Matthew IX

1. And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.

2. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven.

Capernaum was Christ’s “own city.” Christ finds work to do everywhere, — in His “own city,” and on “the other side.” There is no charmed coast free from the presence of want and misery. The black flag of guilt flaps in every breeze. The earth groans under an all-including curse. The cure of the palsied man shows the place of “faith” in the mediatorial economy. “Seeing their faith,” Christ said,

H 2 “Son, be of good cheer.” How can faith bring such gladness? i. Faith connects the lower with the higher, — the human with the Divine. 2. Faith expresses, in practical exercise, the most vital elements of human nature. In this particular it is with God as with men. When the child trusts you most, you do most for the child; in the very act of surrendering its will to yours the child puts the highest honour upon you. Can you prove false to the clinging grasping hand which commits everything to your strength and wisdom? Our heavenly Father turns our faith into gladness, so that not only have we victory, but all the joy and rapture of perfect triumph.

Christ strikes at the root when He says, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” The palsy was a mere accident; but the sin was in the very life. Any healing which is not moral, can be merely superficial and temporary.

3. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

This was the result of a false interpretation. By His perfect sympathy with the Father, by His own personal divinity, by the very nature of His mission among men, Christ could pronounce the forgiveness of sins. Take the matter of presumption among men: what would be natural to one man might be inexcusably presumptuous in another. Were an ordinary police-officer to occupy the judgment-seat and pronounce sentence upon criminals, the act would be deemed an outrage, and punished accordingly; but when the accredited judge pronounces sentence the act is accepted and esteemed. So, for a sinful man to pronounce forgiveness of sin is blasphemy, but for the Son of God to grant pardon of iniquity is a rightful and effectual exercise of the Divine prerogative. “Certain of the scribes” saw no further than the mere humanity of Christ, and thus ignorantly did they accuse him of “blasphemy.”

4. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

There is a marked consistency between the power which pardoned the suffering sinner, and that which penetrated the evil thoughts of the accusing Scribes. These incidental illustrations of consistency are of immense value in estimating any character, and singularly so in the analysis of the dual life which was at once Divine and human.

5. For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

6. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

The one is as difficult as the other, but not so to human comprehension; in the one case there was no appeal to the senses, in the other the paralytic was before the eyes of the doubters. Spiritual processes are undervalued by the carnal judgment. In this case the spiritual was attested by the physical; the soul might have been healed and the body left untouched, but the paralysis, both moral and physical, was removed.

7. And he arose, and departed to his house.

8. But when the multitude saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

Different classes view the same event with the most contrary feelings. Little cliques say one thing, and “multitudes” say another. A sectarian education separates man from the wide and deep sympathies of the world, and enslaves him by petty and most contracted prejudices.

In the case of the preaching, and in the case of the healing, the same ground is occupied by the multitudes; in the one instance we read “they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority,” and in the other, “they marvelled and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.” The same word is rendered “authority” and “power,” and may help to measure the moral stature of the “multitudes,” at the time they employed it. The presence of wonder is one of the earliest intimations of consciousness; and the admiration of “power” is one of the first conditions of interest in a new teacher. Children take more notice of thunderstorms than of gradually lengthening days. The age of miracles was well adapted to the age of the world. As men become finer of nature they will be more deeply moved by a regenerated soul than by a re-invigorated body.

The incident, taken as a whole, shows: — i. How the strong may help the weak; 2. How ready Christ is to bless man alike for earth and heaven; 3. How independent Christ is of the opinions of objectors.

9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.

i. Christ calls all men from the secular to the spiritual. 2. Christ calls some men to the ministry of His word. 3. The man who is truly called of Christ should never go back; this applies (a) to individual consecration, and (b) to ministerial vocation. Retrogression implies: — 1. A reflection upon Christ. 2. A preference of the secular to the spiritual. There may be difficulties in following Christ, but (a) they were foretold, (b) difficulties are incident to all life, (c) compensating grace is promised.

11. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

12. But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

13. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

I. Christ’s protest against the exclusiveness of sectarianism. 2. Christ’s immediate contact with the man he sought to bless, — He entered the social circle; He sanctified the breaking of bread, He identified Himself with the habitudes of the society of His day. All Christian ministers should know the advantage of the personal over the abstract, — “I am,” is always better than “It is.” The figure of the physician bears out this suggestion; the physician comes into personal contact with the patient. Let pastors learn a lesson!

Christ’s identification of Himself (analogically) with a physician is suggestive of many reflections. The physician spends his life in going from sick-room to sick-room; he goes in the darkness of winter, and the brightness of summer; goes at noonday, goes at midnight; reads the secrets of the hearts as they are telegraphed by the truthful pulse; looks into the brightening or dimming eye; and then does his little utmost for the healing of the sufferer. It was a beautiful appropriation on the part of Christ to take the physician’s profession as illustrative of his own beneficent mission. Think of a physician being complained of for visiting the sick! Or, think of a physician who spent all his time in visiting the healthy and strong! It would be a falsification of his very name. Christ, then, is the heart’s physician, — the healer of all human life. He knocks at the door of every dying heart, and offers blessed immortality.

