Mercy is the New Holiness-Matthew 9

Jesus never tarries. “As Jesus went on from there…” (Mt 9:9, 27). “Jesus got up and went with him…” (Mt 9:19). “Jesus went through all the towns and villages…” (Mt 9:33). Jesus’ life is never stagnant or stale, boring or predictable. He never wonders what to do. He’s always on the move–helping, healing, calling and serving others–the paralytic, Matthew, a dead girl, a sick woman, two blind men and a mute man–in chapter 9 alone! Jesus is so busy and yet so rested. He never acts harassed nor is he ever hectic. His life is a beautiful, joyful long obedience in the same direction. He extends mercy to the sick, which the Bible people don’t understand (Mt 9:11-13). Only by his grace, Jesus calls those he chooses (Jn 15:16) to follow him–Matthew (Mt 9:9) and the workers for the harvest (Mt 9:38). An unspeakable joy of being a Christian is that I never wonder what to do, but am always plodded to do something for the sake of the church and the kingdom of God. Praise and thank God! This is so only because Jesus never gave up on me, even when I gave up on God…and the church.

No safety even at home. Jesus does what he is asked to do (Mt 8:34), then returns to the boat and goes to his own home town (Mt 9:1). We expect home to be where he’d be welcomed and understood. Yet Jesus said that he has “nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20). Indeed, Jesus’ return home is the beginning of opposition that results in his crucifixion. Jesus has no safe place to be because he is the one who cannot help but challenge those who assume safety is to be preferred to truth.

The faith of others. Some carried a paralytic on a mat to Jesus (Mt 9:2a). The leper and the centurion came to Jesus (Mt 8:2, 5), but those carrying the paralyzed man believed, like the leper and the centurion, that Jesus had the power to cure the one they carried. Jesus“saw their faith” in the load they carried (Mt 9:2b). That he saw their faith means to be pulled into the movement, the kingdom, inaugurated by Jesus. We’re not told that the paralytic had faith, but only that those who carried him had faith. The faith of others can save us. Jesus sees the faith of those who carry this paralyzed man, and their faith is sufficient for him. Intercessory prayer is a grace we are given that we may hold one another up before God.

Restoring sickness and forgiving sin. “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven” (Mt 9:2b) is a surprising response. For the paralytic to be told that their sins are forgiven doesn’t seem to get to the problem. Jesus doesn’t make a strong distinction between sin and sickness. That he forgives the paralytic’s sins does not imply that Jesus thinks his paralysis the result of sin or punishment for sin. Rather, Jesus acts as one ready to forgive sins as well as heal the body. Both sickness and sin are evils. Neither is part of God’s good creation. Jesus came to restore creation; healing the sick, exorcising demons, and forgiving sins are all acts of restoration.

Only God can forgive sins. Yet Jesus forgives this man’s sins. Some scribes see this as idolatrous. They think, but do not say, that it is blasphemy. They are right; if this is not the Son of God it is blasphemy. Jesus sees them not saying what they are think as having evil in their hearts (Mt 9:4) and challenges them: “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?” (Mt 9:5). Wihtout waiting for an answer, he tells the paralytic to stand up and carry his bed home (Mt 9:6). Jesus the Son of Man, the suffering servant heralds the new age. He has “authority on earth to forgive sins” and cure the paralytic (Mt 9:6). “On earth” binds heaven and earth. The heavenly Son of Man is on earth.

Only Jesus is able to do what he does. The crowds are filled with awe (Mt 9:8a), but fail to understand what they saw. They glorify God for giving such authority to humans (Mt 9:8b). They fail to understand that Jesus is not exercising the authority possible for humans, but is exercising the authority that only he can exercise because he is the human being. Christian humanism often assumes that Jesus exemplifies a general human possibility. But Jesus is not the exemplification of humanity. He is this man and no other. Indeed he is the only true human being.

No other human being, no other story, can be substituted for the life of this man Jesus. Jesus is not the exemplification of a “Christ figure.” The character of the gospel reflects the character of the revelation that Jesus is. We can know Jesus only through the narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and performed by the church. But like those who saw Jesus’ healing of the paralytic, our temptation is to explain Jesus as demonstrating the power inherent but untapped or even perverted in something called humanity. But Jesus is able to save us not only because he is fully like us, but also because he is completely different than us. He is the eschatological savior making possible a renewed humanity impossible without his life.

Unlikely recruit for his mission. Jesus is what he does and says. Jesus walks by Matthew, a tax collector, and says, “Follow me” (Mt 9:9). Remarkably Matthew does exactly that. We want to know more. What did Matthew think he was doing? Did he feel guilty about being a tax collector? Was there emptiness in his life that he saw Jesus filling? But such questions should be resisted. All we need to know is that Matthew followed him—a following that makes sense only if Jesus is the one with the authority to forgive sins (Mt 9:6).

