice. Rather, He points out the unique situation of the disciples and why they are not fasting. Borrowing from the custom of Jewish weddings, which were basically huge parties, he makes the analogy that He is the bridegroom, the disciples are the wedding guests and as such it would not be proper for them to mourn (Matthew 9:15). While Christ is with them, they don’t have any reason to mourn. The Messiah has come and is preaching to good news of the gospel. The dead are being raised, the lame walk, and the blind see. For the person who had their eyes opened to this truth, there couldn’t possibly have been any happier time. Rejoicing, not weeping, would be the response you would expect of someone who had been given by God the revelation of Who Christ was.

Furthermore, as we continue to read in Matthew 9:15, Christ notes that there will be a time in the future when His disciples will fast—they will have reason to mourn. As He did several times in His ministry, he predicts a time when “…the bridegroom is taken away…” referring to the time when He was crucified. Of course, we know how sad and fearful the disciples were immediately after the crucifixion but at the time neither the disciples of John nor Christ’s own disciples realized exactly what lay ahead. However, though John’s disciples couldn’t have known exactly what Jesus meant, Jesus did point out to them the fact that they didn’t have a clear perspective on why His disciples didn’t fast. In short, the time wasn’t right.

Matthew 9:13 A Pair of Skewed Perspectives—The Pharisees Part III

As we observed last time in studying this passage, the Pharisees had a problem. They thought they were righteous before God whereas the people Jesus ate with (and by implication Christ Himself) were not. The truth was, of course, that they were just as sinful as those they disdained and in some ways they were worse off because they were sick with the spiritual cancer of sin and they didn’t realize it. In short, Christ had the correct perspective on their condition while they did not. In a similar fashion, their perspective on their devotion to God and their responsibility to man was likewise skewed. As we will see here, Christ again shows them that what they think is true and right differs greatly from reality.


You see, the Pharisees thought that by not associating with sinners that they were proving their devotion to God. In their mind, remaining pure and separate from those who lived godless lives was, in a sense, an act of worship. However, Christ points out the error in their thinking by referring them to Hosea 6:6. He reminded them that they should already have known this by telling them to “go and learn what this means” which was the first century equivalent of saying to them “I guess you were absent the day they taught scripture in Hebrew school, huh?” Again, these masters of scripture might have known the words but the truth of those words had not pierced their hard hearts. They had the quote from Hosea backwards in their practice. They had majored on the “sacrifices”—the external demands and duties of their religion. They had ignored the requirement for “compassion”. Instead of being a witness of the truth to those who lived in disobedience and calling them to repent, they sat in self righteous judgment and condemned those on whom they should have had compassion just as God and Christ had compassion on them.

In addition, they had a goofed up perspective on what God expected from them while also having an incorrect perspective on other people. Jesus reminded them, therefore, that God was a God who saves people and shows compassion. This salvation, though, was for those who were humble enough to acknowledge their need for it. As He said back in Matthew 5:3, it is those who are poor in spirit who are going to be blessed. Those who recognize their need for a savior and will turn to God and say “Have mercy on me” are the ones who will find a God willing to forgive and save them. Jesus, as He said here, “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”.

The Pharisees rejected Jesus and His message because they rejected God’s word in spite of their protestations that they knew Him and followed Him. They, as a result, didn’t have a right perspective on themselves, on sin, and ultimately on God and His righteousness. What we see here then is a reminder that rejecting the truth is dangerous and carries consequences. If we want to have a right perspective on our situation, we need a right perspective on God and we only get that right perspective from His holy word.

Matthew 9:10-13 A Pair of Skewed Perspectives—The Pharisees Part II

The Pharisees, as we examined the last time we looked at this passage, looked down on Jesus because He, in their minds, was not righteous because He was associating with those known to be unrighteous. In their way of thinking, the sinfulness of the people with whom He was eating made them unfit for Jesus or any respectable person to be around. As much as you and I might chide the Pharisees for this attitude, how often are we like that? I’d say more often than we admit. As my pastor pointed out in his sermon Sunday, picture two couples in your mind: one couple comes in, cleanly dressed, hair neatly combed, a man and a woman in their mid 30’s with two children who don’t make a peep the entire service. The other couple is a fairly haggard looking with greasy, matted hair, the man has tattoos on his neck that look like they extend beneath his shirt. The woman is carrying a baby that is screaming loudly and wearing a diaper and a t-shirt that has what looks to be dried squash, peas, and maybe ketchup. Now, which couple would be more readily welcomed into our churches? Which couple needs the gospel more, would you assume?


