Follow Me

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher sit with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Then the disciples of John came to Him, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

- Matthew 9:9-17

In yesterday's readings, the friends of a paralytic brought Him to Jesus for healing. Jesus is in Capernaum. He told the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." Some scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!" Jesus told them, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. Our Evangelist, Matthew (also called Levi elsewhere), testifies about himself. After casting away the sins of the paralytic, Jesus encounters a sinful man, a tax collector who works for the Romans. Tax collectors, in their job of collecting for the Romans, were also free to collect extra income for their own profit. My study bible says, "Their collaboration with Gentiles, and their fraud and corruption, caused other Jews to hate the tax collectors and consider them unclean. Jesus, with power to forgive and undo all offenses, calls to this tax collector, follow Me, and then dines with him and other sinners."

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher sit with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." The Pharisees are offended at this practice. But Jesus is here to call all people to healing, and there are many ways in which we heal. Sinfulness, as we discuss in yesterday's reading, is a condition for which the healer can help to forgive or let go, cast away what is "missing the mark" (the literal meaning of sin in the Greek). But the important thing is that we understand sinfulness as a condition that needs healing, and its connection to healing through the reading from yesterday about the paralytic. Called into Jesus' company, at His table, is a calling to leave everything else behind, and to be transformed. His forgiveness makes this possible. Christ's act is one of mercy, and is His priority. He is here to heal. Therefore, He can say, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." His presence gives the power and mercy of healing, and letting go (the meaning of the Greek word here in Matthew - see yesterday's reading - for "forgive"). We remember that it starts with a call, "Follow Me." Christ calls us somewhere, on a road, His Way, following Him and His teachings. It is this journey that Matthew begins when he follows the command, and will become a disciple and apostle.

Then the disciples of John came to Him, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast." My study bible points out that Jews typically fasted twice a week, on Monday and Thursday. "In addition," it notes, "public fasts were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed, especially on the Day of Atonement and in times of mourning. But the Jews saw the day of the Messiah as a wedding feast -- a time of joy and gladness, not a time of mourning and sorrow. Jesus here proclaims that He is that Messiah/Bridegroom." The image of the wedding feast ties in with the table at which also sit (former) tax collectors and sinners in this story -- those who have come for healing. It is at this table, in His company, that we are healed through His mercy -- a kind of grand reunion implied by the invitation to "Follow Me," a feast of communion. Here Jesus also points out that the day will come when His disciples will fast. That will be after He is taken away from them in the flesh. Fasting then will become a practice in the Church in remembrance of Him, and for holding fast to His teachings, putting our relationship to Him first.

"No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." Wine is the inseparable element for the wedding feast - that which celebrates covenant. Here is implied an Old Covenant and a New. The new wine comes through this mercy that acts to heal, the covenant initiated by Christ's incarnation to us. My study bible says, "Wine represents the spirit and energy devoted to a covenant; the new wine of the New Covenant is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed men, the inauguration of the long-awaited Kingdom."

So what is new here? The Old Testament is populated with sinners who repent, with Gentiles and others who even constitute part of Jesus' lineage. But let's consider this new wine and what it means. Jesus comes to make a new covenant, a new kind of shape of faith. We begin with the gift of Himself, incarnate, the one who can forgive sins, let them go. If we look very closely, we see over and over again the emphasis on relationship in the understanding of covenant. Those who sit at table are in a relationship with one another, they come together in something, in a spirit of something. Those who drink the wine together, at a wedding feast do the same. And those who come to Christ in faith also come into relationship with Him. Faith becomes the key here for something that goes much deeper than merely "I believe." Faith, as we've said before, is also trust. But trust in this powerful mystical reality of the Person of Christ is a far deeper relationship than the words "I believe" can carry on their surface. It is an initiation into a Way, and more than that, into something that will be at work within ourselves, a mystical covenant of great power, that transforms and heals. To enter into this covenant, this relationship, to drink the wine at His table, at His feast, is to be initiated into something far deeper and more profound than we can understand. It is to allow a kind of leaven to be at work in us, producing results we can't predict, that are not of our own work or hands. We enter into a journey, one that may take us to all kinds of places, facing all kinds of fears of our own, the places we miss the mark, and taking us around corners we can't see. The healing power of this covenant is love, but it's a love far beyond anything we know. When we show up to this table, there had better be plenty of room in our wineskins for expanding, because it is always a new wine at work in us and in our lives. He is the one who is constantly making all things new, and that includes those who come to Him in faith and answer His call to "Follow Me." Faith is a door to a deep journey, a long path, a mystical power. The wine of this covenant is the one we drink with our souls.