Jesus, the Physician (Matthew 9:1-13)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
I don’t know about you, but I am someone who hates going to the Doctor. I have to be feeling pretty sick to be willing to even consider the thought of making a trip to the doctor. In fact, I’m so resistant on going to the doctor, back in 2007, it nearly cost me. I had been feeling sick for about a week, thinking I had strep or something along those lines, but I kept pushing through. I had junior year classes, many which were business classes that I didn’t have time to be sick or worry about it. Not to mention it was football season, which meant me working long hours as a student equipment manager for the Tennessee Volunteers football program.
Unfortunately, as my sickness progressed, I became more and more miserable and to make matters worse, we were on the road traveling that weekend in Starkville, MS, literally the middle of nowhere. Our training staff even began to realize just how sick I was when I wasn’t barking orders to my crew and getting the job done as we loaded up after the game on Saturday night and told me when we got back to Knoxville, I had to go see someone. So I finally listened, turns out I didn’t have strep, I had mono. The doctor prescribed me medication and steroids to get better but mandated I stayed home and rest. Well I then wished I had gone and addressed the issue sooner, because that night I ended up in the Emergency Room as my mono was so bad that my airways were closing up and I was throwing up blood. 2 rounds of steroids later, I still was watched closely through the night as my airways were still constricted and my breathing shallow. I was seriously sick and it was the doctor, the physician who helped me get better. Physicians do wellness checks, but most importantly they are there to care for those who are not well. And that is what I want us to consider this morning as we turn our eyes to Jesus who has come to take up the role as the Great Physician. Matthew 9:1-13, page #967.
To help us get a running start and make sure we are on the same page, we come into Matthew 9:1-13 with the continued theme being the authority of Jesus. We have seen that he is one who teaches with authority, that he has authority over that of sickness and disease, over demons, and even over the sea and the winds and makes them calm after a raging storm. This Jesus continues to be shown as no ordinary man, but truly the Son of God who has come to take away the sins of the world and to save his people from their sins, something that we have not really seen so far since Matthew 1, but that comes back front and center this morning. (Read Matthew 9:1-13).
Main Idea: Despite the sickness of our sins, Jesus is calling sinners to come to him by faith for the forgiveness of our sins. We are going to unfold this main idea with two points. First, the authority to forgive (9:1-8). Second, the mission to heal (9:9-13).
1. The Authority to Forgive Sins
1. The Authority to Forgive Sins
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he is constantly on the move, from place to place, having no place to lay his head that is his own. Throughout much of the time of Jesus' ministry in Galilee, he is back and forth across the Sea of Galilee. In Matthew 8, we have already seen Jesus in Capernaum (8:4), then he crossed the Sea of Galilee through the great storm (8:23-27) to come to the country of the Gadarenes (8:28). But now, following the casting out of the demons in the two men, and being asked to leave that area, Jesus again enters the boat. Matthew 9:1.
His own city is all that is given here in Matthew’s gospel, but it is said to be that of Capernaum in Mark’s gospel account. Capernaum is the home base for Jesus’ ministry and where he has now come to after the casting out of demons. A place where Jesus will minister and yet regularly be rejected. But in this case we are urged to behold or to look and see what is about to come, verse 2.
1.1. Jesus’ Declaration of the forgiveness of sins
1.1. Jesus’ Declaration of the forgiveness of sins
A paralytic, that is a man who has lost the sensation in his nerves and muscles and is unable to move them of his own accord is brought to Jesus. And because this paralytic was unable to move, he was carried on a bed, that more like a stretcher cot, by his friends in order to come before Jesus. Now, we are not told here in Matthew’s gospel account, but we find out from both Mark’s (Mark 2:1-12) and Luke’s (Luke 5:17-26) account that these friends were so determined with faith to get their friend before Jesus that when seeing the doors to the house were blocked by the large crowd, they climbed up on the roof, cut a hole in it, and lowered their friend down on his bed to be before Jesus. That is a faith that is unhindered by circumstances. A faith that Jesus sees. A faith had not by the paralytic alone, but his friends. For we read, “when Jesus saw their faith.”