Christ shows (verse 13) that God requires the spirit rather than the form, — mercy is better than sacrifice. He shows, too, the true mission on which He came, viz., to call sinners to repentance. This statement is not only gracious in itself, but suggestive of the true method and spirit of philanthropic service. Remedial measures should go to the roots of society, — the deepest strata out of hell. It is remarkable that while Christ spent so much time in reproving the Pharisees, He spent more in saving the fallen, the outcast and despised.

There is a philanthropic school whose creed is, — Save those who are about to fall, and leave those who are already fallen. Christ’s practice is in direct contravention of this principle. He goes to the “lost,” the “sick,” the “sinners,” and as He moves in His downward course, He scathes with lightning the pompous formalist who has virtue enough to keep a blameless outside while his heart is as a cage of unclean birds. The poorest woman, with shattered honour and hopeless heart, fared better at His hands than the learned Rabbi who had much knowledge, but no wisdom. The testimony of many philanthropists is that there is a deeper satisfaction in working for the lowest classes, than for those whose self-consciousness keeps them from full confession and penitence.

14. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

1 5. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

16. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

17. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Here is another instance of sectarianism being thrown into disadvantageous contrast with the magnificence of Christ’s Life. It is hard for the little sect to comprehend the universe, but easy for it to condemn all who are not enclosed in its shallow limits. Men are known by the inquiries they propound. Great men put great questions, tiny spirits perplex themselves with tiny riddles. The persons in the text put a question about “fasting,” — they were still in a very material and grovelling condition, — it is noticeable, however, that men who could abstain from food could not abstain from censoriousness; so true is it in all human experience that it is easier to restrain the bodily than the mental, easier to conquer dust than spirit.

Christ’s answer to the sectarians left them without a word to say: from it we learn — 1. That bodily penance should be the dictate of the heart’s loneliness and want, not of a dogmatic formalism; and, 2. That men must be treated according to their moral age and stature. What was adapted to the ascetic John was inappropriate to the social Christ. Christ’s religion was best figured by wedding feasts, wedding garments, and wine on the wedding table. Fasting was to be an expression of nature, not mere obedience to a dogmatic prescription. If a man feels that it would be well for him to fast, his abstinence will be acceptable to God, but if he fast simply because he has made a law to that effect, his soul may be guilty of gluttony and drunkenness, while his body is suffering from hunger.

Our spiritual life is not to be partly Christ and partly something else, — old and new, — but all Christ; independent, solitary, alone, because Divine. The Christian is free of the old law in its formality, but never free from law as an expression of love. We do not keep the decalogue because of its outward form and claim upon us, but we keep the commandments because we love the commander. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” We cannot “fast,” because we are keeping the wedding feast with Christ; we are not in the desert, but in the bride-chamber; the prisoner of a sect may fast, but a freeman of the universe has “all things richly to enjoy.” “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee.” The chrysalis cannot understand the butterfly. Christ has taken us out of the legal dormancy of old formal observances, and given us wings by which we may mount into the high altitudes of the spiritual creation.

The 16th and 17th verses might be so accommodated as to give a basis for a discourse upon false and forbidden

unions.

1 8. While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him. saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

19. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

20. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

21. For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

22. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

23. And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

24. He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

25. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

27. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.

28. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? And they said unto him, Yea, Lord.

29. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

30. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.

31. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

32. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.

I. — Christ’s side.

1. The speaker was called upon for action. It is a long way from eloquence to beneficence in the case of some speakers; in the case of Christ, speech and action were convertible terms. 2. Christ will interrupt an exposition for the sake of a man who mourns a little dead girl. (Luke viii. 42.) 3. It is more congenial to Christ to be binding up a broken heart than to be debating with factious Pharisees respecting intercourse with publicans and sinners, or even to be explaining to sectarians the conditions which make “fasting” acceptable to God and useful to man. 4. Christ was ever equal to the call of the hour. Was exposition required? The living stream flowed from His gracious lips. Was a miracle required? The same voice had but to alter its tone, and the miracle was complete.

II. — The human side.

Here are four miracles: the raising of the dead; the healing of the issue of blood; the opening of the eyes of the blind; the cure of a dumb man possessed with a devil. These diversified cases reveal the human side of the transactions under several aspects: 1. The right spiritual state in which to approach Christ, — the ruler “worshipped Him:” the poor woman modestly and trustfully said, “If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole:” the blind men said “Have mercy on us:” the dumb man possessed with a devil found in his utter helplessness the best possible recommendation to Christ’s mercy. 2. The indispensableness of faith in any transaction between the natural and the supernatural. Faith is the link: without that, connection is impossible. 3. This transactional faith can operate only in connection with profound consciousness of want. “To know ourselves diseased is half the cure.”

