Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick

 

 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 eat 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, saying, "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 

 

Yesterday we read that, after His exorcism of the Gergesene demoniacs, Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."  And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!"  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "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.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your teacher eat 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."  My study Bible reminds us that Matthew (the author of this Gospel) is also named Levi (Mark 2:14).  It explains that Roman overlords assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors, who were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit.  Because of their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption in extorting money from their own people, they were hated by fellow Jews and considered unclean (Matthew 11:19).  By dining with them and accepting a tax collector as a disciple ("Follow Me"), Jesus offends the Pharisees.  But His defense is both simple and teaches us about what He is here as Incarnate Jesus for:  He goes where the need of the physician is the greatest.  Jesus quotes from Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."  This is not a rejection of sacrifice per se, my study Bible explains, but it shows that mercy is a higher priority (see Psalm 51).  

 

 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, "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."  My study Bible tells us that the Jews typically fasted twice per week (Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday.  Moreover, there were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed public fasts (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21-23; Esther 4:16; Joel 2:15).  This was particularly important on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5, 8:19). But the day of the Messiah was viewed as a wedding feast; that is, a time of joy and gladness.   Here Jesus is proclaiming that day, and declaring Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, my study Bible explains, fasting is not gloomy but desirable, it is a "bright sadness," for in fasting we gain self-control and we prepare ourselves for the Wedding Feast.  The old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law, which are viewed as imperfect and temporary.  The new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ.  The new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law.  

 

Jesus says, "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."  In so doing, He frames His entire ministry in terms of healing, for He is clearly equating salvation from sin, and repentance, as part of the work of healing, and what a physician offers to those who are "sick."  In yesterday's reading and commentary, we discussed the metaphorical parallel between paralysis and sin, a sort of paralysis of the soul.  When we consider being stuck in sin or harmful habits and behaviors as a kind of paralysis of the soul, we begin to understand repentance as remedy and medicine.  Repentance is the way to transform and transcend behaviors and ways of thinking that keep us stuck in a pattern that is harmful or disordered, for repentance literally means "change of mind" (the Greek word is μετανοια/metanoia).  Repentance is quite simply a turning away from what is harmful and turning toward Christ instead.  It is a way to become unstuck, and moving toward the proper and healthful goal for all of us, which is ultimately union with Christ our Creator, who gives us true identity.  In the Orthodox tradition, the Church is often considered to be a hospital, reflective of what we find in the Gospels.  In today's reading, Jesus refers to Himself a physician, of whom those who are sick have need.  In the final verses of today's reading, He gives a vivid illustration of the pattern of change involved in spiritual growth, the transition from the old to the new, the opening up of the gospel to those who may come in through repentance.  Fasting will indeed be part of the New Covenant Church, but it -- like everything else -- will be transfigured in the light of Christ the Bridegroom, as we await His return.  Let us turn toward Him and fill the new wineskins for the new wine.

 

 

 

A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more

 

 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him."  When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son."

 

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male  children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:

"A voice was heard in Ramah,

Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,

 Rachel weeping for her children,

Refusing to be comforted,

Because they are no more." 

 Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life are dead."  Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.  And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.  And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."

 

- Matthew 2:13-23  

 

Yesterday we read that after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."  When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.  So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:  'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah;  For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'"  Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also."  When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.  And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him:  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

 

  Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him."  My study Bible points out that Egypt is where Israel once took refuge; as Joseph of the Old Testament once saved God's people by bringing them to Egypt (Genesis 39 - 47), now Christ's stepfather Joseph finds safety for the Savior in Egypt.  It is probable, it adds, that the gifts of the magi paid for this journey.  

 

 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son."   This quotation is from the prophet Hosea (Hosea 11:1).  It refers first to Israel being brought out of captivity.  In the Old Testament, my study Bible explains, "son" can refer to the whole nation of Israel.  Here Jesus fulfills this calling as the true Son of God by coming out of Egypt.  

 

 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.   My study Bible tells us that the cruelty of Herod was prefigured by Pharaoh, who, in an attempt to destroy the power of Israel, commanded the death of all the newborn Jewish boys (Exodus 1:16, 22).  

 

 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:  "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."   The prophet Jeremiah recorded the people of Jerusalem being led away into exile (Jeremiah 31:15).  On their way to captivity, my study Bible says, they passed Ramah, which was near Bethlehem, where Jacob's wife Rachel lay buried.  In his prophecy, Jeremiah saw Rachel, even from the grave, moved with compassion for the fate that had come to her descendants.  St. Matthew writes that Rachel once again is weeping for her children, and according to my study Bible, it shows that the saints in heaven have awareness and compassion for those yet on earth.  These slaughtered children are regarded as saints and martyrs in the Church and are known as the Holy Innocents.  Just as Rachel was told that her children would return from exile in Babylon (Jeremiah 31:16-17), so Jesus will return from His exile in Egypt.

