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Verse 1:"And stepping into a boat, He crossed over and came to His own city." The city was Capernaum.
Verse 2:"And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Take courage, child; your sins are forgiven." Mark 2:1 says that people heard that the Lord was at home, so they brought the paralytic to Him. The account of Matthew is more simple because he presents the Lord as the King. Therefore, he does not record the trivial things or the details. Rather, he writes with a style of broadness. This verse shows us wherever the Lord is, He cannot be hidden.
"Jesus, seeing their faith." Faith is something that can be seen. The Lord had manifested His authority among the disciples, He had manifested His authority in the realm of nature, and He had manifested His authority among the demons. If the Lord can manifest His authority among sinners, then the demonstration of His authority is completed. All foundations are overthrown. Therefore, He must deal with sinners. Hence, 9:1-8 and chapter eight are inseparable. " Take courage." If your sins are not forgiven, you cannot take courage. By reading the Old Testament, the scribes knew the doctrine concerning forgiveness of sins, yet they did not know the actual forgiveness of sins. They had the teaching of forgiveness but not the experience of forgiveness.
Verse 3:"Some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes." This was the first rejection of the Lord. The scribes' heart was exposed by what the Lord did.
Verse 4:"And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts?" The Lord is not slack with regard to the thoughts in our hearts. Therefore, we need to pray that the meditation of our hearts may be acceptable to God (Psa. 19:14).
Verse 5:"For which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and walk?" On the Lord's side, both are easy. The Jews thought in their hearts that it was easy for the Lord to speak words such as "your sins are forgiven." However, by telling the man to "rise and walk," the Lord wanted to prove that His forgiveness of sins was a sure thing.
Verse 6:"But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins — then He said to the paralytic, Rise, take up your bed and go to your house." The Lord's enabling the paralytic to rise and walk shows that the Lord's words are trustworthy. If what is seen is true, then what is not seen also is true.
Verse 7:"And he rose and went away to his house." The great principle of the gospel is first forgiveness and then walking. The sinner cannot go to the Lord, but the sinner can go from the Lord. In the Old Testament the principle is to walk and live; in the New Testament it is to live and walk. One is by works; the other is by grace.
Verse 8:"And when the crowds saw this, they feared and glorified God, who had given such authority to men." Prior to Matthew 16, the Lord never called Himself the Son of God. Rather, after the temptation, He always called Himself the Son of Man.
The strongest part of the backbone of the entire Gospel of Matthew is found in chapter sixteen. Although the Lord did not reveal who He was, people could tell who He was from what He did. In chapter sixteen, after Peter had confessed the Lord as the Son of God and the Christ, the Lord began to speak of His death and resurrection.
The people's glorifying God here is altogether different from the believers' glorifying God, since those people had not repented.
Verses 9-13:This small section manifests God's grace. Now it is the Lord Himself who came to seek man. Other Gospels give more details concerning the calling of Matthew. As a whole, because Matthew presented the Lord as the King, he did not record the trivial things. In particular, because Matthew was the author of this book, he did not want to reveal too many details related to himself.
Verse 9:"He saw a man...called Matthew." According to the way this verse was written, it seems to indicate that before that time Matthew had never met the Lord. When the Lord called him, he followed immediately. There must have been something special either in the Lord's voice or in His eyes that caused people to be willing to follow Him. The Lord did not say, "Believe in Me"; rather, He said, "Follow Me." This is because believing in the Lord is included in following the Lord. The Christian life is a life of following the Lord. Christ requires us not only to believe but also to follow, that is, to do the will of God in the way of the cross. To follow the Lord is to partake of the Lord's tribulation, kingdom, and endurance (Rev. 1:9). To endure is not to use our own strength. God cannot use those who only believe in the Lord and do not follow the Lord.
Verse 10:"And as He was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined together with Jesus and His disciples." This feast was prepared by Matthew (Luke 5:29).
Verse 11:"And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?" Although men themselves are not righteous, they like to see God deal with man according to righteousness. Because men do not know the grace of God, they blame God for showing grace to people. Therefore, an attitude of being gracious is often criticized and blamed.
Verse 12:"Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill." The Lord's word here implies that the tax collectors and sinners knew their own position and therefore drew near to the Lord, but that the Pharisees were self-righteous and therefore blamed the Lord for being gracious toward the tax collectors and sinners.
