He entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his own city. Behold, they brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you.”
Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.”
Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins-” (then he said to the paralytic), “Get up, and take up your mat, and go to your house.”
He arose and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him. As he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”
Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made. Neither do people put new wine into old wine skins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wine skins, and both are preserved.”
While he told these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
Jesus got up and followed him, as did his disciples. Behold, a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment; for she said within herself, “If I just touch his garment, I will be made well.”
But Jesus, turning around and seeing her, said, “Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder, he said to them, “Make room, because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” They were ridiculing him.
But when the crowd was put out, he entered in, took her by the hand, and the girl arose. The report of this went out into all that land.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 23 Into Capernaum, for as Theophylact saith, Bethlehem brought him…
Into Capernaum, for as Theophylact saith, Bethlehem brought him forth, Nazareth brought him up, and Capernaum was his dwelling place.
Sins are the causes of our afflictions, and Christ only forgiveth them if we believe.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–26 1 And he entered into a ship, and passed…
1 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.
Ver. 1. And he entered into a ship] He called not for fire from heaven upon those brutish Gadarenes that were so glad to be rid of him. Some wicked ones Christ punisheth here, lest his providence, but not all, lest his patience and promise of coming again to judgment, should be called into question, saith Augustine.
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Came into his own city] Capernaum, a colony of the Romans, where our Saviour hired a house, and wore a stole or long garment, as a citizen. Happy town in such an inhabitant, and in this respect lifted up to heaven, Mat 11:23. Indeed, heaven came down to Capernaum; for the Lord so delighteth in his servants (how much more, then, in his Son) that their walls are ever in his sight, and he loveth to look upon the houses where they dwell, Isa 49:16.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 Whether the same ship he came in or no…
Whether the same ship he came in or no it is not material: he
passed over the lake of Gennesaret,
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and came into his own city; not Bethlehem, in which he was born, but either Nazareth, where he was brought up, or (which most judge) Capernaum, whither, leaving Nazareth, he went formerly to dwell, Mat 4:13, whither he is said to have entered, Mar 2:1; this was upon the seacoast of Zebulun and Naphtali, Mat 4:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 20, 23 In the last verse of the foregoing chapter, the…
In the last verse of the foregoing chapter, the Gadarenes with one consent desire Christ to depart out of their coasts; here we find our Saviour, according tho their desire, departing from them into his own city, which was Capernaum; for Bethlehem brought him forth, Nazareth brought him up, and Capernaum was his dwelling-place.
From their desire of Christ’s departure, and from Christ’s departing accordingly to their desire, we learn, That the blessed Jesus will not long trouble that people with his presence who are weary of his company and desirous of his departure.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 14, 18 The first words of this chapter oblige us to…
The first words of this chapter oblige us to look back to the close of that which precedes it, where we find the Gadarenes so resenting the loss of their swine, that they were disgusted with Christ's company, and besought him to depart out of their coasts. Now here it follows, He entered into a ship, and passed over. They bid him begone, and he took them at their word, and we never read that he came into their coasts again. Now here observe, 1. His justice - that he left them. Note, Christ will not tarry long where he is not welcome. In righteous judgment, he forsakes those places and persons that are weary of him, but abides with those that covet and court his stay. If the unbeliever will depart from Christ, let him depart; it is at his peril, Co1 7:15. 2. His patience - that he did not leave some destroying judgment behind him, to punish them, as they deserved, for their contempt and contumacy. How easily, how justly, might he have sent them after their swine, who were already so much under the devil's power. The provocation, indeed, was very great: but he put it up, and passed it by; and, without any angry resentments or upbraidings, he entered into a ship, and passed over. This was the day of his patience; he came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; not to kill, but to cure. Spiritual judgments agree more with the constitution of gospel times; yet some observe, that in those bloody wars which the Romans made upon the Jews, which began not many years after this, they first besieged the town of Gadara, where these Gadarenes dwelt. Note, Those that drive Christ from them, draw all miseries upon them. Woe unto us, if God depart from us.
He came into his own city, Capernaum, the principal place of his residence at present (Mar 2:1), and therefore called his own city. He had himself testified, that a prophet it least honoured in his own country and city, yet thither he came; for he sought not his own honour; but, being in a state of humiliation, he was content to be despised of the people. At Capernaum all the circumstances recorded in this chapter happened, and are, therefore, put together here, though, in the harmony of the evangelists, other events intervened. When the Gadarenes desired Christ to depart, they of Capernaum received him. If Christ be affronted by some, there are others in whom he will be glorious; if one will not, another will.
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Now the first occurrence, after Christ's return to Capernaum, as recorded in these verses, was the cure of the man sick of the palsy. In which we may observe,
I. The faith of his friends in bringing him to Christ. His distemper was such, that he could not come to Christ himself, but as he was carried. Note, Even the halt and the lame may be brought to Christ, and they shall not be rejected by him. If we do as well as we can, he will accept of us. Christ had an eye to their faith. Little children cannot go to Christ themselves, but he will have an eye to the faith of those that bring them, and it shall not be in vain. Jesus saw their faith, the faith of the paralytic himself, as well as of them that brought him; Jesus saw the habit of faith, though his distemper, perhaps, impaired his intellect, and obstructed the actings of it. Now their faith was, 1. A strong faith; they firmly believed that Jesus Christ both could and would heal him; else they would not have brought the sick man to him so publicly, and through so much difficulty. 2. A humble faith; though the sick man was unable to stir a step, they would not ask Christ to make him a visit, but brought him to attend on Christ. It is fitter than we should wait on Christ, than he on us. 3. An active faith: in the belief of Christ's power and goodness, they brought the sick man to him, lying on a bed, which could not be done without a deal of pains. Note, A strong faith regards no obstacles in pressing after Christ.
II. The favour of Christ, in what he said to him; Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. This was a sovereign cordial to a sick man, and was enough to make all his bed in his sickness; and to make it easy to him. We read not of any thing said to Christ; probably the poor sick man could not speak for himself, and they that brought him chose rather to speak by actions than words; they set him before Christ; that was enough. Note, It is not in vain to present ourselves and our friends to Christ, as the objects of his pity. Misery cries as well as sin, and mercy is no less quick of hearing than justice. Here is, in what Christ said, 1. A kind compellation; Son. Note, Exhortations and consolations to the afflicted speak to them as to sons, for afflictions are fatherly discipline, Heb 12:5. 2. A gracious encouragement; "Be of good cheer. Have a good heart on it; cheer up thy spirits." Probably the poor man, when let down among them all in his bed, was put out of countenance, was afraid of a rebuke for being brought in so rudely: but Christ does not stand upon ceremony; he bids him be of good cheer; all would be well, he should not be laid before Christ in vain. Christ bids him be of good cheer; and then cures him. He would have those to whom he deals his gifts, to be cheerful in seeking him, and in trusting in him; to be of good courage. 3. A good reason for that encouragement; Thy sins are forgiven thee. Now this may be considered, (1.) as an introduction to the cure of his bodily distemper; "Thy sins are pardoned, and therefore thou shalt be healed." Note, As sin is the cause of sickness, so the remission of sin is the comfort of recovery from sickness; not but that sin may be pardoned, and yet the sickness not removed; not but that the sickness may be removed, and yet the sin not pardoned: but if we have the comfort of our reconciliation to God, with the comfort of our recovery from sickness, this makes it a mercy indeed to us, as to Hezekiah, Isa 38:17. Or, (2.) As a reason of the command to be of good cheer, whether he were cured of his disease or not; "Though I should not heal thee, wilt thou not say thou hast not sought in vain, if I assure thee that thy sins are pardoned; and wilt thou not look upon that as a sufficient ground of comfort, though thou shouldst continue sick of the palsy?" Note, They who, through grace, have some evidence of the forgiveness of their sins, have reasons to be of good cheer, whatever outward troubles or afflictions they are under; see Isa 33:24.
III. The cavil of the scribes at that which Christ said (Mat 9:3); They said within themselves, in their hearts, among themselves, in their secret whisperings, This man blasphemeth. See how the greatest instance of heaven's power and grace is branded with the blackest note of hell's enmity; Christ's pardoning sin is termed blasphemy; nor had it been less, if he had not had commission from God for it. They, therefore, are guilty of blasphemy, that have no such commission, and yet pretend to pardon sin.
IV. The conviction which Christ gave them of the unreasonableness of this cavil, before he proceeded.
1. He charged them with it. Though they did but say it within themselves, he knew their thoughts. Note, Our Lord Jesus has the perfect knowledge of all that we say within ourselves. Thoughts are secret and sudden, yet naked and open before Christ, the eternal Word (Heb 4:12, Heb 4:13), and he understands them afar off, Psa 139:2. He could say to them (which no mere man could), Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? Note, There is a great deal of evil in sinful thoughts, which is very offensive to the Lord Jesus. He being the Sovereign of the heart, sinful thoughts invade his right, and disturb his possession; therefore he takes notice of them, and is much displeased with them. In them lies the root of bitterness, Gen 6:5. The sins that begin and end in the heart, and go no further, are as dangerous as any other.
2. He argued them out of it, Mat 9:5, Mat 9:6. Where observe,
(1.) How he asserts his authority in the kingdom of grace. He undertakes to make out, that the Son of man, the Mediator, has power on earth to forgive sins; for therefore the Father has committed all judgment to the Son, and has given him this authority, because he is the Son of man, Joh 5:22, Joh 5:27. If he has power to give eternal life, as he certainly has (Joh 17:2), he must have power to forgive sin; for guilt is a bar that must be removed, or we can never get to heaven. What an encouragement is this to poor sinners to repent, that the power of pardoning sin is put into the hands of the Son of man, who is bone of our bone! And if he had this power on earth, much more now that he is exalted to the Father's right hand, to give repentance and remission of sins, and so to be both a Prince and a Saviour, Act 5:31.
(2.) How he proves it, by his power in the kingdom of nature; his power to cure diseases. Is it not as easy to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, as to say, Arise and walk? He that can cure the disease, whether declaratively as a Prophet, or authoritatively as God, can, in like manner, forgive the sin. Now, [1.] This is a general argument to prove that Christ had a divine mission. His miracles, especially his miraculous cures, confirm what he said of himself, that he was the Son of God; the power that appeared in his cures proved him sent of God; and the pity that appeared in them proved him sent of God to heal and save. The God of truth would not set his seal to a lie. [2.] It had a particular cogency in this case. The palsy was but a symptom of the disease of sin; now he made it to appear, that he could effectually cure the original disease, by the immediate removal of that symptom; so close a connection was there between the sin and the sickness. He that had power to remove the punishment, no doubt, had power to remit the sin. The scribes stood much upon a legal righteousness, and placed their confidence in that, and made no great matter of the forgiveness of sin, the doctrine upon which Christ hereby designed to put honour, and to show that his great errand to the world was to save his people from their sins.
V. The immediate cure of the sick man. Christ turned from disputing with them, and spake healing to him. The most necessary arguings must not divert us from doing the good that our hand finds to do. He saith to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go to thine house; and a healing, quickening, strengthening power accompanied this word (Mat 9:7): he arose and departed to his house. Now, 1. Christ bid him take up his bed, to show that he was perfectly cured, and that not only he had no more occasion to be carried upon his bed, but that he had strength to carry it. 2. He sent him to his house, to be a blessing to his family, where he had been so long a burden; and did not take him along with him for a show, which those would do in such a case who seek the honour that comes from men.
VI. The impression which this made upon the multitude (Mat 9:8); they marvelled, and glorified God. Note, All our wonder should help to enlarge our hearts in glorifying God, who alone does marvellous things. They glorified God for what he had done for this poor man. Note, Others' mercies should be our praises, and we should give him thanks for them, for we are members one of another. Though few of this multitude were so convinced, as to be brought to believe in Christ, and to follow him, yet they admired him, not as God, or the Son of God, but as a man to whom God had given such power. Note, God must be glorified in all the power that is given to men to do good. For all power is originally his; it is in him, as the Fountain, in men, as the cisterns.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–26 And behold, they brought to him a man sick…
And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy,.... That is, some of the inhabitants of Capernaum, four men of that city particularly; for Mark says, Mar 2:3 he "was borne of four": these brought him to Jesus,
lying on a bed, or couch, he being so enfeebled by the disease upon him, his nerves so weak, and the members of his body in such a tremor, that he was not able to walk himself, nor even to be carried by others in any other way than this.
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And Jesus seeing their faith; the faith of the bearers of him, his friends, who brought out a man to be healed, who was otherwise incurable; and though they could not, for the multitude, bring him directly to Christ, they were not discouraged, but took the pains to carry him to the top of the house, and there let him down through the roof, or tiling; as both Mark and Luke say; and then set him down before him, believing he was able to cure him: moreover, Christ took notice not only of their faith, but of the sick man's too, who suffered himself to be brought out in this condition, and was contented to go through so much fatigue and trouble, to get at him; when he
said unto the sick of the palsy, son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. He calls him son, either meaning by it no more than "man"; see Luk 5:20 or using it as a kind, tender, and endearing appellation; or as considering him in the grace of adoption, as one that God had put among the children, had given to him as such, and whom he should bring to glory. He bids him "be of good cheer", whose animal spirits were fainting through the disease that was upon him, and the fatigue he had underwent in being brought to him; and his soul more distressed and dejected, under a sense of his sins and transgressions; which Jesus knowing, very pertinently says, "thy sins be forgiven thee"; than which, nothing could be more cheering and reviving to him: or Christ says this to show, that sin was the cause of the disease and affliction that were upon him, for , "there are no chastisements without sin", as the Jews say (f); and that the cause being removed, the effects would cease; of both which he might be assured, and therefore had good reason to cheer up, and be of good heart. This was a wonderful instance of the grace of Christ, to bestow a blessing unasked, and that of the greatest moment and importance.
(f) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 55. 1. Midrash Hohelet, fol. 70. 4. Tzeror. Hammor, fol. 99. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 His own city - Capernaum, chap. iv, 13; Mark…
His own city - Capernaum, chap. iv, 13; Mark v, 18; Luke viii, 37.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Christ heals a paralytic person at Capernaum, 1-8.
CHAPTER IX.
Christ heals a paralytic person at Capernaum, 1-8.
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Calls Matthew, 9-10.
Eats with publicans and sinners, at which the Pharisees are
offended, and he vindicates his conduct, 11, 12.
The disciples of John come to him and inquire about fasting,
14-17.
A ruler requests him to heal his daughter, 18, 19.
On his road to the ruler's house, he heals a diseased woman,
20-22.
Arriving at the ruler's house, he restores the young woman to
life, 23-26.
Heals two blind men, 27-31.
Casts out a dumb demon, 32-34.
Preaches and works miracles in all the cities and villages, 35.
Is greatly affected at the desolate and dark state of the Jewish
people, 36.
Exhorts his disciples to pray to God to send them proper
instructers, 37, 38.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX.
Verse 1. He came into his own city] Viz. Capernaum, where he seems to have had his common residence at the house of Peter. See Mt 4:13, and Mt 8:14. This verse properly belongs to the preceding chapter.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 9, 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25 Mat 9:1. He came into his own city —…
Mat 9:1. He came into his own city — Namely, Capernaum. And they brought him a man sick of the palsy — The history of this miracle is related Mar 2:1-13, and Luk 5:18-26, with more circumstances than are here mentioned by Matthew, which passages the reader is therefore desired to consult, for the further elucidation of what is here recorded. And Jesus, seeing their faith — Both that of the paralytic, and of them that brought him, viz., their inward persuasion of his divine power, and their confidence in his goodness; said to the sick of the palsy, Son —
A title of tenderness and condescension, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee — By this Jesus intimated, both to the paralytic and to those who brought him, 1st, that sin is the source of all our evils; 2dly, that, sin being forgiven, bodily distempers can do us no real or lasting harm; 3dly, that the primary end of his coming into the world was to save his people from their sins; 4thly, that remission of sins is the never-failing consequence of faith in Christ. Perhaps, however, Christ might speak thus, partly with a view to give the scribes and Pharisees occasion of some discourse.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18 And he entered into a ship ... - Jesus…
And he entered into a ship ... - Jesus acceded to the request of the people of Gadara Mat 8:34, recrossed the Lake of Gennesareth, and returned to his own city. By “his own city” is meant Capernaum Mar 2:1, the city which was at that time his home, or where he had his dwelling. See the notes at Mat 4:13. This same account, with some additional circumstances, is contained in Mar 2:3-12, and Luk 5:18-26.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 The cure of the paralytic (ver. 2), is generally…
The cure of the paralytic (ver. 2), is generally supposed to have been anterior in point of time, to the cure of two possessed persons, chap. viii. Carrieres supposes the contrary. (Bible de Vence) --- Into his own city. Not of Bethlehem, where he was born, nor of Nazareth, where he was brought up, but of Capharnaum, says St. John Chrysostom, where he is said to have dwelt since he began to preach. See Matthew iv. 13. (Witham) --- St. Jerome understands this city to be Nazareth, which was Christ’s own, because he was conceived there. St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylactus, think it was Capharnaum, because this miracle was performed at the last mentioned place, according to St. Mark’s relation; and St. Matthew calls it Christ’s own city, because after leaving Nazareth, he chose Capharnaum for the chief place of his abode. If St. Jerome’s interpretation be admitted, we must suppose that St. Matthew having told us that Christ came to his own city, Nazareth, and omitting to relate what happened there, passed immediately to the history of the cure of the paralytic, which took place at Capharnaum. Such omissions and change of place without the reader’s being informed of the transition, are not unfrequent in the evangelists. We must likewise observe that they frequently invert the order of facts, as to the time of their happening. (Jansenius) --- Christ may be said to have had three cities: Bethlehem, in which he was born; Nazareth, in which he was educated; and Capharnaum, in which he most frequently resided, during his sacred ministry. It is most probable, and most generally understood, that in this place of the Scripture Capharnaum is meant; though several understand it of Nazareth, and some few with Sedulius, lib. 3. carn. Intravit natale solum, quo corpore nasci
Se voluit, patriamque sibi pater ipse dicavit.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Matthew Chapter 9
Matthew Chapter 9
In the following chapter (9), while acting in the character and according to the power of Jehovah (as we read in Psa 103:1-22), “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases”; it is the actual grace in itself towards and for them, in which He came, which is presented. It gives the character of His ministry, as the previous one gives the dignity of His Person and the bearing of what He was. He presents Himself to Israel as their true Redeemer and Deliverer; and, to prove His title (which unbelief already opposed) to be this blessing to Israel, and to pardon all their iniquities which raised a barrier between them and their God, He accomplishes the second part of the verse, and heals the disease. Beautiful and precious testimony of kindness to Israel, and at the same time, the demonstration of His glory who stood in the midst of His people! In the same spirit, as He had forgiven, and healed, He calls the publican and goes to his house-come not to call the righteous, but sinners.
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But now we enter on another portion of the instruction in this Gospel-the development of the opposition of unbelievers, of the learned men and the religionists in particular; and that of the rejection of the work and Person of the Lord.
The idea, the picture of that which took place, has been already set before us in the case of the Gergesene demoniac-the power of God present for the entire deliverance of His people, of the world, if they received Him-power which the devils confessed to be that which should hereafter judge and cast them out, which displayed itself in blessing to all the people of the place, but which was rejected, because they did not desire such power to dwell among them. They would not have the presence of God.
The narration of the details and the character of this rejection now commences. Observe that Mat 8:1-27 gives the manifestation of the Lord’s power-this power being truly that of Jehovah on the earth. From Mat 8:28 the reception this power met with in the world, and the influence which governed the world, are set forth, whether as power, or morally in the hearts of men.
We come here to the historical development of the rejection of this intervention of God upon the earth.
The multitude glorify God who had given such power to a man. Jesus accepts this place. He was man: the multitude saw Him to be man, and acknowledged the power of God, but did not know how to combine the two ideas in His Person.
The grace which contemns the pretensions of man to righteousness is now set forth.
Matthew, the publican, is called; for God looks at the heart, and grace calls the elect vessels.
The Lord declares the mind of God on this subject, and His own mission. He came to call sinners; He would have mercy. It was God in grace, and not man with his pretended righteousness counting on his merits.
He assigns two reasons which make it impossible to reconcile His course with the demands of the Pharisees. How should the disciples fast when the Bridegroom was there? When the Messiah was gone, they might well do so. Moreover it is impossible to introduce the new principles and the new power of His mission into the old Pharisaic forms.
Thus we have grace to sinners, but (grace rejected) now comes at once a higher proof that Messiah-Jehovah was there, from her bed of death, He obeys the call. As He goes, a poor woman, who had already employed every means of cure without success, is instantaneously healed by touching in faith the hem of His garment.
This history supplies us with the two great divisions of the grace that was manifested in Jesus. Christ came to awaken dead Israel; He will do this hereafter in the full sense of the word. Meanwhile, whosoever laid hold of Him by faith, in the midst of the multitude that accompanied Him, was healed, let the case be ever so hopeless. This, which took place in Israel when Jesus was there, is true in principle of us also. Grace in Jesus is a power which raises from the dead, and which heals. Thus He opened the eyes of those in Israel who owned Him to be the Son of David, and who believed in His power to meet their need. He cast out devils also, and gave speech to the dumb. But having performed these acts of power in Israel, so that the people, as to the fact, owned them with admiration, the Pharisees, the most religious part of the nation, ascribe this power to the prince of the devils. Such is the effect of the Lord’s presence on the leaders of the people, jealous of His glory thus manifested among them over whom they exercised their influence. But this in no way interrupts Jesus in His career of beneficence. He can still bear testimony among the people. In spite of the Pharisees His patient kindness still finds place. He continues to preach and to heal. He has compassion on the people, who were like sheep without a shepherd, given up, morally, to their own guidance. He still sees that the harvest is plenteous and the labourers few. That is to say, He still sees every door open to address the people and He passes over the wickedness of the Pharisees.
Let us sum up what we find in the chapter, the grace developed in Israel. First, grace healing and forgiving as in Psa 103:1-22. Then grace come to call sinners, not the righteous; the bridegroom was there, nor could grace in power be put in Jewish and Pharisaic vessels; it was new even in respect of John Baptist. He comes in reality to give life to the dead, not to heal, but whoever then touched Him by faith-for there were such-were healed in the way. He opens eyes to see, as Son of David, and opens the dumb mouth of him whom the devil possessed. All is rejected with blasphemy by the self-righteous Pharisees. But grace sees the multitude as yet as having no shepherd; and while the porter holds the door open, He ceases not to seek and minister to the sheep.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 18 See Mat_8:28 ff for the passage comments with footnotes.
See Mat_8:28 ff for the passage comments with footnotes.
Mat_9:1-8.—Luke (Luk_5:17) and Mark (Mar_2:3) relate this history immediately after the cure of the leper. But this place belongs rather to the event connected with the centurion at Capernaum. Besides, the circumstance, that the scribes of Galilee now commenced their active opposition, proves that the chronological arrangement in Matthew is correct.
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Mat_9:1. Into His own city.—In the Greek: εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν πόλιν. Capernaum had the honor of bearing that name (Mat_4:13).
Mat_9:2. A παραλυτικός. See Com. on Mat_4:24.
Jesus seeing their faith.—This faith appeared more particularly in the bold plan which they adopted for bringing the sufferer into the presence of the Lord, as related by Mark and Luke. But while all shared that faith, the poor sufferer himself appears to have given the special directions. Paralytic, but healthy in soul,—a hero in faith on his sick-bed. Matthew indicates the extraordinary character of the circumstances by the expression: καὶ ἰδού.
Be of good cheer, θάρσε ι, τέκνον.—These two miracles afford an insight into the various methods by which the Lord restores those who are cowardly, and those who, strong in faith, are afflicted. In the one case, He rebukes; in the other, He comforts.—Τέκνον, an affectionate address; Mar_2:5; Mar_10:24; Luk_16:25. Analogous is θύγατερ, Mat_9:22.
Are forgiven thee, ἀφέων ταίσοι.—The perfect tense (Doric). Beza: Emphasis minime negligenda. In this instance the palsy must have been the consequence of the sin of the sufferer, though not in other cases, Joh_9:3. That Christ with His unfailing penetration at once recognized and singled out these instances, showed how vastly different His judgment was from the prejudices of the people (Luk_13:4, and the account of Lazarus). Strauss vainly imagines that there is a contradiction between this and the other accounts about the Lord. Comp. against him the remarks of Meyer (note on p. 189), who, however, should not have denied that in the case before us the forgiveness of sins was both the moral and the psychical condition of restoration. It seems to us strange that de Wette should half concede the statement of Hase (in his Leben Jesu, § 73), who regards this history as an accommodation to popular prejudices.
Mat_9:3. And, behold, certain of the scribes.—Before this, the scribes had not even in their thoughts charged the Lord with blasphemy. We have here a third evidence that Christ read the inmost thoughts of man. He traced the affliction of the palsied man to its secret origin in sin; He read the measures adopted by the palsied man, and by those who bore him, and traced them to faith; and He read the scribes, and descried their secret and blasphemous objections, that He was guilty of blasphemy, since God alone could forgive sins (Luk_5:21). Perhaps these feelings may have appeared in their countenances, as the Jews were wont to express their abhorrence of blasphemy in the strongest manner, even rending their garments and spitting when they deemed the prerogatives of God openly invaded. In the present instance, fear may have restrained such an open expression of what was marked in their faces and gestures. Hence de Wette is wrong in suggesting that the expression ἰσών in Mat_9:4 is “well explained by the reading εἰδώς“ (after B., M.). Mark here correctly adds: τῷπνεύματι. “To read the thoughts and dispositions of others (comp. Joh_2:24-25), was a characteristic of the expected Messiah (see Wetstein ad loc.). In virtue of being the Son of God, Jesus possessed this power, which may be considered analogous to that of working miracles.”—Meyer. But we must not forget the vast difference between the notion of a magical reading of thoughts, which the rabbins entertained, and the Divine-human introspect of Christ, which in every instance was occasioned by some mark overlooked by others, but patent to the Master.
Mat_9:4. Wherefore think ye evil?—Olshausen: Evil, because they failed to understand His Divine character. De Wette: On account of their hasty, malevolent, and light judgment. Comp. Mat_12:31. Their thoughts were evil in themselves, because they regarded the highest life as a blasphemy, and also because they expressed not openly their scruples. Hence ὑμεῖς, in opposition to those who confided in Him. Probably they chiefly objected to this, that Christ seemed to abolish the arrangements of the temple, by which the priest typically forgave sins on offering the sacrifice appointed by the law. It is absurd to interpret the expression used by the Lord as a mere announcement of forgiveness of sins (Kuinoel).
Mat_9:5. Which is easier?—i. e., In truth, both are equally difficult, and presuppose Divine power and authority. But, as the full effect of His absolution could not be patent to the outward senses, He accords a visible confirmation of it by a miracle.1
Mat_9:6. But that ye may know, Arise.—The Evangelist purposely omits to indicate the change of persons addressed,2 in order to make it more pictorial. “That ye may know that power has the Son of Man (power is put first by way of emphasis) on earth (in opposition to heaven) to forgive sins, Arise,” etc. For other details, see the account in Mark and Luke.
Mat_9:8. They were afraid (in the authorized version, marvelled), ἐφοβήθησαν.—Those who witnessed the occurrence experienced a spiritual conflict—the Spirit of Christ contending in their hearts with the unbelief of the scribes. In these circumstances, the miracle of healing proved all the more quickening, that the gracious working of Christ in the face of this opposition implied a greater manifestation of power.
Such power unto men.—Grotius and Kuinoel apply this simply to Jesus, regarding ἀνθρώποις as the plural of category. Baumgarten-Crusius explains it: Such power to men for their salvation through Christ. Meyer and de Wette: A new gift of God to humanity. But the expression referred especially to the ἐξουσία of forgiving sins. This power, which hitherto had been enthroned in the most holy place as the prerogative of Jehovah, now stood embodied before them, as it were an incarnate Shechinah. Hence their joyous expression: He has given it to the Son of Man, and therefore to men. The explanations of Kuinoel and Meyer are not contradictory.3
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. These two miracles have this in common, that they were accomplished under exceedingly difficult circumstances. In the first instance, the coöperation of receptive faith was entirely wanting. The only germ present was that awe with which the demons owned the power and supremacy of Christ; while, on the other hand, the Saviour had to contend not only with the demoniacal spirit, but with the impure and grovelling disposition of the Gadarenes. In the second miracle, the unbelief of the Pharisees and scribes formed a counterpoise to the faith of the palsied man, and of those who brought him forward. Add to this, that the first cure was followed by expulsion from Gadara, and the second by a secretly harbored reproach of blasphemy on the part of the scribes, which was fully expressed on a later occasion (Mat_12:24).
2. The two miracles are still farther connected by the peculiar view of Christ which they present. More than in any other instance in which He healed the possessed, does the Lord here appear as the Mighty One—as conqueror not only of demons, but also of the dark and hostile powers of pagan or semi-pagan countries; while, in the second miracle, we see Him penetrating to the root of evil, to sin, and removing the moral power of consciousness of guilt. His saving grace extends to the lowest psychological and moral abyss of human misery. Combining these two miracles with that of calming the tempest, we behold Christ as the Lord over nature, over the powers of darkness, and over the depths of the human heart.
3. The cure of the demoniacs at Gadara may be regarded as forming the central-point of biblical demonology. It is also an explanation and defence of the legal prohibition of swine-flesh under the Old Covenant. But Lisco and Gerlach go too far in maintaining that the destruction of the herd was intended as a punishment. Jesus only permits it at the request of the demoniacs, who have not yet completely recovered, and hence are not quite under His power. Nor must we forget that, despite their own impurity, the demoniacs commonly possessed in increased measure a clear sense of what was unseemly (comp. Act_19:15). The demons chose to enter into the swine. The demoniacs also chose to bring an ironical punishment on their district, and thus to vent their last paroxysm in a direction more wholesome than formerly.—Lastly, the Lord Himself regarded this judgment as wholly suitable, without, however, having directly sent it.
4. The absolution of the palsied man, and later instances of the same kind, were in some respects an anticipation of the moment when the veil in the temple was rent in twain. Such seems also to have been the unconscious feeling of those who were present at the time. This history forcibly presents to our view the connection between sin and misery, between forgiveness and recovery, and hence also between justification and the resurrection.
[5. The power of forgiving sins is a strictly Divine privilege, as the Jews rightly supposed, and could be claimed by Christ only on the ground of His Divine nature. Hence we may use this claim as an argument for the Divinity of the Saviour (as Athanasius did against the Arians). Yet He claimed and exercised this power as the incarnate Son of God, or as the Son of Man on earth, having brought it with Him from heaven, as the one who is at once like unto us, and above us all as the crown and perfection of humanity. While on earth, He exercised the power directly and personally; after His exaltation He exercises it in His Church as His organ through the means of grace, and the ministry of reconciliation. Hence He conferred this power, commonly called the power of the keys, i.e., the power of discipline in receiving and excluding members, and thus opening and shutting the gates of the kingdom of heaven, upon His apostles (Mat_16:19; Mat_18:18), who in this case speak and act in the name and by the authority of Christ. The Church does the works of heaven on earth (“facit in terris opera cœlorum”), and binds and looses, but only by a committed, not an inherent power, and only as the organ of Christ. Comp. Trench, Notes on Mir., p. 207, and Wordsworth in Mat_9:6 : “Christ forgives sins not only as God, by His omnipotence, but as Son of Man; because He has united man’s nature to His own, and in that nature has fulfilled the law and perfected obedience, and so merited to receive all power on earth (Mat_28:18) in that nature; which power He now exercises as Mediator, and will continue to exercise, till all enemies .. are put under His feet. As Son of Man, He ever exercises this power of forgiving sin on earth, by means of the Word and Sacraments, and by the Ministry of Reconciliation (2Co_5:18-19), and by whatever appertains to what is called ‘the Power of the Keys.’ … Besides, by saying that sins are forgiven ‘upon earth,’ our Lord reminds us that after death there is no more place for repentance and forgiveness, for then the door is shut.” A false inference. The contrast is not between earth and eternity, but between earth and heaven.—P. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jesus encounters the contradiction and enmity of the world, not only in His teaching, but also in His works of grace and power.—The glory of Christ’s miracles appears in this, that they are performed in the midst of unbelievers, if He only meet with a grain of faith in those who apply to Him for help.—Jesus must pluck as brands from the burning those whom He redeems from the unbelief of the world.—Christ’s casting out the unclean spirits, as connected with His forgiveness of sins.