 

 Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life are dead."  Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.  According to historical records reported by my study Bible, Herod the Great died in 4 BC.  So, the date of Christ's birth on our current AD (Anno Domini, Latin for "year of the Lord") calendar is based is off by four years.

 

 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.  And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.  My study Bible cites Augustus Caesar having banished Archelaus for his cruelty in AD 6.  This cruelty, it says, was revealed as a warning to Joseph, hence the detour to Nazareth.  This town was in Galilee, and governed by a different son of Herod the Great, whose name was Herod Antipas (see Luke 3:1). 

 

 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."  My study Bible tells us that this prophecy cannot be precisely identified.  It has been taken as a reference to the rod (Hebrew neser) in Isaiah 11:1, and to the Nazritie (Hebrew Nazir) of Judges 13:5.   It says that St. Matthew might also have been alluding to passages in which the Messiah was despised, since Nazareth did not have a good reputation (John 1:46).  

 

In these early "chapters" of Christ's life, we see that His entry into the world as Human Being was anything but simple and easy.  First of all, His pregnant mother and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem for Caesar's census.  This cannot by any means have been an easy journey.  Then, for the Savior of the world, there was no place -- no place to stay and to be born.  So He was born in a cave, used as a barn for animals, where the shepherds, informed by angels, came to adore Him (see Luke 2:1-20).  As we have read so far in St. Matthew's Gospel, the wise men have made their way from Persia to find this Child born under a star which foretold a tremendous identity and destiny.  In Bethlehem they are brought before Herod to tell him about the Child, but they manage to escape Herod when leaving through divine warning in a dream.  This is after they bring Christ their gifts of gold for a King of the ages, frankincense for the God of all, and myrrh for One who is Immortal and yet will be three days dead.  Shortly after, based upon the information he was given by the wise men (or magi), Herod orders the death of all male infants under the age of two years.  But Joseph -- similarly to the wise men -- has been divinely warned in a dream to take the Child to Egypt, and so they must live in exile until King Herod is dead.  Then this holy family returns, but the fear of Archelaus, new ruler of Judea, keeps them from going to Bethlehem, so they turn to Galilee to establish themselves there, where Jesus will be raised.  As my study Bible points out, Jesus will meet with disapproval and suspicion, even contempt, because it will be known that He is from Nazareth, a town which holds little importance in terms of prophesy and spiritual history.  But that, of course, will come from people who do not know that He was born in Bethlehem, the city of King David.  So let us start here, with all of these difficulties, present in simply the first few years of Christ's life.  We should note, too, that they are difficulties for His parents, His mother and earthly guardian Joseph, who take all precautions and take on hardships to protect this Child.  What does it say about the Incarnation story?  If you and I were writing a story about the King of all, the Lord of the universe, come into the world and born on planet earth in the form of a helpless baby, what would we write?  Could we even imagine these difficulties?  Would we write such a story of exile, of being despised and being hunted?  Would we invent a story of the wise men who come to honor Him but who are also in mortal danger for doing so, and must leave the country by evading King Herod?  I hardly think so, for our ideas about majesty and grandeur are not compatible with God's plans and the truth of the Gospels, and indeed, of the whole Bible.  One thing we can say is that most certainly, in His Incarnation, Christ most definitely experiences the dangers of life that we are subject to -- and maybe even more so than most.  Even as an Infant, He's subject to the hatred and envy of those in power and who wish to simply kill Him because He is already a perceived threat.  There are those who come to adore and worship Him, and even His mother knows not simply to marvel, but that she "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19), the way a loving mother pores repeatedly over pictures at various ages of her child, and landmarks in his childhood kept in a scrapbook.  Mary kept them all in her heart to ponder.   We can only imagine her distress to come after Jesus begins His public ministry.  But this is the story of our Lord.  This is the way that God has sent His Son into the world -- not to have an easy, simple, or comfortable life, but to share our fears, our dangers, our woes, our worries.  He shares our vulnerability to abusive power, to coercive military might, to cruelty, and to death.  He shares everything we share in a world beset by the effects of sin with which we cope every day, and the ongoing hatreds, lies, envy, injustice, and vicious behaviors we know and may experience.  He is also born into a world beset by temptations and the malice of demons, but that will become a special hallmark of His presence -- effects that will become immediately discernible to people once His public ministry starts.  But as we go on to read about Christ's life, let us first take a minute to consider these dangers and fears that we all experience that are already borne in upon Christ, even as a little Child.  Let us consider the sacrifices and love of His parents, and know that God's plan was not for worldly greatness, but for something quite different.  And in this inclusion in our subjection to the same difficulties and dangers, let us know that this is shared with us so that we are also born into a mission if we are His followers.  He did not come to be treated "like a King" but to show courage against the adversary, to teach us His way, give us His light and the Holy Spirit, so that we bring in a Kingdom into this world that is His together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  We are invited to share in a mission with Him.  And when we face a world shaken by senseless violence, malicious hatreds, cruelty that we can't imagine, and a host of evils and effects that frighten and terrify, He has been here with us and this is somehow, in ways we can't imagine, a part of the plan.  Midst all this strife and even senseless things to our minds, we  have a role to play, something important to do, and the salvation of the world even perhaps depends upon it.  There have been countless saints, martyrs, confessors, and unknown faithful who have lost their lives and faced perils for the sake of His name and His gospel.  Let us take up His mission and know the power of His Cross, the courage that He gives, the strength of His truth, and the meaning even in His suffering and that of those who follow.  For God's ways are not our ways, nor God's thoughts our thoughts, but His Kingdom is ours when we meet Him at His Cross, and carry our own His way. Nothing we know of in history has had the impact of Christ and His followers upon the world; let us continue to seek His way with prayer and through the living faith He teaches.  And remember that even the sparrows are known to Him, even the hairs of our head (Matthew 10:29-31).

