Day 11: Matthew 9

Jesus, son of David, wants faith and gives mercy to sinners

There are several incidents in this chapter, but most of them involve faith. The response here seems more the focus than Jesus' identity. Faith/belief (same word in Greek) is the correct response as we see in the friends of paralytic, the ruler, the woman with bleeding problems and the blind men who cry out for mercy, who all ask and receive. The wrong response is seen in the followers of John who fail to recognise Jesus as the Bridegroom (who will be taken away)  and respond appropriately (why are they still following John anyway?) and also in the Pharisees who declare him to be a demon.

We see here more clues to Jesus' mission as He calls Matthew, the author of the Gospel, but then a tax collector (who extorted money from their fellow-jews for the Romans). He has come for sinners (what we saw hinted at in the genealogy) not hypocrites who have an outward show of religion such as sacrifices (as we saw in the sermon on the mount). Jesus himself shows mercy in this section as the son of David (again reminding us of 1:1). We also see a condemnation of the leaders as the people are left shepherdless, but Jesus shows them mercy in teaching and healing them, the shepherd king like David.