Matthew 9: From Forgiveness to the Harvest, Jesus Calls You

Introduction

"Why did Jesus come to earth?" It is a very basic question for Christians, and it is the one that has stayed with Fabien Bottes in recent weeks. He raised it at the Sunday service on October 25 at the Église Protestante Évangélique de Marcinelle. Many would answer: to save us from our sins. "And that would be an excellent answer. End of the sermon."

But as he dug deeper, another question came up: what does Jesus want to do with the people he saves? Is receiving forgiveness the final point of meeting him, after which we wait for his return and do whatever we like? Or is it the beginning of a completely different life?

The preacher follows the story in Matthew 9, from the paralyzed man to the start of chapter 10. Jesus does not merely forgive sinners: he calls them to follow him and brings them into his work. Hence the title of the message: "From Forgiveness to the Harvest."

Message Outline

1. Why Did Jesus Come?

Matthew leaves no suspense. From the very first chapter, the angel tells Joseph: "You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).
Near the end of his Gospel, he repeats it: the Son of Man came "not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).
The preacher caricatures the temptation: "I meet Jesus, I'm saved, great. Now I just have to wait for him to come back, and in the meantime I do what I want, I hang out at the beach, I have fun."
Being saved is not just receiving forgiveness of sins. It commits us completely and touches every part of our lives.

2. A Faith That Acts: the Paralyzed Man's Friends

Some people bring a paralyzed man to Jesus, lying on a stretcher (Matthew 9:1-8). Nothing extraordinary so far: Jesus is already known for his healings.
Yet Matthew draws our attention to one detail: "Seeing their faith." These men cannot heal their friend, but they know someone who can.
Faith is not just an inner conviction that "is nobody else's business." It leads to action. They cannot do what this man needs, but they can bring him to the one who can.
When Jesus looks at these men, they are consistent. When he looks at your daily life, your trials, your big decisions, what does he see? Decisions made out of trust in him, or out of your own abilities?

3. An Unexpected, Tender Forgiveness

The most extraordinary thing is not the friends' faith but Jesus' answer: "Cheer up, son! Your sins are forgiven you."
Before chapter 9, Matthew spends six chapters showing Jesus' authority, in Greek exousia, "more than authority, it is power." Sickness, demons, and even the storm submit to him.
The preacher offers an image: "Imagine Donald Trump showing up in Charleroi." Whether you like him or not, he is a man of great power: security would be at its maximum and "ordinary citizens" could not come near him. Jesus, on the other hand, lets himself be approached by a paralyzed man, someone unwelcome in the society of the time. He does not say "You don't deserve me," he says "Cheer up, son."
Why begin with forgiveness when faced with such an obvious need? Because it is the reason Jesus came. He did not come to remove all the suffering in the world: getting into his boat does not prevent storms, and the apostles died as martyrs.
Jesus sees the suffering, and his compassion also moves him to heal. But he does not reduce the paralyzed man to his paralysis: "He is a soul to save, a soul to call."
The same is true for you. A trial can take up so much room that you see nothing else and your identity shrinks to that problem. Jesus sees it and knows it, but he does not limit you to it. "Which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to the measure of his life?" (Matthew 6:27).

4. A Visible Healing for an Invisible Reality

The teachers of the law think: "This man blasphemes." What scandalizes them is not forgiveness, but that Jesus claims an authority that belongs to God alone.
In Isaiah 43:25, God says: "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins." By forgiving, Jesus claims these words for himself. The teachers of the law are being consistent too: who is this man to claim to be God?
"Which is easier to say?" Nothing proves that anything happens when you say "your sins are forgiven." Saying to a paralyzed man in front of everyone "get up and walk" is riskier: if he does not get up, Jesus looks like an impostor.
The paralyzed man gets up, takes his stretcher, and goes home. Jesus performed a visible healing to confirm an invisible reality: he truly has the authority to forgive sins.
His goal was not to impress the crowds or to "show off." He showed grace to a man who needed it, just as he calmed the storm for his panicking disciples. "Jesus did not come to earth to show what he is capable of, he came to save sinners."
The one who announces forgiveness in chapter 9 is the one who will give his life in chapter 26, his blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). He went all the way, to the point of paying the price.