 

 

 

How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

 

 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 again Jesus 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 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.  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."   Levi the son of Alphaeus is also known to us as Matthew (Matthew 9:91-13).  My study Bible explains that Roman overlords assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors, who were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit.  It notes that their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption caused other Jews to hate them and to consider them unclean (Matthew 11:19).  Jesus dining with them and accepting a tax collector as a disciple ("Follow Me") is an offense to the scribes and Pharisees.  But Christ's defense of His ministry is simple:  He goes where the need of a physician is the greatest.  He clarifies His mission:  "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."  Typically, fasting practices for the Jews included fasting on Mondays and Thursday (Luke 18:12).  Moreover, my study Bible tells us, fasts were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Esther 4:16; Joel 2:15), and most particularly on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and also in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5; 8:19).  But for the Jews, the day of the Messiah was foreseen as a wedding feast; that is, a time of joy and gladness.  Here Jesus is proclaiming that day, and subtly declaring Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, my study Bible comments, fasting is not gloomy but desirable.  It is a "bright sadness" because in fasting, we gain self-control and prepare ourselves for the Wedding Feast.  Moreover, the old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law, according to my study Bible.  They are viewed as imperfect and temporary, while the new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ.  The new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law.

 

 Of course, we know from an important story in the Gospels, that wine was essential to the celebration of a wedding feast (see John 2:1-12; Christ's first divine sign of seven in St. John's Gospel).  So Christ's comparison of old and new wine here is significant, because wine is symbolic and essential to covenant.  So it is also in our Eucharist; in addition to the understanding of the mystical presence Christ's Blood in the wine of the Eucharist, wine retains its covenantal meaning as well, for in taking our Eucharist we affirm that He is our Bridegroom and we wish to be united to Him as His Church, the Bride.  So when Jesus speaks of old and new wine in today's reading, we need to pay attention to the depth of what He's saying.  This isn't simply about a kind of preference in terms of a simple metaphor about what we drink, but its deeper sense is about how we live covenant, what we live by, what we know, and how we participate in the divine life of God.  One hallmark of that new wine is no doubt the element of forgiveness that is so crucial to Christ's ministry, and that becomes a counterpoint to the criticism of the Pharisees and the scribes.  Just as Jesus touched a leper (and therefore "unclean" person) in Monday's reading, something forbidden in the Law, Jesus' proximity to these sinners as He eats and drinks with them is offensive to the Pharisees and scribes, who follow the Law and the traditions built up around it as scrupulously as possible.  They, in fact, live their scrupulosity in seeking to serve God.  We can simply imagine, then, how they view Christ's behavior with these tax collectors and sinners.  But Jesus has a mission that they can't understand, and it is a mission of repentance for the purpose of forgiveness of sins.  So, as He says, He's come to call sinners to repentance, because repentance is essential to forgiveness -- and it is the freedom from sin that is the true state of wholeness or healing.  Thus, He likens Himself to a physician seeking to treat the cause of illness in those who are sick.  The Law for its purposes sought to ameliorate the effects of sin in community, to limit it, to protect the community from it.  But it did not have the power to forgive sin, for only God has that power.  As Jesus here insinuates, He has that power, for He is God.  Jesus does not openly declare Himself to be the Messiah (or to be divine) in an open or obvious sense.  But He does fulfill this role, and He is doing things that only a Messiah who was both human and divine could do.  The religious leaders will understand this, and therefore be offended by it.  His followers are those who drink the new wine and need it, for it heals what ails them, and they follow Him in the ways that He leads them.  But this wine needs new wineskins, which will expand with time and age and the powerful enzymatic properties of the wine.  As time passes, and the Church continues in the world, we continue to discover that these wineskins must expand.  We find new ways in which healing and repentance go hand in hand.  We discover that our own healing depends upon freedom from sin, not just limiting sins effects.  Real healing asks for a radical turnaround, and it needs what Christ gives.  Moreover, the Holy Spirit, the real new wine, must lead from there, always expanding, always producing new saints, always giving us its creative responses to what unfolds with time.  