[Many inquirers have found extreme difficulty in realising the tme relation of the human will to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. An examination of the Gospels will show that Christ demanded a condition on the part of those who applied to Him for aid: “Believe ye?” “What will ye?” “Ye will not come unto me.” Call the condition “faith,” or rectitude of will, it was a condition, and was constantly required. The youthful inquirer may catch a glimmer of the meaning by an illustration; the authorities of the city have laid immense water-pipes throughout all the thoroughfares; they have not entered a single house; the poorest man may close his door upon them, and forbid them to enter; all that the civic authorities have done is to make an ample provision of water: the)’ say, however, to the inhabitants, “We have done this for you, and now, whosoever will, may have a supply of water in his dwelling-place.” The inhabitants reply, “How can we connect those great main pipes with our houses?” The answer is, “If you want the water, say so, and all the work of connection shall be done for you.” So far, then, the case is analogous to the provision of the water of life by the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink,” and it is said, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” The civic authorities force the water upon no man; Jesus Christ forces the water upon no man. In the case of the civic authorities, however, an equivalent is demanded, and herein the analogy terminates, for the living water is to be had “without money and without price.” The illustration may show, in one aspect, the relation of the will to that which is provided; it may also show how the water may be pronounced as generally belonging to all, and yet particularly belonging to each individual; hence, all Christians can say of Jesus Christ, he is “Lord, both theirs and ours.”]

“The words, ‘According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt. ix. 29), are very remarkable for the insight which they give us into the relation of man’s faith and God’s gift. The faith, which in itself is nothing, is yet the organ of receiving everything. It is the conducting link between man’s emptiness and God’s fulness; and herein is all the value which it has. It is the bucket let down into the fountain of God’s grace, without which the man could not draw up out of that fountain; the purse, which does not itself make its owner rich, but which yet effectually enriches him by the treasure which it contains.” — (Trench.)

GENERAL NOTE ON MIRACLES OF HEALING.

Miracles, as illustrative of a benevolent spirit towards man, were hardly known to the Olympian deities. “It does not appear that if we except the traditive ideas represented in Minerva and Apollo, they could either raise men from the grave, prevent their dying in the course of nature, heal their wounds or diseases, or set their broken limbs.” Olympus was verily only supposed to reach unto heaven; the Thessalian mount was still on earth, and its turbulent deities were restrained by all the limitations which bind the children of dust. God is Love. When He goes forth in His chariot of lightning, when He walks on the wings of the wind, when He speaks from the tabernacles of thunder, His great purpose is a revelation of His infinite love. The vulgar deities of Olympus revelled in their power of destruction; the true and only God has compassion on men, bears their infirmities and heals their sicknesses. “The Son of man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”

34. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

It is of more consequence to a sectarian to defend a prejudice than to rejoice over a recovered man. The Pharisees hated Christ, and what good can a hated man do? They hesitated not to trace a good effect to a bad cause. Sectarians are independent of logic and morality.

35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and teaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness, and every disease among the people.

The most powerful rebuke of His enemies. While they were uttering bad words, He was doing good deeds; while they were murmuring, He was working. Read the programme of the sectarians in verse 34, and compare it with the programme of Christ, in verse 35. It is easy to murmur; it is difficult to work. In these verses we have a picture of society in our own day. The narrowness of sectarian dogma is now set against the inclusiveness of the Divine purpose. The Pharisees loved sect more than man, and their vision was so disturbed that they saw the diabolic where they should have seen the Divine. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

36. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

27- Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, bu the labourers are few;

38. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

The man who works most among the people sees most of their wants. Christ did not read the report of others, but came into actual contact with perishing men. A comprehension of the 35th verse will give its true force to this paragraph. Christ has been preaching and healing, through long hours and days, and still the needy throngs pressed upon him; from the east and the west they came, and from the north and south; the blind, deaf, dumb, idiotic, halt, maimed, paralytic, the ignorant, perverse, selfish, earnest, hypocritical; they came till the multitude was very great, and until He seems to have felt His loneliness amid the living mass of sinners and sufferers, and as cry after cry of distress broke upon His ear His heart yearned with compassion, and He spoke those words. We have here Christ’s view of human multitudes. That view — 1. Elicited His most practical sympathies; 2. Impelled Him to seek prayer on their behalf; 3. Led Him to announce the true method of evangelisation, viz., by human instrumentality. A right view of a multitude cannot but deeply affect a right-hearted man; (a) diversified histories; (b) conflicting emotions; (c) opposite relations to God and truth; (d) different destinies.

The great want of the world has been a want of men; Christ calls them “labourers.” The term is well selected; the term, however, must not be limited, (a) Some men labour for the world by thinking, (b) some by speaking, (c) some by giving, (d) some by suffering.