5. An Unexpected Call: "Follow Me"

This time, the man is not brought to Jesus: Jesus goes to him. He sees Matthew sitting at the tax booth and says to him: "Follow me" (Matthew 9:9).
The job of tax collector was despised, associated with abuse and with getting rich at the people's expense. For many religious Jews, they were unclean people to be avoided.
Normally, someone who wanted to follow a rabbi made the request, and the rabbi accepted or not. Here, Matthew asked for nothing. "I didn't see a trial period. I didn't see Jesus make Matthew sign a fixed-term contract."
Jesus did not wait for Matthew to prove himself worthy or competent. He saw him right there, "in his mud," and he called him. Matthew's conversion story comes down to a few words: he got up and followed him.
This short response gave his life a completely new direction. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
Luke adds that Levi held a great banquet in his house in honor of Jesus (Luke 5:29). The man who wanted to get rich now opens his home to people like himself, so that his life honors Jesus.

6. The Physician at the Table of Sinners

The Pharisees ask: "Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?" They lump the two together.
Jesus answers: "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do" (Matthew 9:12). He does not go to their table because their sins would be unimportant, but precisely because they are serious and these people are headed toward death.
"A doctor who does not go near the sick is a doctor who is of no use. His office is empty."
"Go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,'" says Jesus, quoting Hosea 6:6. The Pharisees had stripped the law of its essence, love. Without love for God and neighbor, obeying the law becomes useless.
Jesus says: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." He does not say only "save," he says "call." The call goes through forgiveness, but does not stop at forgiveness.
"Grace is not only about wiping out our past. It opens a new life to us, following him." Jesus does not ask us to become worthy of him first: he calls us so that from now on we walk behind him.
To the first disciples he had said: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men" (Matthew 4:19). "I will make you": Jesus wants to transform them and bring them into his work.

7. A Harvest That Concerns Us

Matthew 9:35 sums up Jesus' ministry: he goes through the towns and villages, teaches, proclaims the good news of the kingdom, and heals. The same refrain is found in Matthew 4:23. In between, the Sermon on the Mount and the miracles show that he teaches and acts with authority.
Then Matthew shows the heart of Jesus. Seeing the crowds, wounded and downcast like sheep without a shepherd, he is filled with compassion. In Greek, "it grabs him in the gut." He does not see a mass of people, he looks at each man and each woman.
He then turns to his disciples: "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). Faced with distress, Jesus does not see only a problem, he sees a work to be done.
We often hear that evangelizing is hard in Europe. Jesus says the harvest is plentiful. It is not our harvest: God is the one who makes it grow, and our part is to gather what is ripe. What is lacking is laborers.
In chapter 10, those who were to pray for laborers are precisely the ones Jesus sends out, with authority, to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 10:1-7). Those who were called to follow him are called to take part in his mission.
At the end of the Gospel, the one who has authority to forgive receives all authority in heaven and on earth, and he sends his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).
Making disciples is not "handing out a tract on the street and saying: Jesus loves you, bye, on to the next one." It is a commitment to someone.
"We do not work in the harvest to earn our salvation. But our salvation is closely tied to the work we are to do in the harvest." Without all being evangelists, we are all the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). "Freely you received, so freely give" (Matthew 10:8).

Key Takeaways

Jesus came to save his people from their sins, but forgiveness is not the end point: it is the beginning of a new life following him.
Faith is not just an inner conviction: it shows in our decisions and moves us to bring others to Jesus.
Jesus does not reduce you to your trial. He sees it, he takes care of it, but he looks at you as a soul to save and to call.
Jesus does not wait for you to be worthy before calling you. He comes to you and says: "Follow me."
The harvest is plentiful and belongs to God. What is lacking is available laborers.

Personal Application

When Jesus looks at your decisions this week, does he see your trust in him or only your own abilities?
What trial has taken up so much room in your life that you only see yourself through it?
Have you sat back down at your "tax booth," the place you were before you knew Jesus, to the point of no longer moving forward?
When you look at your coworker or your neighbor, do you see someone to avoid or someone Jesus looks at with compassion?
What place does his mission really have in your life, and to whom can you make yourself available this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus first tell the paralyzed man "your sins are forgiven"?

For Fabien Bottes, this is the very reason Jesus came to earth: to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Jesus clearly sees the man's paralysis, and his compassion moves him to heal as well, but he first answers the deepest need. The visible healing then confirms an invisible reality: he has the power to forgive sins.

What does the call of Matthew, the tax collector, show?

Matthew asked for nothing. Jesus is the one who comes to him and says "Follow me," with no trial period and without waiting for him to prove himself worthy. Jesus says he came to call sinners, not only to save them: grace does not stop at wiping out the past, it opens a new life following him.

What does "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" mean?

Jesus looks at the crowds with compassion and sees an abundant harvest. What is lacking is not people to save, but laborers to go to them. The harvest belongs to God: he is the one who makes it grow. He asks for our availability to gather what is ripe and to make disciples.