Matthew 9 Commentary
Please choose a passage:
Matthew 9:1-8
Jesus returns to Capernaum, where He publicly and dramatically heals a paralytic. Before Jesus heals this man, He tells him that his sins are forgiven, which causes some of the scribes in the crowd to silently accuse Jesus of blasphemy in their hearts.
Matthew 9:9-13
Jesus calls Matthew, a despised tax collector, to follow Him. Matthew does. Later Jesus is reclining at a table in Matthew’s home with other tax collectors and sinners, when the Pharisees ask Jesus’s disciples why their master associates with vile people.
Matthew 9:14-15
John the Baptizer’s disciples come to Jesus and ask Him why His disciples do not fast (like they and the Pharisees do). Jesus answers them by parable, explaining that it is not appropriate for the attendants of the Bridegroom to fast when he is with them.
Matthew 9:16-17
Jesus shares two parables about the incompatibility between the old patterns of righteousness as taught by the Pharisees, and the new way of life that He has come to offer.
Matthew 9:18-26
A father comes to Jesus and asks Him to raise his dead daughter back to life, which Jesus does. A sick woman secretly touches Jesus’s garment and is healed. Jesus turns to her and affirms her value and faith.
Matthew 9:27-31
Two blind men follow Jesus, begging Him to heal them. They call Jesus by the Messianic title, “Son of David.” Jesus privately heals them according to their faith. Before leaving He clearly warns them not to tell others what He did for them. They tell everyone anyway.
Matthew 9:32-34
Jesus heals a mute demon-possessed man. The crowds who witness this miracle are duly impressed. The Pharisees try to dampen their enthusiasm and accuse Jesus of using demonic powers to cast out demons.
Matthew 9:35-38
Jesus feels compassion for the people of Galilee. He tells His disciples that the harvest for the gospel is bountiful, but there are few workers. He asks them to pray for God to send out more workers into His harvest.
Additional Resources
The Gospel of Matthew was written to demonstrate to the Jews of Jesus, the Messiah’s generation that He was indeed the Christ. Matthew thematically substantiates the Messianic identity of Jesus beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, which ran from Abraham, the father of Israel’s people through King David who was promised to have a son who would be on Israel’s throne forever. Throughout his Gospel account Matthew makes use of numerous prophecies both explicitly stated and by way of subtle allusion to support his thesis. Matthew further makes use of parallel events in Jesus’s life to those of Messianic figures from the Old Testament (Moses, Joseph, David, etc.) to bolster his argument.
Jesus came to offer the Jews the chance to participate in the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom. To do this, they would have to receive and follow Him as their Messiah. Jesus’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Ultimately, they rejected Him as their Messiah and condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion. The Jews’ rejection of the Messiah opened the door for Gentiles to enter the kingdom (Matthew 8:11-12, 22:1-10). Matthew’s Gospel is therefore a call for the Jews repent of their murder of Jesus and to embrace Him for the divine Messiah He is.
Matthew shows how their rejection of Him and His brutal death was predicted not only by Jesus Himself, but also was foretold in the Jewish scriptures of the Messiah.
The main proof that Jesus was the Messiah was “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4). This was Jesus’s death and resurrection from the dead. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Because Matthew’s Gospel was written to people who were already members of God’s eternal family by virtue of their faith in God’s promise to send the Messiah, Matthew emphasizes the “reward of eternal life” (aka “The Prize of Eternal Life”) rather than “the Gift of Eternal Life”. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel focuses on how to “enter the kingdom” rather than how to “be born again”.
Matthew’s Gospel demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill the law and open a way for God’s people to participate in the Messianic kingdom if they would follow His example of worshiping God from the heart by forgiving and serving others.
For “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). If we have faith to follow the example set forth by the resurrected Messiah, whom all authority on heaven and earth has been granted (Matthew 28:18) and take up our cross for His sake (Matthew 16:24-25), then we will become great in His kingdom (Matthew 20:26).
Finally, Matthew provides extensive samples of Jesus’s teachings including “the Sermon on the Mount”, “the Little Commission”, and “the Olivet Discourse” and many parables, alongside accounts of numerous miracles and wonders, personal moments with His twelve disciples, interactions with seekers, and increasingly as his Gospel account progresses: challenges and confrontations with His adversaries – the Pharisees, Scribes, and Priests.
Jesus returns to His people in the Galilee region. As He heals the sick, many sinners and outcasts flock to Him. Jesus calls the tax collector Matthew to be His disciple. He stops a woman’s hemorrhage, he causes two blind men to see, casts out more demons, and raises a dead girl back to life. Throughout this chapter, Matthew introduces the outward opposition of the Pharisees to Jesus and His kingdom. Their bitterness and outrage does not douse Jesus’s compassion or distract Him from His mission. Matthew demonstrates clear evidence that Jesus is the Messiah while explaining the opposition to His claim from the leaders that ought to have welcomed His reign.
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