Matthew 8-9: Jesus’ Authority (Part 2)
Jesus: A
Counter-Temple Movement (9:2-8)
Back home again (9:1), Jesus
encounters a paralytic carried on a bed by some friends to him. This man and
his body are imprisoned by guilt and shame. We call them psychosomatic
illnesses. Body and mind are intricately and inextricably connected. These
afflictions are as real and debilitating as any nerve or muscular damage. Jesus
knows this and upon seeing this scene immediately offers him forgiveness for
his sins, the source for his guilt and shame.
The heresy detectors present, the
scribes, immediately go into high gear. “Who but God can forgive
sins? And
where is that forgiveness dispensed but in the temple?” they say to one another
(v.3). “This is blasphemy,” they cry.
Jesus knows their thoughts and
declares them evil (v.4). They are committing what Jesus will later call the
“unforgiveable sin,” blasphemy against the Spirit (Mt.12:31-32). Nevertheless,
they challenge his claim to act in God’s stead, forming in himself (and later
in those who follow him) what N T. Wright calls, a “counter-temple” movement. He
is divinely authorized to do what only God can do for his people. Jesus asks
them, whether it is easier to make such a claim or to heal this paralytic and
enable him to walk (v.5).
“Because healing as opposed to forgiveness is
empirically verifiable, the teachers of the law would conclude that it is
easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven" (Meier 1980: 91). By
performing a sign that is empirically verifiable, however, Jesus argues that he
is God's authorized agent and therefore has authority to forgive sins. The
argument runs like a traditional Jewish qal wahomer argument: if God
would authorize Jesus visibly to heal the effects of humanity's fallenness,
would he not send him to combat that fallenness itself?”[1]
Jesus performs
the healing to demonstrate his authority to these scribes. Matthew frames this
account in such a way as to point ahead to Jesus’ own resurrection and his
subsequent divine donation of “all authority in heaven and on earth” (28:18).
Jesus tells the scribes he will tell the paralytic to “stand up” (the Greek
form used for Jesus’ resurrection), tells the paralytic himself to “stand up,”
and Matthew tells us the paralytic did in fact “stand up.” This threefold use
of resurrection terminology casts the reality of Jesus’ coming resurrection
back over this account. What this man ultimately needs is the defeat of sin,
the enemy that undergirds Rome and every other foe of humanity’s health and
well-being, and this passage anticipates that divine victory in Jesus, the Son
of Man (v.6; see Dan.7:13f.), the one who reasserts God’s rule over his
rebellious creation. The people’s awe at this display and the way Jesus
defeated the scribe’s challenge leads them to glorify God, the source of this
evident authority.
Jesus Calls Matthew (9:9)
After this act
of power and conflict with the scribes Jesus meets a tax-collector, a Jewish
collaborator with the hated Romans who enriched themselves along their
overlords on the backs of their own people. Not exactly a prime candidate for
an anti-imperial movement like Jesus sponsors! But Jesus calls him to follow
anyway. And he does.
Matthew forms
one end of a spectrum of followers of Jesus to which those with anti-Roman
revolutionary sentiments, like Judas Iscariot, form the other end. About as
wide, unstable, combustible, and irreconcilable spectrum one could imagine. We
cannot even imagine in our world bringing such folks together around a common
table or cause. But we often forget that Jesus did just that. And expects his
people to do the same!
Jesus at a Dinner Party (9:10-13)
Some people
just attract the wrong types. The Pharisees believed Jesus was just this sort
of person. He claimed to be the one bringing in the kingdom of heaven, but
nothing he did wa what such a person would be expected to do. Jesus did not
conform to the messianic ideals and hopes of many of the Jews of his time. And
this will just get worse as time goes on. In fact, it will finally get Jesus
killed.
Hanging out
with no-accounts and ne’er-do-wells was not something a respectable, observant
Jew would do, much less one who assumed the mantle of a religious leader. But
here’s the rub. In Jesus we meet more that another prophet, religious leader,
or teacher. Instead, in him we come face to face with the one to whom all those
prophets, leaders, and teachers pointed. Jesus was that reality in himself. And
he demonstrates the true reality of God being “with” his people (v.10).
