Last time we saw in Matthew 8 that the Messiah wanted
followers who made Him their first priority.
If a follower ever needs to choose one or the other, Jesus must
win. We also saw that the continuing
question about Jesus’ authority is slowly being answered. In Matthew 5-7 Jesus spoke with
authority. In Matthew 8 Jesus acted with
authority. He healed the most dramatic
diseases and physical complaints. The evil
spirits fled at His command. The
disciples noticed that even the wind and the seas obey Him. In chapter 9 Jesus shows us that His
authority is also intensely spiritual and divine. He can forgive sin.
Jesus Forgives Sin
In 9:1-8, Jesus returned home to Capernaum back across the
lake from Gadara where He had healed the demonized men and where the villagers
begged him to leave them alone. They
didn’t want what Jesus had to offer. So,
He returned to His home and the familiar pericope
about the paralyzed man carried by his four faithful friends who had to drop
him through the roof tiles to get their friend to Jesus to be healed. Jesus (seeing their faith) said, “Take heart,
My son. Your sins are forgiven.” But the reason these guys came was for
healing and now this? That’s the way it
is with spiritual needs. We more easily
sense hunger, pain, and injustice but are oblivious to a far worse wound—a
spiritual need that we all carry. We all
need forgiveness of sins.
What is forgiveness of sins?
Well, sin is a spiritual deficit (coming short of God’s glory – His
character and nature – Romans 3:23). Sin
conveys a lack of righteousness that we need if we want to see God. Forgiveness means that the deficit is
remitted. It is paid in full. Someone will say, but that payment wasn’t
made until Jesus died on the cross!
Right! God is not bound by our concept
of time. He created time and space and
matter. All those sins that were
committed before the cross (as well as after) were paid for by Jesus
death on the cross (Romans 5:8) which would not happen for another 18 chapters
of Matthew! That is the judicial basis for forgiveness. But forgiveness of sins comes by faith in Jesus whether we understand the theology behind it or not.
So, are we all free from the condemnation of sin? The “payment”
was made on the cross answering to the “wages of sin” (Romans 6:23) but only
those who choose to receive Jesus’ free gift of forgiveness by faith (trusting
in His promise of eternal life) will ever have it (Ephesians 2:8-9). Forgiveness is free but we must receive it by
faith in Jesus. Here the paralyzed man
believes in Jesus’ to heal him and has his believing friends go to extreme
lengths to get Him to Jesus. And Jesus
saw their faith (the belief of the man and his friends) and granted
forgiveness. He saw that they believed
in Him. (“Faith” is the noun form for
the verb “believe” in Greek.)
But how do we know that Jesus has this authority to forgive
our sins? That’s exactly the question
that came up next. Some of the scribes
(apparently not all of them) began to think Jesus was a blasphemer by claiming
a prerogative that belonged to God alone.
And you know what? This is the
same conundrum we face. Jesus is either
a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord of the universe.
Which is it? Jesus then said,” .
. .that you may know that (I) have the power . . . to forgive sins . . .” and
told the paralyzed man to “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And the man who until now could not move,
received life in his body and jumped up and rolled up his bed and left the
building, presumably with his four faithful friends.
This caused the watching crowd to be afraid and they
glorified God—because He had given such authority to men! God was near! Jesus' authority was now established as not
just physical but spiritual. They don’t
yet know about the cross which would play a crucial role in all of this. (So,
trust in God is even more basic than understanding the role of the cross. This is why Paul later tells us that Abram
believed God – before the cross – and it was counted to Him as
righteousness!) And for the crowds who
watched and heard, it was patently obvious that Jesus was the One to watch!
Jesus Grants Mercy
Now this next pericope
in Matthew 9:9-13, builds on this same theme of Jesus authority to forgive
sins. This is Matthew’s account of his
own calling to be a disciple of Jesus.
He had been a tax collector who probably had a booth right on the Roman
road that led through Capernaum. Over
this highway, the bulk of the riches of the East were carried by caravan to
Rome. And Matthew (also known as Levi)
had the job of assessing and collecting taxes on these cargoes. As word of Jesus’ words and actions spread in
that area, Matthew could not have been oblivious. He would have seen the huge crowds that
pounded the dusty roads just to get a glimpse of this Rabbi. So when Jesus walked past one day, he willingly
became a follower of Jesus and left his job and invited Jesus to a dinner party
with all his tax collector friends. He
was not a Pharisee who imagined that they were righteous enough for God. He had no disagreement whatever that he had a
huge sin deficit and when he heard that Jesus could forgive sin, he was
in.
There were complaints from the Pharisees about Jesus keeping
company with “tax collectors and sinners.”
And Jesus said, “I have come not to call the righteous but sinners.” That was Jesus’ wry way of saying, “I have
come to call those who admit that they are sinners.” Those who disputed their need for forgiveness
would never believe. He also quoted
Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
Mercy is not getting what you deserve and sacrifice was giving until it
hurts. The point Jesus was making was
that God didn’t need anything, we were the ones that had a need. We deserved condemnation but we needed
mercy. There is a place for sacrifice
with regard to our God-given responsibilities toward each other but it can
never buy forgiveness of sins.
We need mercy and it is the worst of sinners who are quick to realize
this need often before the “nicer people” even get a clue. Here Jesus grants mercy to Matthew—a big deal
to the self-righteous Pharisees.
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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