Hold on to both of those questions for a little bit while we examine how Jesus responded to these people who criticized Him for the company He kept.

First of all, notice that Christ had a different perspective on the condition of the people with whom He ate as well as a different perspective on the Pharisees’ condition than they themselves had. The Pharisees thought they were righteous. As far as people measured righteousness, they were righteous. They kept the letter of the law in the eyes of people and were considered experts in knowing how to live rightly before God. Jesus, in Matthew 9:12, reminded these men who proclaimed themselves righteous that “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” Now, Jesus was not talking about physical sickness. Rather, He was referring to the spiritual cancer of sin that was in the heart of those with whom He was eating.

However, it wasn’t just the publicans who had a problem with sin. In fact, the Pharisees should have known that better than anyone because they knew, or should have known, what God’s word said in the Psalms. Psalms 14:2-3 says “The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.” In other words, while the Pharisees might have heard Jesus’ reply and assumed they were the “healthy” ones that He was talking about, the fact is there are no people who could be called “healthy” in the example Jesus gave. We are all sick—sick with the disease of sin and it is terminal. Only Jesus, the Great Physician, has the ability to cure that disease and save us. Therefore, Jesus had a different perspective on the people He ate with and He had a different perspective on the Pharisees than they themselves had. They saw themselves as whole. He saw them, as He sees all sinners, as diseased.

Next time, we will return and examine how Christ’s perspective on the responsibility of the Pharisees to the publicans and sinners was different than that of the Pharisees. However, as we close out, based on what we’ve read now, which couple from our hypothetical situation above needs to hear the gospel more? Most people in church would probably act as though couple number 2 needed the gospel more, but in fact we often times would be more welcoming to couple number 1. Let these verses we have studied remind us that Christ sees everyone as spiritually sick and needing the services of the Great Physician who died on the cross to suffer God’s wrath in their place.

Matthew 9:10-12 A Pair of Skewed Perspectives-The Pharisees Part I

It’s difficult to make an informed decision when you don’t have all the facts. Several times in my career as an auditor, I have had moments where I thought I had found something that was a problem—a “gotcha” moment. I don’t want to oversell how excited I get, but I’ve been known to stand up at my desk and do the “Joey-Patch” and then practice my Ricky Ricardo imitation—“Auditee, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.” More often than not, the issue has not been nearly as interesting as I had thought because, due to a lack of information, I had a wrong perspective. In like manner, the two groups that raise objections to Christ in this chapter of scripture (the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples) had a skewed perspective due to a lack of insight into the truth.


Let’s take the Pharisees, for instance. In Matthew 9:10, we read that Christ is eating at a dinner that Mark and Luke tell us was held in Matthew’s home (Luke 5:29). Since most of the people Matthew knew, due to his station as a social outcast as a result of his former occupation, were tax collectors and assorted irreligious folk, we find Jesus surrounded by just such a crowd. The text does not explicitly say so, but it’s not too far of a stretch to imagine that Matthew used this occasion for evangelism. He was so thankful that Christ had called him from his life of sin (Matthew 9:9) that he wanted to share the same opportunity with his friends. After all, if Christ could save a thieving tax collector, surely He could save anyone.

So, with the stage set as Christ ate with this motley crew, the Pharisees come along and see Jesus keeping company with people that they themselves would view as undesirable. Cowardly as they are, they don’t directly present their accusations to Jesus but go to His disciples and ask “Why is your teacher eating with tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9:11). The obvious implication being that Christ was defiling Himself by associating with such sinful people. Frankly, their question might appear biblical if you didn’t think too hard about it. After all, we read in Haggai 2:13 that uncleanness is contagious while holiness is not. And we are exhorted in other scriptures to avoid immorality (1 Thessalonians 5:22, for instance). Therefore, if we are to imitate Christ, how does this fit into the mold which we are called to imitate?