Verse 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." The only "righteous" people in the world are the self-righteous, as were the Pharisees. Mercy is part of grace. Grace comes only from above. However, men do not like to receive grace; they prefer to give something, such as a sacrifice, to God. God desires that man come just as he is to receive grace. This is the only ground of fellowship. (To repent is to expose one's real condition, to simply admit what one is.) Here it shows that men many times condemn grace. Although the Lord has dealings with sinners, the Bible says that He is separated from sin. Therefore, only those who are separated from sin may draw near to sinners.
In the foregoing section, in the calling of Matthew, the Lord replied to the protest of the Pharisees. From 9:14 on, the Lord answered the protest of John's disciples.
Verse 14:"Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but Your disciples do not fast?" John somewhat practiced asceticism.
Verse 15:"And Jesus said to them, The sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them, can they? But days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast." " Taken away" refers to the Lord's being rejected, not to His ascension. The Lord's ascension was for Him to receive glory, so there was no need for the disciples to fast. Therefore, here His being taken away does not refer to His ascension. The "Bridegroom" was the Lord, and the "sons of the bridechamber" were the disciples. Later, the disciples will become the bride. In the transitional period, the Lord considered His disciples as the sons of the bridechamber. The Lord was taken away from them as a result of the Jews' rejection of Him.
Verse 16:"No one puts a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made." Here the "unfulled cloth," or the "new cloth," signifies the outward living, whereas the "new wine" signifies the inward life. A garment is exposed on the outside, and wine ferments within. One is the living and the other is life. One is objective and the other is subjective. The New Testament gospel gives an outward living and conduct to man as a new cloth and imparts an inward life into man as new wine.
The regulations and ordinances of the law are like the old garment; fasting is one of them. To mix the new and the old is to use the gospel to help the law. The best that this can do is to patch, but it can also cause a tear. For example, circumcision is an important matter. However, Galatians shows us that there is no need for circumcision. Romans says that man cannot be justified by the law; Galatians says that man cannot be sanctified by the law. Just as the law is unable to justify man, so it is unable to sanctify man. This is precisely what the Lord teaches here. The law in the aspect of commandments is one thing, and the law in the aspect of principle is another thing. The commandments of the law were complemented by the Lord, but the principle of the law was put aside by Him. In the Epistles, the phrase " by faith" should be rendered " by the principle of faith" — for example, " The righteous shall have life and live by the principle of faith" (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11).
Verse 17:"Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." Wine here refers to the inward life. "New wine" means that the fermenting power has not ceased. The life that the Lord put in us is like the new wine. The old wineskins signify the ordinances of the law. When the new wine is put into old wineskins, "the wineskins burst." For example, one who has the new life cannot keep the Old Testament law of "an eye for an eye"; hence, it bursts. Therefore, putting the new life given by the Lord into the old ordinances of the law will cause them to burst.
In Matthew 5—7 we see not only the fresh wineskins but also the fresh wineskins with new wine. The outward commandments are the highest expression of our inward life. Matthew 5—7 reveals what we have received within to show us that we can do the things mentioned therein. The old wine signifies the fleshly life. "Both are preserved"; that is, both the new wine and the old wineskin are preserved. This means that when the law is put aside, it is preserved.
Verse 18:"As He was speaking these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshipped Him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." Matthew does not tell us that the name of the ruler of the synagogue is Jairus (Mark 5:22), nor does he tell us in the previous chapter, that the name of the demon possessed man is Legion (Luke 8:30). Matthew seldom mentions names, because he presents the Lord as the King. It is not necessary to mention names, since they are insignificant before the Lord. The name Jairus means "the enlightening one."
Matthew says that the daughter "has just died," whereas Luke says that she "was dying." This is because Matthew records the situation after her death, and Luke narrates her condition from the beginning. Each Gospel has its own characteristic, and it records only the aspect that is related to its characteristic. The Gospel of Luke is written for the Gentiles; hence, it mentions only the things that are related to this aspect. On the other hand, because the Gospel of Matthew is written to the Jews, it stresses the aspect of doctrine and therefore uses this event as a type of the Jews' death and their future restoration.
Verse 20:"And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years approached from behind and touched the fringe of His garment." The daughter who had just died was twelve years old, and the woman here had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. This shows that the year the daughter was born is the first year that the woman began to suffer from the hemorrhage. This signifies that when the Jews were receiving grace, the Gentiles had nothing to do with God. The woman with the hemorrhage signifies the Gentiles. A hemorrhage indicates the extermination of life. The Gentiles are like dead dogs. The daughter's death signifies the Jews' initial rejection of the Lord. Here, the Lord had no intention to heal the woman with the hemorrhage; rather, He intended to go to Jairus's house. But on the way, out of convenience, He healed the woman. This signifies that the Lord is for the Jews, but since the Jews reject Him, the Gentiles are blessed.