The history of the Gadarenes.—Jesus makes a way for His own both by sea and by land.—The insecurity of highways an indication of the state of a country.—Connection between human raving and the spirits of darkness.—Internal contradiction on the part of those who were possessed: 1. They hasten reverently to meet the Lord, and yet complain that He would torment them; 2. they betake themselves to entreaty, and yet display malice; 3. they are themselves cured, and yet become burdensome to others.—The possessed gave a more suitable reception to the Lord than the people of Gadara.—The proximity of the Holy One rendering uneasy and tormenting not only open and wilful sinners, but also those who are deprived of their moral freedom.—It is easier for Christ to heal the raving of maniacs than to remove calculating and yet stupid selfishness.—The Divine judgment accompanying the cure: a trial of the country and people.—The expulsion of the Lord, under the guise of reverence, and in the form of an entreaty, notwithstanding the ceremony of a procession come out to meet Him.
The cure of the Paralytic, Mat_9:1-8.—The Lord reading the secrets of the heart: 1. He descries in the urgent endeavors of felt need, the faith which prompts them, and brings it to maturity; 2. He descries in the misery the guilt which was its cause, and removes not only the misery, but also its root; 3. He descries the secret unbelief of the heart, and obviates its pernicious influences.—The miracle on the conscience and the miracle on the sick life are always combined: 1. The former is the root; the latter, the manifestation. 2. The one or the other may, indeed, be more apparent; but 3. the miracle on the life cannot prove lasting without that on the conscience, while that on the conscience is manifested by that on the life.—This miracle on the palsied man revealing the fullest measure of grace of all the cures accomplished by Christ.—Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.—The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.—Christ will manifest in the bodies of His people what He has done for their souls.—The gospel of free grace confirmed by visible signs before the eyes of His opponents: 1. By the recovery of nations; 2. by the flourishing condition of countries; 3. by the tokens of a coming resurrection all over the earth.—The scribes and priests of the law forgiving sins, and Jesus forgiving sins: 1. The former connected with outward ordinances, sacrifices, and the services of the temple, typical in its nature and arrangements; 2. the latter proceeding from free grace, received by faith, and manifested in a new life.—The outward evidence of secret grace.—The gospel of the forgiveness of sins by Christ, the most glorious gift of God to man.—What God gave to Christ, He gave through Him to men.
Starke:—The devils also believe and tremble, Jam_2:19.—Zeisius:—If the devil cannot have his will, it is a torment to him; so also with his children, the wicked.—Osiander:—They who only seek to do harm are certainly Satan’s children, Joh_8:44.—Hedinger:—Now-a-days, also, the devil enters into the swine.—God sometimes deprives us of cur outward possessions: 1. In compassion; 2. in righteousness. Quesnel.—Hedinger:—What ingratitude to retain the swine and to banish Christ!—It is one of Satan’s devices to represent the gospel as causing loss.—They who banish Christ in His members are worse than the Gadarenes.— Mat_9:1-8. Hedinger:—It is our duty to succor our neighbor in his distress.—When laid on a bed of sickness, we ought to be more anxious for the health of the soul than for that of the body.—True faith receives from the hand of God what it sought.—He who from the heart repents and believes on Christ has forgiveness, Act_10:43.—Jesus reading the thoughts and intents of the heart, Joh_2:25.—It is impossible to be happy or comfortable if we are not assured that we are God’s children.—Each miracle of power or of grace the earnest of another.—Forgiveness of sins comprehends every blessing.—Quesnel:—What is felt a stumbling-block by the worldly-wise, is an occasion to the simple to praise God.—Admiration and praise must go together.
Gerlach:—Those who hate Me love death, Pro_8:36.—Miracles are but the anticipation and earnest of a higher order of things. Hence, as under the Old, so under the New dispensation, Jesus occasionally manifested Himself in His miracles as the future Judge of the world.—But this was not the main object of His miracles, which, in general, were the manifestation of His love, and performed by Him as Redeemer.—Miracles of judgment: this instance (?); the money-changers, and those who bought and sold in the temple (?); the unfruitful fig-tree; terror struck into the company of those who came out to take Him. (Ananias and Sapphira, Elymas.)—In this instance also, blessing and judgment were conjoined: 1. Safety restored to the district; 2. the neighborhood delivered from evil spirits; 3. the possessed cured; 4. the attraction of a prohibited enjoyment removed.— Mat_9:1-8. A special emphasis rests on the name, “Son of Man,” as signifying the Messiah or the Saviour, as man among men.—Jesus has be stowed upon His servants authority to announce to sinners forgiveness of sin in the name of God.
Heubner (on Mat_9:1-8):—Even the faith of others may aid us in obtaining forgiveness of sins.—Christianity has, directly and indirectly, a beneficial influence on bodily ailments.—Consciousness of sin is the sting in all our bodily sufferings.—Forgiveness is the first thing which man requires in his misery.—Christ always addresses to afflicted souls the words, “Be of good cheer,”—The common proverb, that thoughts are free, is essentially untrue.—Common tendency to suspicion.—The deliverance of others should be matter of joy to us.—The healing of the paralytic: 1. How Jesus begins it; 2. how He defends it; 3. how He completes it.—The power of Christ to forgive sins: 1. Wherein it consists; 2. its condition.
Reinhard, 1802.—The forgiveness of sins has the most beneficial influence also upon the consequences of our transgressions.—Harms:—The connection between sin and suffering: 1. Generally patent; 2. sometimes hidden; 3. always certain.—Westermeyer:—The power of Jesus to forgive sins on earth: 1. The contradiction against it; 2. the testimonies for it; 3. its glory; 4. its conditions. Sachse:—Christ the true Physician of the soul. Ranke:—The power of Christ to forgive sins.—C. Beck:—Christ knows how to save truly: 1. He looks to the ground; 2. He heals from the ground.—Höpfner:—Christ at the sick-bed.—Fuchs:—The blessing of sickness.—H. Müller:—I believe in the forgiveness of sins.
Footnotes:
[1][Dr. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of our Lord, 6th ed., Lond., 1838, p. 203 sq., correctly observes: “In our Lord’s argument it must be carefully noted that He does not ask, ‘Which is easiest, to forgive sins, or to raise a sick man?’ for it could not be affirmed that that of forgiving was easier than this of healing; but, ‘Which is easiest, to claim this power or to claim that; to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk?’ And He then proceeds: ‘That is easiest, and I will now prove my right to say it, by saying with effect and with an outward consequence setting its seal to my truth, the harder word, ‘Rise up and walk.’ By doing that which is submitted to the eyes of men, I will attest my right and power to do that which, in its very nature, lies out of the region of proof. By these visible tides of God’s grace I will give you to know in what direction the great under-currents of His love are setting, and that those and these are alike obedient to my word. From this which I will now do openly and before you all, you may conclude that it is no ‘robbery’ (Php_2:6) upon my part to claim also the power of forgiving men their sins.’ Thus, to use a familiar illustration of our Lord’s argument, it would be easier for a man, equally ignorant of French and Chinese, to claim to know the last than the first; not that the language itself is easier, but that, in the one case, multitudes could disprove his claim; and in the other, hardly a scholar or two in the land.”—P. S.]
[2][This change is indicated by the parenthetic words of the Evangelist: τότε λέγει τῷ παραλυτικῷ. The regular construction would require either εἰδῶσιν for εἰδῆτε, or λέγω for τότε λέγει.—P. S.]
[3][Alford: “Τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, to mankind. They regarded this wonder-working as something by God granted to men—to mankind; and without supposing that they had before them the full meaning of their words, those words were true in the very highest sense. See Joh_17:8.”—Trench, On Miracles, p. Matt 209: “They felt rightly that what was given to one man, to the Man Christ Jesus, was given for the sake of all, and ultimately to all, that it was indeed given ‘unto men;’ they felt, that He possessed these powers as the true Head and Representative of the race, and therefore that these gifts to Him were a rightful subject of gladness and thanksgiving for every member of that race.”—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–13 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at…
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house--The modesty of our Evangelist signally appears here. Luke says (Luk 5:29) that "Levi made Him a great feast," or "reception," while Matthew merely says, "He sat at meat"; and Mark and Luke say that it was in Levi's "own house," while Matthew merely says, "He sat at meat in the house." Whether this feast was made now, or not till afterwards, is a point of some importance in the order of events, and not agreed among harmonists. The probability is that it did not take place till a considerable time afterwards. For Matthew, who ought surely to know what took place while his Lord was speaking at his own table, tells us that the visit of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, occurred at that moment (Mat 9:18). But we know from Mark and Luke that this visit of Jairus did not take place till after our Lord's return, at a later period from the country of the Gadarenes. (See Mar 5:21, &c., and Luk 8:40, &c.). We conclude, therefore, that the feast was not made in the novelty of his discipleship, but after Matthew had had time to be somewhat established in the faith; when returning to Capernaum, his compassion for old friends, of his own calling and character, led him to gather them together that they might have an opportunity of hearing the gracious words which proceeded out of His Master's mouth, if haply they might experience a like change.
behold, many publicans and sinners--Luke says, "a great company" (Luk 5:29) --came and sat down with him and his disciples. In all such cases the word rendered "sat" is "reclined," in allusion to the ancient mode of lying on couches at meals.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 1. To his own city — His own by…
1. To his own city — His own by residence, Capernaum. See note on Mat_4:13.
This verse properly closes the narrative of our Lord’s excursion across Gennesaret and his return. What follows occurred at Capernaum some time previous, and before his Sermon on the Mount.
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§ 30. — SIXTH MIRACLE — THE PALSY CURED, Mat_9:2-8.
The main points in this miracle are these: 1. Such is the true faith of the man himself, beheld by our Lord’s discerning spirit, that he pardons his sins before he heals his palsy. It is first soul, and then body. So when the wreck made by sin in our entire nature is repaired, man will become physically perfect. 2. Our Lord is a perfect logician. He places here the miracle as proof, in close succession after his claim of forgiving power as the thing to be proved. No geometrician could ever bring preposition and demonstration into closer contact. “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” is, first, the proposition, and then the miracle is the proof. His miracles demonstrate that he is connected and clothed with the divine power by which he forgives the penitent. Miracles are therefore intended to be a demonstration of divine authority. 3. Our Lord reads the conscious thoughts of men. He gave the blaspheming scribes a proof to their inward consciousness that he knew their hearts. See note on Mat_5:4.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 1. a ship] As ch. Mat_8:23, the boat.
1. a ship] As ch. Mat_8:23, the boat.
his own city] Capernaum.
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Chap. Mat_9:1-8. Cure of a Man afflicted with Paralysis
Mar_2:1-12; Luk_5:18-26
Both St Mark and St Luke notice the crowding of the people to hear Jesus, and narrate the means by which the sufferer was brought into His presence.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23 (1) Here, again, the order of the facts narrated…
IX.
(1) Here, again, the order of the facts narrated varies so much in the three Gospels that the labours of the harmonist are baffled.
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ST. MATTHEW.ST. MARK.ST. LUKE.(1.) The Paralytic, Mat_9:1-8.Mar_2:1-12.Luk_5:18-26.(2.) The call of Matthew, &c., Mat_9:9-17.Mar_2:13-22.Luk_5:27-39.(3.) Jairus, and the woman with an issue of blood, Mat_9:18-26.Mar_5:21-43.Luk_8:41-56.(4.) The two blind, Mat_9:27-31.——(5.) The dumb, Mat_9:32-34.—Luk_11:14.It will be seen that (1) and (2) are grouped together in all three, as are the two events in (3), but beyond this we cannot trace any systematic order, and the apparent notes of sequence are so far misleading. In this case. St. Matthew makes the return to Capernaum follow the healing of the Gadarene demoniacs. St. Mark and St. Luke place it after that of the leper, but as if they were uncertain as to its exact position, “after certain days,” or “on one of the days.”
Ship.—Better, boat.
Into his own city.—St. Mark states definitely Capernaum, which had become His “own city” since His departure from Nazareth (Mat_4:13). That city, though the home of His childhood, is never so described.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–26 Vers. 1-8. The paralytic forgiven and healed. Parallel passages:…
Vers. 1-8. The paralytic forgiven and healed. Parallel passages: Mar_2:1-12 Luk_5:17-26. (For connexion of thought, cf. Mat_8:18, note) In the parallel passages this narrative follows our Mat_8:1-4. Matthew"s account is shorter, as usual.
And he entered into a ship; boat (Revised Version). So completely did he grant the request of the Gadarenes. Observe that this expression is not an original phrase of the writer of the First Gospel, but is a reminiscence of the source that he has just used. (cf. Mar_5:18; with Luk_8:37; in both of which it now forms part of the preceding narrative) And passed over; crossed over (Revised Version); dieperasen , also in the source. (cf. Mar_5:21) And came into his own city; i.e. Capernaum, where Mark says that the following miracle took place. The thought is that of Joh_1:11. Yet observe the contrast Mat_8:34. There "all the city" rejected him; here some of the leaders reject him, but the multitudes fear and glorify God (ver. 8).
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Vers. 1-8. The cure of the paralytic.
I THE SICK MAN BROUGHT TO CHRIST.
1. His own city. It had been Nazareth; now it was Capernaum. The Nazarenes had rejected him. He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief; he marvelled at their want of faith. Now he was in Capernaum; he was well known there, but not as he had been known at Nazareth. The Nazarenes had known him from childhood all through those thirty years of quiet, humble holiness; he had lived among them like one of themselves, distinguished only by his goodness; he wrought no miracles then. But that quiet life was in one sense the greatest of miracles; it was stranger that the Son of God should live like ordinary men than that his path on earth should be surrounded with glory, marked by startling wonders. In Capernaum he was known as the great Preacher, the Wonderworker, the loving, the compassionate Healer. All there believed in his power, not all had yielded their hearts to his love, It was now his own city, blessed with his presence, the highest of all conceivable privileges.
2. The sick man. He was paralyzed, quite helpless; apparently he had lost the power of speech. He could not come to Christ himself; he had to be carried. Four men brought him as he lay helpless on his bed. Probably he was still young: "child," the Lord calls him. It was a pitiable case, and he seems to have brought it upon himself; it was, we gather from Christ"s words, the punishment of sin. How often sin brings chastisement now! We suffer justly; we receive the due reward of our deeds. Happy they whom suffering brings to Christ!
3. The bearers. The poor man had kind friends; they brought him. They had great difficulties; they could not come nigh to Christ for the press. They drew the sick man up to the roof; they uncovered it; they let him down into the midst before Jesus. It is a blessed task to tend the sick and suffering; it is a holy, Christ-like work. It is more blessed still to bring sinful souls to Jesus Christ, the great Physician. The Lord saw their faith. They must believe in Christ themselves who would bring others to him; we cannot help penitent sinners unless we ourselves have learned to hate sin, to overcome it by the power of faith, to live in the holy presence of Christ, breathing the atmosphere of his love. The Lord listens to intercessory prayer. Faith brings blessings not only on the believer, but on those for whom he prays. The centurion"s faith brought healing to his servant; the faith of friends to the paralytic. But he too, it seems, believed. He could not come; he was willing, desirous, to be brought; he would not have been healed had he been brought by force. Jesus saw their faith the faith of all, the sick man and his friends. Christians may help others; they may influence them by word, by holy example; but he that would be saved must himself believe. Each soul must know Christ itself: each soul must be brought into spiritual contact with the Saviour; each individual soul mast have access unto God through him.
4. The Saviour. The Lord read the hearts of the bearers; he saw their faith. He read the heart of the paralytic; he saw his trembling fearfulness, his consciousness of sin.
(1) Child," he said, "be of good cheer." The poor man sadly needed encouragement; the Lord gave it at once; he had come to heal the brokenhearted. The poor man was humbled to the very dust; the Lord looked on him with a great pity. So he pities us in our sufferings now with the same quick, tender compassion; his sympathy comforts, helps, encourages, the trembling penitent.
(2) But there was behind the physical sickness its moral cause. The man had greatly sinned. The punishment had done its work; it had softened his heart; it had brought him to the feet of Jesus. The Lord knew the truth of his repentance. He waited not for the confession of the lips; perhaps the poor man could not speak. He pronounced at once the most blessed absolution, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." He is the same gracious Saviour now; he came to save his people from their sins. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
II THE SCRIBES.
1. Their silent accusations. There were many Pharisees and doctors of the Law sitting there; they had been drawn by the fame of Jesus not only from Galilee, but even from Judaea and Jerusalem. They were watching our Lord, listening to him. He had spoken a great and awful word. They dared not condemn him openly; they saw his power, they feared the people; but they reproached him in their thoughts. He was guilty of blasphemy, they murmured in their hearts; he had dared to pronounce the forgiveness of the paralytic; he had assumed to himself the prerogative of God. Certainly God, and God alone, could forgive sins.
2. The Lords answer. There were no spoken words, but he knew their thoughts. "He saw their thoughts," some ancient manuscripts read; their thoughts lay open to his all-seeing eye; he read them. He reads our thoughts now; he sees all the low, carnal, uncharitable thoughts which defile our souls, as he saw their thoughts then. They were thinking evil things in their hearts, accusing him of blasphemy, when they ought to have seen in the power of his works, in the perfect holiness of his life, the proof of his Divine origin; they were thinking in their unworthy jealousy, "It is easy to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee;" none can tell whether those great words truly convey forgiveness. Let him prove his authority; let him heal the paralytic.
III THE MIRACLE.
1. The word of power. "Forgive us our trespasses," we say to our Father which is in heaven. "The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." "Coelestem ortum hic sermo sapit," says Bengel very beautifully. He had power on earth to forgive sins, because he came from heaven; the Son of man could forgive, because he was in truth the Son of God. None could test that power; only the forgiven penitent could know in the depth of his heart the reality of his forgiveness; he could tell, and he only, in his inmost experience the blessed sweetness of that holy absolution. But the Lord would deign to reply to the unworthy questionings of the scribes; he would illustrate his spiritual authority by his power over outward things. He saith unto the man, "Arise!" It was a bold word, a strange thing to say to a helpless paralytic. But he had faith to be healed; his will exerted itself in obedience to the Lord"s command. The muscles, so long useless, obeyed the mandate of the will. He arose before them all; he took up his bed, and departed to his house. So it is now in the history of conversions. Many souls have lost all spiritual energy; they are without spiritual force, spiritual activity; they have a vague wish for holiness, but it is only a weak, irresolute desire; an emotion rather than a resolve. But they feel at last the danger of sloth; Christian friends help them; they come, they are brought to Christ. He saith the word, "Arise!" A new strength flows in upon their weakened will the strength which he giveth. In that strength they arise; they need no longer the help of others; they obey the Lord"s life-giving command; they go forth, glorifying God.
2. The wonder of the multitude. They might well wonder; they had seen strange things that day. Their wonder, or their fear (according to the more ancient manuscripts), led them to glorify God. We see strange things now sinners saved, souls drawn by the power of the cross to the Saviour"s love. The miracles of grace are more wonderful than the miracles of power; they should lead us to glorify God, to glorify him in our praises, to glorify him in our lives.
LESSONS.
1. It was sin that brought suffering into the world. Suffering should show us the guilt of sin, and should lead us to Christ.
2. Christ is our Hope, our only Hope. We must come to him ourselves; we must help others to come.
3. Christ is full of compassion. He pities our sorrows; he forgives the sins of the penitent.
4. Praise him for his mercies; glorify God.
HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER Vers. 1-8. The (Mar_2:1-12 Luk_5:17-26) Lord of both lives.
Notice in introduction one of the simplest instances of the way in which the three very various accounts of our Lord"s life and works supply one another, add greatly to our information, and form a network of evidence of the authenticity of the narrative which it would seem impossible to gainsay. Observe
I THE GRACIOUS ACTION TAKEN BY THE SAVIOUR SO PROMPTLY ON THE FIRST SIGHT OF FAITH. Notice the fact that the forgiveness of the sins of the paralytic took precedence of the healing of his disease. Was this due to the specialty of the occasion, the large attendance of doctors of the Law and Pharisees? Was it due exclusively to something that the eye of Jesus saw in the spiritual condition of the paralytic in that his heart"s deepest desire was for forgiveness; or that there was special fitness in him to stand as an example, to all time herein, of one blessed to take the supreme good first, and find "all" the rest "added to him;" or to the sovereign and unerring will inscrutable?
II A REMARKABLE AND REMARKABLY SIMPLE INSTANCE AND ILLUSTRATION OF FAITH WITH WORKS AND OF FAITH SHOWN BY WORKS. These works of themselves spoke for the faith that was behind them, as also for the intense desire that gave such definite outline to it. "Their" faith, no doubt, designates that betokened by the conduct of all concerned the paralytic himself, and those who were hands, arms, and feet to him. The "works" of themselves asked help of the mighty Helper. And they showed the undoubting persuasion on the part of those who put forth their strength, and on the part of him, of whose suggestion perhaps it all came, where, and where alone, that help was to be had.
III THE UNDOUBTED BLASPHEMY HEARD ON THIS OCCASION, BUT LAID ON THE WRONG PERSONAGE. The enemies of Christ, as they stood around, understood aright what he had done, what he had said, and to what the deep implication of these amounted. But they took up the position that he bad not done what he said, and could not do it, and that therefore he committed blasphemy in uttering it. Their hostility was a foregone conclusion, and had it not been so, there would have been reason on their side; and the language of Christ, and his action immediately following, allow this, within certain limits, for he remarks on the exact position, and offers and gives a proof. But their unbelief and disbelief were already deep-rooted in their heart that "thinking evil in the heart," which he so distinctly saw, so pronouncedly marked.
IV CHRIST"S CONDESCENDING AND MOST COMPLETE VINDICATION OF HIS LANGUAGE AND HIMSELF. The practical test he challenges, with dignity surpassing that of Elijah on Carmel! He does not volunteer it, but bids them "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." And they do see it! Whether they will even now believe is another thing. Certain as it is that they have not made their own the beatitude, "Blessed are they who have not seen, and vet have believed," have they even entitled themselves to hear it said, "Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed"?
V THE ATTITUDE AND DOCILITY OF THE PEOPLE, AS THESE RISE UP IN JUDGMENT AGAINST THE DOCTORS OF THE LAW AND PHARISEES. They "marvel;" they "glorify God;" and this not as the only Object of adoring praise and worship, but also as "the Giver of such power to men;" and they are "filled with fear." And they make confession, unstinted, undisguised, of the impression they have received: "We never saw it on this fashion;" "We have seen strange things to-day. B.
HOMILIES BY MARCUS DODS Vers. 1-17. At Capernaum.
The choice of Capernaum as suitable centre justified by results. Rapid spread of our Lord"s fame. Eager crowds gathering from far and near. Picture scene: Here, father carrying drooping child; there, little girl with blind father; camel bearing woman bowed with infirmity; sick of all kinds brought by friends; crowd ever increasing; silence broken only by occasional yell of a possessed one or moans of sufferers. Crowds waiting before daylight, but Jesus not there gone to a desert place to pray. His approach suddenly announced by one on the edge of the crowd; wonder and awe as he passes to the house, stretching out hands of effectual blessing. Two results of this crowding of multitudes:
1. Jesus obliged to seek a more retired place.
2. Incident of text. Four friends, believing that he whom they have carried far will be able to walk back if they can lay him before Jesus. Overcome obstacles, removing a few large, uncemented tiles of roof a liberty pleasing to our Lord as a tribute to him and proof of their faith. Common experience to ask one thing and receive another. Perhaps this man had an inward conviction that spiritual gifts were the greater. Scribes cavil at "Thy sins be," etc.; begin to suspect evasion; therefore Jesus does work that can be tested by their senses. Two points unusual: Our Lord accepted test tacitly proposed, and the miracle convinced the witnesses. Miracles evidences of revelation because themselves parts of it, not mere signs. God could not reveal himself except by miracle. Historical fact that nature has never done so. Revelation not so much accompanied by as consisting of miracles. Such a revelation authenticates itself, proves itself such because giving higher and worthier idea of God.
I CALLING OF MATTHEW. His office odious to Jews, both as representing foreign government and from oppressive system of farming taxes. Evil effects of such system seen now in Egypt and elsewhere. No loss to government by Matthew thus suddenly throwing up office, he having already paid the sum. Possible, but rare, for good man to be in such a calling. Our Lord does not defend his calling of Matthew on that ground. He chose his followers among the unsophisticated, or those who had not yet found their good. Probably some previous acquaintance with Matthew. Matthew perhaps gradually dissatisfied with himself. Among such the Lord is found. His unanswerable reply to Pharisees, They that be whole," etc. To those sick in body, in heart, in spirit, he offers himself; to the heavy-laden, disappointed, broken, sinful, one unfailing Friend, bent on bringing them into his own peace and holiness and joy. Are there none here who will at length listen to his call, "Follow me"? Follow by keeping him always in view, thinking of him, doing his will.
II MATTHEW"S FEAST. In the joy of his heart inclined to be lavish. From being despised, hated, suddenly chosen as friend and companion by greatest and worthiest. Cherished money-bags contemptible in presence of Christ and his love. Pharisees not in sympathy. It might be a fast-day; much might be involved. It was thin end of wedge a party forming, not fettered by mechanical rules, but allowing the spirit naturally to express itself. Suitable, therefore, that this, our Lord"s first recorded teaching to a mixed multitude, should deal with this new thing. He lays down the principle that underlies all outward observance, viz. that the state of mind gives it appropriateness and virtue. Further explained in two parables. In every generation can be seen this Pharisaic spirit deep-seated hatred and fear of change. Men who have never gone deep enough to distinguish between essential and accidental, saying, "If there is new life, let it be kept in the old forms." To do so were to destroy both. These parables fit a most important principle. Had Matthew fasted at this time, his new love and energy would have been wasted instead of utilized, and fasting (the old bottle) become for ever distasteful to him. As it was, he would fast again when he felt it suitable. New ways sometimes preferred by new converts. If love to Christ and sound moral conduct go with the changes, no need to fear them. But our Lord bad also a word of apology for conservatism of Pharisees: "No man, having drunk old wine," etc. Natural to prefer the old. So with many of the best of men. For few attain to the complete magnanimity and truth of the Lord. "Oh that patrons of old ways understood Christ"s wisdom, and that patrons of new ways sympathized with his charity!... When will young men and old men, liberals and conservatives, broad Christians and narrow, learn to bear with one another; yea, to recognize each in the other the necessary complement of his own one-sidedness?" (Bruce). D.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-8. Soul-searching.
At the request of the Gadarenes Jesus crossed over. He does not obtrude his blessings on the unwilling. We do not read that he ever after visited them. Coming to his own city, Capernaum, where residence gave him citizenship, (Mat_4:13 Mat_8:14 Mar_2:1) "they brought to him," etc. (vers. 2-8).
I JESUS SEES THE FAITH OF THE CONTRITE HEART.
1. He saw the faith of those who carried the paralytic.
(1) This was obvious in the simple fact of their seeking his healing power. Faith is seen in works. (Jam_2:17-22)
(2) It was obvious, moreover, in their earnestness. For, obstructed by the crowd, they broke up the roof and let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay. (see Mar_2:4 Luk_5:19)
(3) They brought him because he could not come of himself; and Jesus honoured their faith. So does he honour the faith of those who bring their children to him in baptism or in prayer.
(4) The faith which secured healing, however, was not of necessity that which brought forgiveness (see e.g. Luk_17:12, etc.).
2. In the paralytic Jesus discerned a deeper faith.
(1) Disease is the general effect of general corruption, not always the particular effect of particular sin. (cf. Exo_15:26 Deu_28:21)
(2) Oftentimes it is this also. Disease is often the natural consequence of sin. And God has often visited individuals with disease as a temporal judgment upon sin. (cf. Num_11:33 Num_12:10 1Ki_13:4 2Ki_5:27 Luk_1:20 Act_13:11 1Co_5:5 1Co_11:30 1Ti_1:20)
(3) Hence the Jews commonly connected suffering with sin. (cf. Joh_5:14 Joh_9:2, Joh_9:34) This man evidently took his sin to heart, and his affliction may have deepened this oppressive sense. No man is fit for forgiveness who does not with the heart believe himself to be a sinner. Heart-faith in sin is repentance. Spiritual disease is invariably the result of spiritual evil. Diseased action is the result of corrupt motive.
(4) This man, moreover, discerned in Jesus not only the Healer, viz. of the body, but also the Healer, viz. of the soul. No man is fit for forgiveness who does not with the heart accept Jesus as the Christ. (see Rom_10:9, Rom_10:10)
(5) All this heart-faith Jesus saw when he proceeded to say, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven." The pardoning voice of Jesus in the believing heart brings "good cheer" evermore.
II JESUS SEARCHES THE THOUGHTS OF THE EVIL HEART.
1. He read the evil thoughts of the scribes.
(1) He saw that they "said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." Blasphemy consists in:
(a) Attributing unworthy things to God.
(b) Denying worthy things of God.
(c) Attributing to others or arrogating the attributes of God.
(2) If Jesus were not Divine it would be blasphemy in him to affect to forgive sins. The offended only can forgive the sins of the offender. (cf. 2Sa_12:13 1Ki_8:39 Isa_63:2-5 Jer_17:10 Mar_2:7)
(3) The sin in the thoughts of the scribes was that they did not apprehend the Divinity of Christ. His miracles, together with the prophecies concerning Messiah, should have convinced them of this.
2. He proved to them his Divinity.
(1) By discovering their secret thoughts. In those passages which challenge to God alone the prerogative to forgive sins, the reason urged is that God alone can search the heart. (2Ch_6:30; see places referred to above)
(2) This knowledge is a mark of Messiah. (cf. Joh_2:15 Joh_16:19, 30 Rev_2:23) Therefore the rabbins by this test confuted the claims of Barchochebas. "Bar Cozeba," says the Talmud, "reigned two years and a half. He said to the rabbins, "I am the Messiah." They replied, "It is written of Messiah that he is of quick understanding, and judges (Isa_11:3); let us see whether this man can tell whether one is wicked or not, without any external proof." And when they saw that he could not judge in this manner, they slew him.
(3) He proved his Divinity by reasoning upon his miracle-working. "For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise?" If you concede the power of healing with a word, you must concede the Divinity of the Worker, and therefore should concede also that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins.
(4) He confirmed his reasoning by miracle. "But that ye may know that the Son of man," etc. Here was a Divine work to confirm a Divine claim. An impostor might say, "Thy sins are forgiven," for the result is not so obvious; but were he to say, "Arise!" he must have power, else he will be instantly rejected.
