Matthew 9:6-10

 

Mat 9:6 (KJB)

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.

 

Since there would be no way for the scribes to know if the man’s sins were truly forgiven, what Jesus did was to heal the man’s paralysis and once the man started walking again, then the scribes could assume that the man’s sins were also forgiven simultaneously. This outward manifestation of the healing represented the fact that the man’s sins were forgiven. The word for “power” in this verse carries with it the meaning of not only having the power to perform a miracle but having the right or authority to be able to perform that miracle. As the Son of God, Jesus had the authority to perform the miracles which were in keeping with His ministry. Jesus heals this paralytic and then commands him to take his bed and to go to back to his home.

 

Mat 9:7 (KJB)

And he arose, and departed to his house.

 

The man immediately obeys Jesus and arising from the bed, he now had the strength in his body to be able to walk and he then took his bed and went to his house. Could you imagine the look on the faces of those in his house when he walked in and put his bed down? I can just imagine the joy that was experienced in his house because his friends had no doubt, accompanied him back to his house but this time, he carried his own bed.

 

Mat 9:8 (KJB)

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

 

Those who saw and heard the verbal confrontation between Jesus and the Scribes have now seen the great miracle that took place and as at other places, the crowds were joyful and glorified God because of this miracle. The crowd had failed to understand one major point and that was that Jesus was no ordinary man. They had looked at Jesus and saw Him only as a man instead of the Son of God. They probably misunderstood what Jesus told the Scribes concerning the forgiveness of sins. They may have seen Jesus as a prophet with healing abilities. This type of situation was experienced by Jesus on another occasion. (Mark 10:18 KJV) And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. A man came to Jesus and called Him “good master.” He too, like the crowds, viewed Jesus as a man instead of the Son of God so Jesus wanted to remove the idea that man is good and point him to the fact that only God is good.

 

Mat 9:9 (KJB)

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.

 

There was a main trade route called “The Way of The Sea” which passed by Capernaum. All goods which entered the port were subject to a tax at the tax booth in Capernaum. This would be considered an import tax. The tax collectors were normally Jews who became agents of the Roman Empire and were responsible for collecting taxes for Rome. There were four basic taxes that Rome collected: 1) a land tax; 2) a poll or personal property tax; 3) an import or export tax; 4) in Jerusalem, a tax on houses. The tax collectors were despised by the people because they would not only collect the required amount of taxes for Rome, but they would collect extra to keep for themselves which was permitted by the Romans as long as they received their required amount. Matthew was a tax collector who collected import taxes. His Jewish name was Levi. Jesus saw him collecting taxes and went up to him and said two words, “Follow me.” The words “Follow me” are in the Imperative Mood making it a command. So much for Free Will which is only a myth in the area of salvation.

 

Mat 9:10 (KJB)

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

 

Here we have a great feast in the house of Matthew. (Luke 5:28-29 KJV) And he left all, rose up, and followed him. {29} And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. If he was a tax collector and was collecting for himself too then he would have been able to buy a large home where he could have many people attend. Here we see that Matthew had probably invited all his fellow tax collectors along with other nefarious characters that the Bible calls sinners. No doubt he wanted to share the Gospel message with them and how he was now a follower of Jesus. Since he invited Jesus to this gathering, all the other publicans would now hear the Gospel direct from the mouth of Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees had considered themselves above other people and here Jesus broke the tradition that they would hold in never fellowshipping with anyone but their own.

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