Matthew 9:1-17

9:1-2 | When these four men lowered a paralytic down through the roof into the very presence of Jesus, Christ responded in three extraordinary ways: He saw the faith in the hearts of the four men; He saw the sin in the heart of the paralytic and forgave him; and He saw the unbelief in the hearts of the scribes.

9:8 | The multitudes marveled and glorified God, but they missed the significance of the miracle. Jesus did it not to demonstrate that God had given such power to men, but to demonstrate that God’s presence was among them in Him.

9:9 | Matthew – also called Levi, the son of Alphaeus – lived in Capernaum and was a tax collector for the Roman government, so the Jews regarded him as a traitor and crook, Jesus’ calling of Matthew to be one of His disciples demonstrates that Jesus came to call sinners to repentance.

9:10-11 | Tax collectors and sinners are linked together twice in this passage. Both groups were ostracized from pious Jewish society – the tax collectors for political and ethical reasons, and the sinners for religious and cultic reasons. Jesus broke down all such prejudices and divisions, reaching out to each person with mercy and love.

9:12-13 | Using the analogy of physical health to represent spiritual health, Jesus told the Pharisees – who thought they were well – that He came to call the sick (those who realized their sinfulness). Because the tax collectors and sinners realized their need for a Savior, Jesus was able to save them. The Pharisees, on the other hand, thought they were righteous because of their adherence to manmade laws, when in fact God had already judged their sacrifices as worthless because they did not show mercy to others.

9:14-15 | Fasting is not evil. Jesus not only fasted for 40 days while being tempted by the devil, but many of the Bible’s leading figures fasted, including the prophets and the apostles. Here, Jesus says that a time for fasting would come; meanwhile joyful celebration should be the normal experience of His followers.

9:16-17 | Jesus did not come to patch up Judaism but to introduce the gospel of grace, a wholly new thing. Likewise, Jesus did not come to reform people but to redeem them.

9:16 | The unshrunk piece of cloth represents the promised kingdom; the old garment represents Judaism. Although many of Jesus’ critics that day were open to adding some of His teachings to their observance of the law, He knew that to marry grace to the law would be like sewing patches from new unshrunk cloth onto an old garment. When the fabric was washed, the patches would shrink, rip away, and ruin the whole garment.

9:17 | In Jesus’ metaphor, the wine is the Holy Spirit and the wineskins are believers. If one puts new, unfermented wine in old wineskins, as soon as the wine begins to ferment it forms gases that burst the old skins, so both the wine and the skins are ruined. Salvation is not an improvement of the old nature. Salvation is a new nature which is accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; Col. 3:9-10).