January 31, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Matthew? Here’s today’s reading:
Matthew 9 (NIV)
Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”...........Continue Reading
A few things struck me in this chapter. First how many people began to follow Jesus looking for a healing or to drive out a demon. Can you imagine what it must have looked like to see Him walk the streets with such a crowd always following to either have Him do something for them or just to see it done.
The next thing was that Jesus always tries to remind them that it is their faith that allows for the miracles to happen not necessarily Jesus’ physical touch like when the woman touched His garment. We have access to Jesus all the time when we believe! And of course the last thing was that immediately while drawing a positive crowd Jesus is attracting the people that would want to stop Him! The Pharisees of course are threatened by His teachings and miracles and amazed by the way He interacts with the people. Shocked that He would spend time with the sinners but Jesus’ ministry on earth was to teach us where our own ministry should be helping those in need not just those who “appear” better…..God is concerned with our heart!
I have often been confused by the old wine and new wineskins portion of this scripture, but I think I wasn’t considering it in context:
“Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Here they are in between the Old and the New Covenant. John’s disciples fast appropriately, a humble position of repentance in preparation for the Kingdom. The Pharisees fast for show. The disciples do not fast because as far as they are concerned, the wedding has begun! You don’t fast at the wedding! But Jesus says that the bridegroom will be taken away and that they will indeed fast. The wineskins are the Old and New Covenant. Jesus didn’t come to patch up the Old Covenant, but to fulfill it and establish a new one.
I was thinking about the connection to the Bridegroom in other Bible stories. I think I will do a word study and look at it’s other uses.
Matthew 8-9
How wonderful Jesus is. It is interesting after doing so many miracles that the first thing He says to this paralytic is that his sin is forgiven him. In doing so Jesus might be highlighting what his greatest need is even in spite of his handicap. He might be addressing the Jewish thought that blamed conditions like this on sin. Or is He setting up a scenario that will allow Him to make the point that He eventually makes? Or it could be all three? Regardless, His point is well taken. He does have power to forgive sin and healing the man is perfect affirmation of that. And the crowd is struck with wonder.
And how wonderful that He chooses Matthew: the scourge of society, despised by many, but valued by Jesus. Now that is grace…and if that wasn’t enough He then eats at Matthews house with all his buddies. No one is beyond his forgiveness! And because He is so wonderful, this is not a time for sadness and fasting but rejoicing in His presence with us.
And in addition to this, Jesus’ power has no bounds. He raises a girl from the dead, the greatest enemy of all…and news of His wonder spread…He heals someone just from them touching His garment and then He heals the blind and mute. And then He asks us to join Him, to have the same perspective of people that He has that people are harassed and lost and needing a shepherd, to have the same compassion for them that He has and to pray to God that He would send workers to the fields…..and then become some of those workers ourselves….
Matthew 9
5Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew 7-9