III THE PRESENCE OF THE HEART-SEARCHER IS FEARINSPIRING.
1. The fear of the forgiven is reverential.
(1) The sense of sins forgiven brings Christ very near. It brings him near in his Godhead. For who can read the heart but God! (1Co_2:10, 1Co_2:11)
(2) It intensifies sincerity. In the near presence of the essential truth there is ever-discouragement to falsehood. Divine good can only dwell in Divine truth.
(3) Gratitude is kindled in the presence of love. The forgiveness of sins does not consist in pronouncing them pardoned, but in removing the sinful inclination from the heart, and replacing it with the passion for goodness. As between sin and suffering there is an intimate connection, so is there an important relation between the pardon of sin and the healing of diseases. (cf. Psa_41:3, 4 103:3 Jer_33:24 Jer_38:17 Mat_8:16, Mat_8:17)
2. The fear of the sinner is awful.
(1) The awe is salutary to the thoughtful. "When the multitudes saw it, they were afraid, and glorified God, which had given such power to men." "Power on earth to forgive sins," viz. "because he is the Son of man". (cf. Joh_5:22, Joh_5:27) The union of the Divine and human in the Person of the Lord is the source of his saving power. "Power on earth." Here sin is committed. Here sin is forgiven. Christ, who has all power in heaven, has therefore all power also on earth.
(2) To the gainsayer the awe is confounding. The scribes were silenced. The day of judgment in the presence of the Heart-searcher came into their very soul. How senseless is the sinner who thinks he sins securely when unseen by men! J.A.M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain On v2 Mat 9:2-34.
Mat 9:2-34.
Further Miracles, With Call Of Matthew, And Discourse At Matthew’s Feast
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The series of miracles (see on "Mat 8:1; Mat 8:19") is now continued by giving—
I. The Paralytic Healed
Mat 9:2-8; compare Mar 2:1-12 Luk 5:17-26. The connection in Mark renders it probable that this miracle preceded the Sermon on the Mount. We have already observed that Matthew is evidently here not following the chronological order, but grouping together certain specimens of our Lord’s actions and sayings in the way best calculated to subserve his object, viz., to establish the Messiahship of Jesus, and exhibit the nature of the Messianic reign. We cannot always see the particular principle on which he groups. But in the present case Alexander has pointed out a natural relation between the events, which accounts for their being thrown together. Shortly after the miracle of the two demoniacs, (Mat 8:28-34) occurred the raising of the ruler’s daughter, (Mat 9:18-26) as we learn from Mar 5:22 Luk 8:41. But we see from Mat 9:18 that the ruler came to Jesus while he was talking with the Pharisees about fasting; and that conversation occurred (Mat 9:14) directly after what he said to the Pharisees in reply to their complaints that he had associated with publicans and sinners, at Matthew’s feast. (Mat 9:10-13) Now this feast would naturally suggest to the Evangelist’s mind his own call to follow Jesus, which led to the feast given some time after the call. (See on "Mat 9:10".) But the call occurred (Mat 9:9) while Jesus was going away from the house at which he healed the paralytic; and this was a very important, a peculiarly instructive miracle, which it was desirable to introduce. So instead of taking up at once the raising of the ruler’s daughter, Matthew first describes the healing of the paralytic, (Mat 9:2-8) and his own call, on that same day; (Mat 9:9) then passes (see on "Mat 9:10") to the feast he subsequently gave, and the conversation which ensued; (Mat 9:10-13, Mat 9:14-17) and thus approaches the case of the ruler’s daughter, and the other notable miracle connected therewith (Mat 9:18-26) afterwards appending two other miracles which took place the same day. (Mat 9:27-31, Mat 9:32-34) We may also note (Lutteroth) an internal relation between the complaint of the Scribes in Mat 9:3, and that of the Pharisees in v. ll, culminating in Mat 9:34; and this may have affected the grouping. That the Evangelist’s mind should thus have worked according to the natural laws of suggestion, is altogether compatible with the inspiration of his narrative; for every part of the Bible bears the impress of human thinking, only preserved by the Spirit from error and guided into all truth, so that the inspired writer says precisely what God would have him say.
The scene of this miracle was in Capernaum, (Mar 2:1, Mar 2:12) and quite probably at Peter’s house, which might well be our Lord’s recognized stopping place. Mark and Luke, as is frequently the case, give fuller details than Matthew. Weiss holds that Matthew makes this occur on the street, and thus conflicts with Mark; but Matthew gives not the slightest hint of locality. What in the world is gained by manufacturing discrepancies?
Mat 9:2.And behold, see on "Mat 8:2", also see on "Mat 8:24". They brought to him, literally, were bringing, a form of expression which not merely narrates the fact, but depicts it as going on. A man sick of the palsy, a paralytic—see on "Mat 4:24"; see on "Mat 8:6". Lying on a bed. ’Lying’ is the same word as in Mat 8:6, Mat 8:14. The ’bed’ was doubtless a thin mattress, or a well-wadded quilt, the inner material being wool. It may have been placed in the present case on a slight frame of wood, making it more comfortable and easier to carry; but it was usually for ordinary sleeping laid on the floor; while sometimes a more elevated bedstead was employed; see Mar 4:21, R. V., ’under a bed.’ We learn from Mark and Luke that four men were bearing the paralytic on the bed, and that in consequence of the great crowd in and about the house where Jesus was, they got on the housetop, broke through the roof, and let him down on his bed into the presence of Jesus. (Compare Edersheim) And Jesus seeing their faith, that is, the faith of the bearers and the paralytic. He was more ready to work miracles for those who had faith, (see on "Mat 9:19; Mat 9:28"); and where forgiveness of sins was also involved, it was indispensable that the person concerned should have faith. (Compare on Mat 8:3) ’Seeing’ their faith is of course a mere vivid expression for perceiving, as when we say "I see your motive." The pains they had taken (Mark and Luke) showed their faith all the more plainly. Son, be of good cheer. Literally, Be encouraged, child, or we should better imitate the simplicity and vigour of the originalby saying, ’Courage, child.’ ’Child’ is the literal rendering (marg. Rev. Ver., compare Darby, Davidson), and is often used in colloquial English as an expression of familiar affection, though not now suited to an elevated style. Compare ’daughter’, Mat 9:22. Thy sins be—-or, are—forgiven, as correctly rendered by Com. Ver. in Luke (Luk 5:20.) The Greek verb is not imperative, but indicative, while the old English ’be’ is used for either. The common Greek text has a perfect tense, meaning ’have been forgiven,’ stand forgiven (so in Luk 7:47 f.; 1Jn 2:12); Westcott and Hort have the present tense, which would cause the forgiveness to be conceived of as just then taking place; it is not easy to decide which form is the original text.[1] The position of the Greek words makes ’forgiven’ emphatic. No doubt all present were much surprised, when instead of healing the bodily disease, Jesus spoke to the man thus. It seems probable that the disease had in this case resulted from some form of dissipation, such as not infrequently produces paralysis. Compare the man at the Pool of Bethesda, (Joh 5:14, lit.) ’Thou hast become well; do not sin any more, lest something worse happen to thee.’ It would not at all follow that all peculiar diseases and remarkable misfortunes result from some special sin-an idea prevalent among the Jews, but distinctly corrected by our Lord. (Joh 9:3 Luk 13:2 f.)
[1] The perfect might have been introduced by way of assimilation to Luk 5:20 (where there is no variation), or might have been abandoned because it is an unusual form of the verb. There is a similar difficulty in Mar 2:5.
We may not unreasonably think that the poor paralytic was troubled and dispirited, because he felt that his sad disease was the consequence and the merited punishment of his sin; so the words of Jesus, which surprised all the bystanders, would be to him precisely in place and full of comfort. Yet it would suffice to say (Schaff) that "the man’s conscience was aroused through his sickness," without supposing the disease to have been caused by special sin.
Mat 9:3. And, behold, this too being remarkable. (compare Mat 9:2) As to the scribes, see on "Mat 2:4". Luke (Luk 5:17, Bib. Un. Ver.) mentions that there were present "Pharisees and teachers of the law (the latter being substantially the same as ’scribes’), who had come out of every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem." Here was quite a crowd of critical hearers. Said within themselves. Compare on Mat 3:9. Blasphemeth. The Greek word, borrowed by us, signifies to speak injuriously, or insultingly, to defame, slander, etc., as in Rom 3:8, 1Pe 4:4 Tit 3:2. From this it was applied to reviling God; saying anything insulting to God, anything impious. The Scribes held Jesus to be blaspheming, because he arrogated to himself a power and right which belonged exclusively to God, viz., that of forgiving sins. This is distinctly expressed by them, in the additional words recorded by Mark and Luke, ’Who can (is able to) forgive sins but God only?’ He who claimed a power peculiar to God, spoke what was injurious and insulting to God. Yet it is not wise to find here a proof of our Lord’s divinity; for he speaks as the Son of man, and speaks of authority given him. (Mat 9:6-8, compare Mat 28:18)
Mat 9:4. Knowing—properly, seeing—their thoughts, like seeing their faith in Mat 9:2.[1] Mark (Mar 2:8) has the expression ’perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves.’ The faith of the paralytic and his bearers could be seen from their actions; but to see the unexpressed thoughts of the Scribes required superhuman perceptions. Compare Luk 6:8, Luk 9:47 Mar 12:15 Joh 2:24 f; Joh 4:29. Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? The ’heart,’ according to Scripture use, is regarded as the seat of the thoughts as well as the affections. (See on "Mat 6:19".) Jesus replies not only with a mild rebuke, but with a proof that he was not blaspheming.
[1] Obvious as is the meaning of this, several MSS. (including B) and several early versions took the trouble to change it to ’knowing’; this is adopted of course by Westcott Hort (who cannot forsake B), and is unwisely followed by Rev. Version. How can we account for a change of ’knowing’ into ’seeing’?
Mat 9:5. For whether—or, which—is easier! It was as easy to say one as the other, viz., to say it with effect. Euthym: "Both were possible for God, both impossible for man."In the case of the healing they could test the reality of the power he claimed; and from this they ought to infer that he possessed the other power also, seeing that he claimed to possess it, and that one who could work a miracle ought to be believed. They had already had many proofs at Capernaum of his power to work miracles. We are often told at the present day that Jesus always relied on his teaching to convince men, and not at all on his miracles; but here he distinctly appeals to miracles as establishing the truth of his teachings.
Mat 9:6. The Son of man, our Lord’s favourite designation of himself, see on "Mat 8:20". Power. The word thus rendered is much used throughout the N. T. It signifies primarily, permission (license, privilege), then authority, (dominion, rule, etc.), and this sometimes suggests ability and power. The word very often conveys two of these ideas at once, as privilege and power, (Joh 1:12) authority and power. (Joh 19:10) Compare on Mat 7:29, Mat 28:18. The Rev. Ver. has everywhere else in Matt. rendered ’authority,’ and it would have been better to do so here, as is done by the American Revisers, Davidson, and Noyes. In this passage it is meant that Jesus has authority to forgive sins, and the power which such authority carries with it; this power is alluded to by the phrase, ’Who can ’, (Mar 2:7; Luk 5:21) and ’Which is easier’. (Mat 9:5, Bib. Un. Ver.) The word ’authority’ is in this passage so placed as to be emphatic, ’the Son of man hath authority,’ etc. And while they naturally thought of forgiveness of sins as performed only by God in heaven, he will show them that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins. Compare the authority to judge, Joh 5:27. He does not proceed to tell the Scribes what he will do to prove his authority, but turns to the paralytic and lets them see. Take up thy bed. Being such as described on Mat 9:2, a man could easily take it up and carry it. Go, or ’go along,’ not said severely, as in Mat 4:10, but kindly, as in Mat 8:13; the word taking colour from the connection.
Mat 9:7 f. What a moment of suspense for all the beholders—some hoping, others fearing, that the man would indeed show himself to be healed. What a thrill must have passed through the crowd, as he arose and went off. How the Scribes must have been abashed and confounded. The paralytic went away ’glorifying God’; (Luk 5:25) we can imagine his feelings of joy and gratitude, when he found himself carrying the bed which had carried him, treading the earth in vigour and health again, yea, and with his sins all forgiven. The effect upon the bystanders at large is stated in Mat 9:8. But when the multitudes—the crowds—saw it. ’Crowds’ is the same word as in Mat 5:1. They marvelled—better, feared—this, and not ’wondered,’ being pretty certainly the correct reading of the text.[1] They felt that alarm and painful uneasiness which is art to be awakened in the bosom of sinful man by anything that seems to bring God nearer to him. (Luk 5:8; compare above on Mat 8:34) But this alarm quickly passed into praise, and they glorified God, which had given such power unto men. (Compare Luk 5:26) Regarding Jesus as only a man, it was right that they should give the glory to God. (Mat 5:16) And they probably did not consider this authority and power as peculiar to him, but as bestowed on men, and possible for others also. It was true, in a sense which cannot have entered into their thoughts, that what was given to Jesus was given to mankind.
[1] Superficial students and copyists would fail to see the deep meaning of ’feared’ in this case, and change it to the more obvious term ’wondered.’ So the internal probability here concurs with the testimony of tim early MSS. and versions.
Before proceeding to further miracles, the Evangelist narrates-
II. The Call Of Matthew, And Conversation At A Feast He Gave, Mat 9:9-17
These are also described in Mar 2:13-22 Luk 5:27-39.
Mat 9:9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence. Mark (Mar 2:13) shows that this occurred immediately after the healing of the paralytic, as implied in Matthew’s ’from thence.’ Sitting at the receipt of custom—custom-house—(so translated in Rheims) probably the place for receiving tolls on the fishing and trade of the lake. The Romans laid taxes, as the Syrian kings had done before them, on almost everything. (See details in Edersheim) Matthew. Luke calls him ’Levi,’ and Mark ’Levi, the son of Alpheus.’ It had become very common for a Jew to bear two names; and probably the first readers of the different Gospels would readily understand that Levi, the son of Alpheus, was also called Matthew. (The name Matthaios, Mattai, might mean simply ’given,’ like Nathan; or else might be a contraction of Mattijah, ’gift of Jehovah,’ like Jonathan, Nethaniah.) It would be natural that Matthew should give only the name by which he was known as an apostle, which Mark and Luke also give in their lists of the apostles, (Mar 3:18 Luk 6:15) and should avoid, as Paul did, the name associated with his former life. Some argue that this Matthew was not the Evangelist, since he is spoken of in the third person; but it has always been common, in ancient and modern times, for writers thus to speak of themselves; and the apostle John, in his Gospel, employs elaborate circumlocutions to avoid even mentioning his own name. Luke here tells us (Luk 5:27) that Matthew was a publican, which is implied in the narratives of Matthew and Mark, and stated by Matthew in the list. (Mat 10:3) As to the publicans, see on "Mat 5:46"; and as to Matthew, see further on "Mat 10:3". And he arose and followed him. Luke says (Luk 5:28, Bib. Un. Ver.) ’And leaving all, he arose,’ etc. Matthew does not mention this, because it would have been speaking in his own praise, which the Evangelists never do. (Compare on Mat 9:10) We can account for his immediately leaving all and following Jesus by the reasonable supposition that at the place of toll by the lake-side he had often seen and heard him, and had gradually become prepared in mind to obey such a call. It is even possible that he had been following Jesus before, and only now attached himself permanently to him (compare on Mat 4:18 ff.). At the name time we may be sure there was something deeply impressive in the Saviour’s tone and look as he spoke the simple words. (Compare Joh 18:6) Observe that while all of the Twelve seem to have been men in humble life Matthew belonged to a class greatly despised. The Talmud (Edersheim) distinguishes customhouse officials from other tax-gatherers, and speaks of them with peculiar hate, probably because their extortions were more frequent and more manifest. This publican Matthew and the notorious persecutor Saul, were as unlikely, humanly speaking, to become apostles of Christ as any men that could be found Yet such has been the work of sovereign grace in every age of Christianity.
Mat 9:10. We have now the account of some conversation that arose while Jesus and his disciples were eating at Matthew’s house, in company with many publicans and sinners. It is clear from Mat 9:14 and Luk 5:33 that the inquiry about fasting and the Saviour’s reply occurred during this meal; and from Mat 9:18, that the ruler’s request to come and raise his daughter was made while Jesus was speaking in response to that inquiry. But from Mar 5:22 f., and Luk 8:41 f., we see that the raising of the ruler’s daughter took place after our Lord’s return from Gadara, and thus at a much later period than the healing of the paralytic and the call of Matthew. We therefore conclude that the feast was actually given by Matthew a considerable time after his call, and that it is merely introduced by him, and also by Mark and Luke, in connection with the call, because it was natural to bring the two together, thereby completing at once all that had any personal relation to this apostle. It thus appears that all three put the case of Jairus’ daughter in its actual chronological position, and all three bring together the call and the feast, although they were really separated by a considerable interval; the difference is, that Mark and Luke tell of the paralytic and the call at the early period when they occurred, adding the feast by anticipation, and then some time afterwards introduce the healing of Jairus’ daughter, which we know immediately followed the feast; while Matthew puts the feast in its real chronological connection with the application of Jairus, and just before the feast introduces the call (which had occurred earlier) and the healing of the paralytic, which preceded the call. (Compare on Mat 9:2) Any one who will take the trouble thoroughly to grasp the facts, will see that this view removes all the difficulty attendant upon harmonizing the three Gospels at this point, a thing which has often been declared impossible. We need not feel bound, nor imagine ourselves able, to remove all such discrepancies, but it is surely worth while to do so when practicable. If the nervous harmonizers stand at one extreme, the scornful despisers of harmonizing certainly stand at the other.
And it came to pass, the same word as in Mat 1:22, Mat 5:18, Mat 6:10, Mat 7:28, Mat 8:13. As Jesus sat at meat, etc., better, while he was reclining in the house, compare on Mat 8:11, where the Greek word is similar and substantially equivalent. Matthew omits to mention whose house it was; probably he omitted it through modesty (compare on Mat 9:9), or perhaps ’the house’ seemed enough in his vivid recollection; though it is implied in the connection; Mark (Mar 2:15) and Luke (Luk 5:29) distinctly state that it was Levi’s house, and Luke says that "Levi made a great feast (literally ’reception’) in his house." This would indicate that he possessed some means; he seems to have sacrificed a somewhat lucrative position in order to follow Jesus. Meyer’s attempt to make ’the house’ here mean Jesus’ own house, and thus to bring Matthew into conflict with Mark and Luke, is strained and uncalled for. Even Keim and Weiss understand it to be Matthew’s house. Behold, see on "Mat 8:2; Mat 8:29". Many publicans and sinners came and sat down, or, were reclining. As to the publicans, see on "Mat 5:46". The Jews were accustomed to call those persons ’sinners’ who lived in open violation of the moral or ceremonial law; and they shrank from contact with all such as polluting. Matthew’s previous associations had brought him into connection not only with publicans, but with all those other men, who, disregarding many of the prevailing religious observances, and feeling themselves to be objects of popular dislike, naturally flocked together. Luke’s expression as to the number present is still stronger, ’a great crowd.’ Mark (Mar 2:15) mentions that these ’followed’ Jesus, as if of their own accord. This is not inconsistent with the idea that Matthew invited them in, while it implies that the feast was a sort of public affair, which agrees with the fact that the Pharisees appear to have pressed in as spectators. (Mat 9:11) Matthew doubtless wished to show respect to his Teacher by inviting a numerous company to meet him, perhaps asking in every one who followed Jesus toward his house. At the same time he must have had some cherished friends among these despised men, some whom he knew to have better stuff in them than was generally supposed, and to have been driven by popular neglect and scorn into association with abandoned persons; and he would hope that they might be benefited by being in company with Jesus and hearing what he said. The example deserves imitation.
Imagine the character of the general conversation at this great entertainment. We should not suppose that the presence or the words of Jesus chilled the guests into a dead stillness; that he showed a lack of sympathy with the common concerns and feelings of mankind. He was not proud, haughty, and forbidding, like many of the Rabbis, but was meek and lowly, kind and gentle, and everything about him tended to attract men rather than repel. Whatever he spoke of, it would be in a spirit marked by fidelity to truth, and yet by delicate consideration for the feelings of others. And when it was appropriate to introduce distinctively religious topics, we can see with what ease and aptness he would bring them in, from striking examples in Luk 14:7, Luk 14:12, Luk 14:15-16, and Joh 4:10, Joh 4:16.
Mat 9:11. It is plain that these Pharisees were not themselves guests at the feast, for in that case they would have been doing the very thing they complained of in Jesus. Probably they pressed into the house before the feast ended, in order to hear what Jesus would be saying. In Luk 7:36 ff. no surprise is expressed at the woman’s entering the dining-room, and no objection made by the host. Pharisees, see on "Mat 3:7". Why eateth your master (or your teacher,didaskalos, see on "Mat 8:19"), with (the) publicans and sinners? The two nouns with but one article present the two classes as forming but one group. According to the prevailing Jewish ideas, a Rabbi, of all men, "ought carefully to avoid all intercourse with such persons." There was not only the social objection to "keeping low company," but the constant dread of ceremonial pollution, from coming in contact with persona likely to be ceremonially unclean; (Mar 7:4) and also that feeling so natural to man, which says, "Stand back; I am holier than thou." (Isa 65:5) Accordingly, our Lord was frequently met with the objection here made to his course. (Mat 11:19 Luk 15:2 ff.)
Mat 9:12 f. He said, the correct text omitting ’Jesus’ and ’to them.’ The disciples told their Teacher of the question which had been asked. They were themselves as yet very imperfectly freed from the erroneous Jewish conceptions of the Messiah’s work, and would probably find it difficult to explain why Jesus should pursue such a course. It was cunning in the Pharisees to ask them, in hope of turning them away from their Teacher. It appears from the connection, and is distinctly stated by Luke, (Luk 5:30-31) that his reply was addressed especially to the Pharisees, with whom the question had started. This reply embraces three points: (1) an argument from analogy; (2) an appeal to Scripture; (3) an express declaration that his mission was to men as sinners, and so he was now acting accordingly. In like manner Paul, 1Co 9:7, presents first an argument from the analogy of men’s common modes of action, and afterwards an argument from Scripture.—(1) They that be whole, or are strong, stout, well, compare the connection of the English words hale, health, whole. Luk 5:31 has literally, ’they that are in health.’ But they that are sick, or ill, the same expression as in Mat 4:24, Mat 8:16. The order of the Greek words puts an emphasis on need not. The force of the illustration is manifest; the physician goes among the sick, and why should not the teacher of salvation go among sinners? Here is a lesson needed in every age, for we are too apt to hold ourselves aloof from the vile and disreputable, when kind and patient efforts might win some of them to better things. At the same time we must, like the physician, take great pains to avoid the contagion of the diseases we seek to cure. And if our good is evil spoken of, as happened here to our Lord, we should be careful not to afford any just occasion or excuse for such reproach. (2) The second point of his reply is an appeal to Scripture. But go ye and learn. The Rabbis frequently employed the same formula, "go ye and learn," indicating that one needs further reflection or information on the subject in hand. This was a severe rebuke to Scribes (Luk 5:30) and Pharisees, who assumed and were popularly supposed to be particularly versed in Scripture. Learn what that meaneth (literally is), i.e., the following saying. The passage is referred to as familiar to them, while yet they were quite ignorant of its real meaning. The Old Testament throughout, when rightly understood, agreed with the teachings of Jesus. I will have (wish, desire) mercy, and not sacrifice, quoted according to the Hebrew. (Hos 6:6) The Hebrew word includes the ideas of kindness and compassion toward men, and of piety towards God. So piety and pity are originally the same word. Hosea’s connection shows that the word was by him taken in the widest sense, but the single idea of kindness or mercy is all that is here necessary to the connection. The absolute statement ’and not sacrifice,’ is not intended to he taken literally, but as a strong expression of preference for mercy. (Compare Luk 14:12) The idea is, I wish kindly feeling and conduct toward others, especially toward the needy and suffering, rather than the externals of religion—of which sacrifice was then the most important. So the Sept. translates, ’I wish mercy rather than sacrifice.’ Or the passage might be expressed, I wish kindness, and I do not want sacrifice without this. The rendering ’I will have mercy,’ which Com. Ver. took from Great Bible and Geneva, is very apt to mislead, because to have mercy now usually means to exercise St.—The mere externals of religion are offensive to God, where its spirit and life are absent. The Pharisees were extremely particular to avoid that external, ceremonial pollution which they might incur by mixing with the publicans and sinners, but were not anxious to show them kindness or do them good. Notice that it is Matthew only that records this argument drawn from the Old Testament, just as he most frequently refers to the prophecies fulfilled in the person of Jesus; this course being natural for one who wrote especially for Jewish readers. See the same passage quoted again in Mat 12:7. (3) I am not come(see on "Mat 5:17"), to call the righteous, but sinners. The words ’unto repentance’ are not properly a part of the text of Matthew, but they are genuine in the parallel passage of Luke, and so were actually spoken on this occasion. Such additions to one Gospel from a parallel passage in another, are often found in MSS. and versions. This third point of our Lord’s reply is that his conduct in associating with the very wicked accords with the design of his mission,’ for I came not,’ etc. The word translated ’righteous’ has no article. He is not speaking of any actually existing class as righteous, but uses the term in a general way for contrast. (Compare Luk 15:7) There is comfort to the burdened soul in the thought that our Lord’s mission was to men as sinners, even to the most vile.
Mat 9:14. The inquiry about fasting, and our Lord’s reply, (Mat 9:14-17) are also found in Mar 2:18-22 Luk 5:33-39. Then. The connection in Luke (Luk 5:33) also indicates that this conversation immediately followed the preceding (for the whole connection see on "Mat 9:2"). Luke represents the Pharisees, to whom Jesus had been speaking just before, as asking the question; Matthew has the disciples of John asking him, and Mark (Mar 2:18) says that both came and asked, and thus suggests a way in which many similar "discrepancies" may be explained. The questioners do not venture directly to find fault with Jesus himself. (Compare Mat 9:11) Who are these disciples of John, who in respect to fasting resemble the Pharisees rather than the disciples of Jesus? It was the design of John’s ministry (compare on Mat 3:1) to bring men to believe on Jesus as coming, and to follow him when he came; and he took great pains to prevent the people from regarding himself as the Messiah. (Joh 1:20, Joh 3:28-30 Act 19:4) Yet there were some who, failing to follow out their master’s teachings, felt jealous of the growing influence of Jesus, (Joh 3:26) and continued to hold exclusively to John; and in the second century we find heretics who maintained that John was the Messiah. How many there were at this time who kept themselves aloof from Jesus, and were simply disciples of John, and what were their precise views, we have no means of determining. As to their fasting frequently, like the Pharisees, (Luk 18:12) it is enough to understand that they had not really changed from the prevailing Jewish opinions and practices. Even among the Jewish Christians addressed in the Epistle of James we find many characteristic Jewish errors and evil practices. It is possible, besides, that these disciples of John found encouragement to fasting in that self-denying mode of life which John pursued for special reason. It seems likely from Mar 2:18 that they were for some reason fasting at this particular time; it may have been one of their regular days of fasting, or it may possibly have been from grief at John’s long-continued imprisonment.[1]. Jerome: "The disciples of John were certainly to blame, in calumniating him whom they knew to have been proclaimed by their teacher, and joining the Pharisees whom they knew to have been condemned by John."—The strict Jews not only fasted very often, but in many cases on very trivial occasions. The Talmud of Jerus, speaks of one rabbi as fasting four-score times to see another; and of a second who fasted three hundred times to see the same person, and did not see him at last.
[1] The word rendered ’oft,’ literally ’much,’ is wanting in B à and a few cursives, and hence omitted by Tischendorf, and Westcott Hort One cannot readily decide whether it was omitted to agree with Mark or inserted to agree with Luke. There is no important difference, as Matthew’s expression without ’oft’ naturally indicates that they were in the habit of fasting.