And this is
because they are “sick” and need a “physician” (v.13). In context these sick
are the Jews who have defaulted on their mandate to be Abrahamic Israel. And
Jesus has come to “heal” them by recalling and reconstituting them as this
people before God’s judgment, which is at the doorstep, befalls them. Because
they do not believe themselves “well,” that is, living in ways approved by
Jewish religion and society, these folk are on the whole more open to hearing a
healing word from a messiah come with mercy on his lips and healing in his
touch than one demanding proper worship and religious protocols. Matthew quotes
Hos.6:6 as the rationale for this radical expression of messianism. Instead of
-running the Romans out of town,
-rebuilding the temple, and
-restoring Israel to its position of preeminence
among the nations,
as Messiah was popularly expected to do, Jesus the real Messiah
-intends to disciple all nations rather than
destroying them (28:19),
-is himself greater than the temple (12:6) and
includes all people through his resurrected presence, and
-transform his people, the new Israel, into a
community of suffering servants (20:25).
This is how he proposes to heal
Israel, by mercifully accepting, forgiving, and transforming “the least of
them” into a community of “leastness” that stands in healing and merciful
solidarity “with” those outcasts and sinners embodying an entirely different
form of togetherness and wholeness than the world has ever known!
Jesus’ table fellowship with these
“disreputables” was a, perhaps the, most remarkable feature of his way of being
messiah. To invite someone to share a meal at one’s table was tantamount to
including them in one’s family. Thus, as Craig Blomberg writes,
\
When one inquires about the significance
of these meals, one finds repeated hints that Jesus is foreshadowing the
eschatological banquet at which he, the key eschatological figure, will partake
in radically inclusive fashion with followers of his from all the people groups
on the planet. Indeed, one could speak of these meals as enacted prophecy or
symbolic of the kingdom’s surprising inclusions.”[2]
It is within Jesus’ authority to
enact such a new way of life and call others to join him in it.
Jesus’
Messianic Presence (9:14-17)
That Jesus’ presence changes
everything is made even more explicit by Matthew in this conflict story with
the disciples of John. Baptized by John into His messianic ministry, Jesus may
have been his disciple for a while. This explains the approach of the former’s
disciples with concerns about his messianic practice (v.14). He was not
fasting, a regular part of Jewish piety, and they wondered why. As we have
seen, in the SoM Jesus approves of fasting done with only the love of and
service to God in view(6:16-18). So why do he and his disciples not do it?
Jesus explains in terms of Israel’s
history with God and two examples. In the biblical story Israel is God’s bride
and he its bride groom. (Hos.2:14ff.). The consummation of this relationship is
the point and hope of the entire story. Jesus uses this image to declare that
in him that long-hoped-for event is beginning. The bridegroom is present with
his bride! How can they fast when it is time to feast. As Leithart writes:
“Fasting was one of the main pieties of faithful Jews. For some Jews, fasting
was a way of securing forgiveness of sins. Jews also fasted during times of
calamity, in hope that Yahweh would deliver them, in hope that Yahweh would
turn mourning to feasting.”[3]
Jesus tells John’s disciples his presence tokens the forgiveness they sought
through fasting and the marriage of bride and bridegroom for which Israel
longed. Even if this time of feasting will be interrupted and the bridegroom is
“taken away from them” (v.15), its beginning in Jesus signals the surety of it
full consummation. No time for fasting now!
Just like no one would sew a new
piece to cloth to patch an old garment or put new wine in old wineskins –
because the new materials would destroy the old – so Jesus’ presence requires
new forms for the new reality he brings into being. The last story concerning
Jesus’ radical practice of table fellowship inclusive of any and all who wish
to come is illustrative of such a new form shaped to contain Jesus’ new wine.
A
Healing “Sandwich” (9:18-26)
Matthew “sandwiches” two healing
acts of power together in 9:18-26. By “sandwich” I mean one story split in two
like a sandwich roll and another inserted between these “slices of bread” as
the “meat” of the sandwich. The slices of bread are the story of Jesus’ raising
the dead daughter of a synagogue leader (vv.18, 23-26). The story of him
healing the hemorrhaging woman in vv. 19-22 is the meat. What ties these
stories together besides the literary technique is that both show Jesus making
contact with things unclean by law but which do not make him unclean. Instead
Jesus’ holiness is contagious for this dead corpse and hemorrhaging woman and
brings them new life and health.
