The King James Bible: Matthew; Chapters 9-17

Again, while Matthew still is not my favorite reading so-far of The King James Bible, the chapter that really caught my interest for this week was chapter 9. This chapter is where we see Jesus in all of his glory; the man who can heal people before their very eyes. In this chapter we see him heal many people, healing a paralyzed man, a dead daughter, and a sickly woman just to name a few. Why I found this so interesting was because I interpreted these moments of ‘healing’ being a product of forgiven sins. Perhaps committing a sin can lead to bad effects such as death, paralysis, sickness, etc- almost like a karmic effect. Ever heard of the phrase ‘God doesn’t like ugly’? Well, maybe this is what is meant by that; ugly deeds result in ugly punishments. Many quotes from this chapter can support that idea, such as “…Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (9:2) and “…Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole” (9:22). Of course, the actions made by Jesus can not be done without suspicions. After Jesus cures two blind men and tells them not to let anyone know about what he has done for them, they do so anyway, leading to him eventually curing a mute possessed by the devil himself. When he had done this, it was said: “He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils” (10:34). We as people tend to not believe things that seem too good to be true; instead, we chalk up that these occurrences happen because of evil doings. This makes me wonder: do the people who claim Jesus of doing the devil’s work true believers of God? How could they know that he is sent down from God Himself yet believe that he is corrupt?