Matthew
9
New
American Standard Bible (NASB)
A
Paralytic Healed
9
Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city.
2
And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus
said to the paralytic, “Take courage, [a]son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And
some of the scribes said [b]to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” 4 And
Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? 5
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and
walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins”—then He *said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go
home.” 7 And he got up and [c]went home. 8 But when the crowds saw this, they were
[d]awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Matthew
Called
9
As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax
collector’s booth; and He *said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed
Him.
10
Then it happened that as [e]Jesus was reclining at the table in the house,
behold, many tax collectors and [f]sinners came and were dining with Jesus and
His disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why
is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when Jesus
heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but
those who are sick. 13 But go and learn [g]what this means: ‘I desire
[h]compassion, [i]and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous,
but sinners.”
The
Question about Fasting
14
Then the disciples of John *came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees
fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The
[j]attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with
them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast. 16 But no one puts [k]a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment; for [l]the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse
tear results. 17 Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the
wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they
put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Miracles
of Healing
18
While He was saying these things to them, [m]a synagogue [n]official came and
[o]bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and
lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and began to follow
him, and so did His disciples.
20
And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up
behind Him and touched the [p]fringe of His [q]cloak; 21 for she was saying
[r]to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will [s]get well.” 22 But Jesus
turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has [t]made
you well.” [u]At once the woman was [v]made well.
23
When Jesus came into the [w]official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the
crowd in noisy disorder, 24 He said, “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is
asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. 25 But when the crowd had been sent
out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl [x]got up. 26 This news
spread throughout all that land.
27
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have
mercy on us, Son of David!” 28 When He entered the house, the blind men came up
to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “[y]It
shall be done to you according to your faith.” 30 And their eyes were opened.
And Jesus sternly warned them: “See that no one knows about this!” 31 But they
went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.
32
As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man [z]was brought to Him. 33
After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed,
and were saying, “Nothing like this has [aa]ever been seen in Israel.” 34 But
the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the
demons.”
35
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of
disease and every kind of sickness.
36
Seeing the [ab]people, He felt compassion for them, because they were
[ac]distressed and [ad]dispirited like sheep [ae]without a shepherd. 37 Then He
*said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38
Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His
harvest.”
Matthew 9 Bible Panorama
V 1–8: FRIENDS The
concern, faithfulness, and faith of the friends of the paralytic cause him to
be in a position where Christ heals him and is glorified. The scribes are
hostile but the people marvel.
V 9–13: FOLLOWING The call to the
corrupt Levi was simply ‘Follow me’. In eating at Levi’s house with his
friends, Jesus reveals that He touches the hearts of sin-sick sinners and needs
no outward religious show. He is unimpressed with religious self-righteousness.
V 14–17: FASTING Jesus teaches
that there will be a time to fast, but there is also a time not to fast.
Fasting is not intended to parade to others our devotion to God.
V 18–33: FAITH Jesus
meets the needs of very different people always through their putting their
faith in Him. He restores to life the dead daughter of a ruler (verses 18 to 19
and 23 to 26), heals a woman who had been haemorrhaging for twelve years
(verses 20 to 22), gives sight to two blind men (verses 27 to 31), and releases
a mute demon-possessed man (verses 32 to 33). Jesus shows that He can meet the
needs of all types of people who will come to Him.
V 34: FALSEHOOD The Pharisees
falsely accuse Jesus of driving out demons by the prince of demons.
V 35–38: FEW Jesus has compassion
on the helpless crowds during His teaching, preaching and healing in the
villages, cities and synagogues. He teaches that the harvest of need is
plentiful but the workers in it are few. He tells His own to pray that the Lord
of the harvest will send out other workers into His harvest field.
The Bible Panorama. Copyright © 2005
Day One Publications.
The IVP New Testament Commentary
Series
We Need More Workers to Complete the
Task (9:37)
Jewish teachers understood that each of them could handle only so
many students, even if the students were still minors (Safrai 1974-1976a:957).
The term Jesus uses for workers here recurs in 10:10, indicating that
the workers Jesus wished to send forth into the harvest were his own disciples.
He trains us in our life with him so we can reach the world for him, making
other disciples who in turn can carry on the work (28:19). The urgency of
harvest was a potent image that sparked similar analogies among other Jewish
teachers (compare m. 'Abot 2:15, probably concerning study and
teaching of Torah).
Those of us involved with evangelism in cities have often seen the
harvest falling to the ground and rotting for lack of laborers. For instance,
on one evening in two hours of street ministry in the Bronx, New York,
sixty-three people provided names and addresses for follow-up after praying to
accept Christ as Lord and Savior; on other occasions we sometimes saw
forty-four or forty-five people make a similar commitment in two hours in
Brooklyn. In other parts of the city, where we were breaking new ground among
other cultural groups, we might go for weeks without seeing a conversion. We
nevertheless witnessed the work of the Spirit prying open the hearts of elderly
people who had never before had a conversation with a Christian about the
gospel. In the years following such ministry in traditionally closed groups,
the gospel has begun to spread significantly as well. Yet even if we led a
hundred people to Christ a day, at the end of a year the new Christians would
have numbered fewer than forty thousand-not one-half of one percent of the city
itself, and only about one-fifth of one percent of the whole metropolitan area.
The only hope for taking Jesus' message to all people is in
Christians' multiplying their labors by training disciples to continue and
expand the work (see Coleman 1963). If just one of us could win to Christ a few
people a year and train them to do the same, all other factors being equal
(which they are not), the results of that seed over two or three decades would
be billions of people won to Christ. We each have different gifts and callings,
but to the extent that we share our Lord's values and commitment to his cause,
we will devote our time, energy, wealth and other resources to the task of
reaching this world with the message of the kingdom and practical
demonstrations of its power.
IVP New Testament Commentaries are
made available by the generosity ofInterVarsity Press.
Yours by His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside
January 17th 2015
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