In seeing this faith, Jesus turns his attention to this paralytic lying before him on this cot of a bed. And he says, “Take heart, my son”. Jesus here seeking to encourage the paralytic who now lays before him that he is to be comforted. And to make it more striking, Jesus adds my son, a descriptive normally used only between children and their parents. Yet here, Jesus calls this paralytic, my son in telling him to take heart to bring him such sweet comfort and care.
And it was not without great reason that this man was to take heart. Jesus did not just give him words, he gives reason for him to take heart in adding, “your sins are forgiven.”
The word sin is one of those words that we don’t like to talk about. And when we do, we often water it down to a slip up, a misstep. But that is not at all the biblical use of the word. Sin as defined according to the Bible is the departure from God’s standard of uprightness. This departure from God’s standard of uprightness began in the garden with Eve and Adam departing from God’s command to not eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And this departure has been spreading ever since. Departing from his instructions of worship, departing from trusting in the LORD and putting our trust in his creation instead, that is idolatry. This departure from God’s standard of uprightness has affected every part of our life.
In Genesis 3 it is made clear that the curse of the ground is the consequence of sin and the reason work is so hard and difficult. Instead of soft, good soil to work, we are left with hard clay and sandy soil to try and work the land. Sin brought affect to relationships, bringing strife and contention between Adam and Eve, something that continues to spread today. We don’t need to wonder why relationships, that of marriage, friendship, you name it are so hard. Sin is present because two sinners are living in close proximity together and so strife and conflict enters.
But our departure from God’s standards aren’t just in these areas, they are in our speech, our actions, our thoughts. For briefly look down at verse 4, Jesus knew the thoughts of men. The sins of our mind are known to Jesus.
And though each of our sins look differently, there is not a one who has not sinned. And because of this departure from God’s standard of uprightness, man is left to die. Death comes for us all. And we see death at work in our members. We are reminded of the reality of death when the members of our body fail us. Whether it be an aching back a week back or the fading of memory or that of serious illness and disease. The reminder of death is ever before us, just as it was for this paralytic.
And though sickness and death are a problem, they are not our biggest problem as we see with the paralytic. Our biggest problem is our departure from God’s standard of uprightness in our sin. And it is here where Jesus starts for this paralytic, with declaring that by his faith, his sins are forgiven.
Our sins are forgiven not in some far off future event, but in the present, in the here and now if by faith we come to Jesus. Every previous departure from God’s standard of uprightness is declared forgiven, as well as every future departure. This is the declaration that Jesus tells to the paralytic here in Matthew 9:2. No wonder he should take heart that the forgiveness of his sins has come. The forgiveness and pardoning of every wrong done before a Holy God. But, as Jesus declares this, he is met with opposition. Verse 3.
1.2. Accusation of Blasphemy
1.2. Accusation of Blasphemy
The scribes, a group of recognized experts in the Jewish law, were there listening to Jesus teach and hearing Jesus declare that the sins of this paralytic are forgiven. And these experts of the law knew that who could forgive sins except God? For is this not what we learn from the 5th Gospel found in the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah?
25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
The experts in the law knew this well, they knew that only God could forgive sins. Therefore, as Jesus declares to forgive sins, they accuse him of blasphemy. Blasphemy is an accusation that one is speaking in an impious or improper manner, in this case one declaring to forgive sins who is not God.
This of course leaves the Scribes thinking Jesus is a lunatic with his crazy declaration that this man’s sins are forgiven. And because of this blasphemous statement, they conclude that Jesus is worthy of death by stoning according to the law as laid out back in Leviticus 24:10-23.
However, before they can conclude their thoughts, for remember it saying here in verse 3, “some of the scribes said to themselves.” Jesus interrupts them, verse 4.
1.3. The Authority to Forgive Sins
1.3. The Authority to Forgive Sins
Jesus exposes the evil hearts of the scribes, as he gives evidence of his authority. For who else but God would know the secrets of their hearts. Jesus knows what is in man, he does not need any witnesses to reveal the hearts of men. Therefore, friends, those evil thoughts that we have been wrestling with all week, thoughts of anger, hate, lust, envy, jealousy, strife, etc. that we think to have kept to ourselves, these Jesus knows too. However, despite knowing all of this about even the paralytic, Jesus asks a question, verse 5.