Mat 9:15. The reply of Jesus is conveyed by three illustrations. (Mat 9:15-16, Mat 9:17) Luke (Luk 5:39) has a fourth. The children(sons) of the bride chamber. The term ’son’ is employed, as explained on Mat 8:12, strongly to express the idea of intimate relation to the object mentioned, but in what precise sense must in every particular expression be determined by the nature of the case. Here it denotes (Edersheim) the guests invited to a wedding, while "friends of the bridegroom" meant his special attendants. (See Jud Mat 14:11 Joh 3:29) The festivities were commonly prolonged during a week. (See on "Mat 25:1 ff.") The word rendered can is so placed as to be emphatic: can it be, in the nature of things? And the Greek has the peculiar particle which denotes that a negative answer is taken for granted. The Talmud declares that the bridegroom, his personal friends, and the sons of the bride-chamber, were free from the obligation to dwell in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles—these being unsuited to their festivities; and were not expected to attend to the stated prayers. This shows how natural and probable, according to the prevailing ideas and usages, was our Lord’s illustration. Already in prophecy had the Messiah been spoken of as a bridegroom; (Psalms 45, etc.) and John the Baptist had employed a figure drawn from the nuptial ceremonies as setting forth his own relation to Jesus; (Joh 3:29) so that in answering John’s disciples this image was all the more appropriate. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken I away from them—and then shall they fast. The term ’will come’ is so placed as to be emphatic. For "when" read whenever, which will indicate that the time of his being taken away is uncertain; this is the first instance recorded in Matthew of our Lord’s alluding to his death. Fasting is naturally and properly an expression of grief, and therefore unnatural and unsuitable at a time of great joy. Such a time was this when the disciples were delighting in their Teacher’s presence. But there was coming a time when it would be natural for them to grieve, and therefore appropriate to fast. The immediate reference is to the grief which would be felt by his disciples at the time of his death. After his resurrection, ascension, and glorious exaltation, their sorrow was turned into joy again. (Joh 16:22 ff.; Act 2:32-36, Act 3:13 ff., etc.) Yet often afterwards, and often ever since, have his followers grieved over his absence and longed for his coming again; so that the time for fasting still continues. By this illustration our Lord teaches that fasting is not to be regarded or observed as an arbitrary,"positive" institution, but as a thing having natural grounds, and to be practised or not, according to the dictates of natural feeling as growing out of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. In some situations it is appropriate and may be made beneficial; in others, it is out of place. We have no evidence that Jesus ever fasted himself, except in the quite extraordinary case of the forty days; (for Mat 17:21 is a spurious passage) but we know that the apostles and other Christians of their time fasted upon special occasion. (Act 13:2, Act 14:23, 1Co 11:27) The principle here laid down cuts at the root of fasting as a regulated observance, leaving it to be done or omitted, not indeed according to accidental or momentary impulse, but according as it is most suitable under the circumstances and likely to do good. (Compare on Mat 6:16-18)
Mat 9:16 f. Regulated fasting, though enjoined by Moses only on the occasion of the Day of Atonement (Luk 16:29), yet was now frequently practised among the Jews, and quite in accordance with the distinctive spirit of the Old Dispensation. But it did not suit the spirit of the gospel; and our Lord shows, by two homely and striking illustrations, how incongruous and injurious would be the connection with the new of what was peculiar to the old. Luke (Luk 5:36) calls this a ’parable,’ i. e., comparison for the purpose of illustration. The parables of the Gospel are usually in the form of narrative, but not necessarily. (See on "Mat 13:3".) No man putteth, etc.,—literally, patches, a patch of an unfilled piece (i.e., fragment of cloth) upon an old garment. The word rendered garment is here naturally taken in the general sense, and not to denote simply the outer garment. (Mat 5:40, Mat 9:20) What is meant is not simply new cloth, for that is often used for patching, but cloth which has not been completely dressed. A part of the process of preparing woollen cloth for use consists in shrinking it, and a patch of ’unfilled’ cloth, not duly shrunk, would contract the first time it should become wet, and as the older and weaker cloth all around must then give way, the result would be a worse rent. We must remember that Jewish garments of that day were usually all wool; and if unfilled, would shrink almost like our flannel. Mark’s statement of the comparison (Mar 2:21) is almost identical with this. Luke (Luk 5:36) gives it in quite a different form, though the general purport is the same. Neither do men put, literally, they, the usual impersonal expression, see on "Mat 5:11". Into old bottles—or, skins. The Greek word signifies properly and exclusively skins for containing liquids, such as the Orientals, ancient and modern, have largely employed. The skin is usually that of a goat or kid, which is tough and light. The head and feet of the animal being removed, the skin is stripped off whole. It is then sometimes tanned in a peculiar way to prevent a disagreeable taste, and the orifices are tied up, leaving one leg or the neck as the opening. The hairy side is of course outward. These skins are habitually used for transporting liquids, such as wine, water, milk, oil, and are admirably adapted to that purpose. Every traveller, in Egypt or Palestine, often sees them, and sometimes drinks water from them. They are mentioned by Homer and other classical writers, and in various passages of the Old Testament Both in ancient and modern times, larger vessels have sometimes been prepared of the skin of the ox or the camel. However preserved, these skins would of course become hard as they grew old, liable to crack and burst, through the fermentation of new wine. (Compare Psa 119:83 Job 32:19) It is a mistake to suppose that the Jews had no other vessels for holding liquids than these skins. Vessels of metal, as gold, of earthenware, even fine porcelain, of stone, and alabaster, and of variously coloured glass, were in use among the Egyptians from an early period, and most of them among the Greeks, Etruscans, and Assyrians; and the Jews, especially in New Testament times, would no doubt import and use them. (Compare Mat 26:7; Jer 19:1; Lam 4:2) This second illustration is to the same effect as that in Mat 9:16; just as we often find a pair of parables, in Matthew 13, and elsewhere. Both are drawn, as is usual in our Lord’s comparisons, from matters of common observation and experience. The "spiritualizing" as to what the ’skins’ represent, and what the ’wine’—what the ’garment’ stands for, and what the ’patch,’ is wholly unwarranted, (See on "Mat 13:3".) We have simply a vivid illustration of the general truth that the combination of the Old and the New Dispensations would be not merely unsuitable but injurious, tending to defeat, rather than to promote, the aims of the Messianic Dispensation. And in the second case there is added the positive statement, but they put new wine into new bottles, etc., showing (Meyer) that a new life needs new forms. While the principle here illustrated was introduced with regard to fasting, it is obviously of wider application, extending to everything in which the two dispensations characteristically differ; and the great mass of the Christian world, from an early period, has sadly exhibited the evil results of disregarding this principle. They would, notwithstanding this and numerous other warnings, connect Levitical rites with Christianity. The simple preacher and pastor must be regarded as a priest, and spiritual blessings must depend on his mediation, as if it were not true that all Christians are priests, and all alike have access through the one Mediator. The simple memento of the Saviour’s death must be a sacrifice, offered by the priest for men’s sins. Numerous religious festivals and stated fasts must be established and enjoined, tending to make religion a thing only of special seasons. The buildings in which Christians meet to worship must be consecrated as being holy ground, like the temple, land splendid rites, in imitation of the temple worship, must lead men’s minds away from the simple and sublime spirituality of that worship which the gospel teaches. With good motives, no doubt, on the part of many, was this jumble of Judaism and Christianity introduced, and with good motives do many retain it; but none the less is it the very kind of thing the Saviour here condemned; and with results as ruinous as he declared. It is not strange that Chrysostom and his followers (Theopbyl., Eutbym.), and Jerome, practising a Judaized Christianity, were unable to understand this passage.
Returning now to the series of miracles, Matthew gives—
III. The Ruler’s Daughter, And The Woman With A Flow Of Blood, Mat 9:18-26
This is found also in Mark (Mar 5:22-43) and Luke, (Luk 8:41-56) who as in many other cases give various details which Matthew omits. For the general connection, see on "Mat 9:2".
While he spake (was saying) these things unto them, with emphasis on "these things." It is thus plain that the application of the ruler, which led to these two miracles, was made while Jesus was in the act of speaking to John’s disciples and the Pharisees (compare on Mat 9:14) These miracles must therefore have taken place at Capernaum. Behold, something remarkable. A certain ruler, or, ’one ruler’(margin Rev. Ver.), as in Mar 8:19. The Greek text is here greatly confused, but there is little doubt that the true reading is that of the Rev. Ver. The term ’ruler’ is ambiguous, and might denote a member of the Sanhedrin, as Nicodemus is called a ’ruler of the Jews’; (Joh 8:1) but Mark (Mar 5:22) says he was ’one of the rulers of the synagogue.’ There were several of these, having authority over the conduct of public worship in the synagogue, (Act 13:15) and a certain influence rather than authority over the social relations and personal conduct of the people (compare on Mat 4:23). We see therefore that it was a man of importance who made this application. Luke (Luk 8:41) gives his name, Jairus; in Old Testament Jair. Came. The common Greek text would make it came in, viz., to the scene of the preceding conversation, probably Matthew’s residence; but the more probable reading (as in W. H.) would mean ’came near,’ ’approached.’ Worshipped him, bowed down before him as an expression of profound respect.(compare Mat 8:2) My daughter is even now dead. Luke (Luk 8:42, Bib. Un. Ver.) in giving the substance of what Jairus said, has it ’was dying.’ Mark (Mar 5:25, Rev. Ver.) has, ’My little daughter is at the point of death.’ And then Mark and Luke inform us that while Jesus was on his way to the ruler’s house, and after the healing of the woman, messengers came meeting him to tell the ruler that his daughter was now dead; and that Jesus told him not to fear, etc. Matthew makes no mention of this message, and we conclude (Calvin) that designing a very brief account, he has condensed the incidents so as to present at the outset what was actually true before Jesus reached the house. For a similar case of condensing see on "Mat 8:5". But come and lay thy hand upon her. Jairus probably thought it necessary that Jesus should be present and touch the person to be healed, as the nobleman in the same town thought; (Joh 4:47, Joh 4:49) the centurion of that town (Mat 8:8) had a juster view.
Mat 9:19. In Mark (Mar 5:24) and Luke (Luk 8:42) we are told that a great crowd thronged around Jesus as he was going, and that Jesus afterwards inquired, when in the midst of the crowd, as to who touched him (compare on Mat 9:22).
Mat 9:20-22. On the way to the ruler’s house occurred another miracle. And, behold, a fresh wonder. A woman.... with an issue of blood twelve years. We know nothing as to the particular nature of the haemorrhage, but the most obvious supposition is probably correct. We learn from Mark (Mar 5:26) and Luke (Luk 8:43) that she had been subjected to a variety of methods of treatment by numerous physicians, spending her entire estate in paying them, but instead of receiving benefit, had been growing worse—a chronic, aggravated, and unmanageable case. Strauss finds an unveracious element in the double occurrence of the number twelve in this narrative (the woman has suffered twelve years, and the maiden was twelve years old, Mar 5:42); some of our allegorizes would find in it a deep spiritual meaning—which is the sillier notion? Came, etc., or coming to him from behind, partly, no doubt, through general timidity, partly from a reluctance to have public attention called to her peculiar affliction; and perhaps also because the law made her ceremonially unclean, (Lev 15:25) and she was afraid of being censured and repelled if it should be known that in that condition she had come into the crowd, since any one would likewise become unclean by touching her. Touched the hem (border) of his garment. We know from Num 15:37 ff.; Deu 22:12, that the Israelites were directed to wear on the corners of the upper garment a fringe or tassel (we cannot certainly determine the exact meaning), with an occasional blue thread. These were designed, as being always before their eyes, to remind them continually of the commandments of the Lord, which they were solemnly bound to obey. If we think of the outer garment as merely an oblong cloth thrown around the person like a large shawl—as it undoubtedly was in many cases (see on "Mat 5:40")—then ’tassel’ is the more natural idea; and in that case ’the tassel’ would be simply the one nearest to her. The Jews attached great importance to this fringe or tassel, the ostentatious Pharisees making it very large (see on "Mat 23:5"); and it is possible that the woman thought there might be a peculiar virtue in touching this, which was worn by express divine command—though such a supposition is not necessary. See a good discussion of the probable dress of Jesus in Edersheim.
Mat 9:21. For she said within herself, as in Mat 9:3. Strictly it is, was saying; i.e., at the time when she pressed through the crowd and touched him. If I may but—better, if I only—touch his garment. The ’may’ of Com. Ver. is misleading. We do not know how far this feeling of hers was mingled with superstition, but in the main her conviction was just, since Jesus commends her faith, and power did go forth from him, (Luk 8:46) the moment she touched him. It was usual in miracles of healing that some manifest connection should be established, however slight, between the sufferer and the healer, as in Peter’s shadow (Act 5:15) and Paul’s handkerchiefs. (Act 19:12) See also Mat 14:36; Mar 6:56; Luk 8:19.I shall be (made) whole, literally, ’saved’; the word has been explained see on "Mat 1:21"as signifying ’preserve’ and ’deliver,’ and as applied to physical dangers, disease and death, as well as to sin and its consequences. What strong faith this woman possessed l And it was justified by the event; for immediately (Mar 5:29) she felt the disease was indeed healed—healed by merely touching the edge of Jesus’ garment, when all the skill of the ablest physicians, through all the weary years, had been unable to relieve it.
Mat 9:22. But Jesus turned, etc. Matthew omits the facts narrated at length by Mark and Luke, that she touched him in the midst of a great crowd, and he insisted on being told who it was that had touched him. We can see that it was not proper to let her be healed and go off, apparently without his knowledge; because this fact, as it should gradually become known, would confirm men in the superstitious notion that he performed healing involuntarily and unconsciously, as if by some magical virtue inherent in his person. His asking who it was is not inconsistent with the idea that he knew. Compare Elisha’s asking, ’Whence comest thou, Gehazi?’, (2Ki 5:25) though well aware of all that he had done; and God’s saying to Adam, ’Where art thou?’ See also Luk 24:19, where Jesus asks, ’What things?’ though he must have understood what they meant. He asked the woman in order to bring her to confession, which would be a benefit to herself—preventing superstition, strengthening faith, and deepening gratitude—as well as to others. Daughter, etc., or, Courage, daughter. Compare on Mat 9:2. ’Daughter,’ in this figurative and kindly use, appears nowhere in the New Testament, save in this narrative. (Mar 5:34 Luk 8:48) Thy faith hath made thee whole, literally, saved, as in Mat 9:21. The perfect tense vividly represents the healing as standing complete. Her faith was of course not the source of the healing, but its procuring cause, as leading her to apply to the healing power of Jesus. and as being the reason why the application was successful. See the same expression used in Luk 7:50, Luk 17:19, Luk 18:42. Was made whole (healed) from that hour. The healing took place at the moment of the touch; what is here said is that from that time forward she was no more sick, but well—not only delivered, but preserved. So in Mat 15:28, Mat 17:18. Eusebius ("Hist." VII. 17) gives a tradition that this woman’s name was Veronica.
Mat 9:23-26. This resumes the narrative of Mat 9:18 f. We learn from Mark (Mar 5:37) and Luke (Luk 8:51) that Jesus suffered no one to go into the house with him save Peter and James and John, and the parents of the girl. The other two occasions on which he took these three disciples only, viz., the Transfiguration and Gethsemane, were singularly solemn and momentous. What was there corresponding in this case? It was the first instance of our Lord’s raising the dead. And saw the minstrels etc., rather in Rev. Ver., the flute players, (compare Rev 18:22) and the crowd making a tumult, the same Greek word as in Mar 5:39; Act 17:5, Act 20:10. This last expression is confined in the original to the crowd, so that a comma is needed after ’flute players.’ It was the custom in the East and still is, for the relatives and special friends of the dying person to gather round the couch, and the moment the breath ceased they would break out into loud cries, with every exclamation and sign of the most passionate grief; and unable to continue this themselves, they would hire professional mourners, especially women, who would keep up the loud, wailing cry throughout the day and night. (Compare Jer 9:17, Jer 16:6 Eze 24:17 Amo 5:16, 2Ch 35:25) Persons of wealth might afford to hire musicians also; and Jairus being a man of consideration, a ruler of the synagogue, we find that the flute players have arrived, and although but a few minutes after the child’s decease, already there is a crowd present, making a tumultuous noise of lamentation. All these things are witnessed by travellers in Egypt or Palestine at the present day.
Mat 9:24. Is not dead, but sleepeth. Jesus speaks with reference to what he intends to do. She is going to rise up presently as one who had been asleep, so that her death will be, in the result, no death; it will only be as if she were sleeping. Likewise in Joh 11:11, he speaks of Lazarus as sleeping, because he was going to awake him out of sleep. Thus there was no occasion for the noisy mourning, and the preparations for a funeral; and the crowd must withdraw. Laughed him to scorn. This might only mean that anybody could see she was dead, (Luk 8:53) and it seemed silly to think otherwise. But there in Capernaum, where he had wrought many miracles, it may be that they supposed he would try to heal her, and thought the attempt absurd, as she was unquestionably dead, and it was too late. It is not likely they thought he was proposing to bring the dead to life, which he had never done. Their scornful laughter shows that the people were by no means swift to believe in his miraculous powers and his divine mission; and thus renders the wondering acknowledgment, repeatedly extorted from them by facts, an evidence all the more valuable and satisfactory.
Mat 9:25. But when the people were put forth, or, thrust out, the word implying some constraint or urgency. He was as yet in the more public reception room of the dwelling. Having expelled the crowd, he with the parents and his three followers, (Luk 8:51) went in, viz., into the inner room where the body was lying. Took her by the hand. Touching the dead body, like touching the leper, (Mat 8:3) or being touched by the woman with a flow of blood, would have the effect, according to the law, of producing the highest degree of ceremonial uncleanness; but in all these cases Jesus, instead of receiving pollution through the touch, imparted cleansing. Mark (Mar 5:41) and Luke (Luk 8:54) relate that in addition to grasping her hand he spoke, and bade her arise. Also that he charged her parents much, not to tell what had happened (compare on Mat 8:4), notwithstanding which we find here that the fame thereof went abroad into all that land, i.e., Galilee, or the parts of Galilee adjacent to Capernaum.
The woman, for one reason, was required to tell; Jairus, for another, was forbidden to tell. It cannot be that Jesus expected the matter to remain wholly unknown; he probably wished to prevent their speaking of it at once and generally, as they would have done, because in that case there would have been too much excitement produced, by the series of extraordinary miracles then occurring in immediate succession. (Compare on Mat 9:28) Stier : "Three awakenings from death the Spirit has caused to be recorded for us, though others may well have taken place; and these indeed, in a remarkable and significant progression.... the maiden is here dead upon her bed, the young man at Nain was carried forth upon his bier, Lazarus had lain four days in his grave."
The series of miracles in Matthew 9, and the whole group of Matthew 8, 9, ends with—
IV. Healing Two Blind Men, And A Dumb Demoniac, Mat 9:27-34
These miracles are not recorded by the other Evangelists.
Mat 9:27-31. Healing the blind men. And when Jesus departed thence—was passing along thence—the same expression as in Mat 9:9. It shows that the following miracles occurred immediately after the preceding. Followed him, in the purely literal sense, went along behind him. They may have been sitting beside the road when he passed by, as in Luk 18:35-37. Have mercy, or, have pity. The word really includes both ideas, and the latter is the one here prominent. (See on "Mat 5:7".) By saying, Son of David, they declare their belief that he is the Messiah. (Compare Mat 22:42, Mat 15:22) The order of the Greek shows that their first thought was for mercy on themselves—very naturally. They had probably heard of Jesus’ miracles, perhaps of the two wonderful works just wrought. If one inquires why they should believe him to be Messiah, while others did not, we can only reply by asking why there is a similar difference now. The Gospels frequently mention blind persons healed. (Mat 11:5, Mat 12:22, Mat 15:30, Mat 20:30, Mat 21:14; Mar 8:22; Joh 5:3, Joh 9:1) Blindness is much more common in the East than among us, in consequence of abounding dust, the practice of sleeping in the open air, the sudden change from darkened houses to dazzling light without, and the fact that their head-dress does not protect the eyes.
Mat 9:28. Into the house, viz., the house to which he returned from that of the ruler. (Mat 9:23) It may have been Matthew’s house, (Mat 9:10) or Peter’s, (Mat 8:14) or some other which Jesus made his usual place of abode at Capernaum. (Compare Mat 13:1, Mat 13:36, Mat 17:25) Observe that in Capernaum occurs all that is narrated in Luk 18:2-34, as well as in Luk 8:5-22. As they followed him along the street, Jesus gave them no answer or notice; but when he had entered the house, they approached and he spoke to them. This failure to notice them at first was doubtless designed (1) to develop and strengthen their faith; (compare Mat 15:23) (2) to avoid the excitement which another public miracle just then might have produced among the people, already stirred by the healing of the woman, and by the rapidly spreading news of the raising of Jairus’ daughter to life. (Compare on Mat 9:2-6) The question, Believe ye that I am able? developed into greater clearness the faith they bad already shown by following and asking. In their answer, Lord is probably no more than a very respectful form of address. (See on "Mat 8:2".) Jesus was more ready to work miracles where there was faith in him. (Compare on Mat 9:2, Mat 9:22, and Mat 13:58) But it is too much to say that he never wrought miracles without faith; instance the widow’s son at Nain, and Malchus’ ear. Observe that his question was simply whether they believed that he could heal them; his willingness remained to be seen. (Compare on Mat 8:2)
Mat 9:29. Touching the eyes of the blind (compare Mat 9:20-34), was a natural and kindly act, like taking the hand of one prostrate with fever. (Mat 8:15) According to your faith be it—let it happen—unto you. (Compare on Mat 8:13). An old German writer says that faith is like a bucket by which we draw from the inexhaustible fountain of God’s mercy and goodness, to which otherwise we cannot penetrate; and Calvin compares it to a purse, which may itself be worthless, but filled with money makes the man rich.
Mat 9:30. And their eyes were opened. We have no means of judging whether this physical blessing was attended with the pardon of their sins. (Compare on Mat 8:3.) The fact that they soon after disobeyed Christ’s explicit and emphatic command renders it improbable that they believed unto salvation, though not impossible. And Jesus straitly (sternly) charged them, an unclassical, but natural sense of the Greek word, found also in Mar 1:43. The expression implies that he would be seriously displeased if they disobeyed. As to the probable reasons for this, compare on Mat 8:4; and add here that they were virtually calling him Messiah, which might excite popular fanaticism. (Mat 16:20 Joh 6:15) He may have spoken with greater severity of manner, because a similar injunction in previous cases had been disregarded; yet it was disregarded again in this case. Spread abroad his fame in all that country, as in Mat 9:26. The Com. Ver., with its passion for variety, must needs give ’land’ in Mat 9:26, and ’country’ here, though the Greek has the same word and in the same connection, and though the earlier Eng. versions translate it alike in both places. Some have sought to excuse the disobedience of the two men on the ground that it was very natural, and was no doubt sincerely designed to do him honour. But still it was a fault. What can be so pleasing to him, or so conducive to his glory, as simple, unquestioning, loving obedience?
Mat 9:32-34. Healing a dumb demoniac. This is not related by the other Evangelists. And as they went (were going) out, namely, out of the house in which they had been healed. (Mat 9:28) ’They’ is slightly emphatic, standing in contrast to the next person who came to be healed. Behold, calling attention to what follows as wonderful. They brought to him, i.e., some persons brought; impersonal or indefinite, as in Mat 5:11, Mat 9:17, and often. A dumb man possessed with a devil, a demoniac, see on "Mat 8:28; Mat 8:31." Compare Mar 9:25 for a similar case. Mar 7:32 mentions a deaf man who spoke with difficulty, and says nothing of demoniacal influence. Mat 12:22 gives a demoniac who was both blind and dumb. And the multitudes, crowds, as in Mat 5:1, Mat 9:8, and often. Marvelled, etc. Wondered, saying, It never at any time appeared thus in Israel; there was never such a thing seen before, in all the wonderful history of the nation. (Compare Mar 2:12 Joh 9:32) Probably their wonder referred not merely to this last case of the dumb demoniac, but to the series of miracles that day wrought, and, it would seem, in quick succession—the woman, the daughter of Jairus, the two blind men, and now the dumb man. The Evangelists never stop to say themselves that the miracles of Jesus were wonderful. To them these things were not astonishing now as they looked back from the time of writing their narratives, for it was a fact long familiar to their minds that he who wrought them was divine; and so they calmly tell the story of miracle after miracle, without any exclamation or remark. But it was appropriate to mention, as they often do, the wonder felt by the persons witnessing a miracle, because this was one of the evidences of its manifest reality. Mat 9:34.[1] But the Pharisees said, strictly ’were saying,’ viz., while the people were expressing their wonder. Through, literally ’in ’(margin of Rev. Ver.), i.e., in union with, by power derived from, the prince of the devils, demons. This insulting charge was probably made on the present occasion in the absence of Jesus, but made afterwards in his presence; see on "Mat 12:24". The Pharisees; see on "Mat 3:7". They had been finding fault with Jesus in connection with all the preceding matters for undertaking to forgive sin, (Mat 9:3) for associating with publicans and sinners, (Mat 9:11) and for not fasting, (Mat 9:14) and now their opposition grows yet more bitter and bold, when they venture upon the accusation of union with Satan. The crowds, for their part, wondered at the unparalleled event, but the Pharisees tried to explain it away, by however baseless and blasphemous a supposition. So also ill Mat 12:28 f. They were not willing to acknowledge the truth about Jesus’ miracles, for it would diminish their own consideration among the people; and so they struck out madly after some explanation or other. Thus ends the remarkable series of miracles which Matthew has grouped (Matthew 8, 9), as specimens of our Lord’s wonderful works. (Compare on Mat 8:1).
[1] Westcott Hort bracket this verse, as of doubtful genuineness. But the only evidence for omitting is that of D, two copies of the old Latin, and two Latin Fathers of the fourth century, evidence exclusively "Western," and quite meagre. This often arbitrary "Western" type of text might easily have omitted the sentence, from the notion that such a thing occurred but once and that its true place is in Mat 12:24.
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 9:2-8. Sickness and sins: (1) Some kinds of sickness proceed directly from sin, and are its penalty. (2) Forgiveness of sin is far more important than cure of sickness. (3) He who could by a word heal the severest sickness can also forgive sin. (4) The usual condition of miraculous healing was faith, and faith is the indispensable condition of forgiveness (Mat 9:2). (5) The highest ground of cheerfulness and gratitude is to bare our sins forgiven (Mat 9:8).
Mat 9:2. Faith and healing. (1) In rare cases Jesus healed without faith, as Malchus. (2) Sometimes upon the faith of others, as the nobleman, (Joh 4:50) the centurion, (Mat 8:10) the Syrophcenician. (Mat 15:28) (3) Usually upon the faith of the sufferer, Mat 9:22, Mat 9:28, and often. (4) Here upon the faith both of the sufferer and of his friends.
Mat 9:3. Henry: "If we have the comfort of our reconciliation to God, with the comfort of our recovery from sickness, this makes it a mercy indeed to us, as to Hezekiah. Isa 38:17."
Isa 38:4 f. Chrys.: "Jesus here does two things superhuman—seeing thoughts, and forgiving sins."
Isa 38:6. Chrys.: "(1) Proof of the forgiveness by healing. (2) Proof of the healing, by carrying the bed."
Isa 38:8. Compare the effect produced at Carmel. (1Ki 18:29) Henry: "Others’ mercies should be our praises."
Mat 9:9-11. Matthew. (1) Abandoning a lucrative employment to follow Jesus in poverty. (2) Turning from a worldly occupation to follow Jesus in spirituality. (3) Bringing his former wicked companions to hear Jesus, if perchance they will follow him too. (4) Rising from despised publican to apostle and evangelist. —Chrys.: (1)"The power of the caller. (2) The obedience of the called."—Probably prepared before hand, yet still at his old business when called. —Henry: "As Satan chooses to come, with his temptations, to those that are idle, so Christ chooses to come, with his calls, to those that are employed."
Mat 9:11. Jesus eating with publicans and sinners. (1) Social intercourse affords a great opportunity for doing people good. (2) The worst men must be treated with respect, if we would win them to piety; and the worst men have in them something to be respected. (Hall: "I do not find where Jesus was ever bidden to any table, and refused.") (3) A man of despised calling may become a Christian, anal an eminent minister. (4) It may be lawful to associate with very wicked people, when we can be confident of doing them good, and are duly guarded against receiving injury.
Mat 9:13. Mercy and not sacrifice. (1) Professed teachers of Scripture may greatly mistake its meaning. (2) The externals of religion are unacceptable to God, without its true spirit. (3) The spirit of Christianity teaches a kindly pity for even the grossly wicked. Jesus seemed to be transgressing the law of ceremony; the Pharisees really were transgressing the law of mercy. (4) The greatest kindness we can do to wicked people, is to lead them to be truly pious. (5) In order to reach the most degraded with Christian influences, we must treat them with courtesy and respect.
Mat 9:14. Henry: "False and formal professors often excel others in outward acts of devotion, and even of mortification.... It is common for vain professors to make themselves a standard in religion, by which to try and measure persons and things, as if all who differed from them were so far in the wrong; as if all that did less than they, did too little, and all that did more than they, did too much."
Mat 9:15. Fasting is proper only when it has a natural basis in some actual grief.
Mat 9:16 f. Christianity and Judaism are in many respects incongruous; let us not Judaize our Christianity.
Mat 9:18-21. Parental grief and personal suffering both leading to Jesus.
Mat 9:20-22. The timid sufferer’s faith. (1) Follows the failure of all natural efforts; (Mar 5:26) (2) Overcomes timidity and shame; (3) Presses through an unfriendly throng; (4) Brings healing instantly and permanently; (5) Gains the Saviour’s approval; (6) Bears her away happy.
Mat 9:23-26. The ruler’s daughter. (1) The sorrowing, but believing father (Mat 9:18). (2) The noisy mourners, loudly proclaiming her dead. (3) The silent chamber, (compare Mar 5:40) and the young life restored. (4) The supernatural healing, followed immediately by giving natural food. (Mar 5:43) Compare Joh 6:12. (5) The restored life devoted, let us hope, to the good of man, and the glory of God.
Joh 6:27. Henry: "It becomes those that are under the same affliction, to concur in the same prayers for relief. Fellow-sufferers should be joint petitioners. In Christ there is enough for all."
Joh 6:26. Luther: "Christ is rejoiced to see our faith persistent, unwearied, stiff-necked."
Joh 6:29. Henry: "They who apply themselves to Jesus Christ shall be dealt with according to their faith; not according to their fancies, not according to their professions, but according to their faith."—Joh 6:30 f. We often fail to speak for Jesus when we ought, but sometimes fail to be silent when we ought.
Joh 6:2-34. Striking examples of belief in Jesus, and of unbelief. (1) Of belief, (a) The paralytic, Joh 6:2; (b) The publican, Joh 6:9; (c) The ruler of the synagogue, Joh 6:18; (d) The long-afflicted woman, Joh 6:21 f; (e) The two blind men, Joh 6:28. (2) Of unbelief. (a) The scribes accusing him of blasphemy, Joh 6:3; (b) The Pharisees complaining that he eats with publicans and sinners, Joh 6:11; (c) The disciples of John, with their sceptical inquiry about fasting, Joh 6:14; (d) The crowd at Jairus’ house laughing scornfully, Joh 6:24; (e) The Pharisees charging league with Satan, Joh 6:34.
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23 A man sick of the palsy.
Mat_9:1-8
A man sick of the palsy.
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The highest cause for joy
I. The miserable condition of a human being.
II. The power and love of Jesus.
III. thy joyous change produced. (American Homiletical Review.)
Sin and its forgiveness
I. Our faith may be effectual in saving others. The faith of the centurion obtained a cure for his servant. Such instances prove that, in all eases, we may help on the salvation of our friends; that in some cases our faith may stand in the place of theirs. Another ones faith may do for an infant, a lunatic, for one who has an insurmountable obstacle m the way of coming to Christ. Apply this to the case of sponsors in infant baptism. We are related to God, and members one of another.
II. The connection between disease and sin. Christ goes deeper than the outward evil, to that which is evil-sin. The consequence of sin often traced in suffering. The consequences of past deeds remain.
III. Christ the restorer of health and the forgiver of sin. We have no right to argue there was no repentance: he felt his need of Christ. Christ spoke to the suffering sinner; giving first that we may return to Him of His own. There may be s crowd of evil thoughts, doubts between you and your Saviour; let none of these hinder you. (C. B. Drake, M. A.)
Helplessness and its Master
There are three views of the outward miracles of our Lord, one as marvels of power, as demonstrations of benevolence, as seeing in them a Divine correspondence between the things of nature and the things of the spirit; between the facts of the outer and inner world. Thus, the multiplied bread a visible image of heavenly nourishment.
I. In the text palsy stands for spiritual prostration and indifference. Action and feeling are smitten; but not gone.
II. The condition of the cure. This patient does hear, does believe, and is ready to obey. Let us never despair of another. They brought him-notice this neighbourly and vicarious kindness. There are instances when the sick man alone lacks force to arise. In the fulfilment of the necessary condition faith and action are joined, and the action expresses the faith. These persons not only believe abstractly in Christs power; they brought their sick neighbour where He was. It was not an experiment with them, but the faith of confident expectation. On our way to cure we have no time for speculation, or curiosity; but to draw near with faith.
III. What he said to the sick of the palsy.
1. A title of endearment and an assurance of hope. Adaptation of Christs treatment; he never administers rebuke to self-abasement.
2. The words reveal a deep insight into the relations of physical and moral evil. Pain, the result of sin; hence He removes disobedience, then discomfort.
IV. The low instincts and preferences of the natural man chafe at this divine friendliness. These scribes represent jealous and selfish human nature. This friendliness is too wise, deep, holy, for their low desires. The scribes watch for the chance of hostile criticism. Self-will demands to be saved after its own manner.
V. Here then, in the cavils of these spectators, the divine physician finds a new disorder more deeply struck than the other. His compassion; His patience. He changes the manner of His mercy, and is willing by any means to convince the people that He is Lord. All miracle is one, the cure of sick bodies and sick hearts.
VI. The multitude glorified God. The intended result was reached. (Bp. Huntingdon.)
Good cheer for sad hearts
I. Sin-its relation to the body. Its sphere of action is in high places; mere matter cannot sin. It lives secretly in the soul, but works terribly in the body. As sin works outward through the body, punishment strikes the body on its way to the seat of sin. Here is one of Gods grandest temples lying in ruins; and God incarnate comes to restore it. He came not to deliver the body from the temporal consequences of sin, but the man from its power here, and its presence hereafter.
II. Sin-its removal by the Lord.
1. It is by a free pardon that sin is removed and its eternal consequences averted. There is no other cure.
2. The Saviour to whom this needy man was brought has power to forgive sins. It is the acquired right of Him who bore the laws curse.
3. Christ has power to forgive on earth. While we are on this earth only.
4. The Son of Man hath power to forgive. The power lies in our brothers hands.
5. Christ the Saviour, in coming to a sinful man desires his safety hereafter, but also his happiness now-Son, be of good cheer. Every man has his own way of seeking good cheer; some by money, lands, politics, war. (W. Armlet.)