I would suggest, first of all, that we should observe the setting Christ is in. He has not gone down to a brothel or the temple of some Roman god where sinful activity was going on. He was in a home, an invited guest, eating supper. He was not participating or encouraging immoral behavior, rather He was going about His business—the business of His Father God. I’ve heard of people saying “Yeah, I went down with ol’ Joe to the Grub and Pup last night and shot some tequila with him so I could have a chance to share the gospel.” Friends, we’re not supposed to follow the world into immorality but rather we’re supposed to point them to the Light. As we go though our lives at school, at work, in the store, or wherever we are, we will have opportunities to do as Christ did and interact with people who have not heard the gospel or have not yet repented and trusted Christ to save them. So, just as He did, we need to take those opportunities to be found “eating with tax collectors and sinners”—not engaged in sin with them but living our lives among them.

Christ did not call us out of the world but He called us to live here and share the gospel with those we meet. Rather than isolating ourselves from contact with “sinners” like the Pharisees did, we need to have the perspective of Christ and take the opportunities we have as we live our lives to share the life changing gospel of Christ with a world that desperately needs it. We will look more specifically next time as to Christ’s response to their object and what He taught them, and us, about a proper perspective on evangelism.

Matthew 9:9 God’s Mercy and Forgiveness

I was in a training seminar for auditors and accountants today. Yes, 350 auditors and accountants in the same room. I’m surprised we were able to walk out of there under our own power. It’s a wonder any of us were not brain dead.


Actually it was pretty interesting. One of the presentations was on ethics for accountants. The presenter showed a chart from a study someone had done ranking various professions based on how much integrity you’d expect someone in that profession to have. For instance, nurses ranked the highest—everybody trusts nurses. Auditors and accountants, well, we didn’t fare as well. We were the second lowest right above lawyers.

Things were not that different in Christ’s day. I mean, sure, they had not invented double entry bookkeeping but they had men who collected money for the government. Matthew, the author of this gospel was one such man. We read about his call in this single verse of his gospel but as we read this verse, we need to remember some things, bearing in mind that he was a tax collector.

His people hated him—the Jews that is. Tax collectors worked for the Romans and there are no words for how badly the Jews hated being under Roman occupation. The Romans would sell the rights to collect taxes to people, like Matthew. So, the tax collectors were seen as sell outs. They were ranked right down there with harlots, so Matthew and I have something in common since I’m in a profession that is ranked right above lawyers (Harlots/lawyers, is there a real difference there?). He was a societal outcast. They hated him for another reason as well—tax collectors were crooks. They were given an amount that they had to collect in taxes but they were not told what the maximum they could collect was. Therefore, standard practice was for them to collect “a little something extra” for themselves. So, they sold out their people by helping the Romans and they were crooks who stole from their countrymen by collecting more than was required in taxes. In short, most people liked them about as much as they do any auditor.

Matthew, therefore, was probably not part of religious life in his community. Likely as not, he didn’t have friends who were not engaged in his occupation. The very idea that this governmental accountant could be called into the service of Christ would have been laughable to anyone from “polite society”. He wasn’t just from the wrong side of the tracks—he wasn’t even on the same continent. He had made his choice and there is nothing he could do that would make him clean. He was a sinner, hopeless, helpless, and completely doomed.

And then Jesus enters the picture. I have to imagine as Matthew wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that he had a tear in his eye. There’s no tricky Greek verb tenses going on here. No difficult vocabulary to wrestle with. Here was Jesus, soverignly reaching out to Matthew for no reason other than it pleased Him to do so. He knew who Matthew was. He knew what he had done. In spite of all that, He extended the call “Follow me”. And Matthew did so.