Certainly it is an easy thing to tell a man his sins are forgiven, because there is no way to examine the truth of such a statement at that moment. But, to say rise and walk for one incapable of walking, this is a hard saying. For anyone of us can make a statement that is not measurable by any immediate means. However, to instruct one to rise and walk who cannot walk, that is a completely different matter. There is a clear means of measurement on whether one was telling the truth or not. Therefore making this rhetorical question, Jesus now continues. Verse 6.
Jesus chooses the harder of the two, he says to the paralytic, “rise and walk”. And what should happen? Verse 7.
He who was carried by four friends in on a cot bed now arises of his own power and walks home on his own two feet. Jesus fulfills the harder saying with stunning evidence that he truly is one who has the authority to forgive sins. The sign of the paralytic’s healing is to inform the Scribes, the crowd, and us today that Jesus is the King who has been granted all authority
The paralytic when instructed to rise and walk did just that! He who could not walk of his own accord now arises from his bed and goes home. He who had to be carried and raised and lowered back down now walks home on his own two feet by his own power. Jesus is who he says he is and therefore truly has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And at this authority, those present are left in awe, verse 8…
1.4. Response to Jesus’s Authority
1.4. Response to Jesus’s Authority
The crowds fear God in that such authority has been given from God to men, in reality one man, the God-Man, Jesus. But at this moment that is not recognized by the crowds. And so, they are afraid that such authority is given to men. Yet, they recognize that the authority must come from God and therefore glorify him in response.
What about us gathered here this morning? In seeing the authority given to Jesus cause us to fear opposing him? Does it cause us to fear doubting that he has been given the authority to forgive sins? The evidence in favor of Jesus is overwhelming. It takes less effort to believe Jesus can forgive sins than to deny it.
And if this is true before the cross, how much more should we believe this truth considering that Jesus went and willingly laid down his life on the cross at Golgotha as the spotless lamb of God in order to take away our sins? And how further evidence of this being the accepted sacrifice when Jesus rose from the dead, defeating the curse of sin and death? Jesus has come to declare the forgiveness of sins! Let us not oppose him!
Friend, you who have yet to believe, stop your resisting and fighting and come to see that the authority to forgive sins is found in Jesus and Jesus alone! Come to him by faith as the paralytic! And in doing so, you too can take heart and be comforted that your sins are forgiven!
This is not just good news for sinners and those who have opposed Jesus! This news that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins also brings comfort to us, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! We who have come to Jesus by faith are to take heart as we are in Christ! For we can take heart in him knowing that every past sin, every present sin, and every future sin has been forgiven. Not because of our deserving, but by God’s grace! By the love of God being shown to us that Jesus, the Son of God, was not spared in order to take away our sins! Knowing that Jesus has come with authority to forgive our sins is a reason to exalt our Great God! But Jesus came with more than authority, he came on a great mission.
2. The Mission to Heal
2. The Mission to Heal
Not only does Jesus have the authority to forgive sins, he has come for the very purpose of calling sinners in order to heal them. Verse 9.
Previously Jesus has called two pairs of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, along with the sons of Zebedee, James and John. The four were all Jews and they were fishermen. Lowly, uneducated fishermen were the first ones called to be disciples. But now, Matthew, a tax collector, is called to come and follow Jesus. Matthew, like the other four, is a Jew. However, as a Jew he is one despised and thought to have turned his back on his people in becoming a tax collector for the Roman Empire. They see him as a traitor. And yet, here Jesus comes and calls him to follow him as his disciple, and what should happen, Matthew arises and follows Jesus, leaving behind his days of tax collecting and abandoning everything to follow Jesus as his disciple. He hears the call and follows. Verse 10.
Now, Matthew downplays this feast for Jesus as his own, but both Mark to a degree and Luke more clearly makes it clear that this meal is at Matthew’s house. So not only does Matthew leave everything and follow Jesus, he prepares a meal in his own home that Jesus and his disciples and others join. Matthew in his earliest days of discipleship displays the fruit of the Spirit of hospitality.
