마태복음 Chapter 9

Translation: ESV

1

And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.

Key Message

Jesus returns to Capernaum — his ministry's home base — where the next sequence of healing and controversy encounters will unfold.

▸Having been asked to leave Gadara, Jesus returns across the sea to Capernaum, which Matthew calls 'his own city' — the base of his Galilean ministry (4:13).

Having been asked to leave Gadara, Jesus returns across the sea to Capernaum, which Matthew calls 'his own city' — the base of his Galilean ministry (4:13). The return signals a new episode of teaching and healing. Matthew's terse travel notices compress geography to keep focus on the encounters themselves.

Related Verses

And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.
2

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."

Key Message

Jesus addresses the paralytic's deepest need first — forgiveness of sin — before the visible need of healing; both manifest his authority to give what only God can give.

▸The paralytic episode interweaves healing with forgiveness controversy.

3

And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."

Key Message

The scribes identify the correct theological issue: forgiveness belongs to God alone. What they do not see is that Jesus, the Son of God, exercises this divine prerogative legitimately.

▸The scribes' accusation of blasphemy (βλασφημεῖ, blasphēmei) is theologically accurate from their framework: only God can forgive sin (Isa 43:25; Mark 2:7).

4

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?

Key Message

Jesus' knowledge of hidden thoughts is itself a demonstration of divine omniscience — the very attribute that qualifies him to forgive sins, the point the scribes dispute.

▸'Knowing their thoughts' (εἰδὼς τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις αὐτῶν, eidōs tas enthymēseis autōn) demonstrates Jesus' divine knowledge of hidden mental states — another implicit claim to divine capacity.

5

For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?

Key Message

Jesus uses the visible healing as a sign and proof of the invisible forgiveness; authority over the body demonstrates authority over sin.

▸Jesus poses a brilliant rhetorical question.

6

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — he then said to the paralytic — "Rise, pick up your bed and go home."

Key Message

The healing is a visible, testable demonstration of the Son of Man's authority to forgive — an authority exercised not in heaven alone but on earth, now, in the present.

▸The healing is explicitly framed as evidence: 'that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

7

And he rose and went home.

Key Message

The immediacy and completeness of the healing serves as irrefutable proof of the authority Jesus claimed; the man who was carried in leaves under his own power.

▸Matthew's terseness here is characteristic: the healing is described in four words.

8

When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Key Message

The appropriate response to witnessing divine power is awe and worship; the crowd's partial understanding ('authority given to men') moves in the right direction even if not yet fully arrived.

▸The crowd's response — fear followed by glorifying God — is the appropriate response to a theophany-level event.

9

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.

Key Message

Jesus' call of a despised tax collector demonstrates that grace reaches the socially and morally excluded; Matthew's immediate response is the model of radical, unconditional discipleship.

▸The call of Matthew is one of the most decisive moments in the Gospel bearing his name.

10

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

Key Message

Jesus' table fellowship with sinners is a living parable of the kingdom's inclusive welcome; he enacts in practice what he announces in word.

▸Table fellowship in the ancient world was a powerful social and theological statement: one ate with those of equal or higher status, not with social inferiors or moral outcasts.

11

And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

Key Message

The Pharisees interpret Jesus' inclusive table fellowship as religious failure; he will reinterpret it as the truest expression of God's purpose.

▸The Pharisees direct their question to the disciples rather than to Jesus — perhaps indicating that they do not consider Jesus worthy of direct address, or that they hope to drive a wedge between Jesus and his followers.

12

But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Key Message

Jesus' association with sinners is his proper function as spiritual physician; those who claim health place themselves outside his healing reach.

▸Jesus' first response draws on a medical proverb: physicians attend the sick, not the healthy.

13

Go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Key Message

God's desire is mercy over ritual performance; Jesus' mission to sinners is the supreme expression of divine mercy that the prophets announced and the Pharisees' ritualism has obscured.

▸Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 — a prophetic rebuke of Israel's ritualism without compassion — and turns it directly on the Pharisees: 'Go and learn' is a rabbinic formula introducing a necessary lesson.

14

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

Key Message

Fasting is appropriate to a season of mourning and longing; Jesus will explain why his disciples' practice differs by introducing the eschatological newness he brings.

▸A new controversy: John the Baptist's disciples observe fasting (as do the Pharisees), but Jesus' disciples do not.

15

And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Key Message

Jesus' presence inaugurates the eschatological wedding feast; his disciples' celebration is appropriate to the moment, though the crucifixion will bring a return to mourning and fasting.

▸Jesus introduces the wedding metaphor: he is the bridegroom, his disciples are wedding guests, and the present moment is a wedding feast — a time of celebration, not mourning.

16

No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.

Key Message

Jesus' kingdom cannot be sewn onto the old religious framework as a patch; the newness of what he brings requires new structures, not accommodation to old ones.

▸The new-patch/old-garment parable illustrates the incompatibility of Jesus' kingdom with the old religious framework.

17

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.

Key Message

The revolutionary newness of Jesus' kingdom cannot be contained by the old religious structures; new forms are required for the new reality he brings.

▸The second parable reinforces the first: new wine (fermentation produces gas and pressure) put into old wineskins (brittle, inelastic) will burst both, wasting the wine and destroying the skins.

18

While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."

Key Message

Desperate faith breaks through social and religious barriers; the synagogue ruler's public prostration before Jesus models the humility that opens the door to divine action.

▸The narrative resumes with two interwoven healing accounts — the synagogue ruler's daughter and the woman with the hemorrhage.

19

And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.

