Readings
- Jeremiah 31:27–34
- Ephesians 5:1–20
- Matthew 9:9–17
- Psalms: 102; 107:1–32
Matthew 9:9–17
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?"
And Jesus said to them, "The wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."
Notes
Verses 9–13. Calling Matthew. Matthew (also called Levi in the other gospels) was almost certainly not a stranger to Jesus. Jesus has been operating out of Capernaum and walking the road along the Sea of Galilee; Matthew's tax-collection booth was a regular fixture on that road. Discipleship in the gospels rarely comes from nowhere. The relationships were already there.
But Matthew was notorious. Tax collectors in Roman Palestine were Jewish men who had taken jobs as collaborators with the imperial occupation. They collected on behalf of Rome and made their living off the margin. They were despised both as a class and as individuals. Inviting Matthew to follow him is, in the local imagination, Jesus extending the kingdom invitation to a tool of the empire.
Matthew gets up and follows, but he does not liquidate his life. He still has a house. He still hosts a dinner. Follow me in the gospels does not necessarily mean abandon everything. Sometimes it means redirect everything you have toward the kingdom.
Verse 10. "Many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples." The Greek is reclining, the standard Greco-Roman posture for a formal meal. Who you ate with was almost as defining as who you slept with. Jesus is publicly reclining with tax collectors and notorious sinners.
Verses 11–13. The Pharisees ask the disciples why Jesus eats with the wrong people. Jesus answers with a doctor's saying ("those who are well have no need of a physician") and then a sharp instruction: go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." The line is from Hosea 6:6. Go and learn is rabbinic language for what a teacher tells a junior student. Jesus is telling the Pharisees, somewhat acidly, to go study scripture they should already know.
The admission of need is the first step toward liberation.
Jesus is perfectly willing to offend people. He just refuses to offend in the direction the religious establishment expects. He offends the insiders for the sake of the outsiders.
Verses 14–17. Fasting and wineskins. John the Baptist's disciples come asking why Jesus' followers do not fast. (Yes, John has his own circle of disciples. A rabbinic system of some kind was already in motion) Jesus answers with the bridegroom image: the wedding party does not fast while the bridegroom is in the room. Fasting is a sign of waiting. The thing being waited for is here.
And then the famous double-image. New cloth sewn onto old fabric tears the old. New wine poured into old skins bursts them. The kingdom Jesus is bringing cannot be patched onto the existing religious order. It needs new structures, new categories, new wineskins.
By this point, Jesus is building a reputation as a drunkard and a glutton (the charge surfaces explicitly in 11:19). Fasting can be piety. So can a feast.
Questions for reflection
Who you eat with is almost as defining as who you sleep with. Who are you publicly reclining with, and what does that say about whose company you have decided to be associated with?
Jesus offends, but he offends in the direction of the insiders, for the sake of the outsiders. Where might you be offending in the wrong direction, losing outsiders to protect the comfort of insiders?
