Matthew 9: Jesus, the Son of God Straightening the Crooked Hearts of Men
Chapter 9: Jesus, the Son of God Straightening the Crooked Hearts of Men
3 Yet some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
34 But the Pharisees said, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."
The editor introduces forces opposing Jesus. Wherever Jesus went, even while simply walking along the road, miracles of healing occurred. The leaders of the time, observing these events, moved beyond concern to jealousy and fear. Why did they hate Jesus? They feared he would take their place. They were the religious clergy, the social elite, and economically wealthy. Jesus delved into realms they could not— healing sickness and casting out demons. More than anything, they could pray for someone's healing, but they couldn't declare them healed. This was the limitation and weakness of Jesus' opponents. Essentially, they were surviving as a class maintained more solidly than their authority.
They laid religious traps in Jesus' path, knowing that in a society governed by religion, religious issues could be an Achilles' heel. In a society where sin was understood as the cause of illness, and only God could forgive sin, declaring forgiveness of sins was like stepping into a trap oneself. Jesus declared the forgiveness of sins to a paralytic. He was not unaware of the repercussions his declaration would bring. Yet, he spoke of forgiveness openly because he possessed the authority to forgive sins—an authority his adversaries believed only God had, and they lacked. If Jesus had such authority, then declaring forgiveness of sins or commanding someone to pick up their mat and walk were two sides of the same coin. Jesus did not ask but commanded healing and mobility. He showed his adversaries both sides of the coin. In other words, he demonstrated that his actions were in alignment with his being.
Despite Jesus' divine declaration and fulfillment in the healing of the paralytic, the forces opposing him did not give up. When Jesus drove out demons from a possessed person, the Pharisees discredited his divine act as not by God's power but by the power of demons. They had read the book of Daniel but could not accept the fact that Yahweh would appear in human form. Such a person should come from a much higher class than themselves, they thought. They could accept someone of a higher class as the Son of God, but they could not acknowledge someone from a lower class, who healed diseases and drove out demons, as the Son of God. Their rigid class-based thinking was so strong that it could even perceive God as a demon. This is what Luther and then Bonhoeffer referred to as the 'heart curved in upon itself.' Jesus wishes to straighten the crooked hearts and minds of people. John the Baptist, recalling the prophecy of Isaiah, proclaimed to prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him (Matthew 3:3), precisely pointing to the work of Jesus.
If paralysis and demon possession are due to sin, then the crooked heart of man is original sin. The Son of God, Jesus, heals this chronic condition of humanity. The editor of Matthew's Gospel wants to reveal Jesus as the Son of God through the confrontation between Jesus and his antagonist.