Let us remember we must be the product of that new wine, and continue expanding as it asks of us, for that is what repentance is for.  Today's reading is also a valuable and important lesson about the deceptiveness of appearances.  For the Pharisees and scribes are judging by what they see, and indeed Jesus is sitting with those who are considered to be notorious sinners.  But with the new wine we're taught that life is not always what it appears to be, and we must find God's way for us regardless of social appearances and pressures otherwise. With social media and new technologies, the powerful manipulation of image (and the demand that we pursue the same) is more potent and persuasive than ever.   Let us make that commitment with our covenant in the new wine of Christ, who teaches us to be wise as serpents and simple as doves, and gives us the Spirit for discernment midst all of the things we think we see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance

 

 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."  Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"

 

- Luke 5:27–39 

 

Yesterday we read that it happened when Jesus was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Him; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him.  And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering or your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded."  However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.  Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.  And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.  When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"

 

  After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Levi, also known as Matthew, answer's Christ's call to "follow Me."  He leaves his occupation to become a disciple, my study Bible comments.  It notes that from the beginning of Christ's ministry, He was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, which is one of the Pharisees' complaints against Him (as we read a little further on in the text).  Levi was possibly one of the tax collectors prepared for Christ by John the Baptist (Luke 3:12).  

 

 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  My study Bible comments that this feast is an expression of Matthew's joy and gratitude.  The guest register, it says, is a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness. 

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."    My study Bible tells us that Christ's earthly life is a time of joyous blessings.  But, of course, there will come a time when Christ's followers will be practicing the fast.  Jewish fasting practices would be transfigured in Christianity to reflect preparation for the wedding feast of the Messiah/Bridegroom at the end of the age.  Thus historically there have been practices of fasting in the Church to prepare for the feast of Easter, and also for Christmas and other short fasting periods before certain feasts or commemorations.  

 

 Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"   Christ here gives this parable of wineskins to illustrate the growing ranks of His Church, the New Covenant as it transfigures the Old.  My study Bible remarks that this final saying regarding old wine occurs only in Luke's account of this story.  It suggests that this last remark illustrates, first of all, the difficulty with which the Jews would accept the new covenant, and secondly, the inner resistance which a person faces in turning from a sinful way of life.  Finally, it teaches us about the general stubbornness of the human heart. 

The analogy of the old wineskins and the new illustrates an important aspect of the difficulties of repentance.  We always want what we are used to, and it's often hard to accept the new and what is unfamiliar to us.  We're used to doing things a certain way, or being taught that a particular habit or way of doing things is good and preferable in general.  But just as the new wineskins allow for expansion, for new members welcomed into Christ's Church, so the practice of repentance asks us for a constant type of growth and expansion.  Often our faith and our prayers might lead us to make new choices, new decisions we haven't made before, new concepts we hadn't considered to embrace, or perhaps new alternatives to the ways we've always done things in the past.  Occasionally we run into seeming roadblocks in our lives, and we can't understand why things are not working or we seem to have hit a dead end.  It's then that prayer and spiritual guidance can help us find ways to move forward out of our "stuck" places, giving us options and insight into new possibilities and new ways of thinking.  The "new wineskins" of Christ offer us an opening to consider that within His Church and as His disciples we are always asked to grow and to expand, for we are made to learn (the word disciple in the Greek of the Gospels literally means "learner").  To grow within the discipline of following Christ is an expanding way of life, inviting us to continue toward that wedding feast of the Bridegroom and His Church, for union with our Lord has an infinite horizon beyond what we know.  While we may consider that repentance entails turning toward something we already know, the word in Greek (μετανοια/metanoia) actually implies change, and it literally means "change of mind."  Let us consider the ways Christ calls us to change, to expand our own ways of thinking, to follow Him.  