The efficacy of grace
1. In awakening the dormant powers of the palsied man.
2. In calming the perturbed soul-Be of good cheer.
3. In healing both soul and body. (A. F. C. Wallroth.)
The cure of the paralytic
I. That sin is great evil.
II. That faith is a great blessing.
III. That Christ is a great saviour.
1. His knowledge. He knew the real need of the paralytic.
2. His authority. It is good to have been afflicted. (D. Rees.)
The paralytic, or sickness improved
Why does our Saviour begin with the pardon of sin?
1. To display His sovereignty.
2. To show that the soul is the principal care.
3. Perhaps the man suffered more from spiritual distress than from bodily pain.
4. It would seem to emit a ray of His glory, and prove a test to try the dispositions of the company.
Here are several things worthy of notice:-
1. This cure was effected by a word.
2. He was ordered to return home. Christ did not seek His own glory.
3. Fix your eye on Jesus, the most prominent figure in the story.
4. How far the case of the paralytic resembles yours.
(1) Are you distressed in mind and body too?
(2) Has Christ healed thy body and not thy soul?
(3) Has he spoken peace to thy conscience, and is thy body still under the influence of disease? (W. Jay.)
The forgiven paralytic
I. The afflicted sufferer brought to the Saviour.
II. The reception given by Christ.
1. Observe what it was that found its way to the heart of Christ. Not his suffering, but faith.
2. Mark the peculiarity of the reception he gave to the paralyzed man-Son, be of good cheer, etc.
III. The contradiction of sinners which Jesus had to endure. This man speaketh blasphemy.
IV. The great truth taught us by this narrative.
1. All men, till they come into saving contact with Christ, are carrying about with them two heavy burdens.
2. Christ has power to meet every case of accumulated guilt and heart-seated depravity.
3. What then is the nature of this blessing? (P. Morrison.)
The mystery of sickness
1. The connection which subsists between the prevalence of sickness and the invasion of sin.
2. Why it is not always the case that when sin is pardoned sickness is healed. Not for want of power on the part of our Lord. Also in the case of the palsied man it was necessary that He should give to the Jewish people a proof that He possessed the power He claimed; this not necessary now. Christ does even now sometimes heal where all human remedy has failed; but not always. Then the discipline of continued affliction is good, impatience is subdued. Also we have given an evidence of the power of the gospel, in the triumph of grace over nature. (S. Robjohns, M. A.)
The paralytic healed
1. The terrible state of the patient.
2. The charity of his friends.
3. The compassion of Jesus, so ready and comprehensive.
4. The opposition of his enemies.
5. The patient, meek forbearance of our Lord.
6. The triumphant display of His Divine power.
7. Its effect upon the multitude, wonder, not repentance. (The Clergymans Magazine.)
The story of a paralytic
One real case of bodily paralysis may help us to picture what above all things we ought to know, the state of our own inner life. I have seen this quoted from the medical records at Paris:-A man was attacked by a creeping paralysis; sight was the first to fail; soon after, hearing went; then, by degrees, taste, smell, touch, and the very power of motion. He could breathe, he could swallow, he could think, and, strange to say, he could speak; that was all; not the very slightest message from without could possibly, it seemed, reach his mind, nothing to tell him what was near, who was still alive; the world was utterly lost to him, and he all but lost to the world. At last, one day, an accident showed that one small place on one cheek had its feeling left. It seemed a revelation from heaven. By tracing letters on that place, his wife and children could speak to him, his dark dungeon-wall was pierced, his tongue had never lost its power, and once more he was a man among men. Strange this, and true; a parable too if we read it aright. The worst kind of paralysis, but, God be thanked, far the rarest of all, is that of the heart and conscience. There never was a man with no affections and no sense of right and wrong. But never must they be pronounced past cure. God alone knows our real state; there is always some tender spot in our nature, some sensitive place on which He can write in characters of love, and it may be some ones privilege to find it-the thought of a mother, of the days of childhood, of a little one who died, or whatever it be, God- can still use that as a means of cure. (H. S. Swithinbank, M. A.)
Forgiveness, the primary Reed of the sinner
Not, Be of good cheer, thy health is given thee, though that he had also; but thy sins are forgiven thee. If a friend should come to a malefactor, on his way to the gallows, put a sweet posy in his hands, and bid him be of good cheer, smell on that; alas! this would bring little joy with it to the poor mans heart, who sees the place of execution before him. But if one came from his prince with a pardon, put it into his hand, and bade him be of good cheer; this, and this only, would cheer the poor mans heart, and fill it with a ravishment of joy. Truly, anything short of pardoning mercy is as inconsiderable towards pacifying a troubled conscience, as that posy in the dying prisoners hand would be. (Gurnall.)
Christ sees the beginning and the ending of the patients ailment
Sin is the well in which it springs, and perdition the sea to which it is flowing. When he looked on disease, he sees its beginning and its ending: his work is to cut short its course, ere it issue in the second death. He looks upward and downward: he will not confine his view to these symptoms which appear in the body, and pertain to time. (W. Arnot.)
Getting the palsied man to Jesus
Many Oriental houses have a court or quadrangle in front; the buildings which form the house occupy one or more of its sides. The internal part of such a house is often screened by a corridor below, having the various household officers behind it, and a gallery above, from which is the entrance to the family apartments. The gallery is roofed over, and its roof is about the same height as the roof of the house. Bearing this in mind we may account for what occurred in this way. The quadrangle was full of people; our Lord instructs them from the gallery: the Pharisees are in the family apartments adjoining the gallery; the friends of the sick man cannot enter the quadrangle from the street; or if this could be done, they cannot reach the corridor, from which there were steps leading to the gallery; they ascend, therefore, the stairs from the back or side of the house leading to the roof, and break open the roof or verandah which covered the gallery. The house-roof was used for a terrace, and was built of strong materials; the gallery-roof was of very slight construction, of the same character as the covered balcony. (Webster and Wilkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26 1. He entered into a ship. The last chapter…
1. He entered into a ship. The last chapter left the Savior in the country of the Gadarenes on the eastern side of the lake. He now returns to Capernaum. Came into his own city. Capernaum, so called because, after leaving Nazareth, he made Capernaum his Galilean home.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 14, 18 Mat_9:1. Ship.—Boat (R.V.). His own city.—Capernaum (see Mat_4:13; Mar_2:1).
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_9:1. Ship.—Boat (R.V.). His own city.—Capernaum (see Mat_4:13; Mar_2:1).
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Mat_9:2. Palsy.—Suffering apparently from a less severe type of paralysis than the centurion’s servant (Mat_8:6). Their faith.—The faith of the sick man and of his friends who brought him (Morison). Son.—A young man apparently. It would scarcely be too strong to translate it thus: “My dear child, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven” (Gibson). Thy sins be forgiven thee.—This forgiveness was doubtless the very boon which, above all others, the young man needed and desired. Jesus was reading his heart. Possibly, too, there may have been in this case a peculiar connection between the youth’s sins and his sickness (Morison).
Mat_9:4. Knowing.—Or seeing.
Mat_9:6. Take up thy bed.—The Oriental frequently spreads a mat upon the ground and sleeps in the open air; in the morning he rolls up his mat and carries it away (Carr).
Mat_9:8. Marvelled.—Were afraid (R.V.). Unto men.—This power, which hitherto had been enthroned in the most holy place as the prerogative of Jehovah, now stood embodied before them, as it were, an incarnate Shechinah. Hence their joyous expression, He has given it to the Son of man, and therefore to men (Lange).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_9:1-8
The pardon of sin.—The miracles of the Saviour had both a temporal and a spiritual side. The multitudes mentioned in Mat_8:18 appear to have thought too much of the former. Therefore it was that He went away to the other side of the lake; and so, as it were, for a season, cut off the supply. Now, it appears, in coming back, that He has the same error in view, but desires to treat it (if we judge Him rightly) in a different way, viz. in the way of rather fixing attention on the spiritual side of His works. The probable evidences of this will be found:
1. In the claim with which He begins.
2. In the proof with which He concludes.
I. The original claim.—This was remarkable, first, in its general scope. It was a tacit claim to a right to speak on the most momentous of topics, viz. on the “forgiveness of sins” (Mat_9:2). No topic reaches so far as this does both towards God and towards men. It affects the Ruler because it affects the equity and so the continuance of His rule. It affects the offender because it affects the continuance of his life. It was doing not a little to undertake to speak at all on such a matter. Remarkable, next, because of its special manner and tone. On this highest of topics He claimed the right to speak in the highest possible way. It is both as a Father and as a King; and as both these in such a way that His word may be trusted to the full, the Saviour speaks in this case. “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven” (R.V.). In other words—“The cause is over, the question settled; I pronounce thee forgiven.” Equally remarkable was the claim made in regard to the effect it produced. This was of a twofold description. On the one hand it produced in those who stood by and heard it a certain feeling—in all probability partly real and partly also affected—of horror. It seemed to them, and they were men who professed to be both diligent students and special teachers of truth, that there was nothing less than absolute blasphemy in the words they had heard. At the same time it is observable that they do not seem to have dared to put this thought of theirs into words; not, at any rate, to Himself. Only “in themselves”—to their own hearts—do they whisper their thought. Any way, this silence itself may seem to show the more what they thought of His claim, viz., as one involving that which it was hardly befitting to speak of out loud. Finally, the claim is remarkable as being one which we have never heard from Him before. So far as we can judge there had been other occasions for it quite as fitting as this. The case of the leper (Mat_8:1-4); the case of the centurion’s servant, a case of palsy (Mat_8:6); the case of “Peter’s wife’s mother” (Mat_8:14-15) (to say nothing of the unnumbered cases of bodily healing that are referred to, in the mass, without being severally described in Mat_8:16-17)—are all cases in which, if this claim had to be made, it would have been in its place. Why, then, was it deferred until now? Apparently, because the Saviour, as we saw before, had a special object in view, the object, viz., of drawing special attention to the spiritual side of His works. Therefore it was, in this case of healing, that He begins with this claim.
II. The subsequent proof.—Having made such a claim He could hardly leave it unsupported by proof. Having Himself provoked such thoughts, and knowing He had (Mat_9:4), He could hardly leave them alone. At any rate, He did not. On the contrary He proceeds to give good evidence that He could really do as He said; and that, in drawing attention in this way to the spiritual side of His work, He was not only declaring what was transcendantly important but absolutely indisputable as well. The evidence in question was two-fold in character. It proved, on the one hand, that He had the requisite knowledge. He who would pardon sin rightly must be acquainted with “all about” it, of course. What the sinner has done. Why he did it. How much he was tempted. What he thought to do more (Act_8:22). In other words, any one who would be beyond the reach of mistake on this matter must be a judge of the heart. Such accordingly, in this case, by the language He uses, the Saviour proves that He is. He “sees”—so some copies—in the case before Him, the hidden thoughts of the heart; and He proves Himself thereby to be fully competent—if we may so express ourselves—to “try” the question in hand. Why should He not be, indeed, if He is seen, in this way, to have all the requisite “data” on hand? There is evidence also, in the next place, that He has the requisite power. Witness the “order” He gives. Speaking Himself to the man who is sick—who is so sick as to be unable to move of Himself (Mat_9:2), and had been brought there in pity by others—He bids him go back of himself. “Arise, and take up thy bed”—the previous sign of his feebleness to be thus the sign of his recovery—“and go unto thy house.” No challenge could be bolder—no token clearer—no issue more sure. If he can do as I tell him, it is with him as I say. Witness, next, the results of that order. The first result, on the sick man himself. The paralytic does as he is told to do. He took up “that whereon he lay” (Luk_5:25). He did so “before them all” (Mar_2:12). Witness the second result on all that stood by. They see at once what it means. Things are, indeed, as Jesus has said. What He has claimed He possesses. Let God be praised that He does. However marvellous, it is strictly true. The thesis propounded has been proved to the full. “The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.”
Besides this most vital of truths, we may learn, from the passage thus analysed, two others of hardly less, if of any less weight.
1. How all important is this question of the forgiveness of sin.—What our Saviour put first from His point of view we may well put first from our own. What the Saviour begins with we should begin with as well. What other advantage, indeed, is worthy of mention along side of this? It is like a ship at sea which has sprung a leak, which, if not “stopped,” will infallibly sink it. What other things are worth striving for—what other things are worth seeking for—what other things are worth thinking of, until this is done?
2. How utterly impossible it is for us to obtain this blessing except in the way presented here.—Who else has the requisite knowledge? Who else has the requisite power? Who else can give the requisite proof? Our Saviour, when challenged, gave proof of His claim. Is it too much to ask as much in all similar claims?
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_9:1-8. The great Healer.—
I. The diseased man.—Paralysed. The result of sin. His friends brought him “on a bed,” i.e. on a mat, or cushion, which could easily be thrown over one’s arm (Mat_9:6).
1. There are many who from spiritual disease cannot come to Jesus and have to be brought.
2. Faith is necessary to the overcoming of the great difficulties and obstacles that beset the way.
II. The great Physician.—Jesus saw their “faith” and honoured it. How tender His first word “Son”! Then He proceeded to encourage him, “Be of good cheer. Cheer up!” Then the Saviour exceeds all their wishes, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” He forgave the sins first and healed his body afterwards to show:
1. His sovereignty.
2. That the taking away of the guilt of the soul was vastly more important.
3. To try the disposition of the company, and to bring out as they were able to bear it, His true character.
III. The cavillers.—The accusation they made was right from one standpoint, and it was wrong from another.
1. They were right in asserting that God alone can forgive sins.
2. It was wrong inasmuch as they counted Jesus a mere man.
IV. The effects.—The cure was:
1. Immediate.
2. In sight of them all.
3. Complete.
4. Perfect.
5. Glorifying to God. So in spiritual healing.—The Study.
The Peace-bringer in the world of conscience.—
I. The apparently irrelevant answer which Christ gives to the unspoken petition of the paralytic and his friends. “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” It was far from their wish, but yet the shortest road to it. Probably the palsy was the result of fast living—“a sin of the flesh, avenged in kind.” Perhaps, too, whatever his friends may have wanted for him, the poor man himself dimly knew that forgiveness was his most pressing want. Christ would not thus abruptly have offered the pearl of pardon to an altogether unprepared heart. The gospel cures sorrow second and sin first.
II. Forgiveness is an exclusively Divine act.—The same deed may be a sin, a vice, and a crime, according as we regard its aspect towards God, towards morals, or towards law. As sin God can forgive it; as a breach of ethical law there is no forgiveness, for ethics cannot pardon; as a breach of the law of the land, the supreme power may remit penalties. God’s pardon often leaves some of the natural consequences, which are the penalties of our sins, in order that we may hate and avoid the evil; but it brings the assurance that there is nothing in God’s heart towards the sinner but pure and perfect love.
III. Jesus Christ claims and exercises this Divine prerogative of pardon.—His claims to Divinity were urged in such a fashion that, if they are denied, it is impossible to save the beauty and lowliness of His character.
IV. Christ brings visible facts into the witness-box, in attestation of His invisible powers.—We may make a more general application of this principle of the visible evidences of invisible powers. Are not the results of every earnest effort to carry the message of forgiveness to men—in homes made Bethels, passions tamed, and lives elevated—witnesses of the reality of Christ’s claim to exercise the Divine prerogative of forgiveness? All the difference between Christendom and heathendom attests Him as the Fountain of the invisible good which has passed into visibility in the secondary results of the gospel, which the blindest can see and the least spiritual can appraise.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Gospel of forgiveness.—Many truths are here presented to us, e.g.
1. A strong faith will overcome difficulties.
2. The readiness of our Lord to welcome the needy, and to reward faith.
3. The enmity and opposition of the human heart.
4. The superiority of spiritual to temporal blessings.
5. Testimony given to the Divinity of Christ by His,
(1) forgiving sins;
(2) searching the heart;
(3) healing the body. But the central truth of the passage appears to be the gospel of forgiveness preached to the poor. The gospel of communism sends the weakest to the wall; the gospel of modern science, with its doctrine of natural selection, destroys the feeble. It was the glory of Christ’s mission that He stooped to the poorest and the lowest, and brought the message of life and hope within the reach of all. View this miracle, then, as proclaiming the gospel of forgiveness.
I. The need it meets.—The figure presented to us—a paralysed man, helpless, incurable, a mere wreck. Three things combined in him.
1. Disease.—Perhaps the consequence of sinful indulgence; certainly to be traced to sin. The parable of sin.
2. Poverty.—The “bed” a mere couch or mat.
3. Poverty of spirit.—Our Lord’s words imply this.
II. The hope it awakens.—The hope of good.
III. The blessing it bestows.
1. Forgiveness.
2. Manner of bestowment.—
(1) Immediate;
(2) free;
(3) complete;
(4) authoritative;
(5) effectual.
IV. The opposition it excites.—The spirit of opposition to grace always the same—the form differs. Man will be saved, but not on God’s terms.
V. The vindication it receives.—Christ proves His power to forgive, confutes His adversaries, saves the man. The gospel may appeal to results. Application to:—
1. The careless.—Many went away unsaved. “Will ye also go away?”
2. The anxious.—No rest except in Christ. Never rest until you have found Him.
3. The healed.—Go sin no more.
Walk in newness of life—in the power which Christ imparts.—Sir E. Bayley, Bart, B.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 18, 20 Mat 8:28-34; Mat 9:1; Mar 5:1-21; and Mar 5:26-40.…
THE DEMONIZED GADERENE
Mat 8:28-34; Mat 9:1; Mar 5:1-21; and Mar 5:26-40. We visited this country of the Gadarenes, which comes down to the northeast coast of this sea; Gergesa, their capital, situated on a beautiful, rich plain, enjoying a handsome view of this beautiful water, as well as the majestic mountains and fertile valleys of the surrounding countries. Matthew says they came to Gergesa, Mark and Luke say they came to the country of Gadara. This is in perfect harmony, as Gergesa was the city and Gadara the country. You must remember that when our Savior bade the temple adieu, the day before He was arrested, He said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Within forty years from the utterance the Roman armies signally verified it. Hence the desolation has been on that country ever since. However, Gadara was a Gentile country; but it was the subject of a terrible Divine retribution, as we will see in this narrative, for rejecting the ministry of Jesus. “And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes, and a man with an unclean spirit, from the tombs, met Him immediately having come out of the ship, who had his habitation among the tombs; and no one was able to bind him with chains, because frequently he had been bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been slipped off by him and the fetters torn to pieces, and no one was able to subdue him.” Matthew says there were two demoniacs, exceedingly fierce, so no one could pass that way. Mark and Luke speak of but one. Luke says that he wore no clothing. It is a notable fact that raging maniacs have an aversion to wearing clothing, and if possible will tear it off. Mark: “And he was all the time, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains; was crying, and cutting himself with stones. Seeing Jesus a great way off, he ran and fell down before Him, and crying, with a great voice, said, What is there to me and to Thee, O Jesus, the Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee, in the name of God, that you torment me not; for He said to him, Unclean spirit, come out from the man.” Luke says: “For a long time he had possessed him, and he was kept bound with fetters and chains; and smashing his fetters, he was driven by the demon into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? and he said, Legion, because many demons had entered into him. And he continued to exhort Him that He may not command them to depart into the abyss;” i.e., the bottomless pit.
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God never created the devil, a sinner, nor a snake. The snake originated from the transformation of the Nahash, an intelligent biped, one of the intermediate links between man and the lower animals, and unfortunately used by Satan in the abduction of humanity. Satan is a fallen archangel:
“How thou art fallen, O Lucifer, the morning star!” (Isa 14:12.)
The term “devil” is the ordinary cognomen of Satan, demon being the regular epithet applied to those innumerable evil spirits, swarming up out of the bottomless pit and thronging the atmosphere, their highest aspiration being a habitation in some human spirit, as in the case of this Gadarene, into whom a whole legion — i.e., ten thousand — had crowded together. Nothing is so terrible to these demons as the gloomy dungeons of the bottomless pit. Consequently they importuned Jesus not to send them thither. Originally the intelligences inhabiting the innumerable worlds, constituting the celestial empire, were presumptively all on probation. In the fatal revolt of Lucifer, an immense host, perhaps one-third (Revelation 12), followed the apostate archangel. As this apostasy, in all probability, infected many celestial worlds, we find innumerable hosts of fallen demons roaming round this world, hunting a habitation in some human heart. (Ephesians 6) We have no right to conclude that this Gadarene is the only legionaire in all the earth. It is pertinent to remember how all the demons, with whom Jesus comes in contact, recognize Him. We have no record at what epoch in bygone eternity the angels were created; evidently long before Divinity spoke this world into existence. As Jesus is co-eternal with God Himself, identical with the uncreated Jehovah, the recognition of these demons is doubtless a vivid reminiscence of the bright celestial ages which glided away before the dark period of rebellion and ruin supervened. It is here specified that the legionaire tore his clothing from his person, smashing all the fetters and escaping from all the chains with which they could bind him. The muscular power of these Oriental red men is vastly superior to that of Europeans and Americans. In all probability, he was a natural giant, as were most of the aborigines in that country in the days of Joshua; for you must remember he was not a Hebrew, but a Gentile. It is generally believed that physical strength is located in the muscles. This is a mistake. The muscles are the mere instruments used by the nerves, which are the custodians of physical power. A crowbar is a most potent instrument in the hands of a stalwart man; but left alone, utterly impotent.
I thought the muscles were the custodians of physical strength till, in 1884, a stroke of partial paralysis demonstrated the utter impotency of the muscles without nervous stimuli. From a human standpoint, the exegesis of Samson’s paradoxical strength was the induement of the Holy Ghost, who operated through his nerves, thus imparting miraculous physical dynamics. Now remember, this Gadarene had ten thousand demons, ready in a moment to electrify his nerves, thus imparting an incredible muscular power. I have seen epileptics whom it took a half-dozen strong men to manage. You have all witnessed the extraordinary feats of strength and activity performed by maniacs, lunatics, and epileptics. This man was doubtless a combination of them all, so many demons, ready at any moment to turn loose the very galvanic batteries of the pandemonium on their poor victim, thus making them instrumental in the most paradoxical feats of agility and power. Why did he dwell among the tombs? Satan is king of death and hell. He sways his leaden scepter over every graveyard, holding fast every human body in the dark sepulcher, as their souls in the regions of woe. Hence these demons found congeniality among the tombs.
Mar 5:11. “And there was at the mountain a great herd of swine, feeding. And all the demons entreated him saying, Send us into the swine, that we may go into them. And Jesus immediately permitted them. And the unclean spirits, having come out, went into the swine, and the herd rushed down a steep place into the sea, and there were about two thousand, and they perished in the sea.” These heathen Gentiles set great store on the hog, a notoriously unclean animal, which God’s people were forbidden to raise, heavy interdictions being laid on the eating of the same. When I visited that country last November, our dragoman showed us the mountain traditionally recognized as the pasture of the swine, and the cliff down which the whole herd stampeded into the sea; thus transmitting to us a most monitory lesson against demoniacal possession, which is so common in all ages, the present day being no exception to the rule. Here we see these hogs unhesitatingly choosing suicide rather than demoniacal possession. This verdict of the swine should put millions to the blush this day, who go over the earth, full of demons, and claiming a place among the bon tons of society. “And those herding them fled, and proclaimed in the city and in the country; and they came out to see what is that which has been done. And they come to Jesus, and see the demonized man sitting down, clothed, and in his right mind, him who was called Legion; and they were afraid. And those seeing, explained to them how it occurred to the demonized man, and concerning the swine. And they began to entreat Him to depart from their coasts.” Luk 8:36 : “And those seeing, explained to them how the demonized man was saved; and the whole multitude of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes entreated Him to depart from them, because they were possessed with great fear.” Here we have the united testimony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke to the unanimous and importunate verdict of all the Gadarenes, requesting Jesus to leave their country. That this awful and hopeless demoniac had been wonderfully saved, all admitted. But there was another phase to the matter — they had lost their swine. Now a pertinent question looks them all in the face. Will they have Jesus or bacon? If they keep Jesus, they can have all of the sick healed, all the devils cast out, all the people saved, soul and body, and turn their country into a little heaven, so they can live on angels’ food instead of “hog and hominy.” The popular verdict comes quickly, and without a dissenting voice: they all decide to let Jesus go, and save their bacon to eat and sell for the money.
DOOM OF GADARA
“And embarking into the ship, He returned;” i.e., went back to Capernaum, the center of His evangelistic work in the North, thus throwing a dark shadow over all of that country of the Gadarenes, which has wrapped it in gloom and withered it with desolation these eighteen hundred years. When I visited that country, with its beautiful, fertile plains, bordering on the sea; majestic, rich mountains, with innumerable valleys and coves — all, at the time of our Savior’s visit, flourishing as the gardens of the Lord, cultivated by a thriving and enterprising people, whose temporal needs a gracious Providence had most abundantly supplied. So they needed nothing but the Savior, whom, in loving, Fatherly affection, He so kindly sent them. O what a grand introductory He made among them in saving the worst man they had! How all hell rallied to hold their grip tight on Gadara! Jesus comes to all people, even uninvited, thus pitying their blindness and ignorance, and giving all a chance for salvation. But when He turns the light on them, if, instead of rejoicing in it, they prefer darkness, and, like these besotted Gadarenes, even have the impudence to ask Him to leave, He always goes, leaving them to their choice, with the devil and hell, world without end. Jesus saves none against their will; neither does He stay where He is not wanted. When I stood upon the old walls of Gergesa, the capital of Gadara, to which Jesus went, and looked around upon the ruins of the city, without an inhabitant except the wandering Arabs, then on the spot, grazing their herds and flocks, and saw their country, which has lain desolate eighteen hundred years, I saw in panorama, as I look out over the sea, Jesus embarking on the ship, which sails away, appearing smaller and smaller, till she passes out of sight, thus leaving poor Gadara doomed and ruined. How signally has this been verified in the dismal fate of that country! The Gadarenes have literally faded from the face of the earth, not one to be found; their capital desolate, their cities and villages depopulated and destroyed; their country in the hands of the nomadic Bedonins, the wild sons of Ishmael, in reference to whom God said, “His hand shall be against every man’s hand, and every man’s hand against him.” They are born robbers. If you would visit the land of Gadara this day, you would need an armed escort to save you from robbery and murder. What a warning to the people who request Jesus to depart from them!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Mat 9:1-8
Mat 9:1-8
Jesus and Man’s deepest Sadness.
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I. "Jesus saw their faith." Jesus did not see their faith because there was in them no other commendable quality for Him to see; there was their common attachment to their unfortunate friend. But without their faith their affection for their friend could not have linked him in his suffering and miseries with the Christ in His healing and His peace. It was because they believed in Him that they carried the man to Him. And Jesus saw their faith in Him, and because of their faith He had the opportunity afforded Him of seeing their love of the man.
II. He saw something in the man that was a greater evil than the palsy. The friends thought that his being palsied was a sufficient reason why they should carry the man. But Christ forthwith, when He had seen their faith, thought of the man’s sin. He had been called Jesus, for He was to save His people from their sins. This salvation was His ulterior aim in all He said or did. The external was touched for the purpose of awakening and quickening the internal of man. The body was healed in order that the spirit might arise and go to its Father. This man’s affliction seems to have been connected with his sin. Sin and pain have been the sad associates of man’s mortal life. The man was in misery because of his sin, not because of his palsy. He needed cheer of spirit; his heart was broken, and Jesus saw and dealt with that. Having the greater, he could rest without the lesser. Not health, but forgiveness, was to be the basis of his joy.
III. It was when He addressed Himself to the greater thing He saw that Jesus crossed the prejudice of certain of the scribes. Christ suffered at the hands of the scribes and Pharisees because of His morals. It was godliness, according to Christ, that constituted His great offence. It is when Christ touches the conscience, and talks of purity of heart, and says something of hypocrisy that the great quarrel begins. There is no cross for any one who can teach that the kingdom of heaven cometh with observation; and as long as he can say, "Lo, here!" and "Lo, there!" he is safe enough; but He is not who refuses to give a sign from heaven, and who says, "The kingdom of heaven is within you."
J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul, p. 87.
Reference: Mat 9:1-8.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 466.
Mat 9:2
I. Sin—its relation to the body. Sin, we know, is a "spiritual wickedness;" its sphere of action, accordingly, is in high places. Mere matter, whether it lie in an amorphous clod in the valley, or move as an organized living body, cannot sin. In those high places where a finite but immortal spirit comes in contact with the Spirit infinite and eternal lies the only element that is capable of sustaining either spiritual purity or spiritual wickedness; yet though sin draws its life-breath in those heavenly places, its members press the earth, and leave their marks indented deep over all the surface. Though sin lives secretly in the soul, it works terribly in the body. In the man sick with the palsy disease was the forerunner and symptom of the body’s death. So far the man and his friends plainly saw, but Jesus looked through these outer effects to the inner cause. He sees not only the paralysis in the man’s body, but also the sin in the man’s soul. By passing over the obvious disease, and speaking of only the unseen sin, He shows clearly what His mission is not and what it is. His mission is not to perpetuate this life, but to lead all His people through the gate of death into the life eternal. His word, accordingly, is not, "Thy body shall not die," but, "Thy sins are forgiven."
II. Sin—its removal by the Lord. (1) It is by a free pardon that sin is removed, and its eternal consequences averted. (2) The Saviour to whom this needy man was brought had power to forgive sins. (3) Christ has power to forgive on earth. The word limits the position, not of the Forgiver, but of the forgiven. (4) The Son of man hath power to forgive. (5) Christ the Saviour, in coming to a sinful, suffering man, desires not only that he should be saved hereafter, but also happy now. "Son, be of good cheer," was the Great Physician’s first salutation.
W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, p. 252.
I. Sickness is the witness to us of wrong that has been done. It is the handwriting on the wall wherewith a man’s hand writes the word that tells us that we have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. And in this sense it is a judgment; it makes known to us the curse of sin. But that is not all. The misery of sickness witnesses not only to the wrong done, but also to the right that has been lost. Sickness is the protest made by nature against the misdirection of her forces.
II. We know so well that the recovery of our sickness depends upon the stoppage of the secret wrong. And yet we find ourselves again and again doing the wrong that we purpose to stop. In discovering the misery of our sin we discover also our powerlessness to cease from sinning. We cannot do the things that we would; and the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away our inherent and ineradicable will to sin. There is but one hope. If only a new fire could be shot into our chilled and flagging heart; if only a fresh jet of force could infuse itself into our jaded and diminished will; if only a spring of living waters could be opened within that naked stone which we once called our heart—that, and that only, can save us, for that, and that only, can cut off the supplies of sin which continually reinforce our habitual disease.
III. And it can be done—it has been done—by that beautiful law, so natural, so rational, so intelligible, of vicarious atonement. By that law, which is already and always at the very root of our human life, it is possible for God, without disturbing or traversing one atom of that natural order which He has Himself sanctioned by creating—possible for Him to intervene, to break off the fearful entail, to shatter the chain that our sins have forged. The spirit of sacrifice is the creator of ethics, and God sanctioned and sealed the entire body of ethical verities by which human society is bonded and fed when He sent His Son, who knew no sin, to be made a curse for us, and to bear on His shoulders the iniquity of the world.