Eating with sinners. Jesus calls a person engaged in a questionable activity. Then he eats with tax collectors and sinners (Mt 9:10). For the first time in the gospel the Pharisees speak, asking how Jesus could willingly eat with the unclean (Mt 9:11). Their question was not exactly irrelevant to Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is concerned, as the Pharisees are, with how to maintain holiness in a world where the people of God are not in control. The Pharisees think they should avoid anything that would make them impure and, thus, incapable of worshiping God. Jesus is not unsympathetic with their attempt to live true to the law.

How holiness begins. The Pharisees’ desire to live holy lives is right, but the critical issue is the grounds of holiness. The Pharisees ask Jesus’ disciples why Jesus, by eating with sinners (Mt 9:11), defies what they think is required by the law. They don’t ask Jesus directly, but he hears their challenge and his response makes clear his difference with them. He comes to the sick not to the well; it is the sick who need mercy (Mt 9:12-13). Holiness begins with the recognition that we are not well.

One final sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Hos 6:6 expresses what God expects of his people: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Yet a sacrifice will be made that will be the end of sacrifice. Christ came into the world to fulfill God’s will (Heb 10:5–7) with “a single sacrifice” (Heb 10:12) to perfect “for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:14). Sacrifice was how Israel sought sanctification and holiness to expiate for its sins. But the sacrifices are no longer necessary because one has come, the very Son of God, who alone is capable of becoming the offering for sin. Now mercy is the form sacrifice takes, and mercy constitutes the holiness that separates those called from the world to follow Jesus. Christ’s cross is the perfect sacrifice that reveals the purpose of the law, but in fact his whole life, his calling of Matthew and his eating with sinners, is mercy. Here we see why the merciful are blessed (Mt 5:7).

The sick think they’re well. The Pharisees don’t need this physician because their illness is believing they are well. Jesus comes to rescue sinners (Mt 9:13b). The kingdom Jesus brings is constituted by those able to acknowledge their sins. In TSOM Jesus says that he has come to fulfill the law and the prophets (Mt 5:17), but that fulfillment comes through his power to forgive sin (Mt 9:6) and show mercy (Mt 9:13). Jesus is what he does. He has come to give his life (Mt 20:28) so that we can live the life for which we were created.

Joy of the new. The confusion concerning holiness, the separation from the world that mercy requires, is made explicit when the disciples of John the Baptist question why Jesus’ disciples do not fast (Mt 9:14). John’s disciples identify their fasting with the Pharisees, who also fast. Jesus’ response is that his disciples do not fast because of him (Mt 9:15a). They do not need to mourn, because they follow the one who has brought into being the new age marked by the creation of a new people begun in his disciples. The disciples are in the presence of life freed from the dread of death. In time he will be taken away, he will be crucified, and then they will have reason to fast (Mt 9:15a). But not now; during his ministry, the disciples must enjoy the good gift he is. Now the new is present, and the new reconfigures death-determined time (Mt 9:16-17).

Faith that only Jesus has the power to cure. As he was saying these things, a synagogue leader comes to Jesus and, like the leper (Mt 8:2), kneels before him (Mt 9:18a). He uses no title of address, but he displays the faith of the leper and the centurion (Mt 8:8) that if Jesus will come to his house he knows that Jesus can raise his daughter from the dead (Mt 9:18b). Jesus and his disciples follow him to his home (Mt 9:19), but before they arrive, a woman hemorrhaging for 12 years (Mt 9:20) touches his cloak believing she would be healed (Mt 9:21). Suffering for 12 years shows her desperate situation: she was isolated because she was always unclean. Her touching Jesus was an extraordinary and desperate act. Jesus credits her faith, a faith that is confident that Jesus is who he says he is, and pronounces her cured (Mt 9:22). It is not faith in general that cures her, but her faith that Jesus has the power to cure (Mt 9:21). She is at once cured and her isolation ended.

Jesus wakes a sleeping girl. Jesus arrives at the leader of the synagogue’s house and sends away the mourners, telling them that the girl is not dead but sleeping (Mt 9:23-24a). The mourners mock his diagnosis (Mt 9:24b), but it turns out to be true. Matthew tells a story in which Jesus does no more than wake a sleeping young girl (Mt 9:25). He even tells us that a report of Jesus waking her spread throughout the district (Mt 9:26), because this story makes clear that Jesus is no charlatan. Jesus tells the truth. The girl was only sleeping.

Jesus never tarries. Like foxes and birds (Mt 9:20), he’s always on the move (Mt 9:27a, 9, 19). The kingdom is a movement  that requires him to go to those to whom he has been sent. That he must go to those in need indicates that the gospel is not and cannot be a set of beliefs. The gospel is this man, and this man must encounter actual men and women in order to call them into the community of the new age. Evangelism is people meeting and coming to know people. The disciples will soon be sent out to the people of Israel. There can be no substitute for the sending of people. A church that is not a missionary church is not a church. The book of Acts witnesses to the necessity for disciples of Christ to, like Jesus himself, be on the move (Acts 13).