 

 

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance

 

After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And he said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others  who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."  Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"

 

- Luke 5:27–39 

 

Yesterdays we read that it happened when Jesus was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately the leprosy left him.  And He charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded."  However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.  So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.  Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.  Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.  And when they could mot find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.  When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."  Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.  And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"

 

 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And he said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Here Levi (Matthew) answer's Christ's call to him, "Follow Me."  He leaves his occupation to become a disciple, as did Peter together with James and John Zebedee, in Monday's reading.  My study Bible comments that from the beginning of His ministry, Christ has been a friend of tax collectors and sinners, which is one of the Pharisees' complaints against Him in today's reading.  Levi may also have been one of the tax collectors prepared for Christ by John the Baptist (Luke 3:12) in the same way that Peter, James, and John were first followers of John the Baptist (John 1:35-51).  

  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others  who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."    My study Bible comments that this feast expresses Matthew's joy and gratitude.  It says that the guest register is a stirring demonstration of the fruit of Jesus' love and forgiveness.  

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."  Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved."   My study Bible comments on these verses that Christ's earthly life is a time of joyous blessings.  But there will come a time when His followers will practice the fast.  In Jewish practice, fasting typically occurred twice a week (Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday.  Moreover, additional public fasts were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed (2 Chronicles 20:3; 1 Ezekiel 8:49-50; Esther 4:16; Joel 2:15), especially on the  Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5; 8:19).  But, my study Bible says, the Jews saw the day of the Messiah as a wedding feast -- a time of joy and gladness.  Christ here is proclaiming that day, and declaring Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, my study Bible adds, fasting is not gloomy but desirable, a bright sadness, for by fasting we gain self-control and prepare ourselves for the Wedding Feast.

"And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"   My study Bible explains that this saying only occurs in Luke's account.  It notes that it illustrates several things.  First, there is the difficulty with which the Jews would accept the new covenant.  Then there is the inner resistance a person faces in turning away from a sinful way of life.  Finally, it teaches the general stubbornness of the human heart.  

Perhaps nowhere else do we read Christ stating so clearly that His mission is to heal than in today's reading, and His statement in which He compares Himself to a physician:  "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  If we may close attention to what He's saying, He's telling us something that isn't all that popular today in our common culture.  Christ is, in fact, describing repentance as the ultimate medicine for what ails people.  We don't often think of repentance as something healing, that takes us out of some form of illness -- whether that be a mental or emotional ailment, a spiritual or soul ailment, or even a physical ailment.  This is because our common conceptions of repentance are overlaid with a terrible burden of guilt or extreme shame, with the shadow of a punitive and accusative finger pointing at us.  But the word translated as repentance is μετάνοια/metanoia.  It means "change of mind" but in a deeper sense that if we were to simply think of it in intellectual terms.  This word for "mind" indicates a change in the inner person such that our way of thinking is transformed, including how we perceive things.  So repentance is a kind of transformation that changes who we are, our orientation to things, a recognition that we need to do something differently because it changes how we look at our reality.  If we perceive that we are hurting ourselves or others, a repentance can take place through a healthy sense of shame (not one that defines us), one that applies correction justly and reasonably.  Repentance in this sense is reorienting ourselves to Christ, to God, so that we are in better communion than we were before.  It is for this reason that it is the ultimate act of healing.  That's why it applies to all problems.  Even a physical ailment or hardship one cannot change is "healed" for the self through personal change and reorientation to how we will approach our lives and our relationship to God.   Twelve Step programs, if looked at closely, are a methodical approach to a plan for repentance, transformation.  All of our lives in the Church are directed toward this because we seek a deeper and growing dependency and communion with God through worship, through the Eucharist, through confession and repentance, through all the acts with which we dedicate ourselves to our Lord, including prayer and fasting.  A deepening faith isn't possible without this sense of repentance as transformation.  There will always be ways in which we need to change our minds to come to a deeper communion with God and the whole great cloud of saints.   As God is infinite, so then is our capacity to come to know God better, and this happens through this process of change, a willingness to be led like a child in the Lord's embrace, to reconsider and change one's mind.  It's also important to understand that we're not absolute like God is; we are creatures subject to change.  Therefore if we're not on the path toward God, we're headed the other way.  We don't stand still, we're not fixed points.  So these sinners become saved in ways that the Pharisees and their scribes cannot, will not -- because they don't necessarily think they have anything to learn from Christ, or see the ways in which repentance is for them, too.  They can't open their minds to that; as a result, throughout the story of Christ's ministry, they dig in deeper against Jesus.  Of course, there are great exceptions, like Nicodemus (see John 3), who comes to learn from Christ and eventually becomes a part of the Church.  Possibly our most known example is St. Paul, who describes himself as "a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee" (Acts 23:6), and was the most feared persecutor of Christians.   Philippians 3 is perhaps a very great statement on repentance, for in it St. Paul describes himself as one who has the greatest reason to have confidence in the flesh, in his spiritual inheritance and pedigree as a Jew.  "But," he writes, "what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:7-11).  This great giving up of what was his by flesh, so to speak, for the inheritance and gain in Christ is indeed a tremendous statement of transformation, repentance, and if we read closely, he describes it also as an ongoing process toward perfection, and one meant for each one of us to undertake, "for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).  The most vivid and succinct illustration Christ gives us of the principle illustrated in today's reading is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14).  This parable is found in Luke's Gospel, and is addressed "to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others."  Perhaps St. Luke, called the "beloved physician" by St. Paul (Colossians 4:14) had a powerful insight into the effectiveness and necessary means of this medicine.  He is the one who uniquely reports the difficulty of taking it, and what it repairs:  "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"  But nonetheless it's the new that we need, and that need is ongoing.

