Comment: How amazing it is that we hear directly from Matouš himself! He was someone who spent over three years every day with Jesus in person!!! As a result, he knew him very well and was there when Jesus healed people, etc. When you read or listen to it now, imagine how Matthew goes there with Jesus, how he listens to him, how he talks to him. How he personally experiences his love and how much he wants to pass it on to us. How he wishes that we could also be there and experience all this. Or you can imagine that you are Matouš and that you are experiencing all this…
Jesus heals the paralyzed
Jesus is dining with sinners in Matthew’s house – first-hand testimony from Matthew himself! – …“The doctors need the sick and not the health to repentance.’
Comment: Sometimes we know what God wants us to do, but because we don’t want to do it, we do instead of other things that are normally right and that we know make God happy. – But if God wants something else from us, it’s disobedience, no matter what we cover it up with…for example, we pray for something (and we think, ‘God, look how I do it – I pass it on to you in prayer!), instead of doing it What God has already shown us that we should do. …or instead of doing something, we prefer to contribute financially or instead to contribute – for example to the one who asks us and to whom God told us to give – we prefer to pretend that we do not hear. There are many examples in the Bible as well itself…
dispute over fasting
Verse 15 The new life from God cannot be squeezed into old customs and forms. 16 This is similar to someone sewing a patch of unwashed fabric on an old dress. What will happen? The patch pulls out the flimsy fabric and the hole gets even bigger. 17 After all, you don’t put young wine in old skin bellows either, otherwise they would crack and both would go to waste. New wine needs new bellows!”
COMMENT: What does he mean by this? – We must be new bellows, otherwise Jesus cannot pour what he wants into us. …
Jesus heals a bleeding woman and resurrects a girl
Jesus heals the blind and the mute – 27 On the way from there, two blind men joined Jesus and shouted: ‘Christ, king, have mercy on us!’ 28 They followed him to the house. Jesus asked them, ‘Do you really believe that I can restore your sight?’ 29 ‘Sure, sir,’ the blind assured him. He touched their eyes and said, ‘Stand to you as you believe.’ 30 At that moment they inspected. Then he emphatically ordered them: ‘Keep it to yourself, let no one know about it!’ 31 But they went all over the region and talked about him everywhere. 32 As soon as they left, they brought to Jesus a mute man, possessed by an evil spirit. 33 Jesus expelled the demon and the mute began to speak. A wave of astonishment ran through the crowd: ‘Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!’ 34 But the Pharisees explained it: ‘He expels the devils because he is connected with their ruler.’
Comment: If someone is making out slander about you, etc., it can encourage you, they said the same about Jesus, who was completely clean.
Jesus encourages the disciples to pray for the workers to harvest – 35 Then Jesus passed through all the towns and villages, taught in the synagogues there and preached the good news of the kingdom of God. And wherever he went, he healed diseases of all kinds. 36 When he looked at the crowds of people standing before him, he felt sorry for them, because they did not know who to turn to and where to seek help. They were like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples: ‘They all belong to God as a harvest to their landlord. But there are few reapers. 38 Therefore, ask the Lord to send the workers to his harvest.’
Commentary: Jesus felt sorry for them. I wish we had a heart broken like this for the lost people!
Who are the reapers? Those who are willing to share Jesus’ love with others…. And why are there not enough of them? – Because few are willing to become them! Sometimes even for good reasons, perhaps because they don’t feel qualified enough. But there is a solution for that too. If we feel like we don’t know something, it’s up to us to study it. Moreover, there are millions of people who knew much less about Jesus than we know, and who were willing to let God use them as reapers. Sometimes it was enough to share their story with someone about how they believed. Others, on the other hand, brought people to God by their example and the love they gave out or with the help they offered. Everyone can do something!
The Bible, the Gospel of Matthew with comments for better understanding and practical application.
SNC Bible Translation Online: https://www.bible.com/cs/bible/162/MAT.9.SNC
