Come Follow Me LDS- Matthew 8-9, Mark 2-5 Part 2

'Sitting With Sinners' - Jesus sits with the publicans and sinners
- Are we too exclusionary? Or not enough?
- Authorship! Not 'Play by Play' history.
- 'After all we can do'. Faith in action.

 

 Raw Transcript

alright so in this episode we see Jesus
becoming the spiritual healer we
mentioned this briefly in the previous
part 1 of this lesson of come follow me
but here we see the actual transition so
opening up with this we see Jesus comes
back from Capernaum where he was kicked
out basically for being such a good guy
and he ends up back across the sea and
comes into his own City so here he is in
Nazareth apparently and verse 2 says and
behold they brought to him a sick of the
palsy lying on a bed and Jesus seeing
their faith this is a theme throughout
this chapter and the last seeing their
faith said unto the sick of the palsy
son be of good cheer thy sins be
forgiven thee so there's two things that
start happening here number one we see
again as we have in each of the last
episodes of healing from the last
episode from our last episode in the
last chapter that the person being
healed is exerting faith so that's a
very important part of what Matthew and
Mark are saying here and I'm going
through Matthew 9 here is that those
that are being healed here Jesus is the
healer he's offering this mercy but he
is receiving faith on his name on his
ability to do this in order to
accomplish this and so the authors are
very particular about showing this that
it is the faithful or those that are
that have faith in Jesus are actually
the ones that are being healed and we
see it throughout all of the all of the
examples in in these two chapters the
second thing is here he says he doesn't
say first I'm healing you of the palsy
he says thy sin is son be of good cheer
thy sins be forgiven thee so this is the
author here Matthew in this case giving
a say further transition in an
understanding of how Jesus really is the
healer all of these examples of going
around and physically healing people
but as with the devils being cast out as
an example of spiritual healing in the
last chapter here we have the transition
right at the beginning of chapter 9
where Matthew is saying look this is
what this is really all about yes he's
the healer yes he can heal you
physically but he is the one that can
bring atonement he is the one that can
bring the covering and the healing and
the mercy to your spirit and so here he
says thy son thy sins be forgiven thee
well the scribes are saying to
themselves he can probably see them
hustle the hustle and bustle of and the
disruption of the scribes as they are
concerned about what has just happened
here and Jesus perceiving their thoughts
says basically okay I understand you
think it's easier for me to say your
sins are forgiven thee to this man
because then I don't have to show
anything remember he's now in a
different city so this is looks like
it's the first healing of in Nazareth
and he says so that you know that I can
forgive sins that the here's how he says
it
he says for whether it whether is easier
to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to
say arise and walk so he knows that's
what they're thinking that it's easier
for him to just say hey your sins are
forgiven you and then walk off and so he
says but that ye may know that the Son
of man saying himself hath power on
earth to forgive sins then saith he to
the sick of the palsy arise take up thy
bed and go unto thine house so he heals
then the man with palsy or the boy with
palsy and so that he can show
that he is the one that does forgive
sins that he is the son of man the son
of God by saying look first I said this
you don't believe that fine
I can easily show you through physical
healing as I have in Capernaum in other
places that I can heal him physically
and that needs to be assigned to you
that I can forgive sins and that in
again that I am the spiritual healer I
am the Messiah I am the Savior not just
of your body but of your spirit and of
all spiritual thing and then we have an
example one of my favorite examples in
scripture where Jesus then it says in
verse 10 and it came to pass as Jesus
sat at meat in the house behold many
publicans as the tax collectors who were
looked at very poorly because they kind
of worked the system and took a lot for
themselves maybe and and they were
turncoats so to speak because these were
usually Jews that worked for the Romans
and the Jews weren't really happy about
that and so a lot of the publicans and
sinners who must have worked together
came and sat down with him and his
disciples and so then the Pharisees
there in Nazareth or see this and they
said unto his disciples why eateth your
master with publicans and sinners and
Jesus hears this and he says unto them
they that be whole need not a physician
but they that are sick but go ye and
learn what that meaneth I will have
mercy and not sacrifice for I am NOT
come to call the righteous but sinners
to repentance this is a such a great
lesson here and it's one that really
needs to be parsed out because there's a
lot of different examples and roles that
we play where we look at okay well where
do I step and where don't I step for
example we have other Scripture
all pieces of advice write that say to
avoid even the appearance of sin and so
a lot of us might take that to think
well I can't let anybody even think
anything and so therefore you know that
I might be doing something bad and so
I'm going to stay away from anyone who
does do anything bad not to mention the
