The Religion Jesus Rejected: Matthew 9:1-17

The forgiveness of sins is the removal of evil from a person. It is not just about cleaning them up so they can get into heaven, but about freeing them from the oppressive forces of evil that keep us from living a joyful, purposeful, and peaceful life.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the healing of sickness is linked to the forgiveness of sins. Sickness is one of the main ways sin manifests itself in humanity. This is not to say that a person gets sick because they sin; rather, sickness is a consequence of living in a world that still contains sin. The forgiveness of sins is the removal of sin and all its effects. That means when Jesus forgives your sins, He removes depression, anxiety, fear, pride, confusion, and chaos from your life. While it may not always feel like it, the moment you believe and declare that Jesus is Lord, your sins are removed along with all their effects. You are no longer a slave to sin; therefore, the chains that held you are broken.

If we are to experience the forgiveness of sins—the new life God has for us in Jesus—we must first acknowledge that we are in sin. The paralyzed man and his friends did not hide his paralysis. They didn’t prop him up with wooden rods to hide his condition; they did not simply regulate or manage his paralysis. The difference between the Old and New Testaments is that the Old Testament managed sin like a contagion with no cure. It required quarantines, sacrifices, and purification rituals, but these were not the cure. When people sinned or came into contact with something impure, they would soon be back to perform the same ritual because they were once again unclean. The Old Testament offered only temporary relief and cleansing, but nothing that lasted.

The New Testament is the cure! Jesus, once for all time, offered His life, and now through His sacrifice, those who believe in and are loyal to Him are made pure and can never again be impure. Jesus does not just provide temporary relief; He cures the disease. The paralyzed man and his friends expected Jesus merely to help him walk, but this man received much more than they were expecting! Not only could this man move his body again, but he was reconciled with his God through Jesus. The forgiveness of sins is one way the New Testament talks about salvation. Jesus came and gave this man not only a physical healing but a healing of his whole person, freeing him from the physical, emotional, and spiritual bondage of sin (Hebrews 10:11-25).

Where in your life are you paralyzed? Where in your life have you tried to regulate or manage the disease of sin and its effects when what you really need is a full-scale healing?

Matthew places the story of his own calling in the middle of two chapters filled with miraculous healings. Why? Matthew was a tax collector. Even today, few people who work for the IRS are out there bragging about their job. In Matthew’s day, he would have been grouped with the worst outcasts of society because he colluded with their oppressors, the Roman government, to extract money from his fellow Israelites. Rather than working to help free Israel, he was helping the evil empire keep its boot on Israel’s neck.

Think about how ugly people can be—and perhaps how you have been—to a waiter, banker, or retail worker. Now, what if you had to go to a government building to do your taxes? Have you seen how people act at the DMV? Imagine how much worse people might act if the transaction wasn't for a small fee, but for the full amount of their taxes. That was Matthew’s reality. He dealt daily with people who disliked him, who called him names, who called him a traitor. Matthew was just trying to get by and live a decent life in the glorious Roman Empire.

One day, instead of another angry face, he saw a smiling, energetic prophet who simply said, “Follow me.” Matthew, confused for a moment, got up and followed him. While this may not seem like a miracle to us, for Matthew, it was the beginning of a brand new life. He died to his old life and began a new one. The Greek word used for “he got up” is also the word for “resurrection.” Matthew saw his calling as his very own resurrection. He then took Jesus to his house and invited his friends over to meet Him. You can imagine the food and wine as Jesus reclined at the table among these outcasts. Jesus lit up the room; He was the center of the party, the most interesting guy there.

It is important to note that in first-century Israel, houses were not fully enclosed like ours are today. While bedrooms would be private, the gathering places were often open courtyards, exposed to those passing by. Consequently, the Pharisees observed Jesus and his unorthodox disciples from the entrance of Matthew's house.

The Pharisees were so busy trying to stay clean that they completely missed that Jesus was fulfilling the promises of the Old Testament by restoring the lost of Israel. Jesus was celebrating and feasting in the midst of Roman occupation. While the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders were focused on their own ideas of what God restoring Israel would look like, they were missing it happening right in front of them.

The religious leaders thought of themselves as so righteous that they were blind to God bringing salvation for all of Israel. They believed that while the nation as a whole might not be saved, they personally were fine. Many times, we think we are so righteous; because we follow all the rules in our personal lives, we assume we are doing all we can. We think, “We can’t help that others are so bad.” We become apathetic to evangelism and loving others because we believe we are at least doing what is right in our own eyes—and that is the same sin the Pharisees committed. They were so worried about their own cleanliness that they forgot the purpose of the law was to facilitate God’s relationship with His people, not just for their own personal gain.

