Encounter Jesus – Matthew Week 9

What’s the Point of that Story?

Matthew 9: 1-8

HANDOUT

Encounter Jesus Handout for Week 9

AUDIO

Due to technical difficulties, an audio recording of this session is not available.

Lesson Notes

Last week I made some assertions about one of the stories we skimmed. I listed several possible sermons on the healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9: 1-8, and said those missed the point. I realized it wasn’t very fair or helpful for me to do that without explaining how I knew that, so that you could be better readers of the gospel. You too can know the point of a gospel story when you read it and it isn’t 100% obvious.

One of my primary goals in all my teaching and preaching is for you to get excited about the  Bible and get better at reading it yourselves.

  • Read Matthew 9: 1-8. Possible points: Faith of friends, Jesus forgives sins, Jesus knows what we really need, Jesus reads mind, scribes are jerks, Jesus can heal paralytics, Jesus has authority to forgive sins.
  • Those are all true and valid, but only one can be “the point” of the story. Whatever else we do with a gospel story, we must be true to “the point.” Which one is the point?

Narrative Analysis

  • A bible story is still a story, with a coherent plot, because these are great stories told by inspired writers.
  • You can study the way the story is organized and learn about its meaning.
  • Stories have sections and a natural life cycle:
    • Settings & Characters – Characters can be real people – like in this story, or fictional, as when Jesus tells a parable.
    • There may be multiple scenes.
    • There is rising tension – what makes stories compelling.
    • Climax – when you are on the edge of your seat.
    • Resolution – “Ah” – when all the tension resolves.
    • Following  Action or Teaching (sometimes)
  • How do you use this to determine the point?
    • Isolate the story – make sure you get all of it, even if it spans across chapter breaks
    • Read it carefully a couple of times, as well as surrounding passages
    • Look for repetitions of ideas, key words, or statements of cause and effect
    • Then identify each of the above story elements in that story.
    • Usually the point is in the Resolution or the Following Action/Teaching.
    • If it’s a Jesus story, He will usually be the one to make the point and it will usually be near the last thing He says or does in the story.
    • If it isn’t a Jesus story, look for a narrator comment either immediately before or after. It could be a comment by some sort of trusted outside observer established by the author.
    • Were there repeated words or phrases – either within the story or echoing from other parts of that book of the Bible?
    • Who or what got the bulk of the space in the story? Usually the point is there.
    • What happened last? Usually the point is there.

Let’s try it out on this passage:

  • Setting: (Matthew 9: 1) – “his own city” = Capernaum
  • Characters (verse 9:2) – Some people, a paralytic, Jesus, and (verse 3) scribes
  • Scenes – Usually indicated by a change of characters involved or location
    • Scene 1 – Jesus forgives a paralytic (9: 1-2)
    • Scene 2 – Scribes accuse Jesus of blasphemy (9: 3-5)
    • Scene 3 – Jesus heals the paralytic to answer the scribes (9: 6-8)
  • Rising Tension – (verses 9: 3-6a) – the peak = “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”
    • This is the point – it’s the moment of maximum tension
    • It’s the last point of argumentation by Jesus
    • It uses a word that appears prominently through Matthew’s gospel
  • Resolution – (verses 9: 6b-7) = “Rise, pick up  your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. – This is Jesus’ last action in the story and it serves to prove his statement.
  • Follow-up (verse 9:8) – Crowd is used by the narrator to reinforce the point – “given such authority to men”