We are in Chapter 9 of the Gospel of Matthew this week.
In this chapter, we see Jesus telling a paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” and the Jewish leaders accusing him of blasphemy. He then healed the man of his paralysis.
In verse 9, he chooses Matthew, the tax collector, to follow Him. It is widely believed, and has been since the 2nd century, that the tax collector was the same Matthew who wrote this book of the bible.
Tax collectors in the time of Jesus were hated and distrusted by just about everyone. They were usually corrupt and took money for themselves as well as for the government.
Matthew apparently did not hesitate. He left his life and his comfort zone to follow Christ.
He later sets out to go heal a young girl, but on the way, a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years slowed him down. The story of this woman is called in some bibles, “The Woman With An Issue of Blood.”
On a personal note, this is my favorite story in the bible. (It is also told in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.) If you want to read what I’ve written about this woman and her encounter with Christ, you can do so here: Woman With an Issue.
In the rest of this chapter, we can read about many of the people he healed from various maladies and then he says something about the “harvest.”
So, if anyone wishes to discuss any of this, I would like to point out some of the questions I had when I first read this chapter:
- Why did the scribes accuse Jesus of blasphemy?
- Why did the disciples mistrust the tax collectors and lump them in with other “sinners”?
- How does the woman with an issue of blood related to me?
- What does Jesus mean about sending out workers to the harvest?
Or, of course, anything you would like to discuss about it.
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