We think, “We stay so squeaky clean, what else can we do? We don’t do all the bad things other people do, so we are fine.” This is not Christianity; this is a corrupt religion with Jesus-glitter on it. You become your own god, and Jesus is your sidekick. Christianity is not about just doing the right things, saying your prayers, and reading your Scripture. You could have had all those things under the law. Following Jesus means living every moment in relationship with God and inviting others to do the same.

I have felt more alive in my Christian walk at Royal Pines than I have felt in a long time because I am in the dirty messiness of the world, and I am still being a light. Every day, my heart breaks from the stories I hear from the men I oversee. I cannot say that I wouldn't be in the same or worse situation if my story were as tragic as theirs. Right now, there is a man I saw weep because his baby girl is at Children’s Hospital, diagnosed with cancer. Jesus did not spend his time running away from the world as the Pharisees did, trying to stay clean. He spent His time engaging with the dirty, unclean, and impure things of the world and making them clean. Jesus did not spend all his time preaching in synagogues and temples. He preached mainly where the common folk were—out where they lived, worked, and gathered.

We often want a religion that looks right and feels right to us, but the moment God works in a different way, we miss it! Our God is too big and too great to allow His worship to be defined by one era in human history. Throughout history, the way we worship God has fluctuated to best reach the world. The early church did not have a grand piano, microphones, or even church buildings. Adjusting our approach to reach the world is not compromising our values; it is required by our ultimate value, which is the mission of God: to be ministers of reconciliation, revealing to the world the new life of Jesus!

What was happening in Matthew’s house was church! It was fellowship with and through Jesus. We make it so complicated, adding so much junk that doesn’t matter. Do you know what matters? Do you know what touches God’s heart? When you live your life in relationship with Him and lead others to do the same. Matthew didn’t need a beautiful building with decorations and songs; he needed Jesus to reach out and beckon him into a relationship. We are the vehicle Jesus has chosen to invite the world into a relationship with Him. The Great Commission is a mandate for every individual follower of Jesus to live in such a way that they reveal to the world the new life of Jesus.

We spend so much time talking about things that, at the end of the day, do not matter. We spend time worrying about all the wrong things. God doesn’t care how the song sounds, as long as it is about Him. God doesn’t care how beautiful your church building looks. Many beautiful chapels haven’t seen a salvation in their doors in decades.

God cares about being in a relationship with human beings. That is the whole point of all of this. The church is to reveal the new life of Jesus to the world by living in perfect community through Him. This is why Jesus tells us that the world will know Him by our love for one another. Our love for each other should be a light and an example for the world. And I believe we have that part down. We are a church that genuinely loves each other. But now it’s time we take this love we share and give it to the world by getting uncomfortable and engaging with the dirty, unclean things of our world.

The old wineskins Jesus talks about are the old structure of the law. The wine itself is God’s promise of the reconciliation of heaven and earth—the promise of salvation given to Abraham. This promise was always the substance that the law, the wineskin, was made to serve. The wineskin is how the promise is held. Once, it was held through rituals and sacrifices, but now it is held in the person of Jesus.

Therefore, why would we try to create off-brand wineskins to hold God’s promise of salvation? Why would we attempt to tamper with the perfect wineskin of Jesus? We should glory in the fact that, thank God, we do not have to follow the law, because we never could in the weakness of our flesh. God himself is not only the substance of salvation but also the vessel in which it is held—not by any rituals we create. The only rituals we now perform as the church are in remembrance of and point to this fact. The rituals of baptism and communion are the only requirements for all Baptist churches to keep. Our tradition leaves everything else open for individual churches to decide what is best for the community they are serving. The only thing that defines a Baptist church is the statement of faith we believe, not how we carry out being God’s Church.

To be the church God has called us to be, we must ask ourselves: “What are we clinging to that is not specifically commanded in Scripture that we need to let go of?” What other values and regulations have we added to Scripture that are getting in the way of revealing the life of Jesus to the world?

The Gospel is that God wants a relationship with you. They were having church in Matthew’s house because they were participating in a relationship with Jesus and with each other. Sadly, many times we become so married to the vehicle—the how—of our relationship with Jesus that we elevate the style and the vessel above the Gospel itself. We hold on to Scripture, and everything else is on the table. We have no excuse other than to do whatever it takes within the bounds of Scripture to draw people to Jesus.

We are not bound by any word or value other than the value of Jesus, which is to reconcile heaven and earth. This is why we exist as a church: to be a working model of the new creation. We are the prototype; there are still some bugs to work out, but we, the church, are supposed to not only show the world how to be a community but also to invade the world just as God invaded our world in human flesh, bringing His reality to consume ours. All other things we try to add on to being the church are like trying to put new wine into an old wineskin.