Forgiveness, Healing, Following, and True Fasting

Matthew 9:1-17

Forgiveness and Healing

1 So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."

3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"

4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"—then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." 7 And he arose and departed to his house.

8 Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

Matthew - "Follow Me"

9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him.

10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, 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 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Fasting and New Wineskins 

14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"

15 And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

These passages are Christ’s words to us on forgiveness and healing, following Him, and new wineskins putting fasting in the proper place.  When a paralyzed man was brought to Jesus to be healed he was told to cheer up because his sins were forgiven by God according to his faith in the ability of Jesus to make him whole in body and soul.  The religious leaders called Him a blasphemous man for daring to act as God to forgive a man’s sin, but Jesus healed and declared boldly that He as the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13) and the Son of God was able to do so with full authority and power to both heal the body and forgive sins of the soul (Isaiah 53:4-5, 11).  The response from those who looked on was to marvel at the power and grace displayed and give glory to God who would boldly do such a thing for a common sinner with such power and authority.  

Then we see how Jesus Christ purposely walked by a hated tax collector who was ostracized by his own Jewish brothers for helping the occupiers of Israel and then called him of all people to follow Him!  What did the sinner do?  He got up from his seat where he had been collecting taxes, left everything, and followed the Lord without hesitation.  He was called by God as a disciple and an apostle and so responded without knowing exactly who Jesus was yet.  He followed by the conviction of faith.  When Jesus then sat down to break bread with him and other tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees derided Him in judgment for dirtying Himself among these supposedly unworthy men.  Jesus set them straight by pointing out as the Great Physician He came to make sinners well, not the self-righteous who imagined they had no problems with sin, linking the healing of body and soul together.  He came to call all who knew they were sinners and had ears to hear the gospel to repent, turning from their sin to follow Him.  That gospel call is unchanged even now for we sinners called by grace through repentance and faith.  

Finally, we see questioning of Jesus concerning fasting by the followers of John who did not yet know the Christ whom he as Elijah was trumpeting as coming.  Jesus and His followers did not fast as they or even the Pharisees did and so was called into question for His lack of righteous religious practice.  The Lord told them a parable word illustration of patching an old wineskin and how it would break and ruin the wine unless a completely new container was used when the old was defective and no longer able to contain the fresh wine with its expanding nature from within.  This demonstrated a need for a renewed person without patches of religious rules made by man in a vain attempt to hold in a new work of God which we later see revealed as the new birth (John 3:3, 5-6).  He also compared the expectations for the friends of a bridegroom in that they do not grieve while the groom still lives, foretelling how the disciples were enamored with every moment in Jesus’ presence as His bride while He was still with them and how they did not have time for fasting yet to experience a close relationship with God because He was in their very presence in the present.  All Jesus taught and demonstrated is recorded for our learning as well.