Key Message

Jesus' immediate willingness to go wherever need calls him demonstrates his servant character; he who calls others to follow himself follows the desperate father.

▸Jesus immediately responds — no delay, no conditions, no requirement for further information.

20

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment,

Key Message

The excluded and socially invisible can reach Jesus through faith; her twelve-year isolation does not prevent her from finding healing through secret touch.

▸While en route to the synagogue ruler's home, a second petitioner approaches secretly.

21

for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I will be made well."

Key Message

Faith that expects healing even through minimal, secret contact with Jesus is honored; her interior confidence is the faith that draws healing from him.

▸The woman's internal reasoning reveals her faith: 'If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.

22

Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.

Key Message

Jesus restores not only the body but the person: his public, tender address 'daughter' transforms the shameful secret touch into an honored encounter, restoring identity and dignity.

▸Jesus turns and sees her — he does not remain unaware of her secret touch (Mark records him perceiving power going out).

23

And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,

Key Message

Jesus enters a scene of established death and professional mourning — the setting that will make his act of raising the girl all the more demonstratively powerful.

▸Jesus arrives at the synagogue ruler's house to find the professional mourning already underway.

24

he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him.

Key Message

The mourners' ridicule confirms the death's reality and makes the resurrection more undeniable; their laughter becomes testimony to the miracle's authenticity.

▸Jesus' declaration 'the girl is not dead but sleeping' produces laughter — the mourners know she is dead and consider Jesus' claim absurd.

25

But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

Key Message

Jesus raises the dead by the same touch that healed the sick; his life-giving power overcomes death as effortlessly as fever or leprosy, establishing his authority over the final enemy.

▸Jesus clears the house of the unbelieving crowd — a practice consistent with his preference for privacy in miracles (cf.

26

And the report of this went through all that district.

Key Message

The raising of the dead cannot be contained; Jesus' authority over death itself becomes news that prepares the way for his disciples' mission.

▸The raising of the dead could not be kept quiet.

27

And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David."

Key Message

The blind men demonstrate that spiritual sight can exceed physical sight; their messianic address 'Son of David' recognizes Jesus' identity more clearly than many who can see.

▸Two blind men follow Jesus (using the discipleship verb ἀκολουθεῖν, akolouthein) with persistent, vocal appeal.

28

When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord."

Key Message

Jesus draws out explicit confession of faith before healing; the verbal affirmation 'Yes, Lord' is both personal commitment and the condition for experiencing his power.

▸Jesus does not immediately heal upon their public cry but waits until he enters the house — a private setting — and explicitly asks about their faith: 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' This direct question makes faith explicit before the healing.

29

Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you."

Key Message

Jesus' healing responds to and corresponds with faith; the formula 'according to your faith' establishes that trust is the relational posture through which divine power is received.

▸The healing formula 'According to your faith be it done to you' (κατὰ τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν γενηθήτω ὑμῖν, kata tēn pistin hymōn genēthētō hymin) is a divine response calibrated to human trust.

30

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, "See that no one knows about it."

Key Message

Jesus' command to silence reflects his sovereign management of his messianic disclosure; he does not permit popular enthusiasm to define or accelerate his mission's direction.

▸The healing is immediate and complete.

31

But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

Key Message

The encounter with Jesus' transforming power produces irresistible testimony; the joy of restoration cannot be contained in commanded silence.

▸The command to silence is immediately disregarded.

32

As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him.

Key Message

The tenth and final miracle of the sequence demonstrates that Jesus' authority over the demonic is complete; no condition is beyond his power to address.

▸The tenth and final miracle in the chapter 8-9 sequence: a mute man oppressed by a demon is brought to Jesus.

33

And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, "Never was anything like this seen in Israel."

Key Message

The crowd's verdict — 'never was anything like this seen in Israel' — is the summary of the entire miracle sequence: Jesus' ministry is without precedent in Israel's history.

▸The exorcism is accomplished without drama — 'when the demon had been cast out' (no formula, no ritual, no struggle reported).

34

But the Pharisees said, "He casts out demons by the prince of demons."

Key Message

The same evidence produces opposite responses: wonder and worship in the crowds, Satanic attribution in the Pharisees — illustrating that hardened unbelief reinterprets rather than receives the truth.

▸The Pharisees offer the counter-interpretation that will develop into the Beelzebul controversy of chapter 12.

35

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Key Message

Jesus' Galilean ministry is comprehensive and integrated: teaching, proclamation, and healing are three expressions of the one kingdom ministry that is transforming every dimension of human life.

▸This summary verse echoes the beginning of Jesus' Galilean ministry in 4:23 (using nearly identical language), forming a literary frame around the entire Sermon on the Mount and miracle sequence (chapters 5-9).

36

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Key Message

Jesus' mission is grounded in compassion — he sees the crowds as God sees Israel: harassed and abandoned, needing the true Shepherd that Ezekiel promised God would be.

▸The description of Jesus' compassion (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, esplagchnisthē — a word derived from the intestines, indicating the deepest emotional feeling) grounds the coming mission discourse in his emotional identification with human need.

37

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

Key Message

The problem of mission is not the world's unresponsiveness but the church's lack of laborers; the harvest is ready, waiting for workers who are too few.

▸The harvest metaphor reframes the mission: the crowds are not simply people to be pitied but a harvest ready to be gathered.

38

therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Key Message

Mission begins with prayer: the disciples who pray for laborers align themselves with God's heart for the harvest and open themselves to becoming the answer to their own prayer.

▸The appropriate response to the labor shortage is prayer — not human recruitment drives but petition to 'the Lord of the harvest.