Jesus’ constant movement enables those in need, the blind (Mt 9:27b) and the mute (Mt 9:32), to have access to him. Two blind men follow him crying for mercy. How those who are blind are able to follow him is not clear, but then that is true for all of us whose vision of him is often cloudy. They ask not to be healed, but for mercy (Mt 9:27c). They call Jesus “the son of David.” From Mt 1:1 this title the son of David affirms that his kingship is charged with providing mercy and healing, like the David of Ps 72:12–14.

Amazement. When the blind men follow him into the house, Jesus asks them if they believe that he is able to do what they desire, and they answer, “Yes, Lord” (Mt 9:28). Like the leper, he touches their eyes, and their sight is restored (Mt 9:29). Jesus “sternly” charges them to tell no one what he has done (Mt 9:30). But they spread the news throughout the district (Mt 9:31). The reason Jesus may have charged them not to tell others what he has done is illuminated by his healing of a mute who was possessed by a demon. The mute, like the paralytic, is brought to him (Mt 9:32), and Jesus casts out the demon. The mute’s speech is restored (Mt 9:33a). We’re not told what he says, but the crowds are amazed (Mt 9:33b; 7:28). They say that Israel had never seen anything like what this man Jesus was doing (Mt 9:33c). The crowd’s amazement only invites growing opposition to Jesus’ mission.

Discredit by any foul means. The Pharisees respond to Jesus’ healing of those possessed by demons by declaring that only demons can cast out demons (Mt 9:34). They then begin the campaign against Jesus by accusing him of being a representative of Satan himself (Mt 12:22–32). Jesus’ charge to those he has cured to say nothing about what he has done may reflect his concern that he not be so misunderstood. He must be and do what he has been sent to be and do, but he doesn’t want to be rejected for what he is not. Those who fear him will use any falsehood to discredit his ministry. Yet we must move forward in preparation to witness the agony Jesus will undergo.

Ripe harvest field. Jesus does not let the gathering opposition stop his mission. He goes through the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news, and curing every disease (Mt 9:35). He is surrounded by the crowds, and he has compassion for them because they are like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 9:36). In a wonderful moment Jesus, confronted with such need, asks the disciples to pray that God will send helpers (Mt 9:37-38). The mission of the church has begun. The disciples’ prayer is answered, and the answer turns out to be them.

Reference:

1. Hauerwas, Stanley. Matthew. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 2006.
2. Hauerwas, Stanley. Cross-Shattered Christ. Meditations on the Seven Last Words. Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 2004.
3. Hauerwas, Stanley; Willimon, William. Where Resident Aliens Live. Exercises for Christian Practice. Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1996.

The humanity of Christ, Karl Barth rightly insists, does not exist prior to its union with the Logos:

Those who want to see revelation in the idea of humanity as such are grasping at something that in itself is not just meaningless but nonexistent. So are those who seek revelation in Jesus as a human individual. They are all necessarily groping in the dark. This idea, the idea of humanity, and this individual who incorporates it, cannot for a single moment be abstracted from their assumption into the person of the Logos. The divine subject who unites himself with them makes them revelation. The human nature of Christ has no personhood of its own. It is anhypostatos—the formula in which the description culminates. Or, more positively, it is enhypostatos. It has personhood, subsistence, reality, one in its union with the Logos of God. . . . The one whom Mary bore was not an other or a second; he was nothing apart from being God’s Son. He was in human nature, but this human nature was real only in the person of God’s Son. (Barth 1990, 157)

Barth uses the technical categories of Protestant scholasticism to make clear what has been apparent in Matthew’s gospel from the beginning.

Jesus had to live out all that Matthew tells of his life if our salvation is not in doubt.

That Jesus’s humanity is his alone does not mean he is not, as Paul suggests in Rom. 5:12–21, the second Adam. It was Adam’s sin that led to the condemnation of all, but it was Christ’s righteousness that justifies all. Yet as Barth maintains, the parallel between Adam and Christ is best understood to be a parallel between Christ and Adam: “For Paul Jesus Christ takes the first place as the original, and Adam the second place as ‘the figure of him that was to come’ (Rom. 5:14), the prophetic type of Jesus Christ” (1936–77, 4.1.510–11). Adam is the name that makes the history of the world a whole, but for such a history to be known depends on the name Jesus.

Speculation concerning whether Jesus knew that he was the Messiah is not necessary in the light of Jesus’s call to sinners.

In contrast, at least two problems plague us humans: boredom and loneliness. Even with many “friends” we may feel lonely. We’re also bored not because we have nothing to do, but because we wonder what to do next–either because we have no idea, or because we feel overwhelmed by too many problems, issues, options and choices.