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Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins."
- Mark 2:13-22
Yesterday, we read that Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days of preaching in other Galilean towns, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who as carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus was their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to the, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'? Bu that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Matthew, as tax collector, is the only one of the disciples who has a powerful position in the society, and presumably (my study bible says) an education. He has probably already heard of Jesus. Follow Me, according to my study bible, is "a divine call, a command, not merely a suggestion. Of course, Matthew, like anyone receiving a call, must respond by his own free will."
Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. A note says, "In dining with sinners, Jesus shows the Kingdom's openness to the outcast, and its destruction of the barrier between sinful men and God. Jesus recognizes these people as a definable group. It is possible to follow Jesus and remain in one's social class; however, friends no longer come first."
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" My study bible explains that "the teachers of the Law sought to expel evil; Christ comes to transform it. Jesus does not become unclean by contact with the unclean. Rather, His touch makes the unclean clean."
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." My study bible says, "Christ comes to save and heal, not to judge (John 1:17; 3:17). There are righteous people who do dead works (actions which are good in themselves but are motivated by legalism rather than by love) and keep people from God. True righteousness comes through faith and is accompanied by wholesome works. Many Pharisees were masters of dead works; some tax collectors and many sinners would become masters of true righteousness."
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." As it is Lent, it's a good time to consider the practice of fasting, which was a practice among the Jews, and continued among Christians. In the midst of the fast, we consider the understanding of Jesus that here, the Bridegroom is with them, His friends. My study bible calls this "an expression of the messianic joy which accompanies the presence of Christ." Some people consider this episode to be a suggestion of the Eucharist. It adds that fasting isn't to be neglected as a spiritual practice, and notes that Jesus here clearly suggests His disciples will fast. But we must keep in mind what the practice is for, and what spiritual blessings it is designed to help bring about.
"No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins." My study bible tells us that this statement isn't a blanket condemnation of Old Testament traditions, which Christ has come to fulfill and not to destroy (Matt. 5:17). Rather, it says, "this verse stresses the newness of Christ's teaching. The old and the new cannot mix."
It's a pretty radical thing to think of Jesus calling tax collectors to be His disciples, and then eating in a home of the tax collector along with his friends in the same profession, outcasts of the society. I think it's important to remember that these people weren't considered outcasts just because they broke some religious rules, but that there's a broader sense in which they're disliked by the society. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Romans, an occupying Empire. And they didn't just make a wage this way; they were the representatives of Empire who made sure that the people subject to the Romans (like the Jews) paid what the Roman Empire demanded of them. Moreover, it was an easy job in which to extort monies for oneself in the process. We're not just talking about people who were "sinners" here in our understanding of that word, but about people who were detested by the community. Yet we're told that once Matthew became a follower of Jesus, "many tax collectors and sinners" also sat together with Jesus and His disciples, "for there were many, and they followed Him." It seems almost as if these people were simply waiting for a community that would take them in, someone who could forgive. Clearly, Matthew, the author of the first of the books of the New Testament, did not remain a tax collector, but became a disciple of Christ. So we may assume that each one of these people, in becoming followers, tried their best to follow what Christ would want of them. But Christ offers a hand, a link, to community, to redemption, to salvation. His love is powerful enough to overcome social obstacles, every form of roadblock to communion, to community itself. One other way in which we must see this picture is the openness to dialogue, the clear lines of communication via which He calls. "Follow Me" becomes an invitation for clear dialogue, one that lets us in as we are, but at the same time invites us to take stock, and to truly follow the Good, who is present in the Bridegroom, the person of Christ. A love that is big enough to include all of those things has to come from a place that is greater than we are. This is not about following Christ in terms of assuming that we are capable of being Christ ourselves. It is about finding that place of communion and dialogue in Him, finding our place in His community. One can simply imagine, then, the rejoicing in the presence of this Bridegroom! And that is surely a "new wineskin" that can expand to include all of us, cause for rejoicing indeed. I think what we take away from this picture is a sense of ourselves in relation to Christ, and as far as I am concerned, that's the whole point of Lent. It is a time for us to take stock, not of and by ourselves, but in dialogue and communion with Him. We can't see ourselves in our own light; we must see in His light. He illumines what we need to do, His call is the one that says, "Follow Me." Prayer, let us remember, is essentially a dialogue with God. We shape our lives through prayer, and especially in Lent with its tradition of fasting, by cutting away the extraneous, the externals, including our place in the society and the world, and we focus in on our relationship to that community that He shapes, in dialogue with Him, in the embrace of this love that is beyond what we know. Everything else takes a back seat -- and that is the purpose of fasting.