The resurrection of the daughter signifies the millennium; this is the grafting again of the natural branches into their own olive tree, as mentioned in Romans 11:23. In resurrecting Jairus's daughter, the Lord "took hold of her hand." This is similar to His healing of the leper by touching him. However, in the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage, it was the woman who touched the fringe of the Lord's garment; this is faith.
Verse 21:"For she said within herself, If only I touch His garment, I will be healed." Faith requires the word of God. Here, the clause "she said within herself" seems to indicate that it was a kind of psychological reaction within her. However, she did not ask the Lord to touch her, for she believed that "if only I touch His garment...." This was an indication of her faith. "Only" is a word of comparison. Perhaps she heard that Jairus had asked the Lord to lay His hand on his daughter and that the Lord was willing to go. Thus, she believed. Therefore, it was not just a guessing within her.
Verse 22: "And Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Take courage, daughter; your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that hour." "From that hour." These are Matthew's own words; the incident itself ends with "your faith has healed you." "Hour" refers to the time of the entire incident. The reason that the Lord told her, "Your faith has healed you," was to give her a word to prepare her to be able to resist any future temptation or attack. Here Matthew's record is again very brief. This is his characteristic.
Matthew 8—9 has a total of ten miracles. In the entire book there are sixty-five quotations from the Old Testament.
Verses 23-25:The Lord said that "the girl...is sleeping"; He did not say that all those who die are sleeping. " The crowd making a commotion." People in the world cannot render any help to the living, but they render a great deal of help to the dead. "The crowd had been put out." It seems that the Lord gave the order to put out all those who believed that the girl was dead. The dead must be shut out of the gate of life.
Verses 27-28:"Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord."
Verses 29-30:Here it was the opening of the eyes; later it was the opening of the mouth (v. 33). This is a picture of the millennium (Isa. 35:5-6).
Verse 31:"But they went out and spread reports about Him in all that land." The most important thing in doing spiritual work is obedience. Otherwise, we may cause damage to the Lord's work.
Verses 32-34:This shows the Jews' rejection of the Lord.
The healing of the woman with the hemorrhage and the raising up of Jairus's daughter have a doctrinal, dispensational significance. The death of the daughter signifies the death of the Jews; the healing of the hemorrhaging woman signifies the salvation of the Gentiles; and the raising up of the daughter signifies the restoration of the Jews. In the other Gospels, the emphasis of the record of these incidents is on the moral aspect. When the Jews will be willing to confess the Lord as the Son of David, the Messiah, their eyes will be opened and their mouths will speak. This also has a doctrinal significance.
Matthew 9:35—10:42 is the third minor section of the third major section. This section records the Lord's sending out of the disciples after He had been rejected.
Verse 35:"And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every sickness." The reason for the sending out is that there were too many cities and villages. After working among the people, the Lord saw their need. Therefore, He sent forth the disciples. The gospel of the kingdom of the heavens includes the gospel of grace plus the powers of the age to come.
Verse 36:"And seeing the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and cast away like sheep not having a shepherd." The Lord "was moved with compassion for them" because they were harassed and cast away. The Lord was not sympathetic toward their sins, for sins need His redemption. The Lord sympathized with their being harassed. He not only deals with sins but also shows compassion toward our distressed condition. God sent the Lord not only to be our Savior because of our sins but also to be our Shepherd, to be a Friend of sinners, because of our distress.
Verse 37:" Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is great, but the workers few." The nation of Israel as a whole rejected the Lord, but individually speaking, there were still a great number who needed reaping. The workers are those who labor and toil. Although the harvest is great, not many workers can endure the hardships in laboring and toiling.
Verse 38:" Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest." Here we see a great spiritual principle: In His heart the Lord intended to send out the disciples, yet He first would ask the disciples to beseech Him for the thrusting out of workers, and then He would carry out the sending.
The chain of prayer is as follows: (1) A certain matter is of God; (2) man prays concerning it; and (3) God works to accomplish His will. In answering prayers, God is accomplishing His own will. For that reason, Gordon Watt said that prayer is the laying of tracks for God's will to run on.
The Lord asked the disciples to beseech Him to thrust out workers. Afterward, those who were thrust out were the disciples themselves. When we pray to God for a certain matter, we ourselves must first be prepared to be willing to do it. If God cannot change those who pray, He cannot change those who are prayed for. If we ourselves are not ready to be sent by God, we should not expect God to send others.
