Sometimes there is no strength to begin some task, no strength to reassess one's position - civic, religious, whatever it may be - and simply no strength to get up. There is no strength because we...
Sometimes there is no strength to begin some task, no strength to reassess one's position - civic, religious, whatever it may be - and simply no strength to get up. There is no strength because we have spent it on something or because an illness torments us; it does not matter. Sin or sickness - does it matter? Perhaps sin, perhaps sickness. Often no line can be drawn between them.
We very much want this, we very much want clarity, but we do not have it - and we do not need it, for there is only good and evil, and only between them is a strict demarcation line needed. But there is no need to classify either one or the other. We will be told: we do not know whom to go to - a doctor or a priest. It is worth going to both, but it is important to remember: we are going to God so that He may heal us.
Today people speak much about cooperation between the priest and the psychologist. And this is good: the time of divergence between types of activity has passed, since a fundamental limit has been reached, and before us is a time when convergence slowly begins again. This will enrich everyone, for in every phenomenon of the visible world there is the imprint of the Creator - but it is revealed from different angles. To see here not a "flat" picture, but a "three-dimensional" one, costs great labor - but this labor is blessed
9
9:1 His own city - Capernaum, Mat 4:13. Mar 5:18; Luk 8:37.
9:2 Seeing their faith - Both that of the paralytic, and of them that brought him. Son - A title of tenderness and condescension. Mar 2:3; Luk 5:18.
9:3 This man blasphemeth - Attributing to himself a power (that of forgiving sins) which belongs to God only.
9:5 Which is easier - Do not both of them argue a Divine power?Therefore if I can heal his disease, I can forgive his sins: especially as his disease is the consequence of his sins.Therefore these must be taken away, if that is.
9:6 On earth - Even in my state of humiliation.
9:8 So what was to the scribes an occasion of blaspheming, was to the people an incitement to praise God.
9:9 He saw a man named Matthew - Modestly so called by himself.The other evangelists call him by his more honourable name, Levi.Sitting - In the very height of his business, at the receipt of custom - The custom house, or place where the customs were received. Mar 2:14; Luk 5:27.
9:10 As Jesus sat at table in the house - Of Matthew, who having invited many of his old companions, made him a feast, Mar 2:15; and that a great one, though he does not himselfmention it. The publicans, or collectors of the taxes which the Jews paid the Romans, were infamous for their illegal exactions: Sinners - Open, notorious, sinners.
9:11 The Pharisees said to his disciples, Why eateth your Master? - Thus they commonly ask our Lord, Why do thy disciples this?And his disciples, Why doth your Master?
9:13 Go ye and learn - Ye that take upon you to teach others.I will have mercy and not sacrifice - That is, I will have mercy rather than sacrifice. I love acts of mercy better than sacrifice itself. Hos 6:6.
9:14 Then - While he was at table. Mar 2:18; Luk 5:33.
9:15 The children of the bride chamber - The companions of the bridegroom. Mourn - Mourning and fasting usually go together.As if he had said, While I am with them, it is a festival time, a season of rejoicing, not mourning. But after I am gone, all my disciples likewise shall be in fastings often.
9:16 This is one reason, - It is not a proper time for them to fast. Another is, they are not ripe for it. New cloth - The words in the original properly signify cloth that hath not passed through the fuller's hands, and which is consequently much harsher than what has been washed and worn; and therefore yielding less than that, will tear away the edges to which it is sewed.
9:17 New - Fermenting wine will soon burst those bottles, the leather of which is almost worn out. The word properly means vessels made of goats' skins, wherein they formerly put wine, (and do in some countries to this day) to convey it from placeto place. Put new wine into new bottles - Give harsh doctrines to such as have strength to receive them.