 

 

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him

 

 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God."  But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.  

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. 

 

- Mark 3:7–19a 

 

On Saturday we read that it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of the grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And when He had looked around them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.  

 

But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  At the end of our previous reading (see above), we learned that the Pharisees began to plot with the Herodians to destroy Jesus.  So, in today's reading we understand that Jesus withdrew in response to this, and also so that He would preach in other places.  Let us note that people now come to hear Him from all over Israel:  not only do they follow Him from Galilee but also from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and beyond the Jordan -- even those who come from the nominally Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon.  Christ's great popularity is another factor in the threat to their leadership the Pharisees feel because of Him. 

 

 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God."  But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.  The Gospels repeatedly let us know that there are not only the faithful who seek Him out, but also among the people are unclean spirits.   Let us note that these would seem to plague even those who seek out Jesus, just as there are other afflictions among them.  But His authority over the unclean spirits is clear, and they recognize Him.  But just as it is not yet time for His Passion, it is also not yet time to open reveal His identity as Messiah and Son of God.

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.   As multitudes gather to Christ from all the regions of Israel, a new turning point occurs for Christ's ministry.  It is time to appoint those who will become apostles, whom He will send out to preach.  Let us note that the tax collector earlier identified as Levi the son of Alphaeus is now called Matthew.   To go up on a mountain is an indication of the spiritually-led nature of this new change, and the communion with God that prompts this new revelation of holiness.  The word for disciple means "learner," while apostle is from a Greek word that means "one sent out" as on a mission.  My study Bible notes that they not only are disciples (they might be with Him) and to be sent out to preach as apostles, but also Christ gives them power to heal sicknesses and cast out demons.   This power was given to them by Christ, while He healed and cast out demons by His own power.  My study Bible also notes that the names of the Twelve are not the same in all lists, as many people had more than one name.  Besides Matthew/Levi, Bartholomew, for example, is also known to us as Nathanael.