fact that if some people are of a poor
influence then is it wise to be around
them or how much to be around them and
then as a parent especially where you
feel the responsibility for your
children how much do you allow your
child to sit with the publicans and the
sinners because their children and so
watching over them you may feel like
okay I don't want them anywhere near
them at the same time how do you help
them understand this principle that's a
difficult line to walk I think because
you don't want there to be a
self-righteous judgment from your
children or certainly from yourself
about trying to be staying on the
straight and narrow path and avoiding
what is wrong and who is wrong perhaps
at the same time you don't want to teach
them that there are good people and bad
people and you need to be with good
people and not with the bad people
completely right you there needs to be
some kind of a nurturing there and a
lesson that would be given that would
say look these are children of God and I
don't want you maybe as children I don't
want you hanging around them but I want
you if necessary to be a friend to them
or to be a positive influence where you
can be with them and as adults certainly
we might want to stay away from the
interpretation of staying away from
anything that appears like sin because
what that might really mean is from what
we perceive as doing something that is
wrong not from what we're worried about
everybody else around us
what is wrong or thinking what we're
doing wrong yes certainly that's where
Jesus is here he is in the middle of the
sinners and the publicans people that
the Pharisees and others who are do
gooders and are trying a lot of them
probably trying to be good not all of
them there they're a little bit confused
but they're very confused about why he
is sitting with them if he's out
preaching and starting this movement and
teaching this higher law why would he be
with these sinners and he says I am here
to heal them I'm not here to call the
righteous to repentance I'm here to call
the sinners to repentance in a sense I
think that we have to some degree the
same responsibility not necessarily
they're all preaching repentance to
everybody but how can we be a positive
influence and more importantly how can
we show that we have love for our fellow
man regardless of their way of life or
mistakes that we might perceive to be
from them that might be might not show
good on us right if we happen to mingle
with them a little bit and and then how
do we divide that and make sure that
we're not doing something where we're
becoming influenced again I think that's
a very fine line to walk but but Matthew
here brings us up as an important
principle and to me I think it's crucial
is our how to how are we willing to
reach out to those that might need the
most help and that might that might need
the most spiritual help without being
judgmental and Jesus seems to do a great
job of that
and he says here again in verse 13 I
will have mercy
speaking of sitting with the sinners and
the publicans I will have mercy and not
sacrifice so these are the two laws
right these are the two laws the law of
sacrifice is a lower law that he will
eventually fulfill that is the lower law
and the higher law is one of mercy
the mercy that would be compassion and
the love that we would have for somebody
else where we're actually reaching out
and pulling them up where we're willing
to bear a burden of responsibility and
empathy for those around us and then
Jesus gets back in a ship goes over the
Sea of Galilee again and ends up in
another town and he's kind of traveling
is the the traveling healer in Galilee
here and there's a ruler that comes to
him named Jairus or junior gyrus and
gyrus comes to him at the synagogue he's
a ruler of the synagogue and he comes to
him falls at his feet and says and if he
sought him greatly saying my little
daughter lieth at the point of death I
pray thee come and lay thy hands on her
that she may be healed again he's
putting this forward already maybe a
lesson again for us and how we approach
God when we have faith in Him and then
he say and he says lay thy hands on her
that she may be healed and she shall
live so he's already making this
assertion you know it's kind of like you
think of the brother of Jared when he
says hey I've got all these ideas I know
we've kind of heard this lesson before
where he's got this idea of using these
stones to put light in the in the boats
and so he comes up with everything and
he just says to Jehovah hey touch these
with your finger and they will provide
light for us it's a similar lesson here
that he's that were receiving throughout
these chapters that we need to think of
what we need to do he wants us to travel
toward him again in that at one mint he
wants us to travel toward him as much as
possible make our efforts so that he can
reach then down to us so we need to make
the effort first were the lower law we
swear we start and on the way there's a
woman who is diseased with an issue of
blood twelve years she has she's got
well she's got a blood problem let's
just say and as he's passing by she
reaches out and symbolically grabs his
hem
has something to do with probably his
priesthood priestly raiment his priestly
garment that he is wearing probably and
and that's it and he feels this pull out
of her so he she doesn't even ask in
this case from him in this case she just
exerts the faith and puts forth her hand
so she makes the effort believing that
this will heal her
it says here Matthew says of her for she