H. Scott Holland, Creed and Character, p. 205.
References: Mat 9:2.—J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church, 2nd series, p. 283; R. Heber, Parish Sermons, vol. ii., pp. 262, 283; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 38; J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays after Trinity, Part II., p. 218. Mat 9:2-8.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 167. Mat 9:6.—J. Vaughan, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 14; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 224; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 145; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 420. Mat 9:9.—R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 285; T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 164; J. B. Heard, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 209; R. Heber, Parish Sermons, vol. ii., p. 248; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 90; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., pp. 143, 154; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 21. Mat 9:9-10.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 190. Mat 9:9-13.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 89; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 20; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 69.
Mat 9:11
I. The religion of the Pharisees had degenerated into a religion of hatred and contempt. There was scarcely a class which did not suffer from their fierce denunciations and supercilious disdain. The world was divided into Jew and Gentile, and on the vast mass of the Gentiles they looked as on a doomed race of no importance, as thorns to crackle in the flame, created apparently as a mere foil to the very great privileges of God’s favourite, the Jew. The race of man was divided into men and women, and on women they looked with insolent disdain; carefully gathering up their robes as they entered the synagogue, lest they should so much as touch them. If this unholy scorn was the normal tone of the Pharisees towards the millions of Gentiles, of women, of Samaritans, may we not imagine the sort of feelings which they must have indulged towards the lowest members of those classes, towards those of whom they would have spoken as the "scum and froth"—"the dregs and outcasts of society"? Now of these classes, two were especially abhorrent to them—sordid renegades who were publicans, fallen women who were harlots. We can imagine the astonishment of angry reprobation which they must have thrown into the question, "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?"
II. With the views and doctrines of the Pharisees contrast the life and words of Christ. While there was one class, and one class only, which Christ denounced, namely the Scribes and the Pharisees, He had for sinners only the call of tenderness; to sinners only was His especial mission; sinners were His especial care; it was the lost sheep over which the Good Shepherd yearned; it was for the wanderers that His heart seemed to burst with tenderness; it was upon the neck of the returning prodigal that the Father wept. He gathered the publicans to His discourses. He sat at their feasts. He chose a publican for His host. He nominated a publican to be His apostle.
III. So thought, so acted, the Saviour of the world. These facts are patent, fortunately, for every one to read. They are the magna charta freely granted to humanity by the great love of God. They show that the Son of God, inflexible in His estimate of sin, was infinitely compassionate in His dealings with sinners. He tried to win men from sin by perfect love; promise, not menace; appeal, not threatening; comprehension, not exclusion; the sweetness of hope, not the denunciation of wrath, that was the secret of Jesus.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p 33.
References: Mat 9:10.—J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 352. Mat 9:10, Mat 9:11.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 4th series, p. 92. Mat 9:12.—C. Kingsley, The Water of Life, p. 291; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 618; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 124. Mat 9:13.—J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 301; H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 77; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 117. Mat 9:14-17.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 69. Mat 9:14-19.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 78.
Mat 9:15
Use of Observances.
I. It seems at first sight as if a spiritual religion would dispense with observances altogether. And there is a sense in which this is the case always, and there are occasions on which all observances are dispensed with altogether. For it is undeniable that observances must be secondary, and if they are elevated into the first rank they are out of place. So St. Paul tells the Galatians that he is afraid of them, because they observe days and months, and times and years. And the whole tenour of his teaching corresponds, and perpetually reminds us of his own saying, "Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh?" In his day and in his circumstances there was plainly something which made him throw his chief weight into the scale against all observances.
II. Our Lord, however, in answering the question of the Pharisees, why His disciples did not fast, gives us the precise measure of all such observances. If we had the Bridegroom always with us, we should never need them. But the Bridegroom leaves us sometimes, and then we cannot do without them. He has left us, and the Church has found just what He predicted, that much which was needless while He stayed became needful when He was gone. The Church found that she must do what our Lord implied that she would have to do, provide for the needs of human nature in the ordinary fashion, and make rules to keep alive the warmth and power of faith, just as rules are made for the purposes of any ordinary human society. We are tempted to fancy that these observances must be a hindrance, not a help; that what is wanted are power, and life, and passion, not recurring seasons, and reminders of great events, and services in due order. But it is not so. Life and power are wanted; but they are not hindered by the rules of religious life; and meanwhile those very rules often aid them in their weakness. What is true of the Church is true of each one of us. Observances have two uses for every soul. If the Lord be absent, it is by them that we seek Him. If the Lord be present, it is by them that we meet Him.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 2nd series, p. 131.
References: Mat 9:15.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 81. Mat 9:16.—R. Lee, Sermons, p. 268.
Mat 9:17
There is an ever-living freshness in the words of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels. In reading them we are not with mere antiquarian curiosity studying the history of events wholly unconnected with ourselves, or recalling a state of society which belongs entirely to the buried past; rather we find ourselves presented with prophecies of the ever-recurring future, and with anticipations of the principles which may be applied to the interpretation of the great moral and religious problems of modern society. Securely connected beneath the letter of the original utterances there lies ready for our apprehension the eternal spirit, which may be our unerring guide in practice. Such a vitality of utterance we may surely discern in the parabolic saying of the text.
I. What is the interpretation of these parables of the new patch on the old garment, and of the new wine put into the old bottles, or leathern skins after Eastern fashion? Is it not something of this sort? The old forms of piety amid which John and his disciples still move are not suited to the new religious life emanating from Me. The new life needs new forms.
II. Neither Christ nor His Apostles attempted to put the Gospel as a patch upon the old garment of the Mosaic law, to pour the new wine of the spiritual dispensation into the old bottle of legal rules. They offered the Gospel as a system of principles and laws and motives, not of rules and precepts and observances. They invited men to a rejoicing sense of liberty, as the appropriate temper for that reception of the doctrine of salvation by Christ; they urged men towards the attainment of that perfect love which would cast out fear; they proclaimed that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; they made the ritual and ceremonial element in religion altogether subordinate to the moral and spiritual. Faith working by love, not ceremonial observance, was the characteristic expression of the Christian life.
III. The Christian Church did not at once rise to the grandeur of the new idea of religion. It constantly exhibited tendencies to fall back upon the old. It was afraid of letting liberty degenerate into license. Men who had become accustomed to all the venerable traditions of the old law did not straightway find pleasure in throwing them off. They represented Christianity as a mere reproduction of Judaism under other names. They made the ministry of the Word and sacraments a priesthood, whose main office was to offer material sacrifice; they violated the whole spirit of the New Testament, and the language of the early Church, by calling the Lord’s day the Sabbath; they tried to limit the very name of religion to the observance of a rule of life which prescribed the most minute precepts for the conduct of every hour; a rigid asceticism was glorified as the fulfilment of counsels of perfection. "New wine must be put into new bottles" embodies a principle which the Church of Christ in all ages forgets at her peril. That principle is, that new wants create new institutions; a new spirit must express itself in other forms, adapted to the new occasion. There must be in all the arrangements of life an elasticity, a power of self-development, an expansiveness, a fertility of invention, an evoking of new energies. New conditions of society demand different methods.
Canon Ince, Oxford Review, Feb. 18th, 1885.
Mat 9:18-19, Mat 9:23-26
The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter.
I. The miracles of raising from the dead, whereof this is the first, have always been regarded as the mightiest outcomings of the power of Christ; and with justice. They are those, also, at which unbelief is readiest to stumble, standing as they do in more direct contrast than any other to all which our experience has known. The line between health and sickness is not definitely fixed; the two conditions melt one into the other, and the transition from this to that is frequent. In like manner storms alternate with calms; the fiercest tumult of the elements allays itself at last; and Christ’s word which stilled the tempest did but anticipate and effect in a moment what the very conditions of nature must have effected in the end. But between being and the negation of being the opposition is not relative, but absolute; between death and life a gulf lies which no fact furnished by our experience can help us even in imagination to bridge over. It is nothing wonderful, therefore, that miracles of this class are signs more spoken against than any other among all the mighty works of the Lord.
II. Note the relation in which the three miracles of this transcendent character stand to one another; for they are not exactly the same miracle repeated three times over, but may be contemplated as in an ever-ascending scale of difficulty, each a more marvellous outcoming of the great power of Christ than the preceding. Science itself has arrived at the conjecture that the last echoes of life ring in the body much longer than is commonly supposed; that for a while it is full of the reminiscences of life. This being so, we shall at once recognize in the quickening of him who had been four days dead a still mightier wonder than in the raising of the young man who was borne out to his burial; and again, in that miracle a mightier outcoming of Christ’s power than in the present, wherein life’s flame, like some newly extinguished taper, was still more easily rekindled, when thus brought in contact with Him who is the fountain-flame of all life. Immeasurably more stupendous than all these will be the wonder of that hour when all the dead of old, who will have lain (some of them for many thousand years) in the dust of death, shall be summoned from, and shall leave, their graves at the same quickening voice.
R. C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 191.
References: Mat 9:18-26.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 280; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 469. Mat 9:20.—J. Ker, Sermons, p. 186.
Mat 9:21
I. Consider what this sufferer said within herself. (1) As displaying ignorance of the true nature of Christ. (2) As displaying not only ignorance, but error, along with truth. (3) Was her faith, then, a foolish credulity? Not at all. She knew the wonders He had wrought on others, and responded to goodness and truth. His language and demeanour expressed this, and on this convincing evidence she trusted Jesus and was healed.
II. Consider this feeling toward Christ, as finding recognition wider than the Christian Church.
III. Remember that Christ calls us, beyond slight contact, to the closest union with Himself.
Prof. Herbert, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 32.
Jesus Christ was never in a hurry. He had no occasion to be so, because He was conscious of supreme power, and of a capacity to do whatever He in His perfect wisdom deemed right. So that you perceive nowhere throughout the whole of these Gospels the least sign of eager anxiety, the slightest indication of personal uncertainty. He moves on His way, quiet, comparatively undisturbed, with the calmness of conscious strength. This thought is suggested, because the incident before us shows our Lord allowing Himself to be interrupted in a great work which He had undertaken to do, and yet being undisturbed by the interruption. Why should the Son of God be in haste? Can He not do as He wills? Does He not come forth from the bosom of Him of whom it is said, "A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night"?
Notice:—
I. That the touch of the diseased woman was an expression of conscious need. Necessity, trouble, incurable sorrow bring us to the Great Healer in some way or other.
II. The touch was an expression of superstition and faith. There was surely something of a vague belief that any kind of contact with Christ would bring her blessing. The incident suggests an inquiry as to what kind of faith and how much Faith is necessary to bring us into contact with Christ. That some faith is essential is clear; for had she not asked, the probability is the woman would not have received healing. But the fact of her healing shows how the least faith, the smallest effort of belief, may bring a response from Christ. We may learn that the first and chief thing for our soul’s need is contact with Christ, and that attained, we shall find that from the spiritual touch of the Saviour we gain forgiveness and newness of life. From Him virtue passes into our souls, and faith deepens and strengthens into perfect confidence and rest.
W. Braden, Sermons, p. 183.
I. How many evils sin has brought into the world. The seeds of sin are lying dormant in our souls, and even when brought into God’s family, and made His children by adoption and grace, we still unite in the mortifying confession, "There is no health in us."
II. Another reflection drawn from the history is, that we are too much disposed to seek human help, instead of going directly to God.
III. However deep-seated and desperate the condition of the soul’s health, the Saviour can help us.
IV. Note the secrecy with which the afflicted woman sought help of Jesus. "Nor is her wish for secrecy unbelief, but simply humility—humility, accompanied with such faith in Him that she feels assured that a touch of His raiment will suffice."
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 475.
Faith’s Approach to Christ.
1. Faith comes with a deep despair of all other help but Christ’s.
2. Faith has a divine power to discover Christ.
3. Faith comes with an implicit trust in Christ.
4. Faith seeks, for its comfort, close contact with Christ.
5. Faith, with all its imperfections, is accepted by Christ.
6. Faith feels a change from the touch of Christ.
J. Ker, Sermons, p. 186.
References: Mat 9:21.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1809; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 48; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 40. Mat 9:23, Mat 9:24.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 251; S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., p. 246. Mat 9:23-25.—F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 30. Mat 9:25.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii., p. 8. Mat 9:27-30.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1355; vol. xxvi., No. 560. Mat 9:27-31.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 97; G. Macdonald, Miracles of Our Lord, p. 101. Mat 9:28.—W. F. Hook, Sermons on the Miracles, vol. i., p. 288. Mat 9:29.—W. Gresley, Practical Sermons, p. 61. Mat 9:30.—Archbishop Benson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 81. Mat 9:32, Mat 9:35.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 106. Mat 9:33.—W. F. Hook, Sermons on the Miracles, vol. i., p. 306.
Mat 9:35
Christ the Physician.
In Christ we are allied to the highest and the largest ideal of the most disinterested efforts for the physical and moral welfare of man that our earth has ever seen. Times, indeed, there were in His ministry when it might even have seemed that the human body had a greater claim on His attention than the human soul.
I. Now it would be a great mistake to suppose that this feature of our Saviour’s ministry was accidental or inevitable. Nothing in His work was accident; all was deliberate; all had an object. Nothing in His work was inevitable, except so far as it was freely dictated by His wisdom and His mercy. To suppose that this union of prophet and physician was determined by the necessity of some rude civilization, such as that of certain tribes in Central Africa and elsewhere, or certain periods and places in mediæval Europe, when knowledge was scanty, when it was easy and needful for a single person at each social centre to master all that was known on two or three great subjects—this is to make a supposition which does not apply to Palestine at the time of our Lord’s appearance. The later prophets were prophets and nothing more—neither legislators, nor statesmen, nor physicians. We may infer with reverence and certainty that Christ’s first object was to show Himself as the Deliverer and Restorer of human nature as a whole—not of the reason and conscience merely, without the imagination and the affections—not of the spiritual side of men’s nature, without the bodily; and therefore He was not only Teacher, but also Physician.
II. What is the present function of the human body? We see in it at once a tabernacle and an instrument; it is the tabernacle of the soul and the temple of the Holy Ghost. And thus the human body is, in our idea, itself precious and sacred; it is an object of true reverence, if only by reason of Him whom it is thus permitted to house and to serve.
III. And again, there is the destiny of the body. As we Christians gaze at it we know that there awaits it the humiliation of death and decay; we know also that it has a future beyond; the hour of death is the hour of resurrection. The reconstruction of the decayed body presents to us no greater difficulties than its original construction; and if we ask the question how it will be, we are told, upon what is for us quite sufficient authority, that our Lord Jesus Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself."
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 81.
References: Mat 9:35.—C. Kingsley, The Water of Life, p. 18 Mat 9:35-38.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 354; R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains, p. 157.
Mat 9:36
I. Our Lord here teaches us how to think of, or to look at, men. (1) Notice how here, as always to Jesus Christ, the outward was nothing, except as a symbol and manifestation of the inward, how the thing that He saw in a man was not the external accidents of circumstances or position; but His true, clear gaze, and His loving, wise heart, went straight to the essence of the thing, and dealt with the man, not according to what he might happen to be in the categories of earth, but to what he was in the categories of heaven. Christian men and women, do you try to do the same thing? (2) Think of the condition of humanity apart from Christ—shepherdless. Unless Jesus Christ be both Guide and Teacher, we have neither guide nor teacher—shepherdless without Him. Do you ever think of the depth of pathetic, tragic meaning that there is in that verse in one of the Psalms, "Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death"? There they sit, because there is no hope in rising and moving. They would have to grope if they arose, and so with folded hands they sit, like the Buddha, which one great section of heathenism has taken as being the true emblem and ideal of the noblest life. Absolute passivity lays hold upon them all—torpor, stagnation, no dream of advance or progress; the sheep are dejected, despairing, anarchic, shepherdless, away from the Christ. God give us grace to see the condition of humanity and our own apart from Him.
II. Christ teaches us not only how to think of men, but how that sight should touch us. "He was moved with compassion on them when He saw the multitudes"—with the eye of a God, and the heart of a man. Pity, not aversion; pity, not anger; pity, not curiosity; pity, not indifference. Compassion, and not curiosity, is an especial lesson for the day to the more thoughtful and cultured among our congregations.
III. The text teaches how Christ would have us act after such emotion be built and based on such a vision. I will name three things—(1) personal work; (2) prayer; (3) help.
A. Maclaren, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 305.
I. Christ’s habitual look at men had regard to them as suffering. No other aspect of life seems to have struck Him with equal force, or to have so claimed His thought, that He did not feel its sorrow. The foundation of His work is ethical, but the tone is drawn from His sensibilities rather than from His judicial sentiments; to get rid of the sorrow is the end.
II. The question arises, Is this a true or a false, a healthy or a morbid, view of human life? The question cannot be answered by determining whether there is more happiness or suffering. Suffering is real, and a sympathizing mind will pause upon it rather than look through to the underlying joy, and especially a great pitying nature like Christ’s will pause upon it and see little else. It is not a matter of more or less, but of appealing anguish. Christ was a Man of sorrows, but not His own sorrow; a Man of griefs, but griefs that were His own only as He took them from others into His own heart.
III. It is not a long step from the Christ’s pity to that it evokes in those who believe in Him. There is something beyond a sense of justice and fair dealing, something beyond even goodwill and love. The highest relation of man to man is that of compassion. Hardly separable from love in words, it may be in conception; it is love at its best, love quick, love in its highest gradation; it is the brooding, the yearning feeling, the love that protects while it enfolds. Our sorrows are not our own, to be secretly wept over or soon dispelled. It should be the first question with any one who suffers, as it is nearly always the first impulse, To what service of ministering pity am I called? For the ultimate purpose of God in humanity is to bring it together. The main human instrument is that we are considering; it is the finest and most dominant force lodged in our common nature; it brings men up to the point from which they launch into the universe and live.
T. T. Munger, The Freedom of Faith, p. 131.
Mat 9:36-38
Jesus Seeing the People.
Note:—
I. What Jesus saw. He saw the multitudes. The range of His vision could not be limited, nor His ministry confined, to the immediate requirement of the more palpable of life’s sufferings. He saw the multitude scattered abroad, and as sheep without a shepherd. He commiserates their condition instead of condemning them, and sees that the people had been sinned against quite as much as they had sinned. The people were scattered and distressed. Sin is sure to scatter; untruth always disunites. Man was far from man as Christ saw him; he did not know himself, and because he did not know himself he could not know his fellow, and could never know much of either until he had known God as the Father of both.
II. What Christ felt. "He was moved with compassion on them." The farther we are from sin the more we can be to the sinful. When we are sinful ourselves we avenge, as we have ability, the sins committed against us by others. The day is afar off, but it is coming, when society will seek to save, and will save itself by saving, and not by condemning. Jesus was tempted like as we are, and yet was without sin; and being without sin He is able to succour them that are tempted. He could pity and help because there was no sin in Him.
III. What He said. When Jesus spake He changed His figure, ceased to be the shepherd, and became the husbandman. To Him the world was as a harvest-field, ready to be gathered. Christ calls us all to the harvest. There is work for us all on the field, for His field is the world. If you cannot do you can prepare to do by cultivating definiteness of purpose and consecration of heart. The labourers who labour must not be discouraged because the labourers are few; the Master knows how few you are and how great is the field.
J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul, p. 119.
References: Mat 9:36.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 18; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 121; Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 30; W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 290; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 24. Mat 9:36, Mat 9:37.—E. W. Benson, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 177. Mat 9:36-38.—Homiletic, Magazine, vol. ix., p. 141; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 116. Mat 9:37, Mat 9:38.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1127. Mat 9:38.—C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, 3rd series, p. 1; R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England, p. 232.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v9 Section 3. (Mat 9:9-26.)
Section 3. (Mat 9:9-26.)
Opening the presence of God to men.
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That which follows here is in extension of such thoughts as these, and fully assures us that we are to find this spiritual meaning in what has been before us. For now the Lord openly declares His grace and justifies it, telling men too that it cannot be used to patch up the legal system, nor will the spirit of it be confined within the Mosaic ordinances. Come for the need of men He the Representative (as He has proved Himself) of God on earth, freely receives sinners, and makes faith welcome to draw upon Him at all times. Thus the presence of God is opened to men. They may refuse, but they are not refused. While, though at present only to be told in parables for the wise, the truth of Israel’s - and indeed man’s - condition is that he is dead, and needing life, and Christ’s mission needs must be, therefore, to raise the dead. This completes His manifestation; therefore; while the mystery in which it ends shows how little faith there is anywhere to receive it, and prepares us for the full rejection of Him by the mass, which is soon to appear.
1. The call of the tax-gatherer* follows immediately the cure of the paralytic; and this in the order of time, as the words show. The challenge of His authority and the grace He is showing, only makes the assertion of it more imperative, as it would have made it weakness to give way. All was in question now; and now, therefore, He will make as plain as possible what is in His heart. "Tax-gatherers and sinners" are with them in natural association; and that association He never disclaims. But who are not sinners? If He refuse men on that ground He must refuse all; Matthew the tax-gatherer, called into the circle of His immediate Mowers, is to be the witness to all men of His grace for all.
{*"Publican," borrowed from the the Latin, is not the proper rendering. This was the name of those who paid into the "public" treasury the fixed sum for which they farmed the taxes of special provinces. Under these, who generally lived at Rome, were overseers of districts, and under these again the actual collectors, who being in close relationship to the people, themselves in general grossly extortionate, and a sign of subjection to the hated Roman government, were of all men, it would seem, most bitterly hated by the people; and especially, as Edersheim observes, the custom-house official, such as Matthew was. His being a Jew, as many were, would naturally be the climax of his wickedness in the eyes of the people.}
The feast at which we find Him directly afterwards, took place in fact after His return from Gadara, as we see in Mark and Luke. The account of the healing of the paralytic and of Matthew’s call are historically parenthetical. The special purpose is maintained all through.
We learn from Luke that Matthew made Him this feast. He knew well what would be that to Him, and showed it by the company he gathered. These persons had, at least, the consciousness of what they were, and grace could not offend them. At the very entrance upon fellowship with God we find it in learning to be with Him as to what we are, and the light of the first day of new creation breaks upon a barren; restless and shoreless sea. The weariness and distress and remorse of sin are witnesses for God which cannot be bribed, though they may not be listened to; while self-righteousness is lulled to sleep by its own monotone, and dreams of peace where there is no peace.
Yet the light troubles these sleepers and angers them; and so we find in the questioning of the Pharisees now. They could not be indifferent to what might seem so little to concern them as where One in whom, at any rate, they did not believe, could find His company. They might have remembered, but chose rather to forget, that the Baptist also, than whom there could be no sterner preacher of righteousness, had found response to his message in just such a class (Mat 21:32). But the Lord answers, (what indeed they had not ventured to address to Him), that He was a physician; did not, of course, come after them, who were well enough, but to the sick ones; and that they had never learnt, what they needed much to know, that God had said in the Scriptures which they acknowledged, that He would have mercy, rather than sacrifice. It was little mercy indeed that rabbinism showed to these tax-gatherers, as, indeed, "sick" enough, as a class, they were, and needing the physician. But here was One who was the perfect expression of divine mercy, not merely receiving, but actively going out after the objects of it; One who came not to call the righteous but sinners. If so, the chief of sinners would have chief title. But divine love, and the wondrous power of it, are strange to the heart of the legalist at any time; and then Christ must be strange.
2. It is not only the Pharisee who has question as to the Lord’s ways. The disciples of John find Him at variance with their master. But there is a notable difference between them: the disciples of John come straight to the Lord with their question, instead of assailing His followers with it: they do not find fault, but inquire. Moreover they may ask, why His disciples fast not: they could not put such a question as to the Lord Himself. Still what they needed was to know better the glory of Him whom they were addressing, as they needed also to realize the essentially secondary character of what had all its value from its being an expression simply of the spirit of the man who used it. To make it an iron or universal rule would be to degrade it really, - to make it a form from which the life has departed.
Christ had come to His own: and what would be the spirit of those who realized this? The Bridegroom had come to the bride, and should the children of the bride-chamber - the invited guests - clothe themselves with the array of mourners? That would be impossible to one who knew Him aright; there would be time enough for fasting, when the Bridegroom would be ken from them; this, of course, implying His rejection: in those days fasting would be perfectly in place.
But the Lord goes beyond this to speak of the change of dispensation that was now at hand, and for which they must be prepared: a change which would be still more complete and radical; not a mere patch upon an old garment. The garment of legal righteousness was in fact wearing out, and man being exhibited as the prophet had declared him, "all his righteousnesses but as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). What good in patching up what was so utterly gone? Between the new evangelical righteousness and the old legal one there can be only the strife of contradictory principles. There can be no fusion here: with all such attempts the rent is only made worse.
Nor only this: the spirit of the gospel, the free, expansive power of Christianity, cannot be put into the old skins of ceremonial Judaism. Here both the wine will be lost, and the skins will perish. And this has been proved experimentally: the thing has happened; ritualism of every kind is just such an experiment, with the result that we have neither Judaism nor Christianity left. The living organism can only clothe itself with the tissues woven by the life itself.
3. This is already parable, and a parabolic story follows it. We have a picture of things which could not as yet be spoken out: two incidents connected together, which, different as they are, throw light upon one another, and are found, in dispensational and moral application; to continue and complete the lessons which the Lord has been enforcing. The perfect fitness of the whole here, internally, and to the place in which it stands, vouches for the reality of the meaning which we attribute to it.
The truth has been coming more and more into recognition; that Israel, whom the Lord came to heal, is in fact but a corpse, like the ruler’s daughter. We have not the name of this ruler in Matthew; but in the two other Gospels which narrate the miracle, we find that his name was Jairus or Jair (Jdg 10:3, see notes), the "enlightener,"* a name quite suited to those "fathers" of that generation of Israel which had, alas, become a nation of the dead, fathers through whom the enlightening Word has come down to us.
{*This is one of the reasons assigned for a mythical interpretation of the history by Strauss and others, the symbolic meaning of the name; but they might for the same reason make all Scripture mythical; while all that shows inspiration shuts out myth.}
If such then be Israel’s condition; we see why the principle of law must be given up, as just now declared. Law is not for the dead, but for the living: for the dead it is useless. But "if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal 3:21). These are the two things - life and righteousness - which we find in the Lord’s words just now, and in the narrative here, connected together.
If the principle of law, then; be given up, and grace be shown by the mere goodness of God, the apostle’s question becomes an unanswerable one: "Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles?" (Rom 3:29-30,) - will such goodness confine itself within the limits of a feeble and scattered people, or much rather go out to meet the universal need?
So it is, then; that while the Lord is on His way to fulfil a special declared purpose, faith in the woman with the issue claims Him, and finds answer to its claim. Again we have not in Matthew the same detail as in either Mark or Luke, and for the same reason as was noticed before, that it is with the signs which manifest Him that Matthew is occupied. Her disease, an issue of blood, is given, which was not merely a slow sapping of the life away, but, according to the law, defiling also by contact (Lev 15:25-27): so that here again (as with the leper) there is uncleanness, the typical reminder of the effect of sin.
But in this case it is not the Lord who touches, it is faith that touches, not Him, but rather His garment. It is the activity of faith that is here seen; of course, and that lays hold, not of Himself personally, but of His robe - His character as displayed in His life down here. None the less certainly is virtue found in Him; and He pauses on His way to ratify her title to the healing and impute it to her faith. In principle it is the grace to the Gentiles during the present delay of Israel’s blessing.
But He reaches the house at last, and finds the mourners busy, who mock at the quiet words which speak of the power of resurrection in His hands. But the unbelieving crowd being put forth, the maid arises: and so, in spite of her desperate condition and the unbelief that mocks at Him, will Israel, when He appears and at His word to her, arise. It is a figure we have often in the prophets, of the revival of the nation in the last days. (Isa 26:19; Eze 37:1-28; Dan 12:2; Hos 6:2.)
Under this dispensational application we may without difficulty discover an individual one, in which the intertwining of the two miracles, if not presenting so clear a meaning, is yet significant. In Jairus, daughter we have man’s state in its full reality discovered. The Lord is here the Life-giver: the dead hears the voice of the Son of God and lives. This is the divine side of salvation; and here man is passive and recipient merely. But there is another side, and the woman with the issue seems clearly to represent this. Her faith applies to the Saviour for its need, and the issue of blood is staunched. These are the two sides of a common history, to adjust which fully may transcend our power: and yet each has its place. It is Mark, however, especially, who brings out this individual view, as Matthew the dispensational; but the double application, with the place in which we find these in the different Gospels, confirms the whole.
The signs which manifest the King are here complete. We see how truly He is no merely human King, but One "marked out Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead" (Rom 1:4, Gk.) And such the fore-ordained King of Israel was to be. He is now, therefore, ready to be proclaimed as this over the land; and accordingly we find provision made for this proclamation now by the commission given to the twelve apostles.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v18 Mat 9:18-31.
Matthew
THE TOUCH OF FAITH AND THE TOUCH OF CHRIST
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Mat 9:18-31.
The three miracles included in the present section belong to the last group of this series. Those of the second group were all effected by Christ’s word. Those now to be considered are all effected by touch. The first two are intertwined. The narrative of the healing of the woman is embedded in the account of the raising of Jairus’s daughter.
Mark the impression of calm consciousness of power and leisurely dignity produced by Christ’s having time to pause, even on such an errand, in order to heal, by the way, the other sufferer. The father and the disciples would wonder at Him as He stayed His steps, and be apt to feel that priceless moments were being lost; but He knows His own resources, and can afford to let the child die while He heals the woman. The one shall receive no harm by the delay, and the other will be blessed. Our Lord is sitting at the feast which Matthew gave on the occasion of his call, engaged in vindicating His sharing in innocent festivity against the cavils of the Pharisees, when the summons to the death-bed comes to Him from the lips of the father, who breaks in on the banquet with his imploring cry. Matthew gives the story much more summarily than the other evangelists, and does not distinguish, as they do, between Jairus’s first words, ‘at the point of death, and the message of her actual decease, which met them on the way. The call of sorrow always reaches Christ’s ear, and the cry for help is never deemed by Him an interruption. So this ‘man, gluttonous and a wine-bibber,’ as these Pharisees thought Him, willingly and at once leaves the house of feasting for that of mourning. How near together, in this awful life of ours, the two lie, and how thin the partition walls! Well for those whose feasts do not bar them out from hearing the weeping next door.
As the crowd accompanies Jesus, His hasting love is, for a moment, diverted by another sufferer. We never go on an errand of mercy but we pass a hundred other sorrowing hearts, so close packed lie the griefs of men. This woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long illness {which had lasted for the same length of time as the joyous life of Jairus’s child}, made more timid by disappointed hopes of cure, and depressed by poverty to which her many doctors had brought her. She does not venture to stop this new Rabbi-physician, as He goes with the church dignitary of the town to heal his daughter, but lets Him pass before she can make up her mind to go near Him; and then she comes creeping up behind the crowd, puts out her wasted, trembling hand to the hem of His garment,-and she is whole.
The other evangelists give us a more extended account, but Matthew throws into prominence, in his condensed narrative, the essential points.
Notice her real but imperfect faith. There was unquestionable confidence in Christ’s power, and very genuine desire for healing. But it was a very ignorant faith. She believes that her touch of the garment will heal without Christ’s will or knowledge, much more His pitying love, having any part in it. She thinks that she may win her desire furtively, and may carry it away, and He be none the wiser nor the poorer for the stolen blessing. What utter, blank ignorance of His character and way of working! What gross superstition! Yes, and withal what a hunger of desire, what absolute assurance of confidence that one finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, and her Healer recognised her faith as true, though blended with much ignorance of Him. Her error was very like that which many Christians entertain with less excuse. To attach importance to external means of grace, rites, ordinances, sacraments, outward connection with Christian organisations, is the very same misconception in a slightly different form. Such error is always near us; it is especially rife in countries where there has long been a visible Church. It has received strange new vigour to-day, partly by reaction from extreme rationalism, partly by the growing cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. It is threatening to corrupt the simplicity and spirituality of Christian worship, and needs to be strenuously resisted. But the more we have to fight against it, the more do we need to remember that, along with this clinging to the hem of the garment instead of to the heart of its Wearer, there may be a very real trust, which might shame some of those who profess to hold a less sensuous form of faith. Many a poor soul clasping a crucifix clings to the Cross. Many a devout heart kneeling at mass sees through the incense-smoke the face of Christ.
