He heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sin
9
📚And he got into a boat, and crossed over and came to his own town.9:1 Here Capernaum is called His “own town” because it was the headquarters for His ministry in Galilee.⚜
2 📚And just then they brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a cot. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, take courage! Your sins are forgiven you”.
9:2 Notice it says “their” faith, not “his” faith only. Here is an example of how faith can work in bringing others to Christ. The man wanted physical healing. He received far more than that.⚜
3 📚And now some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming”.
9:3 They knew that God alone can forgive sins (Isa 43:25; 44:22). No prophet ever had this power. They did not know that Jesus was God incarnate, so they considered His words blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking against God, using His name in vain, attributing evil to Him, or trying to claim for self what belongs to God alone (such as His nature, authority, rights, and power). See Lev 24:14-16.⚜
4 📚And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?
9:4 Jesus being God in the flesh knew the thoughts of men. Compare Matt 12:25; Luke 6:8; 9:47; John 2:25; Ps 94:11; Heb 4:12-13; Rev 2:23; 1 Sam 16:7; 1 Kings 8:39; 1 Chron 28:9; 2 Chron 6:30; Jer 17:10; Ezek 11:5; Prov 15:11; Acts 1:24.⚜
5 📚For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, 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”, he then said to the paralytic, “Get up. Pick up your cot and go to your house”.
7 And he got up and left for his house.
9:5-7 Jesus proved He had God's authority to forgive sin by a display of God's power to heal. This miracle of healing is a picture of spiritual healing. Here we see that forgiveness was immediate, and all of grace – a gift of God to a helpless man (compare Acts 13:38-39; Rom 4:7-8; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; 2:13; Heb 8:12; 1 John 1:9). Men may forgive offenses done against them (Matt 6:14-15), but only God can forgive sins done against Himself, and in a very real sense all sin is against God (Ps 51:4).
Complete forgiveness of sin comes only when there is repentance and faith in the heart, and only God can see whether they are there. Jesus could see men's inner condition and could therefore pronounce forgiveness. The very purpose for which He came was to make God's forgiveness possible (Luke 24:46-47; Acts 13:38-39). Anytime, anywhere a person turns to Him in faith, he will find forgiveness of all his sins (Matt 12:31). If people sought for forgiveness with the same earnestness as they do for healing and for other things, the world would be far different than it is now.⚜
8 📚But when the crowds saw this, they were amazed and glorified God, who had given such authority to men 📖.
The King calls Matthew to be a disciple
9 📚And as Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, “Follow me”. And he got up and followed him.
9:9 Compare Matt 4:18-22. See also Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27-28 where Matthew is called Levi. He had a job the Jews despised, serving the ruling Roman government (Matt 5:46). But he became a great apostle and author of this Gospel which bears his name. Such is the grace of God.⚜
10 📚And now it happened, as Jesus was sitting at the table in the house, that many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11 📚And when the Pharisees 📖 saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 📚But when Jesus heard that, he said to them, “The ones who need a physician are not those who are well, but those who are sick.
9:12 What a beautiful answer! He means that all sinners are spiritually sick and that He has come to heal such. And as a doctor needs to be with his patients to help them, so He needed to be with sinners to heal them. It was not that He took pleasure in their company while they remained sinners or that He wanted to behave as they did.⚜
13 📚But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.
9:13 Jesus refers to Hos 6:6. God wants people to be merciful to others, as He is merciful. This is far more important than any ritual of religion could ever be. See also Matt 5:7. The righteous here means those who think they are righteous and holier than other people. Actually all are sinners (Rom 3:23), but not everyone understands this as they should. And Jesus has come to call sinners to forgiveness and salvation (Luke 19:10; John 3:17; 1 Tim 1:15).⚜
The King speaks of Himself and of John the Baptist
14 📚Then the disciples of John 📖 came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees often fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
15 📚And Jesus said to them, “Can the sons of the bridechamber 📖 mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast. 16 📚No man puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, and the tear will become worse. 17 📚And men do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wineskins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved”.