As we reflect on this verse and Matthew’s call, let us remember our own call. I remember how God, when I was in 7th grade on a Thursday afternoon in September, convicted me of my sin by the Holy Spirit and called me to Himself. I remember when I was in 8th grade, a little snot nosed punk, I heard His call and wasn’t sure what He was calling me to do. I remember Him calling me back to repentance after I had spent all of my college, no, wasted all of my time in college living as though I didn’t know Him. I remember him allowing me to serve as a minister of music and a pastor. He called me in spite of everything I am knowing full well exactly what I was. Remembering our call should cause us to burst out in praise to our kind, gracious heavenly Father who loved us in spite of our sin. Praise His holy name.

Matthew 9:3-8 True Spiritual Blindness

Almost two years ago, my retina in my right eye (my one good eye) detached. I was laid up for about 2 weeks after the surgery unable to see well at all. In fact, initially, I was blind as a bat. I was blessed to have a great surgeon (Dr. Trent Wallace) do an excellent job and I am now able to see pretty much like I could before. The Pharisees, though, had a blindness that even my friend Dr. Wallace couldn’t cure. They could see fine, physically. Spiritually, however, they were blind to the truth even though Truth Himself, Jesus Christ, was staring them right in the face.

Now, remember that Jesus has just performed an amazing miracle here—He has just forgiven a man of his sins based on faith. What an amazing, beautiful thing for these people to be privileged to witness. However, the reaction of the scribes was not one of praise and thanksgiving to God. Rather, they were incensed that Jesus would proclaim this man to be forgiven.

Actually, the principal behind their indignation was actually correct. For someone to declare to a person “Your sins are forgiven” would be blasphemy, as they correctly observe in verse 3 of this chapter. I mean, I couldn’t make that statement. You couldn’t do that. Oh, we can forgive people when they wrong us and we can declare to someone that has trusted in Christ that their sins are forgiven because the Bible says so. But we can’t ultimately forgive any person for their sins eternally—only God can do that.

However, Jesus is God. “Maybe they didn’t know it” one might argue. I would invite you to look at the parallel account of this story in Mark 2:1-13. Mark includes some details for us that Matthew wasn’t inspired by God to record (such as the homeowners got a brand new skylight [v. 4]). Notice in verse 2 that Mark records that Jesus was “speaking the word to them”. Christ was preaching and they heard Him. Now, I dare say that it is more than reasonable to assume that as He spoke it was obvious who He was. I cannot imagine someone hearing Christ preach and not having sufficient evidence just in His words that He was God in human flesh. Further, this was not the first miracle recorded in Matthew’s gospel nor was it the first one that Jesus had performed. His forgiving of this man’s sins was one of many miracles that had no doubt been talked about all around the land of Palestine. Therefore, these men had plenty of evidence of who Christ was and they chose to reject it. Their spiritual eyes were blinded to the truth.

Jesus, because He was God and omnipotent, knew what they were thinking. In fact, even someone who wasn’t omnipotent could probably have read their facial expression and gotten a pretty good idea of what was in their heads. Christ called their thoughts what they were in verse 4—“evil”. They had taken a work of the Holy Spirit, this man being forgiven of his sins, and called such a proclamation an offense against God when it was God Himself doing the forgiving.

He then sets before them a pretty imposing question in verse 5— "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, and walk'? Now, I think you could understand this question in two ways. Which would be easier to say and actually have the power to do or which would be easier to say and not be able to prove it. Well, one could say the words “Your sins are forgiven” and not be able to back it up but it would be hard to have tangible proof that what you said wasn’t true. If you said “Get up and walk” and the person couldn’t do it, well, everyone would know then that you were a shyster. But as miraculous as being able to heal someone who could not walk would be, the ability to cleanse someone from their sins and declare them righteous before a holy God is infinitely more imposing a task. To prove to them that “the Son of Man [had] authority on earth to forgive sins” He healed the man of his impotent limbs. Not only was the man spiritually whole, which was by far the greater miracle, he now could walk. He wasn’t dependant on having other people carry him everywhere anymore. He was now able bodied and could do things for himself that he was not able to do before. Notice, those of you who claim that physical healing comes with spiritual healing, that the healing of his legs took place after his sins were forgiven and it took place only to prove a point.