This woman’s faith was selfish. She wanted health; she did not care much about the Healer. She would have been quite contented to have had no more to do with Him, if she could only have stolen out of the crowd cured. She would have had little gratitude to the unconscious Giver of a stolen good. So, many a Christian life in its earlier stages is more absorbed with its own deep misery and its desire for deliverance, than with Him. Love comes after, born of the experience of His love. But faith precedes love, and the predominant motive impelling to faith at first is distinctly self-regard. That is all as it should be. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the most rudely pictured hell is often the beginning of a true trust in Christ, which, in due time, will be elevated into perfect consecration. Some of our modern teachers, who are shocked at Christianity because it lays the foundation of the most self-denying morality in such ‘selfishness,’ would be none the worse for going to school to this story, and learning from it how a desire for nothing more than to get rid of a painful disease, started a process which turned a life into a peaceful, thankful surrender of the cured self to the love and service of the mighty Healer.
Observe, next, how Christ answers the imperfect faith, and, by answering, corrects and confirms it. Matthew omits Christ’s question as to who touched Him, the disciples’ reply, and His renewed asseveration that He was conscious of power having gone forth from Him. All these belong to the loving method by which our Lord sought to draw forth an open acknowledgment. Womanly diffidence, enfeebled health, her special disease, all made the woman wish to hide herself. She wanted to steal away unnoticed, as she hoped that she had come. But Christ forces her to stand out before all the crowd, and there, with all eyes upon her,-cold, cruel eyes, some of them-to conquer her shame, and tell all the truth. Strange kindness that; strangely contrasted with His ordinary desire to avoid notoriety, and with His ordinary tender consideration for shrinking weakness! He did it for her sake, not for His own. She is changed from timidity to courage. At one moment she stretches out her wasted finger, a tremulous invalid; at the next, she flings herself at His feet, a confessor. He would have us testify for Him, because faith unavowed, like a plant in the dark, is apt to become pale and sickly; but ere He bids us own His name, He pours into our hearts, in answer to our secret appeal, the health of His own life, and the blissful consciousness of that great gift which makes the tongue of the dumb sing.
His words to her are full of tenderness. She receives the name of ‘daughter.’ Gently He encourages her timidity by that ‘Be of good cheer,’ and then He sets right her error: ‘Thy faith’-not thy finger-’hath made thee whole.’ There was no real connection between the touch of the robe and healing; but the woman thought that there was, and so Christ stooped to her childish thought, and allowed her to prescribe the road which His mercy should take. But He would not leave her with her error. The true means of contact between us and Him is not our outward contact with external means of grace, but the touch of our spirits by faith. Faith is nothing in itself, and heals only because it brings us into union with His power, which is the sole cause of our healing. Faith is the hand which receives the blessing. It may be a wasted and tremulous hand, like that which this woman laid lightly on His robe. But He feels its touch, though a universe presses on Him, and He answers. Not the garment’s hem, but Christ’s love, is the cause of our salvation. Not an outward contact with it or with Him, but faith, is the condition on which His life, which knows no disease, pours into our souls. The hand of my faith lifted to Him will receive into its empty palm and clasping fingers the special blessing for my special wants.
The other evangelists tell us that, at the moment of His words to the woman, the messengers came bearing tidings of the child’s death. How Jairus must have grudged the pause! A word from Christ, like the pressure of His hand, heartened him. Like a river turned from its course for a space, to fill some empty reservoir, His love comes back to its original direction. How abundant the power and mercy, to which such a work as that just done was but a parenthesis! The doleful music and the shrill shrieks of Eastern mourning, which met them as they entered Jairus’s house, disturbed the sanctity of the hour, and were in strong contrast with the majestic calmness of Jesus. Not amid venal lamentations and excited cries will He do His work. He bids the noisy crowd forth with curt, almost stern, command, and therein rebukes all such hollow and tumultuous scenes, in the presence of the stillness of death, still more where faith in Him has robbed it of its terror, in robbing it of its perpetuity. It is strange that believing readers should have thought that our Lord meant to say that the little girl was not really dead, but only in a swoon. The scornful laughter of the flute-players and hired mourners understood Him better. They knew that it was real death, as men count death, and, as has often been the case, the laughter of His foes has served to establish the truth. That was not worthy to be called death from which the child was so soon and easily to be awaked. But, besides this special application to the case in hand, that great saying of our Lord’s carries the blessed truth that, since He has come, death is softened into sleep for all who love Him. The euphemism is not peculiar to Christianity, but has a deeper meaning on Christian lips than when Greeks or Romans spoke of the eternal sleep. Others speak of death by any name rather than its own, because they fear it so much. The Christian does so, because he fears it so little,-and, as a matter of fact, the use of the word death as meaning merely the separation of soul and body by the physical act is exceptional in the New Testament. This name of sleep, sanctioned thus by Christ, is the sweetest of all. It speaks of the cessation of connection with the world of sense, and ‘long disquiet merged in rest.’ It does not imply unconsciousness, for we are not unconscious when we sleep, but only unaware of externals. It holds the promise of waking when the sun comes. So it has driven out the ugly old name. Our tears flow less bitterly when we think of our dear ones as ‘sleeping in Jesus.’ Their bodies, like this little child’s, are dead, but they are not. They rest, conscious of their own blessedness and of Him ‘in whom they live, and have their being,’ whether they ‘move’ or no.
Then comes the great deed. The crowd is shut out. For such a work silence is befitting. The father and mother, with His foremost three disciples, go with Him into the chamber. There is no effort, repeated and gradually successful, as when Elisha raised the dead boy; no praying, as when Peter raised Dorcas; only the touch of the hand in which life throbbed in fulness, and, as the other narratives record, two words, spoken strangely to, and yet more strangely heard by, the dull, cold ear of death. Their echo lingered long with Peter, and Mark gives us them in the original Aramaic. But Matthew passes them by, as he seems here to have desired to emphasise the power of Christ’s touch. But touch or word, the real cause of the miracle was simply His will; and whether He used media to help men’s faith, or said only ‘I will,’ mattered little. He varied His methods as the circumstances of the recipients required, and in order that they and we might learn that He was tied to none. These miracles of raising the dead are three in number. Jairus’s daughter is raised from her bed, just having passed away; the widow’s son at Nain from his bier, having been for a little longer separated from his body; Lazarus from the grave, having been dead four days. A few minutes, or days, or four thousand years, are one to His power. These three are in some sense the first-fruits of the great harvest; the stars that shone out singly before all the heaven is in a blaze. For, though they died again, and so left to Him the precedence in resurrection, as in all besides, they are still prophetic of His power in the hour when they ‘that sleep in the dust’ shall awake at His voice. Blessed they who, like this little maiden, are awakened, not only by His voice, but by His touch, and to find, as she did, their hand in His!
The third of these miracles, which Matthew seems to reckon as the second in the group, because he treats the two former as so closely connected as to be but one in numeration, need not detain us long. It is found only in this Gospel. The first point to be observed in it is the cry of these two blind men. There is something pathetic and exquisitely natural in the two being together, as is also the case in the similar miracle, at a later period, on the outskirts of Jericho. Equal sorrows drive men together for such poor help and solace as they can give each other. They have common experiences which isolate them from others, and they creep close for warmth and companionship. All the blind men in the Gospels have certain resemblances. One is that they are all sturdily persevering, as perhaps was easier for them because they could not see the impatience of the listeners, and possibly because, in most cases, persistent begging was their trade, and they were used to refusals. But a more important trait is their recognition of Jesus as ‘Son of David.’ Blind as they are, they see more than do the seeing. Thrown in upon themselves, they may have been led to ponder the old words, and by their affliction been made more ready to welcome One who, if He were Messiah, was coming with a special blessing for them-’to open the blind eyes.’ Men who deeply desire a good are quick to listen to the promise of its accomplishment. So these two followed Him along the road, loudly and perseveringly calling out their profession of faith, and their entreaty for sight.
The next point is our Lord’s treatment. He let them cry on, apparently unheeding. Had, then, the two miracles just done exhausted His stock of power or of pity? Certainly His reason was, as it always was, their good. We do not know why it was better for them to have to wait, and continue their entreaty; but we may be quite sure that the reason for all His delays is the same,-the larger blessing which comes with the answer when it comes, and the large blessings which may be gathered while we wait its coming. Christ’s question to them, when at last they have found their way even indoors, holds out more hope than they had yet received. By it, Christ established a close relation with them, and implied to them that He was willing to answer their cry. One can fancy how the poor blind faces would light up with a flush of eager expectation, and how swift would be the answer. The question is not cold or inquisitorial. It is more than half a promise, and a powerful aid to the faith which it requires.
There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the simple brevity of the unhesitating answer, ‘Yea, Lord.’ Sincerity needs few words. Faith can put an infinite deal of meaning into a monosyllable. Their eagerness to reach the goal made their answer brief. But it was enough. Again the hand which had clasped the maiden’s palm is put out and laid gently on the useless eyes, and the great word spoken, ‘According to your faith be it unto you.’ Their blindness made the touch peculiarly fitting in their case, as bringing evidence of sense to those who could not see the gracious pity of His looks. The word spoken was, like that to the centurion, a declaration of the power of faith, which determines the measure, and often the manner, of His gifts to us. The containing vessel not only settles the quantity of, but the shape assumed by, the water which is taken up in it from the sea. Faith, which keeps inside of Christ’s promises {and what goes outside of them is not faith}, decides how much of Christ we shall have for our very own. He condescends to run the molten gold of His mercies into the moulds which our faith prepares.
These two men, who had used their tongues so well in their persistent cry for healing, went away to make a worse use of them in telling everywhere of their cure. Jesus desired silence. Possibly He did not wish His reputation as a mere worker of miracles to be spread abroad. In all His earlier ministry He avoided publicity, singularly contrasting therein with the evident desire to make Himself the centre of observation which marks its close. He dreaded the smoky flame of popular excitement. His message was to individuals, not to crowds. It was a natural impulse to tell the benefits these two had received; but truer gratitude and deeper faith would have made them obey His lightest word, and have shut their mouths. We honour Christ most, not by taking our way of honouring Him, but by absolute obedience.
The final miracle of the nine {or ten} marshalled in long procession in Mat 8:1 - Mat 8:34 and Mat 9:1 - Mat 9:38 is told with singular brevity. There is nothing individual in our Lord’s treatment of the sufferer, as there was in the previous healing of the two blind men, and no details are given of either the appeal to His pity or the method of His cure. The dumb demoniac could lift no cry, nor exercise any faith, and all the petitions and hopes of his bearers were expressed in the act of bringing the sufferer thither, and silently setting him there before these eyes of universal pity. It was enough. With Jesus, to see was to compassionate, and to compassionate was to help. In the other instances of casting out demons, the method is an authoritative command, addressed not to the possessed, but to the alien personality that has seized on him, and we conclude that such was the method here. Jesus undoubtedly believed in demoniacal possession, if we can at all rely on the Gospel narratives; and it may be humbly suggested that there are dark depths in humanity, which had need to be fathomed more completely, before any one is warranted in dogmatically pronouncing that He was wrong in His diagnosis. There are ugly facts which should give pause to those who are inclined to say-’There are no demons, and if there were, they could not dominate a human consciousness.’
But the effects of the miracle are emphasised more than itself. They are two, neither of them what might or should have been. The dumb man is not said to have used his recovered speech to thank his deliverer, nor is there any sign that he clung to Him, either for fear of being captured again or in passionate gratitude. It looks as if he selfishly bore away his blessing and cared nothing for its giver. That is very human, and we all are too often guilty of the same sin. Nor was the effect on the multitudes much better, for they were only struck with vulgar wonder, which had no moral quality in it and led to nothing. They saw ‘the miracle,’ that is, the wonderfulness of the act made some dint even on their minds, but these were either too fluid to retain the impression, or too hard to let it be deep, and so it soon filled up again. We have to think of Christ’s deeds as ‘signs,’ not only as ‘wonders,’ or they will do little to draw us to Him. Wonder is a necessarily evanescent emotion, which may indeed set something better stirring in us, but is quite as likely to die barren.
The Pharisees did not wonder, and did look into the phenomenon with sharp eyes; and in so far, they were in advance of the gaping multitudes. They were much too superior persons to be astonished at anything, and they had already settled on a formula which was delightfully easy of application, and had the further advantage of turning the miracles into evidences that the doer of them was a child of the Devil. It appears to have been a well-worked formula too, for it is found again in Mat 12:24, and in Luk 11:15, in the account of another cure of a dumb demoniac. It is possible that the incident now before us may be the same as this, but there is nothing improbable in the occurrence of such a case twice, nor in the repetition of what had become the commonplace of the Pharisaic polemic. But what a piercing example that explanation is of the blinding power of prejudice, determined to hold on to a foregone conclusion, and not to see the sun at noon! Jesus in league with ‘the prince of the devils’! And that was gravely said by religious authorities! They saw the loveliness of His perfect life, His gentle goodness, His self-forgetting love, His swift-springing pity, and they set it all down to His commerce with the Evil One. He was so good that He must be more than humanly bad.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Sick of the Palsy. Call of Matthew. Raising…
The Sick of the Palsy. Call of Matthew. Raising of Jairus' Daughter
1-8. The paralytic healed and his sins forgiven (Mar_2:1; Luk_5:17). The peculiarity of this miracle is that it was worked to prove a doctrine, and that in the face of opposition. There were present certain scribes and Pharisees, some of whom had doubtless come from Jerusalem expressly to oppose Jesus. Jesus at once threw them a challenge by saying to the man, 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.' The scribes understood this to mean that He claimed to forgive sins as God only can do. Instead of repudiating this suggestion, as a mere man would have done, Jesus accepted it, and proceeded to prove His claim by a miracle. 'Whether is easier,' said He, 'to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise, and walk?' The former, of course, is easier. Any impostor can say, 'Thy sins are forgiven,' because it is impossible for men to know whether the words have taken effect or not. But not gvery one can say, 'Arise, and walk,' because if such words are spoken without authority, the speaker is at once convicted of imposture.
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This miracle, like the resurrection, maybe regarded as a vindication by God Himself of the character of Jesus. No man could make the claims that Jesus did, without rendering himself liable to the most serious imputations upon his character. Either He was the Son of God, or, as the scribes rightly said from their point of view, a blasphemer. Hence in this miracle Jesus deliberately appealed to the judgment of God, and God by working the miracle vindicated the character of Jesus.
1. His own city] i.e. Capernaum.
2. They brought to him] According to the fuller accounts in St. Mark and St. Luke the bed of the paralytic was carried by four men, who, unable to approach Jesus for the crowd, ascended to the roof of the house by the outside stairs with which most Eastern houses are furnished, and making a hole in the flat roof ('the tiling,' Luke), let down the bed by cords in front of Jesus, who was addressing a great multitude. Where was Jesus at the time? Some say in the upper chamber of the house, but this would hardly have held so many. More satisfactory is the suggestion of Edersheim that Jesus was preaching in the covered gallery or verandah of the house, and that the hole was made, not in the roof of the house, but in the roof of the verandah. The house was probably Peter's, and one of considerable size, as befitted a man of some means. It was built, as the better class of Eastern houses generally are, like an English college. A single gate or door opened into a large square courtyard, planted with trees. Round it were the various apartments of the house, opening directly into the courtyard. There was also a roofed verandah running round the court. Jesus was sitting in the verandah, addressing the crowds that filled the courtyard and the doorway and the street beyond, when the men unroofed the verandah from above and let the sick man down.
2. Son, be of good cheer] Words of encouragement and comfort to the man, who, we may conclude, knew that his disease was the result of past sin, and was therefore ashamed of himself. Not only drunkenness, but various other sins of self-indulgence produce paralysis. Jesus, who knew at a glance the whole history of the case (cp. Joh_5:14), first removed the sick man's spiritual trouble, and then healed him. The absolution was given for the man's own sake, but it was also a challenge to the Pharisees, who were present as enemies. Their hostility had been roused not only by the cleansing of the leper (Mat_8:1), but by the very similar miracle worked shortly before at Jerusalem (Joh_5:2), in connexion with which also Jesus had incurred the charge of blasphemy ('He called God His own father, making Himself equal with God,' Joh_5:18).
6. The Son of man] i.e. the Son of God in the humiliation of His life on earth. Hath power (RM 'authority') on earth to forgive sins] What is the force of on earth? Bengel rightly says, 'This speech hints at His celestial origin.' Christ's design is to prove that His Incarnation has not emptied Him of His divine prerogatives. Though humbled on earth, the divine power of pardon was still His. By becoming man He had not ceased to be God.
8. Which had given such power (RM 'authority') unto men] The saying is a striking one. Although one man alone had exercised the power, the people rightly perceived that there had been established the principle that the divine forgiveness can be committed to man. Christ afterwards gave such power unto men when He committed to His Church the power to forgive sins (Joh_20:23). A strong distinction must, however, be drawn between Christ's own power to forgive, which is original and absolute, and the ministerial power of absolution which is delegated and conditional: see on Joh_20:23.
9-13. Call of Matthew (Mar_2:14; Luk_5:27 : see Intro.). The call of a publican was another challenge to the Pharisaic party. Considering the low estimation in which publicans were held (see on Mat_5:46), it was an act of extraordinary boldness, and, if human success was aimed at, a most unwise one. But Jesus had a mission to the despised and outcast, whom He regarded as in many respects nearer the kingdom of God than the respectable Pharisees. The most obvious way to win their confidence and to acquire influence over them, was to call one of their number to the apostolate. He did so, and followed up the step by holding a great feast, at which He and His disciples publicly ate and drank with publicans and sinners. The incident has a double significance. (1) It is a protest by Jesus against the practice of social ostracism. If publicans are treated as if they were thieves, they are likely to become so. If actors are regarded as disreputable people, disreputable they will be. But if men are treated with respect, they are thereby taught to respect themselves, and to try to deserve the good opinion of others. (2) It is an intimation that the Church has a mission to the poor, the outcast, and the criminal, as well as to the respectable classes. Many signs show that this duty is now much more appreciated than it was. Parochial missions to the poor, street preaching, the police-court missionaries, the missions in prisons, are all imitations of our Lord's feast to publicans and sinners.
9. Matthew] The other Gospels call him 'Levi.' Matthew ('gift of Jehovah') was the name by which he was known among Christians. He may have adopted it at his call.
The receipt of custom] RV 'the place of toll.' Custom, or toll (Gk. telos), was a tax levied on goods imported or exported from one district to another, as distinguished from tribute (Gk. censos, or phoros), an annual tax on houses, lands, and persons. As customs generally went to the native government, Matthew was probably in the employ of Herod Antipas, not of the Romans. J. Lightfoot thinks that the toll was levied on vessels plying on the lake. More probably it was levied on the caravans trading between Egypt and Damascus, most of which passed through Capernaum. Follow me] St. Luke says that St. Matthew 'left all' and followed Jesus. Probably he had been a disciple for some time and expected the call.
10. As Jesus sat at meat (lit. 'reclined') in the house] From St. Matthew and St. Mark it might be supposed that the meal took place in the house of Jesus, i.e. of Peter; but it is clear from St. Luke that it was in the house of Matthew, who made a great feast for his Master. This feast is not to be regarded as a mere farewell banquet given by him to his old associates, but as part of a definite design on the part of Jesus to reach the despised and outcast classes. There being so great a multitude of guests, it is probable that the feast was held not in the upper-room, but in the great courtyard of the house. For the attitude of sitting (reclining) at meat, see on Luk_7:38; Joh_13:23.
11. When the Pharisees saw it] The Pharisees were not invited, but they walked in to see what was happening. In the East a banquet is a public affair, and any casual wayfarer may enter as a spectator. Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?] The Pharisees spoke to the disciples to seduce them from their allegiance to their Master. Publicans were social outcasts, and religiously halfexcommunicate. It was said, 'A religious man who becomes a publican, is to be driven out of the society of religion.' 'It is not lawful to use the riches of such men, of whom it is presumed that all their wealth was gotten by rapine, and that all their business was the business of extortioners, such as publicans and robbers are.' Publicans were forbidden to be judges or to give evidence: see on Mat_5:46. Some think that 'sinners' is a mere Pharisaic term of abuse for publicans.
12. They that be whole, i.e. the Pharisees, have no need of a physician, i.e. of Christ, but they that are sick, i.e. the publicans and sinners. The saying is spoken in irony, for the Pharisees, wanting charity, wanted a physician even more than the publicans.
13. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice] i.e. I would rather see love and charity towards fellowmen than ritual observances. Ritual without love is an abomination. Quoted from Hos_6:6, and again in Mat_12:7. The righteous] i.e. those who think themselves such, viz. the Pharisees. Ironically spoken. Of course Christ did come to call the Pharisees, but they refused to be called.
14-17. Controversy with the disciples of John and with the Pharisees on fasting (Mar_2:18; Luk_5:33). Matthew's feast probably took place on a Monday or a Thursday, days which were observed by the Pharisees and John's disciples as fasts: see Mk, 'The disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting.' The jealousy of the disciples of John had showed itself even before John had been cast into prison (Joh_3:26). Now that John was in prison, they readily became the tools of the Pharisees, who instigated them to come forward and say, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?' The question had two purposes. (1) It was intended to hold up to public odium the laxity of the religious practices of Jesus as compared with the strictness of those of the Pharisees and of John. (2) It was intended to produce a breach between John and Jesus. The reputation of Jesus had been established very largely by the witness which John had borne to His Messiahship. If Jesus could be induced to condemn John (and it seemed impossible that He could defend His own disciples without doing so), John would perhaps disown Jesus, whose reputation would thereby be seriously diminished.
Jesus disappointed them by an answer at least as diplomatic as the famous one about the tribute-money. Addressing the disciples of John, He reminded them that their own master had called Him the Bridegroom, and added that at a wedding not even the Pharisees would desire the guests to fast. When the weddingfeast was over, or rather when the bridegroom was taken from them by a violent death, they would mourn and fast. Then in three parables (the last of which is in St. Luke only) He showed that the disciples of John were as right from their point of view as His own disciples were from theirs. In the first parable He compared the religious practices of John to an old garment, and His own to a new garment. John, He said, was not so foolish as to tear a piece of cloth from the new garment of Christianity in order to patch with it his own Jewish garment. He could not, for instance, consistently borrow from Christ the dispensation from fasting, and teach it to his disciples, without making a complete breach in his system. Let the disciples of John continue to fast until they came to Jesus, when they would adopt different practices altogether.
Having defended John, Jesus, in a second parable, defended Himself. John's wine was old, and was contained in bottles which suited it. His own was new, and required new bottles. In other words, the two different types of piety required different outward methods of expression. John's preparatory ministry of repentance was rightly accompanied by fasting and mourning, but now the fulness of joy was come, the time of feasting and rejoicing had begun.
In a third parable, given only by St. Luke, Jesus again defends the disciples of John. 'No one,' He says, 'having drunk old wine, desires new, for he says, The old is good enough.' In other words, the disciples of John, having tasted John's wine and found it to be good, are not to be blamed if they are not over anxious to taste new wine, i.e. to adopt the new and to them untried practices of Christ's disciples (Luk_5:39).
14. Fast oft] Some ancient authorities omit 'oft.'
15. The children (RV 'sons') of the bridechamber] i.e. the friends of the bridegroom, who, amid singing and playing of instruments, conducted the bride, accompanied by her companions, to the house of the bridegroom and to the bridechamber, and remained to take part in the wedding-feast, which usually lasted seven days. Here the 'sons of the bridechamber' are the disciples of Christ. Christ was first called the Bridegroom by the Baptist himself (Joh_3:29). Shall be taken from them] The first prediction in St. Matthew of the Passion. And then shall they fast] The first reference is to the sorrow of Christ's disciples after His death. The words, however, may be taken to suggest for fasting a permanent place in the Christian system of devotion, but a less prominent one than in the austere system of John and the formal self-righteous one of Pharisaic Judaism: see on Mat_6:16.
16. A piece of new cloth] lit. 'undressed cloth.' According to St. Luke the piece of new cloth is taken from the new garment of Christianity. It signifies the bright and joyous character of the religion of Christ, which cannot be successfully grafted upon the austere and joyless system of the Baptist.
Taketh from the garment] i.e. parts, or separates itself from the garment. And the rent is made worse] RV 'a worse rent is made.'
17. Old bottles] The most usual Eastern bottles are simply goat-skins drawn off the animal entire. The neck of the animal forms the neck of the bottle. Those used for wine are tanned with oak-bark and seasoned in smoke, which gives a flavour to the wine that is much appreciated. New wine is liable to a certain amount of after-fermentation, so that it cannot safely be stored in old bottles. Our Lord's saying about the old and the new bottles applies properly to the Baptist's teaching, but it may also be applied to Judaism in general. So taken, it means that the forms of Judaism are inadequate to express the spirit of Christianity, and that those who, like the Judaising Christians in the Acts, try to combine the Law with the Gospel and to enforce the Mosaic ritual, are trying to put new wine into old bottles.
18-26. The raising of Jairus' daughter, and the healing of the woman with an issue of blood (Mar_5:21; Luk_8:40). The most important point in the raising of Jairus' daughter is the reality of the death. This has been denied on account of our Lord's words, 'The maid is not dead, but sleepeth.' It is perfectly true that the mourners understood them in this sense, 'for they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead' (Lk), but inasmuch as the narrative comes from Peter himself, who was present, and is told as a miracle, it must be held that she was really dead, and that Jesus spoke of her as sleeping, because He was about to wake her. He used the same words of Lazarus, and on that occasion explained them (Joh_11:11).
Some who are able to credit the miracles of healing, find difficulties in crediting the miracles of resurrection. There is, however, no more real difficulty in believing the resurrection of Jairus' daughter than in believing that of Jesus Himself. The former illustrates the latter, and is rendered probable by it. It should be observed in this connexion, (1) That miracles of healing, important as they are as proofs of God's benevolence, are entirely inadequate to illustrate the cardinal doctrine of a future life (2) That Jesus Himself regarded raising the dead as part of His ordinary ministerial work (Mat_11:5; Luk_7:22), and, according to St. Matthew, delegated the power to the Apostles (Mat_10:8), in accordance with which St. Peter afterwards raised Tabitha (Act_9:40).
Christ's three miracles of resurrection form a graduated series. In the case of Jairus' daughter the spirit had hardly fled. The widow's son (Luk_7:12) had been dead longer, but not more than twenty-four hours. Lazarus (John 11) had been dead four days, and decomposition had probably begun. Yet we are not to suppose that one miracle was more difficult than another to Him who is the Resurrection and the Life.
The healing of the woman with the issue is an example of the way in which Jesus accepted imperfect faith in order to render it perfect. The woman was superstitious. She thought that a kind of magical virtue resided in our Lord's body, ready to flow out to heal without any act of will on His part, or any act of faith on hers. All that she had to do was to touch, and in doing so she was careful to touch (Mat_9:20) that portion of His garment which to a Jew was holiest, viz. the tassel, which, in accordance with Num_15:37, every Jew was required to wear on the four corners of his cloak to remind him of Jehovah's commands. But since there was real faith mingled with her superstition, Jesus allowed her to be healed, only calling her back afterwards to make her faith perfect. By saying 'Who touched me?' and insisting on a full confession, He made it clear to the woman and to others that He had healed her by His own deliberate act, and was fully aware of all the circumstances of the case. By saying 'Thy faith hath saved thee,' He reproved her superstition. Not the touch, nor the holy tassel, nor the supposed magic virtue had. healed her, but her faith.
18. While he spake] According to this Gospel the ruler came to Jesus as He was sitting at meat with Matthew the publican. The other Gospels record the incident immediately after the return from the country of the Gadarenes (Gerasenes).
Is even now dead] According to the fuller narrative of St. Mark and St. Luke, Jairus says that his daughter is at the point of death. Afterwards a messenger arrives announcing that she is dead.
20. A woman] Eusebius (Church Historian, Bishop of Cæsarea in the 4th cent. a.d.) says that she was a heathen, residing at Paneas (Cæsarea Philippi), near the sources of the Jordan. Her house is shown in the city, and the wonderful monuments of our Saviour's benefit to her are still remaining. At the gates of her house, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen statue of a woman on her bended knee, with her hands stretched out before her like one entreating. Opposite to this is another statue of a man, erect, of the same materials, decently clad in a mantle, and stretching out his hand to the woman. This statue they said was a likeness of Jesus Christ.' It may, however, have been a statue of Æsculapius, the god of healing, who was in great favour at the beginning of the Christian era. Touched the hem (RV 'border,' or, rather, 'tassel') of His garment] see prefatory remarks on Mat_9:18-26.
23. According to St. Mark and St. Luke only Peter, James, and John, and the parents witnessed the miracle. The minstrels] RV 'the flute-players.' The rabbis said, 'Even the poorest among the Israelites (his wife being dead) will afford her two flutes (i.e. two male flute-players to play at the funeral procession), and one woman to make lamentation.' The multitude of hired mourners marks the wealth and position of Jairus.
25. St. Mark gives our Lord's actual Aramaic words, Talitha cumi, i.e. 'Maid, arise.'
26. St. Mark and St. Luke add that our Lord commanded the parents to be silent about the miracle. Some think that this was only a warning against religious gossip. More probably, since the house was surrounded by an excited crowd, His design was to prevent a tumult.
27-31. Healing of two blind men in the house (peculiar to St. Matthew). Blindness, chiefly as the result of ophthalmia, is exceedingly common in the East, and several miracles of restoring sight to the blind are recorded in the Gospels: Mat_12:22; Mat_20:30; Mat_21:14; John 9. In this case Christ elicited a definite act of faith from the men before healing them. The act of touching their eyes was probably intended to aid their faith. Their addressing Him as Son of David need not imply that they believed Him to be the Messiah.
30. Straitly charged] i.e. sternly (see RV) charged them, because He foresaw that they would disobey: cp. Mat_12:16, etc.
32-34. Healing of a dumb man (Luk_11:14). This miracle is given by St. Luke in another connexion, and is there followed by a reply by Jesus to the criticisms of the Pharisees.
32. A dumb man] The Gk. word may either mean deaf or dumb, or both.
33. It was never so seen] Their wonder was excited not merely by this miracle, but by a long series of miracles worked in succession, of which this was the last.
34. The prince of the devils] St. Luke 'by Beelzebub': see on Mat_12:24.
35-38. Tours of Jesus in Galilee (peculiar to St. Matthew, but cp. Mar_6:6, Mar_6:34; Luk_10:2). The early tours of Jesus in Galilee enabled Him to gain a comprehensive view of the actual spiritual condition of the people. It was a very unfavourable one, yet He was not moved to anger, but to pity, for the fault was not in them, but in their guides. 'They were distressed and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd.' True they had the scribes and Pharisees, but these were no true shepherds, but blind leaders of the blind. Yet the situation was hopeful. The people had received Him gladly, and were eager to be taught. 'The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.' What was wanted was more missionaries to assist Him in His work. Hence the mission of the Twelve.