It's interesting to think back upon our lives and recognize the various turning points we believe we've experienced; that is, times when our lives have shifted or pivoted onto new paths and we've made new decisions for the directions we'll go.  So it is with today's reading, where, going up on the mountain, Jesus institutes something new, a profound new development in His ministry.  He chooses the Twelve for special missions, to be given power, and to be sent out to the world.  They will learn from Him as disciples by living with Him and continuing as part of His ministry, and they will be sent out to preach, and heal sicknesses, and cast out demons as He does.  This happens because He will share His own power with them to do so.  Notably, Jesus went up on the mountain, and then called those whom He wanted to Himself.   Since we know that Jesus frequently goes to a mountain to pray (for example, Mark 6:46), and we also witness other events of a profoundly divine nature that take place on a mountain (like the Transfiguration), we may make note of the importance of this new change in His ministry.  Moreover, these mountaintop events seem deeply to be connected with prayer to the Father, and thus we might assume the Father's direction coming to Him as He grows His ministry and decides future steps in its growth and evolution.  Perhaps it is even in prayer with the Father that Jesus chooses which disciples He will call to Himself for this new mission of apostolic ministry.  It seems significant that it is at this stage where His ministry has evolved to attract so many people from everywhere in Israel that it is now time to consider appointing apostles and training them for their future mission.  But it shows us how God's blessings and plans evolve and grow, and the incredible notion that indeed, God shares power with human beings.  This work of Christ's ministry will not remain solely in His hands, but He will use human beings for His work and ministry to be carried on and outward to the world, as it continues even today.  We understand angels as beings that serve God in a ministering capacity, even going out with messages (the Greek word ἄγγελος/angelos means "messenger").  But now these are human beings who are chosen and prepared for such a mission, even to share in Christ's power for healing and casting out demons.  And that is a tremendous new understanding of the evolution of God's power and the kingdom of God among us.  We might even consider that in our own lives God tries to prepare us for a deeper spiritual sense of who we are and where we are going in life.  Our journeys in life are meant to be accompanied and guided by prayer, as Christ sets the true example for us, as well as the apostles and those who would come afterward in the saints of the Church.  For we, too, join that communion in faith and in prayer.  So, therefore, we must accept that we also may be prepared and guided with challenges that teach us about being a part of God's kingdom, and how to bear it into the world.  

 

But new wine must be put into new wineskins

 

 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 

 

And again He 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 those 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 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.  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."   Let us take note here that as first priority, this passage begins with Jesus once again teaching, and this time to all the multitude, by the sea.  Levi the son of Alphaeus is also known to us as St. Matthew.   According to my study Bible, he's the only one of the Twelve who has a powerful position in society, as he is assigned by a Roman overlord to collect taxes from fellow Jews in a specific area.  These men, backed by the Roman state, were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit.  My study Bible says that their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption caused other Jews to hate them and to consider them unclean.  For Jesus to dine with tax collectors, and to accept one as a disciple ("Follow Me") is offensive to the Pharisees, even scandalous.  But Christ's defense gives us the orientation of His ministry:  "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."

 

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."   My study Bible explains that in Jewish practice, it was typical to fast twice a week (Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday.  Moreover there were regularly observed and also occasionally proclaimed public fasts (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Esther 4:16; Joel 2:15), particularly on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31-34) and in times of mourning (Zechariah 7:5; 8:19).  By contrast, however, the day of the Messiah was seen as a wedding feast, a time of great joy and gladness.  Here, Jesus is proclaiming that day, my study Bible says, and He declares Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, it adds, fasting (such as in traditional Lenten practice) is not gloomy but rather desirable, a "bright sadness."  By fasting, we gain self-control and prepare ourselves for the Wedding Feast.  My study Bible also explains that the old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law, which are viewed as imperfect and temporary.  The new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ. The new wine, it says, is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law. 

I was recently listening to a podcast (see here) in which it was explained that we can read the Bible, and the various time periods given in the Old and New Testaments, as times of preparation.  In this light, the New Covenant given by Christ isn't a simply replacement of the Old Covenant, but rather it is viewed as a renewal of the Covenant between God and God's people.  Indeed, this perspective makes sense in light of the concept that Christ initiated a new time (referred to in its entirety as "end times" while we await His return), and that this new time began at Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, there was also an Old Testament Pentecost, associated with the giving of the Law through Moses.  This was called the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot.  As St. Paul explains, in this perspective the time of the Law given through Moses is "renewed" in Christ by the coming of the Holy Spirit; as such this renewed time means that instead of the Law written on tablets, this new time is one of the Law written on the heart.  See Hebrews 8:7-13, in which St. Paul refers to the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34) as being fulfilled at this time.  In this perspective stated by St. Paul, then, Jesus speaks of the new wine as that new thing which needs room in order to grow and to expand, the powerful force of transformation at work likened to something akin to the enzymatic action of fermentation.  Hence, new wineskins are necessary.  Jesus' metaphor of new wine teaches us about a new vintage which cannot be placed in the old container which held the old wine, for something new and dynamic is happening.  Jesus the Physician has come to heal, and that means calling not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.  Something new and tremendous is happening, and something transformational and powerful, that works like the enzymes of the yeasts at work in wine, in a way that is hidden and unseen to us, but nevertheless producing dynamic results we can see in the necessary expansion of the new wineskins.   So often we forget that our New Covenant is one meant to bring about transformational effects in us.  These are the effects of the laws the Lord has put in our minds and written on our hearts so that we turn and are healed (Isaiah 6:10; Matthew 13:15).  If we think of the New Covenant as not one that is simply "new" but is in effect renewed, then it seems that we come closer to understanding the power of our faith and its working in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.  For this dynamic action is not simply a one-time declaration or label we join with a single choice, but rather it institutes an ongoing process -- always renewing and at work within us.   The Lord's work is always making all things new (the literal meaning of the Greek in Revelation 21:5), and hence we are continually asked to renew ourselves and grow in these new wineskins of His covenant with us.  Our growth is meant to be a continual expansion.  Lent is a particular time to focus on this dynamic growth, making time and room to renew our life of prayer and our focus on covenant in the love of Christ.

