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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 the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do 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 after Jesus had departed to preach in various Galilean towns, He returned and entered Capernaum after some days, 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 was 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 saw 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 them, "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'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power of 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. Levi is also Matthew, and is considered to be author of the Gospel bearing that name. It's important, essential, that we understand what a tax collector was and what that meant in Jesus' time and place. Tax collectors were essentially Jews who worked for Roman overlords. They were assigned to specific areas to collect taxes and were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit. Not only were they collecting taxes for a hated foreign power, but practices of fraud and corruption caused other Jews to consider them unclean. With that understanding, Jesus' calling of a tax collector to discipleship is nearly outrageous in social context. But like the earlier calling of Simon Peter and Andrew, and John and James Zebedee (see Tuesday's reading), Levi is ready. He immediately leaves the tax office and follows Jesus.
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." Jesus doesn't just call Levi/Matthew to discipleship. Here He sits dining in Levi's house, with many tax collectors and sinners sitting together with Him and His disciples. It would seem that this ministry is opening up a kind of way for many who are now following Him. Again, we see the rapidity of Jesus' popularity. The scribes cannot understand how this is possible. But Jesus' response opens us up to the purpose of His ministry and the actions of God. It is the same healing message we have read with each reading since He began His public ministry: God's work is to heal, on all levels: "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." He is our Physician, and His Church is meant to be a hospital. Repentance is a form of cure, a process of crisis to healing, a liberation from what ails and afflicts.
The disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, "Why do 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." The customary fasting practice of the Jews at this time was twice a week, on Monday and Thursday. And fasts were also observed regularly or they were occasionally proclaimed -- especially on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, see Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning. But the day of the Messiah is another thing altogether: the coming of the Messiah is the Bridegroom arriving to a wedding feast, a time of joy and gladness. In John's Gospel, the wedding at Cana gives us an image of this wedding feast; the first sign of Jesus producing wine from water is the great image of Messiah as Bridegroom and bringer of the new covenant. Jesus alludes to the time when He will no longer be with them, and fasting will be an accepted spiritual practice and tradition of His Church, especially in awareness of awaiting His return.
"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." Here we have an image of "new covenant," the new "people of God." It will need a "new garment," and the wine of this covenant (and wine symbolizes covenant) will need "new wineskins" to grow, expand, and stretch to contain what is brought into the world here in this wedding banquet, in the gospel of the kingdom. In this perspective, the Law was viewed as imperfect and temporary, a preparation. The new wine, says my study bible, is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law.
The expanding wineskins pictured by Christ are not a "one time only" sort of image. They are for all time. The Kingdom that Jesus brings into the world is one of an infinite fullness; it keeps on expanding. Our reception of its teachings to us must keep on expanding. That is the nature of the Kingdom, because it is the nature of God and of the Holy Spirit to be infinitely creative and constantly opening up to us new horizons, goals, and light. As saints are made in the world, so the Church expands its understanding, and thus the "wineskins" also continue to expand. The fullness of this revelation simply can't be contained by anything we know or expect. Furthermore, the image of the wineskin, particularly in specific illustration of the newness of this covenant as tax collectors and sinners sit at table with Christ, the Physician, means that we as individual believers must also be prepared to be constantly expanded by the work of God in the world and particularly in us. What does it mean to be healed? How can we know the picture of perfection in God's sight? We are given identity in this expanding action, this constant revelation of ways in which God works in us and changes us. In Revelation 21:5, the One seated on the throne can be literally understood to be saying, "I am always making all things new." In Ephesians 4, St. Paul teaches that we are to put off the old man, and to "be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." The Old Testament also gives us the nature of God as revelatory, and promises of the renewing, surprising, transcending nature of the One who is to come and the Kingdom that comes. In Isaiah 43, the Redeemer of Israel says, "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." He later says, "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind" (Isaiah 65:17). What we have, then, is an ever-expanding wineskin, and an image given to us of what we are to be, and the impact of Christ the Physician, the Healer constantly working and renewing. This is an image of our faith, something we can't contain without constant expansion in order to keep up. It is a picture of the work of the Spirit not just in the world, but maybe more importantly in us, in each of us. It is the experience of this stretching and expansion that gives us understanding of the workings of our faith: it can't really be learned with theories and predictions. Let the Healer do His work, and all of life becomes about expansion, the world a hospital, our lives a journey of constant renewal and learning. Redemption is undoing barriers and obstructions and afflictions, and opening new territory in the truth that makes us free. And I believe we will always be surprised by how that happens, no matter what the expectation. We all need healing; repentance ("change of mind") means there will always be something old to let go, something new to learn -- and a new way to expand.
