The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

The Two Men Who Got Up:  Mt.9:1 – 9

^9:1 Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to his own city. ² And they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.’ ³ And some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This fellow blasphemes.’ ⁴ And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, ‘Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? ⁵ Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? ⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, pick up your bed and go home.’ ⁷ And he got up and went home. ⁸ But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. ⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me!’ And he got up and followed him.

          Sometimes we feel stuck, weighed down by mistakes we make.  The heaviness in the pit of our stomach feels so tangible that it’s hard to smile. 

You failed your responsibility.

You said that careless word. 

You lost control. 

You hurt that person. 

You spilled a secret. 

You didn’t take action.

You got drunk and made a bad situation worse.

You betrayed a trust.

You grieved your mom.

You judged wrongly.

You didn’t think about that consequence.

You fell asleep.

How are these problems going to be fixed?  Maybe an apology is enough.  Maybe not.  I don’t know your situation.  But I do know that sometimes damage isn’t always easy to heal. 

Then, through that heaviness and all our mistakes, sometimes we glimpse a deeper question:  We are alienated from a radically pure and holy God.  As if the human consequences weren’t bad enough.  How is that situation with God ever going to be healed?  It can be enough to make a person feel paralyzed.

          Perhaps that’s why Jesus heals two men of paralysis (notice the motif of two people that runs through Matthew 8 – 9).  The first is physically paralyzed.  The second is socially paralyzed.  The first man, having a damaged body, symbolizes a sinful condition, like how leprosy symbolized sinfulness earlier (8:1 – 4).  The second man, having made the choice to work for the Roman oppressors, exemplifies it.  The first man, being stuck at home, apparently asked four friends to bring him to Jesus on a portable bed.  The second man, Matthew the tax collector, being stuck in his booth and his notorious profession, has no friends who will bring him to Jesus, so Jesus comes to him. 

When Jesus meets both of these men, he heals them and sets them free.  He removes the burden and releases them from what holds them down.  He gives sudden energy to their legs.  In both cases, the men ‘got up.’  The paralyzed man ‘got up and went home’ (9:7).  Matthew the tax collector ‘got up and followed him’ (9:9).  The fact that these two men ‘got up’ points ahead to the reality of believers joining Jesus in his resurrection (e.g. Rom.6:1 – 11; Col.2:12 – 13).  The parallel between the two stories is poetic, down to the ending.  The parallel between the two stories is poetic, down to the ending.  To go home – that is, to be forgiven of sin and be restored to the way God always intended us to be – we must follow Jesus.