Call of Matthew

Matt. 9:9 Jesus left that place, and as he walked along he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.

Comments: Here we have the modest introduction of himself that Matthew gives. He was also called Levi (Luke 5:27). He was at his place of business, he was a tax collector, a publican, whose business it was to collect the Roman taxes. Like Peter, Andrew, James, and John, he was called from his business, and left at once. Like them, he was probably a disciple of John the Baptist and before this a disciple of Jesus, but now called to apostleship. Matthew got up and followed Jesus, thus promptly the call of Jesus ought always to be obeyed.

Matt. 9:10 While Jesus was having dinner at his house, many tax collectors and outcasts came and joined him and his disciples at the table.

Comments: As Jesus sat at a feast in the house of Matthew, many publicans and sinners came which happened to be Matthew’s old associates who had been invited. The Publicans were collectors of the Roman tax, usually Jews, but hated because they collected a hateful tax, often, too, grasping and unscrupulous. The sinners were persons excommunicated from the synagogue. An orthodox Jew would not eat with them. When the term sinner is applied to a woman it usually means an outcast.

Matt. 9:11 Some Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and outcasts?”

Comments: These Pharisees were not invited to the feast, but were on the watch. The strict Jews would not eat with Gentiles, and these classes were regarded by them as on a level with the heathen.

Matt. 9:12 Jesus heard them and answered, “ People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.

Comments: Christ speaks out, anyone who is well does not need a Doctor. In other words: “ If these people are as sinful as you allege, they are the very ones who need a Savior.

Matt. 9:13 Go and find out what this scripture means, ‘ I do not want animal sacrifices, but kindness.’ I have not come to call the respectable people, but the outcasts.”

Comments: Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and

the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. The Pharisees had never learned the meaning of this passage, which teaches that kind hearts and helpful deeds are more pleasing to God than outward ceremonial. Sacrifice is right, but mercy is first in importance. My mission into the world is to save sinners.

Second Passover

John 5:1

After this, there was a Jewish religious feast, and Jesus went to Jerusalem.

Comments: This was probably the second Passover attended by the Lord after his ministry began.

Miracle at Bethesda

John 5:2-

John 5:2-4 There is in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, a pool with five porches; in the Hebrew language it is called Bethzatha. A large crowd of sick, people were lying on the porches, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. They were waiting for the water to move, because every now and then an angel of the Lord went down into the pool and stirred up the water. The first sick person to go into the pool after the water was stirred up was healed from whatever disease he had.

Comments: The original site is still shown to tourist, but is uncertain. There were five porches used to shelter the sick.

John 5:5-9 A man was there who had been sick for thirty eight years. Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been sick for such a long time; so he said of him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man answered, “Sir, I don’t have anyone here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first.” Jesus said to him, “ Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat, and walked. The day this happened was a Sabbath,

Comments: The man was there with many others who thought the water had healing power. His infirmity was probably paralysis.

Jesus had observed him and asked the question “Do you want to get well?” to arouse his attention. His answer, about having no help, reveals the ideas that prevailed. The water was agitated at intervals, probably by an intermittent spring, and they supposed that the first one to enter after would receive the benefit. Only one could be healed at a time. No doubt many were, even without a miracle. In nervous diseases, faith is the great healing power.

The man was made whole, observe the process.

(1) Christ addresses the man;

(2) he commands;

(3) the man obeys. It is the obedience of faith.

(4) In the act of obedience he is healed. Christ is the healer, but he is healed by the obedience of faith.

John 5:10-16 So the Jewish authorities told the man who had been healed, “This is a Sabbath, and it is against our law for you to carry your mat.” He answered, “ The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ “ They asked him, “ Who is this man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?” But the man who had been healed did not know who he was, because there was a crowd in that place and Jesus had slipped out.: Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said,” Look, you are well now. Quit your sins, or something worse may happen to you. Then the man left and told the Jewish authorities that it was Jesus who had healed him. For this reason they began to persecute Jesus, because he had done this healing on a Sabbath.

Comment: “Therefore” points to the fact that he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath day. The term “the Jews” does not refer to the people, but to the authorities. John always uses it to signify, not the multitude, but the rulers. The man was officially stopped and questioned. The bearing of burdens on the Sabbath was forbidden, not only by Jewish tradition, but by the law. The defense of the man is that he was ordered to do it. He did not know who had healed him. His own sins, thirty eight years before, had brought on him infirmity. What was their nature we are not informed, but we know that often our freshly ills can thus be accounted for. The second time he saw him he learned that it was Jesus who had healed him. A better word than persecute was “pursued Jesus”. At once they hunted him and attacked him. They did not at first “seek to slay him.” But the officials now come to Jesus to learn why he has done this act.

John 5: 17-23 Jesus answered them, “My Father works always, and I too must work.” This saying made the Jewish authorities all the more determined to kill him; not only had he broken the Sabbath law, but he had said that God was his own Father, and in this way had made himself equal with God. So Jesus answered them, “ I tell you the truth; the Son does nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show him even greater things than this to do, and you will all be amazed. Even as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the gives life to those he wants to. Nor does the Father himself judge anyone. He has given his Son the full right to judge, so that all will honor the Son in the same way as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Comments: The answer of Jesus to his accusers goes to the very root of the matter. The basis on which the Sabbath rested was that God had ceased his creative labors on the seventh day. Jesus shows that God’s rest was not idleness. The Father had continued his works of love and mercy. He worked in these works right on till Jesus came; “now,” says the Son, “I work as my Father works. There is no suspension on the Sabbath of works of benevolence and mercy.” The Father’s example is the pattern given to direct man.

The Pharisees were horrified, not only at what they deemed the breaking of the Sabbath, but at the high ground on which the Lord placed his defense. He had also said that God was his Father, this high claim seemed to them blasphemous. Jesus answers their charge of blasphemy by showing that there is the closest cooperation between the Father and the Son. What the Father does the Son will do, even to the extent of giving life to the dead. Three “fors” occur in the 20^th, 21^st and 22d verses, all stating the exaltation given to the Son.