Yet, while Jesus, his disciples, these sinners and tax collectors are enjoying a meal reclining at the table, it was noticed by other opponents of Jesus. Verse 11.
Scribes previously questioned Jesus in their hearts, but now the Pharisees question Jesus, but not directly, but through his disciples. The Pharisees are the religious and political Jewish party. They were strict observers of God’s law, in fact so strict that they would add to the law to set up extra biblical barriers. This is never good. Church, we are neither to drop below the line or go above the line of Scripture. We are to hold to the line of the Scriptures. Requiring any less or any more than what the Bible teaches us is poor doctrine.
It is because of their going above the line of Scripture that the Pharisees cannot imagine the thought of a faithful Jew eating with such sinners and tax collectors. For in doing so, they thought one would be affirming them in their sinfulness. And so, they ask why is Jesus eating with such as these? Yet, they ask not Jesus himself, but his disciples. But Jesus in hearing of this response answers. Verse 12.
While the Pharisees wonder how Jesus could eat with such, he makes clear his mission and his purpose in coming to save. Jesus came not to save the well, but the sick, those who are sick in sin. Jesus has come to save not the righteous, but sinners.
To drive this point home for the Pharisees, Jesus turns to the Old Testament which the Pharisees would have known well. And he tells them to go and learn from Hosea 6:6 which he quotes, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
The Pharisees are instructed to go and learn, to go and study, to grasp the significance of this saying in the Scriptures. But what is this saying teaching? Hosea 6:6 comes as God is rebuking Israel for being concerned with the ritual practices of the law, while forsaking the moral demands of the law. The moral demands particularly to show mercy for the vulnerable and destitute around them. God’s law called to take seriously his commands, to recognize their need in sacrifice because of their sinfulness. But God’s law also called them to be a moral people who cared for their neighbor, not forsaking them or putting them lower than self.
Therefore, ultimately, Jesus in citing Hosea 6:6 is condemning the Pharisees as those who keep the correct ritual but fail to keep the moral law just as those who were to be judged in Hosea’s day. He is calling them who think they are well to realize just how sick they are, so they too will see their need to be healed. Of course we know the Pharisees fail to see this for they, along with the Sadducees are those most responsible from an earthly sense of Jesus going to the cross. But what about us?
Christian, we are saved not because we are well, we are saved by grace. For we were not well when Christ called us to himself, nor are we presently well.
J.C. Ryle in his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels puts it this way,
“Sinners we are in the day we first come to Christ. Poor needy sinners we continue to be so long as we live, drawing all the grace we have every hour out of Christ’s fullness. We shall find ourselves sinners in the hour of our death, and shall die as much indebted to Christ’s blood as on the day when we first believed.” [1]
And yet, though we should be humbled by this reality that we are all sick in sin, we can take heart because Jesus has come to heal the sick. To heal us in him. Jesus comes and calls sinners not to leave them where they are as those who are sick, but to make them well, well in him!
Jesus calls us as sinners in order to forgive us of our sins and to make us new again! To restore us to walk in the uprightness of God’s perfect law. A work that is ongoing in us after coming to Jesus by faith. Yet a work that will not be completed until that day we cross Jordan’s Stormy Banks and stand in gloryland. It is only then will the work of restoring us and making us new again will be completed!
This is our hope, Christian! Our hope that Jesus has come to call sinners! Let us then hear his voice and rejoice!
But you friend who have yet to believe. Hear the voice of Jesus calling you this morning to come to him in faith and trust that he has the authority to forgive you of your sins and he will if you will but trust in him and him alone to do so.
Come ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power.
Come ye thirsty, come and welcome God’s free bounty glorify;
true belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh.
Come to Jesus by faith and take heart that your sins are forgiven for Jesus has come for this purpose to save his people from their sins. And his voice is calling! Calling those who have yet to believe and continuing to call those who have already believed!
Let’s pray.
Endnotes
[1] Ryle, J.C. Matthew: The Crossway Classics Commentaries. (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 1993) 65.