Now, it’s easy for us to look at the religious leaders of the day and say “How could they miss it?” Brothers and sisters, how could we miss it? We have all the evidence we need to convince any sane person to follow Christ as Lord. Do we really do that? Are we willing to follow a Savior who has so graciously performed in our lives the greatest miracle of all—He has forgiven our sins? We dare not count such a blessing as cheap. Let’s take note of the spiritual blindness of the scribes and Pharisees and follow Christ as if our spiritual eyes have been opened…because they have been.

Matthew 9:1-3 When Your Problem Isn’t Your Real Problem

I work as an auditor. Sometimes on an audit, our audit team will find errors on financial statements, have problems pulling data and sorting it, or have to corroborate explanations the entity gives for certain financial conditions or activities. In making decisions about audit work, we have to address material risks. What that means, in terms people like me can understand, is we have to worry about stuff that is a big deal—it’s got to matter. We don’t go on fishing expeditions to check out a $100 expenditure in a $100,000,000 account. That just wouldn’t make sense. We have to keep focused on what the real issues are and sometimes something that looks big, and may in fact be big, becomes inconsequential in light of the overall audit picture. To be sure, being unable to walk is a huge disability. However, as we see in this scripture today, in light of the eternal state of someone’s soul, it’s really not that important.

Observe with me how when Jesus “came to His own city” (Capernaum) people came to Him bringing with them a man who could not walk. As we have studied the book of Matthew, we have noticed how the word of Jesus’ miracles had spread and people would come from all over the area seeking healing for themselves or loved ones. Certainly not all of these people possessed saving faith but they had heard about Christ and what He could do. Now, these people had brought this man to Jesus, and as we read in the parallel accounts in Luke and Mark, they went to great lengths to get him to Jesus, even going so far as to tear up the roof to be able to lower the paralyzed man into the crowd in front of Jesus. I’m going out on a limb here, but I doubt these guys were Bible scholars. They certainly weren’t part of the religious establishment. I’d be willing to bet they probably couldn’t have given some sort of deep theological explanation about Who Jesus was—that He was God and man. They certainly didn’t understand what He came to do on the cross. That was a mystery even to His disciples. However, they had something that Christ noticed as they brought this man to Him, probably flailing about in midair as they dropped him into some guy’s living room through his roof, which now had a sky light.

They had faith. Their faith was in Christ and although there were things they didn’t know they knew that Christ could heal this man. This man’s friends brought him to Christ believing that their friend could be made well. That’s what they expected. That’s what the man expected I’m sure. I can only imagine his relief he felt when he started at the Lord as the Lord looked on and saw his faith.
However, look with me as to what Christ did. Rather than heal the man, He declared “Your sins are forgiven.” Now, that’s not why he came. For that matter, that’s not why his friends brought him. And, for anyone who is convinced that physical healing is guaranteed to all Christians, notice that Christ didn’t heal him until a few verses later in answering objections to His bold pronouncement. You see, you and I have problems—health, financial, job, family. All these problems are big and sometimes to us they’re huge—perhaps overwhelming. I am sure this man felt like his paralysis was a huge problem. Otherwise, I doubt he would have let his friends drop him down a hole in the roof of a strangers house.
However, in light of spending an eternity in hell, being lame really isn’t that bad. He thought he knew what his problem was. Jesus, however, knew what his real problem was. His sin would separate him from God and damn him to an eternity in Hell forever.

See friend, like this man we think we have perspective on what our real problems and needs are but God, who is over all and above all, knows what we really need. We need, first and foremost, to be forgiven of our sins and declared righteous in the sight of God. Whatever we think our problem is, like the man today our real problem is the indwelling sin that we struggle with. Even if you and I have been forgiven and stand in a right relationship with God, our real problem is not the temporal things that compete for our attention. Our real problem is the daily struggle to deal with sin and live a life faithful to God. Let’s pray that Jesus will give us His perspective on our lives and let us see our problems as He sees them—small in view of eternity.