This is a whole new world for
Israel. Messiah is here and things are no longer what they were. Nothing
separates people any longer. All can be healed, reconciled, and overcome in
Jesus. Even death. Jesus braves the scorn he doubtless endured for his taboo
breaking and for his confident assertion of power over the young girl’s death
by her mourning party. The cleanness or holiness of Jesus is powerful to overcome
all manner of distortion or disorder in God’s creation.
Jesus
Heals Two Blind Men (9:27-31)
The astounding claim of the
sandwiched stories is a lot for Matthew’s readers to take in. So he follows
them up a double-healing, two blind men. They follow him home crying out for
him to heal them of their blindness. Acclaiming him as “Son of David” –
Israel’s promised ruler, Messiah, and Lord of the world, they seek restoration
of sight. The first to recognize Jesus as Son of David (since the genealogy in
ch.1), they want to see this Messiah as clearly as possible and learn what the
world looks like under his rule.
Matthew’s readers likewise need to
see Jesus Messiah clearly. For their own sake and for the sake of the mission
they will soon be entrusted with (see ch.10). As I indicated, Jesus’
overturning the whole taboo system as a way of differentiating between “us and
them” was mind-boggling and pointed to the overwhelming change he brought into
the world as Messiah. Matthew’s readers needed help to grasp the magnitude of
what had happened. Their “blind spots” needed gracious healing by Messiah
himself. As do ours!
Jesus orders these newly healed
people to keep what has happened to themselves. As opposition to his movement
has started to mount, he likely does not want any more attention and scrutiny
from the authorities than he has already garnered. Yet such good news can’t
easily be kept quiet. Two men healed and restored to full humanity. Two images
of God restored to their divinely intended role and goal! Not surprisingly, the
news gets out around the region.
Jesus
Heals a Mute Demoniac (9:32-34)
Next a mute demoniac is brought to
Jesus. The world of demons and their master Satan was the deepest source of the
evil and chaos 1st century people experienced. Behind and beyond
Rome, greed, violence, and other sources of the distresses they encountered on
a daily basis, lay the shadowy, powerful figure of the devil. Direct possession
by his power suggests the deepest and most profound distortion the evil one could
inflict on God’s creation. Its victims were robbed of basic human functions and
relationships (remember the Gadarene demoniacs). This man could not easily
communicate or navigate his world. He had no voice to life in praise of God at
worship or thankfulness to others for their service to him or offer his gifts
to them.
Idols in a pagan temple were not
able to speak until their servants had performed the proper rituals and
anointings of its mouth. Then it could speak and perform its duties of
presenting and speaking for the deity.
Jesus exorcism of this demon is a
restoration of this man to his identity and vocation as the image of God, a
royal priest serving in God’s temple of creation. Another expression of Jesus
reasserting God’s rule in his world. His chief enemy, the evil one, has been thwarted
again!
The formerly mute man now speaks
and the crowds marvel at Jesus’ works, such as no one in Israel had even seen
(v.33). The Pharisees, however, saw it differently. Thus must be the work of
one himself controlled by the devil (v.34)! After all, he opposes their way of
reshaping the nation to suit God’s purposes for it. He must be off the enemy.
Such self-refuting “logic,” as Abraham Lincoln demonstrated in his famous “House
Divided” speech in 1858, suggests the desperation they were beginning to feel
over this man Jesus, his mission and message.
Summary
(9:35-38)
Matthew provides a summarizing
transition to the next block of Jesus’ teaching on the mission Jesus equips and
sends his disciples on (ch.10). Throughout his ministry in the area Jesus acted
out of compassion for the people we met and dealt with. Misled and ill-served
by their leaders, and driven to and from by their own unruly desires and
agendas, the people were a parody of what God intended them to be. Striving to
be a nation among nations, they had become far less than God or the world he hoped
to reclaim and restore need them to be.
“Harassed and helpless,” (v.36),
Jesus’ compassion for the people and passion for his mission to reclaim and restore
them for God, leads him to observe how ripe they are for his mission. He asks
his disciples to pray for God to make ready those he calls to be “laborers” in
the fields (v.38).
[1] Craig S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of
Matthew (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 290.
[2] “Jesus, Sinners, and Table Fellowship,” Bulletin
for Biblical Research 19.1 (2009), 62.
[3] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 2881.
Comments
Post a Comment