said within herself if I may but touch
His garment I shall behold and Jesus
turned him about and when he saw her he
said daughter be of good comfort thy
faith hath made the whole so here he
doesn't even put his hand on her or say
anything to her and she's basically made
whole because of her faith in what she
does so she does everything she can and
his power comes over her and heals her
another important thing about the woman
here is that if she has got blood on her
if she's got an issue with blood a blood
issue literally then Jesus as a high
priest he/she would be impure to him he
is not allowed to be around based on the
the laws at the time he would not be
allowed to be around her and that's
probably why she may not come right up
to him and approach him and if she's
really got this problem
she is impure and so she instead of
grabbing even his arm or anything else
that might be why she just comes and
grabs his hem the hem of his of his robe
so then he comes to the rulers irises
home and everyone there is weeping over
his daughter who is apparently dead and
he says why are you all worried about
this she's not dead and they they laugh
at him for bringing this up but it says
here in verse 41 he took the damsel by
the hand and said unto her Talitha koum
ii which is being interpreted damsel i
say unto thee arise and straight away
the damsel arose and walked
and so that is basically how the chapter
here ends and how the lesson of of
mostly Matthew eight and nine inches
with this daughter that we have all
these other healings but here is the
great healing of this grouping with the
Daughter of Jairus being brought back
from the dead this is also a counter
story if you go back to judges 11 but
the book of judges to jetha if you have
time go back and look at that and you'll
be able to see how this is a counter
story where Jesus is in a sense I think
Matthew here is reversing in a sense
what happened in judges 11 now this
brings up one last point that I would
like to make and that is about
authorship authorship would be the next
point that I want to go over as a filter
to look at the scriptures of course
there's a lot of things we can look at
as filters or paradigms lenses but this
is the third one I would like to talk
about we've talked about the higher and
lower law number one we've talked
secondly about temple theology or temple
imagery and and now authorship I think
is a very important point and this is
what I mean by that and nothing that
complicated we oftentimes look at the
scriptures as if somebody is writing
down what is happening as it happens
kind of like if you're watching sports
and the play-by-play guy is going on
about you know a football game and you
know I was talking about it the ball is
snapped quarterback drops back into the
pocket the rush is on the pocket is
collapsing he moves up throws a strike
onto the sideline first down that's not
what's happening here
right this is this is something that
happens much much later decades probably
later from what has originally occurred
and in many cases it's not even a
first-hand account so I want you to put
yourself in the shoes of any of these
authors of the scriptures let's say for
example one of the Gospels and you're
writing about this and even if you did
witness this yourself some of these
things are so
but it's decades later how are you going
to write this let's say that you are
very inspired and you feel very close to
the Lord you've got the spirit with you
and you want to be effective in this
witness to Jesus as the Christ and these
principles of the gospel and this
bringing in of the higher law how are
you going to write this you have time to
think about that and you're gonna
organize it in a certain way that brings
up specific points and in some cases you
might even exaggerate to get a point
across in some of the cases you might
leave things out to get a point across
other times you might use a little bit
of story telling to be able to get the
principle stated differently you might
even move events around sometimes to be
able to get an overall flow to the
message that you are trying to bring
across so let's say that you have this
and now you're trying to write a play
about it and you are going to have
actors that speak and that are
representing the original characters
what are you going to have them say you
have some things that might be taken
directly as actual words that were
written some things that are secondhand
how are you going to do that and how are
you going to be effective for that
audience to get the right story and to
get the message of something
of course here so imperative ly
important that you're going to get that
across so think about how these
narratives are composed we have an
example here of how the Jesus is the
healer right we have these two chapters
that are brought together there's it's
over all in all of the Gospels he's
shown as the healer but here
specifically Matthew and Mark go in and
focus in on him as the healer and not
just the physical healer but let's get
the message across they're thinking I
believe
that he is the savior of the world that
he is the the spiritual healer as well
and so that's how the narration is going
to come across and that's how they're
thinking and so if we move ourselves
back and try not to read this as
specifically a line-by-line play-by-play
action
history but as a narrative that is meant
for us to try and understand then I
think we can understand the Scriptures a
little bit better I'll talk to you next

 

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