Matthew 9

http://www.esvbible.org/Matthew+9/

Jesus crosses the sea again after the incident with the pigs and sails to Capernum, where He stays most of the time. Some people brought a paralyzed man on a stretcher to Jesus, and Jesus, proud of their faith, told the man to cheer up because He forgave the man's sins. The scribes around Him thought this action dishonored God. Jesus, as fully God as well as fully human, knew their thoughts and turned to confront them. He asked if it is easier to say get up or sins are forgiven. After all, Jesus has the power t forgive the sins on Earth. When we pray that prayer where we ask Jesus to release us from sin and forgive us and wipe us clean from all we've done to hurt Him, we have proof that it really works. Jesus declares it Himself. If you believe Him enough to follow Him with your life, you should easily believe what He says here about forgiving sins. He told the man to get up and carry His stretcher home. The man did as Jesus said. The crowd was amazed by what they saw and filled with awe, they praised God for what can happen.

Matthew comes into the picture for the first time. We can only assume he wrote the first eight chapters and one story based on what the Holy Spirit and other disciples told him. Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus met him. Tax collectors were the scum of the Roman world. They gave the government the required percentage of what people made and got to charge however much they wanted for their own salaries. As you can assume, corruption was rampant among tax collectors, but Jesus chose one to follow Him. Later, Jesus ate at Matthew's house. Many tax collectors and sinners ate with Him that night. When Matthew says sinners, he's not talking about the kind of sin that everyone sins. We know that everyone sins, but the people with Jesus that night were outcasts because of the kind of sins they committed. The Pharisees saw this dinner and asked the disciples why Jesus ate with sinners. Jesus overheard this and told them the sick need a doctor, not the healthy. The Pharisees thought they were perfect and followed the law perfectly. Since following the law perfectly was the way to go to Heaven, then the Pharisees thought that they had it made. They didn't want a savior because they didn't think they needed one. The people eating with Jesus knew that they needed someone to give them entrance to Heaven because they could not make it on their own. That's why Jesus came. We can't make it on our own. None of us can. Then, Jesus says the Pharisees must learn to undertand the meaning that He wants mercy, not sacrifices. To atone for sins in the past, people would have to slater an innocent animal on the altar to take on all of that person's sins. Now, He wants mercy. Mercy is witholding something you deserve. When Christ sacrificed Himself, sacrifices were no longer necessary, but people could now avoid Hell because of mercy. God came to call the sinners because they place their faith in Him, not the one's who think they don't need God's approval because they think they can make it on their own.

John the Baptist's disciples question Jesus about why all people fast except the disciples. Jesus answers with a metaphor. He says that wedding guests cannot be sad while the groom is with them, but one day, the groom will be gone. Then, they will fast. Obviously, Jesus is the groom, and the disciples are the guest. Jesus says that following Him and listening to Him and spending all of their time with Him means that they worship in the ultimate way all of the time, and Jesus never gives up on them until they get it. Once they get it, Jesus will leave them so that they may spread His message throughout the land. Then, they will fast as a way of worship in order to reflect on what they learned from Christ. He talks about patching a torn coat with new cloth is a bad idea. He also mentions putting new wine into old wineskins will ruin both. No one knows for sure what this means. There isn't one clear answer. The best I can do is that while Jesus discusses the benefits of fasting for worship, it is the old way of getting closer to God. We give up something that our bodies need to focus on what our souls need. In the time of Jesus physically on Earth, the there was a new way to do things, and that was to absorb all of the information Christ gave, and to literally get to know God through conversation. Mixing the old and the new was a bad idea at the time. Now, we can do both.

The next story starts when a synagogue leader pleads for Jesus to save his daughter from the dead. Again, an individual from a group of people that despises Jesus comes to Him in faith for help. Jesus and His disciples head to the man's house. On the way, the story gets interrupted in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. A woman, who has been bleeding for twelve years sees the crowd and knows Jesus is there. She thinks to herself if she can just touch His clothing, she will be well again. She reaches out and Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her. She was considered unclean by her society, and anyone she touched would have been unclean, but you cannot be dirty enough to dirty Jesus. Instead, He is so clean that He not only con't be dirtied, but He can clean the dirtiest of people out there.  Then, the synagogue leader's story picks back up, and Jesus arrives at the house. Everyone around mourns for the girl. Jesus tells them to stop because the girl is only sleeping. They laugh at Him. The synagogue leader still had faith enough in Jesus to send the crowd way, and sure enough, Jesus raised the girl from the dead. There are situations when Jesus tells us that it's not as bad as it seems and He can help, but we simply laugh at Him. We think that our problems are bigger than Jesus. Go outside and look up at the sky, especially the night sky. Jesus holds all of that in His hands. Do you know how far the east is from the west?  If you went off the edge of the Earth and went on until you reached the end of east and the same with west? Jesus can reach across that distance. There is no problem too large for Jesus. Then the news of Jesus spread throughout the region. People were so excited about Jesus that they had to tell everyone. We should be out there right now doing the same thing.

When Jesus left the home of the synagogue and formerly dead girl, two blind men began to follow Him, begging Him to heal them. Eventually, Jesus asked them if they thought He could do it, They said yes. They were blind. They had never seen the miracles that Jesus performed, but they believed in what He said and what He said He could do. Jesus healed them and told them their faith saved them. He told them not to tell anyone what happened. Jesus didn't do these things for His own glory. He did it for us so that we could glorify Him. Confusing I know. Just stay with me. Then, the men still told everyone what had happened.

Jesus forces a demon out of a man who could not talk. As soon as the demon was gone, the man began to speak. The Pharisees are truly jealous of Jesus at this point, so they claim He forces demons out of people with the help of the ruler of demons.

Jesus continued traveling, spreading the Good News, and healing. He saw the crowds and felt sorry for them. He told the disciples that the harvest was large, and that they should pray that the Lord who gave the harvest would give workers for the fields.