9:16-17 The Lord Jesus had come to do a new thing on earth, to provide a new garment of righteousness, a new wine of joy. The old Jewish religious forms and ways were not suitable for His new work. They could not contain the new truth and life Jesus brought. Truth is of more importance than antiquity.⚜
The King raises Jairus' daughter from the dead, and heals a woman with an issue of blood
18 📚While he was speaking these things to them, suddenly a certain ruler came and worshipped him, saying, “Just now my daughter has died, but come and put your hand on her, and she will live”.
19 📚And Jesus got up and followed him, and so did his disciples.
20 📚And, suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 📚For she said to herself, “If I can just touch his cloak, I will get well”.
9:20-21 This disease made its sufferer “unclean”. See note at Lev 15:25-27. In Old Testament days it was one of the pictures or symbols of sin.⚜
22 📚But Jesus turned around, and when he saw her, he said, “Daughter, take courage. 📖 Your faith has made you well”. And the woman became well from that time.
9:22 See the power of faith. Faith is the belief that God will act according to His Word and His nature as revealed in the Bible. It is confidence in Him as a person. See Heb 11:1, 6. God saves the one who trusts Him, believing Who He is and what He promises to do. Even the faith to believe is His gift to us (Eph 2:8-9).⚜
23 📚And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the people making a commotion,
9:23 These players were musicians hired to play at funerals.⚜
24 📚he said to them, “Go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping”. 📖 And they laughed at him. 25 📚But when the people had been put out, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
9:25 The laughing crowd will not see the glory of His working. Scoffers will not experience his power. This is one of the three recorded occasions of Jesus' raising the dead. The others are in Luke 7:15; John 11:43-44. But it is probable there were other cases (Matt 11:4-5).⚜
26 📚And the news of this spread throughout that whole region.
The King gives sight to blind men
27 📚And when Jesus left there, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, “Son of David 📖, have mercy on us”.
28 📚And when he went into the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord”.
9:28 See again the importance of faith. Contrast Mark 6:5-6.⚜
29 📚Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you”.
9:29 Here is a principle the Lord follows in His work among men (v 22; Mark 11:22-24; Heb 11:6; 1 John 5:14-15).⚜
30 📚And their eyes were opened. And Jesus gave them a strict order, saying, “See that no one finds out”.
9:30 Again we see that Jesus did not seek fame (Matt 8:4), or indeed any benefit of any kind from His miracles. See also what He taught others in Matt 6:1-4.⚜
31 📚But when they left they spread the news about him throughout that whole country.
9:31 It is true of so many that they will do what they want rather than what the Lord Jesus wants.⚜
32 📚As they went out, suddenly, they brought to him a man unable to speak and demon-possessed.
9:32 Demon possession affects different people in different ways. Compare Matt 8:28-32; 12:22. This does not mean that every mute or blind person, or epileptic is possessed by a demon. There are also other causes of such things.⚜
33 📚And when the demon had been driven out, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this was ever seen 📖 in Israel”.
34 📚But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons through the prince of the demons”.
9:34 These Pharisees thus showed incredible hardness of heart and unbelief, and were taking themselves beyond forgiveness. See Matt 12:24-32. The prince of demons is Satan.⚜
35 📚And Jesus went around all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
9:35 Here in a nutshell is the whole of Jesus' ministry (Matt 4:23-24).⚜
36 📚But when he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were feeble and dejected, like sheep which have no shepherd.
9:36 The reason why Jesus did what He did is here – compassion, love, pity for helpless men in their need (Matt 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 6:34; Luke 7:13; Heb 4:15). There were religious leaders in Israel who should have been shepherds to God's people, but they were like thieves and robbers (John 10:1, 7, 11-13). This is often true today also among people other than Jews.⚜
37 📚Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few.
9:37 Compare John 4:35-38. There are great and eternal rewards for those who serve God, but comparatively few people volunteer for the work.⚜
38 📚Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest”.
9:38 Here we can see something of the mysterious power of prayer. Why did Jesus tell them (and us) to pray like this? Will not God (the Lord of the harvest) send laborers into His harvest field whether His people pray or not? This is a question that may naturally come to mind, but it is not one we should ask. It is our business to do what the Lord says and leave the mystery of it to Him. God has appointed prayer as one of the ways His people can share with Him in His work. Let us make use of this means. It is enough to know that in answer to our prayers the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into His harvest fields.⚜