36. Cp. Mar_6:34.
37, 38. St. Luke introduces this saying in connexion with the mission of the Seventy (Luk_10:2).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 9, 10, 18 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LVI. Jesus Heals…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LVI. Jesus Heals Two Demoniacs].
LVI. JESUS HEALS TWO GERGESENE DEMONIACS. (Gergesa, now called Khersa.) aMATT. VIII. 28-34; IX. 1; bMARK V. 1-21; cLUKE VIII. 26-40.
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b1 And they came to the other side of the sea [They left in the "even," an elastic expression. If they left in the middle of the afternoon and were driven forward by the storm, they would have reached the far shore several hours before dark], c26 And they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is over against Galilee. a28 And when he was come into the country of the Gadarenes. c27 And when he was come forth bout of the boat, cupon the land [Midway between the north and south ends of the lake, and directly east across the lake from Magdala, was the little city of Gergesa. In front and somewhat to the south of this city Jesus landed. Some sixteen miles away and to the southeast, and seven miles back from the lake, was the well-known city of Gadara. Further on to the southeast, on the borders of Arabia, and at least fifty miles from Gergesa, was the city of Gerasa. The name Gerasenes is, therefore, probably an error of the transcribers for Gergesenes, as Origen suggested. The region is properly called "country of the Gadarenes," for Gadara was an important city, and the stamp of a ship on its coins suggests that its territory extended to the Lake of Galilee], bstraightway there met him out of the tombs ca certain man out of the city [Gergesa], bwith an unclean spirit, cwho had demons; b3 who had his dwelling in the tombs: cand abode not in any house, but in the tombs. [The sides of the mountain near the ruins of Gergesa are studded with natural and artificial caves which were used as tombs.] band no man could any more bind him, no, not with a chain; 4 because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been rent asunder by him, and the [344] fetters broken in pieces: and no man had strength to tame him. 5 And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. [The natural spirit of the man seeking to throw off the dominion of the demons would cry out in agony, and the demons themselves, in their own misery, would use him as a vehicle to express their own grief. It would be hard to imagine a more horrible state] cand for a long time he had worn no clothes, b6 and when he saw Jesus from afar, che cried out, bhe ran cand fell down before him, band worshipped him; 7 and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, csaid, What have I to do with thee [on this phrase, see Rom_10:7, Rev_9:1, Rev_9:2, Rev_9:11, Rev_11:7, Rev_17:8, Rev_20:1, Rev_20:3. How these demons escaped from the abyss is one of the unsolved mysteries of the spirit world; but we have a parallel in the releasing of Satan-- Rev_20:1-3.] a28b And there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way. [Matthew tells of two, while Mark and Luke describe only one. They tell of the principal one--the one who was the fiercer. In order to tell of two, Matthew had to omit the name "legion," which belonged to one; and conversely, Mark and Luke, to give the conversation with one, did not confuse us by telling of two.] 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? [The judgment-day, the time of punishment and torment-- Mat_25:41, 2Pe_2:4, Jud_1:6.] b11 Now there was there aafar off from them bon the mountain side a great herd aof many swine feeding. 31 And the demons besought him, cand they entreated him that he would give them leave to enter into them. asaying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine. bthat we may enter into them. 13 And he gave them leave. a32 And he said unto them, Go. And they bthe unclean spirits cthe demons came out of the man, and entered aand went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, cthe lake, bin number about two thousand; and they were drowned in the sea. aand perished in the waters. [About a mile south of Khersa a spur of the mountain thrusts itself out toward the lake so that its foot is within forty feet of the water line. This is the only spot on that side of the lake where the mountains come near the water. The slope is so steep and the ledge at its foot so narrow that a herd rushing down could not check itself before tumbling into the water. [346] Skeptics have censured Jesus for permitting this loss of property. God may recognize our property rights as against each other, but he nowhere recognizes them in the realm of nature. What was done to the swine was done by the demons, and the owners had no more right to complain than they would have had if the herd had been carried off by murrain, by flood, or by any other natural cause. All animals have a right to die, either singly or in numbers. The demons evidently did not intend to destroy the swine. Their desire to have live bodies to dwell in shows that they did not. But the presence of the demons in their bodies made the hogs crazy, as it had the demoniac, and they ran the way their noses were pointed at the moment. For discussion of demoniacal possession, see Mar_7:31-37.] cand he went his way, publishing throughout the whole city [Gergesa] how great things Jesus had done for him. band began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him [for the cities which constituted Decapolis, see page 173]: and all men marvelled. 21 And when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat unto the other side, a great multitude was gathered unto him: and he was by the sea. c40 And as Jesus returned, the multitude welcomed him; for they were all waiting for him. [They could see the sail of his boat as he started back.] a1 And he came into his own city. [Capernaum.] [348]
[FFG 344-348]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 11, 13 Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
sins
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. A Man Sick of the Palsy Healed. (Mat…
CHAPTER 9
1. A Man Sick of the Palsy Healed. (Mat 9:1-8.)
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2. The Call of Matthew (Mat 9:9.)
3. With the Publicans and the Sinners. (Mat 9:10-13.)
4. The Question of John’s Disciples. (Mat 9:14-17.)
5. The Ruler’s Request.(Mat 9:18-19.)
6. The Woman Healed of an Issue of Blood. (Mat 9:20-22.)
7. The Maid Raised from the Dead. (Mat 9:23-26.)
8. The Two Blind Men Healed. (Mat 9:27-31.)
9. The Dumb Man with a Demon Healed.(Mat 9:32-33.)
10. The Blaspheming Pharisees and the Compassionate Shepherd of Israel.(Mat 9:34-38.)
After our Lord was requested by the Gergesenes to go away out of their coasts, He passed over the lake and came to His own city, that is, Capernaum . Here the Lord did His greatest miracles, yet they rejected Him there, so that later He said: “And thou, Capernaum, who has been raised up to heaven, shall be brought down even to Hades. For if the works of power which have taken place in thee had taken place in Sodom, it had remained until this day. But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in judgment day than for thee” (Mat 11:23-24).
One of the mighty miracles He did in Capernaum is related by the Holy Spirit in the beginning of the chapter which we have reached. He is manifested in this miracle like in the others, as Jehovah. A paralytic is brought to Him by loving hands, and when He saw their faith He said to the helpless one, “Be of good courage, child; thy sins are forgiven.” And now for the first time in the Gospel do we read that the scribes said, “This man blasphemes.” They did not speak it out, but He saw their thoughts, for He is the One of whom David says: “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandeth my thoughts from afar off” (Psa 139:2).
He then asks them: “Which is easier: to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of God has power on earth to forgive sins (then He says to the paralytic), Rise up, take thy bed and go to thy house. And he rose up and went to his house” (Mat 9:2-8).
Divine power is here fully manifested. In Luke the Scribes and Pharisees say, “Who is able to forgive sins but God alone?” (Luk 5:21). Indeed, if He who spoke the word of comfort and gave the paralytic the assurance of forgiveness is not Jehovah, anything less than He, the accusations of the scribes would have been well founded. He then shows that He has the power to forgive sins by healing the body of the paralytic, who rises up and carries away the bed upon which he was brought. The paralytic is a type of the sinner in his helpless condition. In the Old Testament we have a beautiful type of this in Mephibosheth, who was lame on both of his feet and who had to be brought to King David. So this one is brought. But why did they bring him? No question, healing of the body was all which they desired for their helpless friend and what he himself expected. But our Lord goes deeper to that which is the fountain of all disease and pain -- sin. He knew the guilt of sins resting upon the paralytic, and before he could rise and walk, before he could be delivered out of his helpless condition, the sins had first to be forgiven. The conscience, burdened more than the crippled, paralyzed body was by disease, had first to be relieved. The lessons here are clear. It foreshadows that which He, who gave Himself for us and who was raised on account of our justification, gives to every one who believes in Him. He has removed completely the guilt of sin and we have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins: the blessedness of the man “whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” is ours through and in Christ. He also has given us a new life. He has delivered us from the power of sin and spoken the word “Rise up and walk.” All this is so familiar that we will not enlarge upon it. We should not forget that the spiritual application of “Rise up” is not the first meaning. The paralytic received healing for his body and the miserable body was delivered from the paralysis which held it down. So the body of the believer has been redeemed and there will be a “rising up” from the grave and from the earth, changed in the twinkling of an eye.
We have also to say that the teaching of remission of sins and what is connected with it is not to be taken from the ninth chapter in Matthew. To teach from this chapter the doctrine of forgiveness, as it has been done so much, would be an error. He shows His authority as Son of Man to forgive sins on earth, and because He has this power and proves it, He manifests Himself by it as God. He is now no longer Son of Man on earth, but He will come again as Son of Man, and then once more will show His authority to forgive sins on earth and speak the Word of Life to those who are helpless. To this the miracle refers us in type.
The paralytic is the type of Israel . We have a number of such types in the Word. In the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John we read of an infirm man who was lying helpless in the five porches (typifying the law) and Jesus came and healed him, telling him, “rise, take up thy couch and walk.” He is the type of Israel . In the third chapter of Acts another helpless one, lame from his mother’s womb, was lying at the beautiful gate of the Temple . He is raised up and leaps and praises God. The name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene had raised him up. He also is a type of Israel . Aeneas in Act 9:32-35, who had been lying for eight years upon a couch, paralyzed, and to whom Peter said, “Jesus the Christ heals thee,” is not different in the typical application from the others.
It is Israel we have to see here represented in type. What He, the Son of Man, when He comes in glory, will do for His earthly people is seen in the healing of the paralytic. First, He will come and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. He will forgive their sins and remember them no more. And His people, the remnant of Israel, will break forth and sing, “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy” (Mic 7:18). He will then say to His people, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Is. 43:25).
After this He will heal them. His own, poor, blinded, paralyzed and miserable people Israel will be the first of the nations of the earth to receive complete healing for soul and body. They will leap and shout for joy like the lame man in the third chapter of Acts. Therefore it says in Mal 4:1-6, where it speaks of the Son of Righteousness with healing beneath His wings, “Ye shall go forth and leap for joy (correct translation) as calves of the stall.” “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity” (Is. 33:24). The 103rd Psalm illustrates most beautifully Israel ‘s coming praise. It is not only “who forgiveth all thine iniquities,” but also “who healeth all thy diseases.” The diseases in this psalm are generally spiritualized, but that is incorrect. They are bodily diseases. The healing of the paralytic has been put by the Holy Spirit in a special place to be in harmony with the whole scope of the Gospel of Matthew. What the Son of Man did in humiliation to one paralytic, the Son of Man in exaltation, coming again, will do to the whole nation and others in the earth in that coming age of millennial glory.
The healed one went to his house. “But the crowds seeing it were in fear, and glorified God, who gave such power to men” (Mat 9:8). This was all they saw and did. They did not acknowledge Him as Jehovah, but simply in their formal way glorified God, which was but the service of the lips.
Besides the record of the healing of the paralytic we have nine other events put together once more in a peculiar order, far from being chronological, but in fullest harmony with the scope of this first book. These are: The call of Matthew, Jesus entering the house and sitting down with the publicans and sinners, the question of John’s disciples, the ruler whose daughter had died and the Lord going to raise her up, the woman with an issue of blood who touches Him and is healed, the raising from the dead of the ruler’s daughter, the healing of the two blind men, the healing of the dumb man as well as others and the Lord’s compassion for the multitudes.
The call of Matthew, the same who was chosen by the Holy Spirit as the instrument for the writing of this Gospel, is related in a few words only: “And Jesus passing on thence saw a man sitting at the tax office called Matthew, and says to him, Follow Me. And he rose up and followed Him” (Mat 9:9). Had Matthew written this book by himself and not by inspiration he would have followed the custom of other writers in making himself more prominent. He might have begun the book with an elaborate account of himself, his earthly circumstances and spoken, perhaps, at length of the scene which is but rapidly sketched in one verse. The Holy Spirit, however, guided his pen, and in the right place in the right words he records the story of his own call. The place given to it is significant. After the Lord had shown Himself in His power to be Jehovah He now manifests Himself in His grace to the lost and outcast sinner. What a scene it is which the one little verse puts before us! There he sits gathering in the tax, no thought of Him, no knowledge of Him. As a tax-gatherer he was, with his colleagues, despised by the leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes, as well as by the mass of the people. Tax-gatherers (Publicans) were known as thieves, who enriched themselves by extortions. Another one said later, after the Lord had entered into his house: “If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I return him fourfold.” However, this was not the cause why the people hated him. They looked upon them as miserable hirelings of the Roman government, who had put themselves under the control of the Gentile rule and helped in the subduing of the land and the people, their own land and their own brethren. The tax gatherers were, therefore, considered apostates. And such a one is called not alone to follow Jesus, but called and chosen as an instrument to write the kingly Gospel. Marvelous Grace! “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (Joh 15:16). This is perfectly illustrated in Matthew’s case as well as in everyone who is saved by Grace. Well may we adoringly cry out: “Oh, the Grace that sought me!” With no thought of Him or for Him, busied in earthly things for the meat that perisheth, Matthew was called to follow Him. Matthew follows. He leaves the table, there is no bargaining on his side, no request to think it over, no desire to go first to do something else, but the first thing done was obedience to the voice which had spoken. Yet there is no claim of merit from his side in doing this. May we who are His own ever be ready in obedience to His call.
And Matthew invites Him to his house and makes Him a feast. It does not say in this Gospel that it was Matthew’s house; in another Gospel the Holy Spirit has made a record of it (Mar 2:14-17). Here a company of tax-gatherers and sinners are come together, and He, the Holy One, the One who had come to seek and to save that which is lost, reclines with them at table and eats with them. Again we say, what a scene of grace! He who created the heavens and the earth in the creature’s place in living touch with those who rebelled against Him! And there they stand, the poor, miserable, self-righteous Pharisees. They would in their religiousness, with their broad phylacteries, keeping the outside clean, not even touch a tax-gatherer, much less speak to him. To sit down and eat with them would have been in their eyes an almost unpardonable crime. And here they find Him whose words of divine authority they had heard, whose deeds of omnipotent power they had seen, who had manifested Himself as Jehovah, and He eats with tax-gatherers and sinners. Not the poor, wicked, self-confessed thieves, the tax-gatherers and harlots appear in this scene and throughout the Gospel as Satan’s masterpiece, but the proud, religious, self-righteous Pharisee. John the Baptist with his divine message came, and the Pharisees were rightly called by him the generation of vipers, but never the tax-gatherers and the harlots, who gladly came and confessed their sins and owned their lost condition. “John came to you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the tax-gatherers and harlots believed him; but ye, when ye saw it, repented not yourselves afterwards to believe him” (Mat 21:32). So here we see them, without any faith in Jesus and no knowledge of the God of mercy, wrapped up in the filthy rags, their own righteousness. What else then could they do but speak against the Lord’s gracious way? “Why eateth your Master with tax-gatherers and sinners?” And the self-righteous Pharisees of ritualistic Christendom are not different from these, their forefathers, the Pharisees. No heart for Christ, no understanding of grace and no knowledge of God. In the answer our Lord gives He shows that what He does is in fullest harmony with His having come down into the earth. God would have mercy and He had come to show it. “They that are strong have not need of a physician, but those that are ill. But go and learn what that is -- I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I have not come to call righteous men, but sinners.”
Then the disciples of John came to Him with a question. “Why do we and the Pharisees often fast, but Thy disciples fast not?” John’s disciples were having a difficulty. Their master had made much of fasting and had enjoined it upon themselves, but the disciples of Jesus were not fasting. Were they not with Him in the tax-gatherer’s house, eating and drinking? It is a straightforward question they bring. They come not as faultfinders or murmurers, like the Pharisees, but as intelligent inquirers, who were seeking light. So the Lord meets them and solves their difficulty by a gracious answer. He is still the same, ever ready to teach and instruct the saint who sits at His feet. The only difficulty is we are often so unlike these disciples of John, though our knowledge and our position is higher than theirs. Instead of taking the straight course in coming to Him first of all, we seek first the solution of our difficulties somewhere else. Perhaps the disciples of John who came here are the same who came and told Jesus, after they buried the headless body of their master.
“Can the sons of the bride chamber mourn so long as the bridegroom is with them? But days will come when the bridegroom will have been taken away from them, and then they will fast.” He Himself is the bridegroom and He had come and while He was with them, mourning could have no place; His rejection was to come and then they would fast. But our Lord not merely answers the question and shows Himself greater than John, who was but the friend of the bridegroom (Joh 3:29), while Jesus is the bridegroom. He adds something which is of great importance. He speaks of a complete change of the order of things. “But no one puts a patch of new cloth on an old garment, or its filling up takes from the garment and a worse rent takes place. Nor do men put new wine into old skins, otherwise the skins burst and the wine is poured out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into new skins and both are preserved together.” The old garment is Judaism with its legal righteousness. It is no good and had proven itself as such. No value in it at all, only to be cast aside, utterly put aside. A new garment, a better righteousness was about to be given. He whose name is “Jehovah our righteousness” had come and a change of dispensations was to take place. And now as it has come the old is gone, it is no longer in existence. Yet that which the Lord here but faintly indicates, the impossibility of patching up that which is hopeless and worthless, has been done in Christendom, nay, is the almost universal state of Christendom. It is mixing law and grace together. The rent has become worse. A Judaistic Christianity which, with a profession of Grace and the Gospel, attempts to keep the law and fosters legal righteousness, is a greater abomination in the eyes of God, than professing Israel in the past, worshipping idols.
The new wine is the Gospel of Grace. The old skins [Bottles in the Authorized Version. Skins were used and are being used in the Orient for the preservation of wine. Hence skins is the correct translation.] are the law, the Levitical institutions and all connected with it, New wine belongs into new skins. If the new wine is put into old skins, the skins will burst and then there is no wine left and the skins are also made useless. The two belong no longer together. So Gospel and Judaism, Law and Grace do not belong together. The Gospel of Grace enclosed in ceremonial Judaism will result in the loss of the new wine, and ceremonial Judaism, the old skins, will be gone as well. And such is ritualistic Christendom; it is neither Christian nor Jewish. It has not Judaism and has lost the new wine. “They say, they are Jews and are not” (Rev 3:9). If men hold only the form of godliness and deny the power thereof, it will always mean outward religiousness, legality, self-righteousness and turning away from Grace and the Lord Himself.
The ruler whose daughter had died appears next on the scene. He is unlike the Centurion in the eighth chapter who had the greater faith and wanted the Lord to speak but a word. The ruler of the Jews wants the Lord to come in person to his house and touch the one, without life. His personal presence is demanded to raise the daughter from death to life. That we have here once more dispensational truths before us is seen at the first glance. Israel is often spoken of in the Old Testament Scriptures as a daughter, the daughter of Zion . In the short book of Lamentations alone we find the word, daughter, as meaning Israel, eighteen times. The daughter who has died is then likewise a type of the people. To bring life to Israel can be only through the presence of Him, who is the life. When He came the first time, they would not come to Him that they might have life. But He is coming again to raise up His people, to touch the daughter of Zion .
And while our Lord goes forward to fulfill the request of the ruler, another incident comes in by the way. An unclean woman touches Him and is healed. “And behold a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind and touched the hem of His garment; for she said within herself, if I should only touch His garment I shall be healed. But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, ‘Be of good courage, daughter, thy faith hath healed thee.’ And the woman was healed from that hour” (Mat 9:20-23). She represents the Gentiles and the grace which comes to them by faith, while the resurrection of Israel is still unaccomplished, but drawing’ nigh. Faith touches Him now and receives of Him salvation with its precious assistance. But the touching of Him is parenthetical, just as the present age with salvation come to the Gentiles is a parenthesis. Jesus comes to the house of the ruler. It has the meaning of relationship. So will He come to raise up the daughter of Israel . “And when Jesus was come to the house of the ruler, and saw the flute players and the crowd making a tumult, He said, Withdraw, for the damsel is not dead, but sleeps. And they derided Him. But when the crowd had been put out, He went in and took her hand; and the damsel rose up. And the fame of it went out into all that land.” May not the crowd of unbelievers and mockers represent nominal Christendom? Surely the same is in Christendom which we see here. The Lord has declared in His Word, eternally settled in the heavens, His loving purposes concerning Israel . It can well be said of His earthly people, as He said of the ruler’s daughter, “The damsel is not dead, but sleeps.” The Scriptures are full of promises to Israel and the day of their resurrection and restoration, yet Christendom treats all this with unbelief and ridicule. There is no understanding of God’s purposes, the plan of the ages, and hence no heart and no love for the people, who are still beloved for the Father’s sake and whose are the promises. Our Lord said to that crowd, “Withdraw,” and they were put out of the scene, when He came and touched the damsel to raise her up. And may we not see in this also the end of the motley throng in Christendom, which will be put off the scene when He comes to do the miracle of His mercy and His power on Israel?
And when He does this to His people then surely the blind will see and the dumb speak.
In the healing of the two blind men, which comes immediately after the raising of the maid, we see again a dispensational foreshadowing of Israel ‘s present condition and future healing. It is true the miracle of the two blind men who cry to Him is often spiritualized, and we do not at all deny that he has an application in that direction. First of all, however, we must not overlook the original meaning it has in this Jewish Gospel, and as we do this we shall yet more and more grasp the divine scope of the Gospel of Matthew. “Two blind men followed Him crying and saying, Have mercy on us, Son of David.” The two blind men picture Israel ‘s condition as the leper did in the beginning of the eighth chapter. They were blind, when He came and dwelt among them. His own knew Him not and received Him not. But how much greater has their blindness become since they not only have cast Him out, but rejected the offer of His mercy after His resurrection and ascension? Now it is, Let their eyes be darkened. Blindness in part has happened to Israel . When the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, had come to Rome, and in his burning love for his brethren, his kinsmen, had sent for them and in disagreement they began to leave, he addressed to them the Word, so true throughout this age: “Well spake the Holy Spirit through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, Go to this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear and not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people has become fat, and they hear heavily with their ears, and they have closed their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I should heal them” (Act 28:25-28). But this is not Israel ‘s final condition. Like these two blind men, so Israel will cry out of the deepest darkness, out of the terrible night of Jacob’s trouble, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” Son of David is His title as He stands in relation to His earthly people, and in this passage we have Him called by this name for the first time in the Gospel. The cry these two men utter is specifically Jewish, and surely no Gentile will cry to Him as Son of David. Later in the Gospel a Gentile woman cried after Him, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is miserably possessed by a demon. But He did not answer her a word” (Mat 15:23). When she called again, she said, “Lord, help me,” and after she had taken her place with the dogs the Lord acknowledged her faith. And when thus Israel cries for mercy and waits for the coming of the Son of Man and the Son of David, He will arise and have mercy upon Zion and “in wrath He will remember mercy.” “He will return again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19).
He did not pass by the two blind men. “When He was come to the house (which always stands for relationship), the blind men came to Him, and Jesus says to them, Do ye believe that I am able to do this? They say to Him, Yea, Lord. Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened.” So He healed them by coming in touch with them not absent and unseen, but present and touching them. He is absent from the earth now unseen to the eyes of men, yet we believe in Him and through Him on God; we believe, too, that He is able, that all power is given to Him in heaven and on earth and it is also now “according to your faith.” But He who is absent will come back to earth again, back into definite relationship with His earthly people, and then and not before will Israel’s blindness be ended. And what these two healed men did, spreading His name abroad in all that land, believing and seeing Israel will do in that day.
Next comes a dumb man possessed by a demon, and the demon having been cast out, the dumb spake. This, too, refers to Israel still under the control of Satan’s power. Instead of praising their King, Israel was dumb and is dumb now; but the demon will be cast out, and then Israel will speak His praises and sing the new song unto the Lord. What a day it will be, when dumb Israel is at last the people “formed to show forth His praise!” “And the crowds were astonished, saying, It has never been seen thus in Israel .” And in that day when Israel is healed it will be said, “What God has wrought,” and all the nations will know that He is Jehovah. We learn therefore in the three miracles -- the raising of the maid from the dead, the opening of the eyes of the blind and the casting out of the demon from the dumb man -- the blessed story of Israel ‘s coming redemption. Israel raised from the dead will see and behold the King, the Son of David, and speak and praise His name. It is not less the way of divine grace with each sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are dead in trespasses and sins. He said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that an hour is coming and now is (and the hour is not yet passed), when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that have heard shall live” (Joh 5:24), and those He raises from the dead to them He gives eternal life, which is He Himself, and gives them the light of life, His Spirit, to enlighten them and guide them. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak to His praise who loveth us and has redeemed us by His blood and delivered us from the power of darkness. Oh, how blessedly rich and full in His Word!
But now the dark side. While the crowds were astonished, the Pharisees said, He casts out the demons through the prince of demons. Here for the first time in the Gospel do we find the awful blasphemy of the religious leaders of the people. The power of Jehovah had been manifested before their very eyes. The leper had been cleansed and gone to the priest, who knew Jehovah’s power had done it; the tempest had been stilled, the demons cast out, the paralytic healed, the dead maid raised up, the blind saw and the dumb spake; but instead of bowing in the august presence of the King and acknowledging the power, which manifested itself in such a manner, as divine, they attributed it to Satan, the prince of demons. They accused the Lord from heaven of being the instrument of Satan! Awful blasphemy! It is here but the first muttering of the coming storm. The storm breaks fully in the twelfth chapter. There they stand in all their Satanic boldness and charge Him with casting out demons by Beelzebub. They committed there and then the sin against the Spirit. We must reserve the closer investigation of this matter till we read the chapter in which our Lord speaks of that sin. Here we notice especially that the rejection of our Lord began with the blind leaders of the people, the religious, self-righteous Pharisees. It is not different in Christendom with the falling away from the faith.
Our Lord continued in His ministry in Galilee . “And Jesus went round all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom and healing every disease and every bodily weakness” (Mat 9:35). What an activity this must have been! He walked up and down through Galilee, and certainly not one of the numerous villages was forgotten by Him. Let us notice again that it is the Gospel of the kingdom He preached, therefore Kingdom signs were present. When He, the King, comes again, and the Kingdom of the heavens is established and the heavens rule, then disease and all that offends will be put away.
But what scenes met His eye as He passed thus ministering among the crowds of people? He beheld them as worn out, harassed and cast away as sheep not having a shepherd. His loving heart was moved with compassion for them. In this loving sympathy He reveals Himself as the Shepherd of Israel. Long before His Spirit in the prophets had spoken of the scene we behold here. “Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel ; prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do not feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? ... And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd; and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, where they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search and seek after them” (Eze 34:1-31). In the same chapter we read what Jehovah the Shepherd of Israel says: “I will both search My sheep and find them out. ... I will seek out My sheep. ... I will bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries. ... I will feed them in a good pasture. ... I will feed My flock and I will cause them to lie down. ... I will seek that which was lost. ... I will make with them a covenant of peace,” ... etc. He came thus to His own as the Shepherd, but they did not want Him. As the good Shepherd He laid down His life for the sheep, becoming the great Shepherd in resurrection and the chief Shepherd in glory. But He is also the Shepherd of Israel, and thinks still of His earthly people and loves them. That thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel will yet be literally fulfilled through the returning Son of Man, and then His poor flock will know Him and sing in the earth what the believer’s heart sings now: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” “Then saith He to His disciples, The harvest is great and the workmen few; supplicate therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth workmen unto His harvest.” He Himself is the Lord of the harvest. He sends forth the workmen and He equips them for the service. But there is a great difference between the sending forth of the workmen to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and to heal the sick, and the gifts, the Lord in glory, as the Head of His body, has given to the church. The sending forth of the laborers into the harvest will be before us in the next chapter.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23 The Healing of the Palsied Man.
The Healing of the Palsied Man.
v. 1. And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city.
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Jesus complied with the request of the Gerasenes to depart out of their neighborhood. Entering into the boat in which He had come over with His disciples. He crossed back to the western side of the Sea of Gennesaret, to the city of Capernaum, where He made His headquarters during His Galilean ministry. No sooner had He arrived there than the fact became known, and multitudes of people began to gather in the house and on the street. It was a day of grace for the whole city: Jesus was teaching, and His power went out to heal the sick, Luk 5:17. An important incident:
v. 2. And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed; and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.
Matthew implies that there was a long process connected with the bringing of the sick man, which is told in detail by the other evangelists: The four friends bearing their burden, the impossibility of making headway through the crowds, the ascent to the flat roof, the uncovering of the tiles. Finally, the paralytic, bedridden and helpless as he was, was deposited in a cleared space before Jesus. A notable point: the Lord looks, above all, for faith. In this case He found their faith, that of the paralytic as well as that of his friends, by virtue of His omniscience. So satisfied was He with the result of His scrutiny that He addresses words of comfort to the sick man. The Savior’s intuition read in his eye the need of an assurance involving more than mere bodily recovery. The consolation of the soul was what he aspired for; the despondence, due probably to a bad conscience, must be removed. An infinite tenderness in Christ’s words: Take courage, cheer up, son! There is no reason to fear that the heavenly Father and I, His Representative, will condemn. He deals first with the disease of the soul, announcing, with absolute authority, the fact of the forgiveness of sins, applying it to this individual man. As sin is the greatest evil on earth and draws after it all the other evils that flesh is heir to, so forgiveness, pardon, is the greatest good that God can give to man, Psa 103:3. "This is the voice of the Gospel: Be of, good cheer, live, be preserved. The entire rhetoric of the Gospel is connected with this word: Son, be of good cheer. For it indicates that the heart must be driven to confidence with all arguments and examples that praise God’s mercy, against all arguments and examples that tell of God’s wrath... That is the kingdom of Christ; who has it thus has it right. There is no work, but only the acknowledgment of all our misfortune and acceptance of all the gifts of God; there is nothing but just consolation; there these words go without ceasing: Be glad, do not be terrified in thy conscience on account of thy sins, that thou hast not done much good; I will forgive all that. Therefore there is no merit, but all pure donation. That is the Gospel: That demands faith, wherewith thou receive and hold these words, that it be not said in vain. For we have no other defiance with which He bids us boast than that God says: Be in high spirits, be cheerful, for I forgive the sin; boast of My forgiving, of that make a show. Then hast thou cause to boast and to glory, not on account of thy works."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 25 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Matthew returns to the theme, which he began in Matthew 8:1, of Jesus healing people. This begins an account of Jesus healing a paralyzed man.
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Jesus entered a boat
It is implied that the disciples were with Jesus. (See: Active or Passive)
a boat
This is probably the same boat as in Matthew 8:23. You only need to specify this if needed to avoid confusion.
into his own city
"to the town where he lived." This refers to Capernaum.
Behold
This marks the beginning of another event in the larger story. It may involve different people than the previous events. Your language may have a way of showing this.
they brought
"some men from the city"
their faith
This refers to the faith of the men and may also include the faith of the paralyzed man.
Son
The man was not Jesus' real son. Jesus was speaking to him politely. If this is confusing, it can also be translated "My friend" or "Young man" or even omitted.
Your sins have been forgiven
This can be stated in active form. AT: "I have forgiven your sins" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Jesus
faith
son
sin
forgive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24 9:1-17 Controversy ensued among Jesus’ opponents, the teachers of…
9:1-17 Controversy ensued among Jesus’ opponents, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees (9:1-13), and among the disciples of John the Baptist (9:14-17).
9:1 His own town was Capernaum (Mark 2:1), where he apparently relocated from Nazareth after being rejected there (Matt 4:13; Luke 4:16-31).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.