 

 

 

 

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted

 

 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God."  But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.  

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.  And they went into a house.

 

- Mark 3:7-19 

 

Yesterday we read that it happened that Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

 

 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God."  But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.   My study Bible comments here that Jesus withdrew both because the Pharisees were planning to destroy Him (although it was not time for Him to die) and also in order to preach in other places.  Let us note that at this time, although it is still early in Mark's Gospel, a great multitude follows Jesus not just from Galilee, but also from the other regions of Israel, and even from Tyre and Sidon, which are Gentile regions.   His fame is similar to what we might call a rock or movie star today, which we read in the description that He must have a small boat ready, lest they should crush Him.  People with afflictions crowd around Him to touch Him, because He is known for the healings He has done.  Note also that the unclean spirits continue to identify Christ as the Son of God, for they know His power.  He warns them they should not make Him known, as it is not the appropriate time for His revelation as Son in His ministry, for all kinds of reasons.  He has sought to withdraw because of the increasing hostility of the religious leaders, who have now gone even to the Herodians to plot against Him in Galilee.  People popularly expect a political Messiah to deliver them from Roman rule, and He desires a kind of faith that does not come solely from the signs He does.

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.  And they went into a house.  My study Bible comments that disciples and apostles are often used interchangeably for these twelve.   The Greek word for disciple literally means "learner" (those who will be with Him), and apostle means "one sent out" (He will send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons).  We are told that Jesus gave the name Peter to Simon, and also that James and John Zebedee He has given the name Boanerges, meaning "Sons of Thunder."   If we look closely, we also observe that Levi the tax collector, the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14) is now called Matthew in this list.  My study Bible notes that the names of the Twelve are not the same in all lists, as many people had more than one name.   In Matthew 10:2-4, the names are given in pairs, suggesting who may have traveled together on their first missionary journey, as Mark will report they were sent out two by two (Mark 6:7).  

In today's reading, we begin to understand how Jesus prepares His ministry, how it unfolds in seeming succession, and step by step.  Now that multitudes are following Him,  He chooses the apostles who will be sent out; they are the Twelve who will also "be with Him," especially to learn from Him and be prepared for their future roles in the Church.  In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells them that they are not to go to the Gentiles, but to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:5-6), and so we may also assume these multitudes who follow Him from all around the region of Israel and even Tyre and Sidon are Jews from all of these places.  This is the foundation He must lay for what is to come, for the proper understanding of who He is and what His ministry must be about.  As He went up on the mountain to appoint these Twelve, we are also to understand the significance that this plan for an unfolding ministry, for creating a foundation for the future, is not made by Jesus "alone" as human being, but that everything is done in cooperation with God the Father.  This place of the mountaintop we can thereby associate with the change in the disciples.  Their new names given by Jesus may indicate for us the transformation happening so that they may now become apostles, and be prepared as those who will be sent out and become the pillars of the future Church.  In the renaming and transformation of these disciples, and on this "mountaintop" occasion, we also must by extension apply this understanding to all that is connected with our faith and our lives as those who are called "faithful."  As Jesus shows by His example at each turning point in His ministry, in the times when He is up on the mountain such as in today's reading, or departing to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35), we find that nothing happens without the involvement of reaching out to God and the communion of faith.  Even in appointing the Twelve, we don't know what considerations went into choosing them, but we do know that nothing happens without the involvement of faith and communion with God.  The names Christ gives to them express the change in them due the power of God.  This would even apply to choosing Judas (John 6:70).  Everything relies on a communion which does not simply include our fellow members in the Church, or our loved ones, but a whole communion of saints defined by all who live to God, with this divine reality at its center and acting as that which draws us together and gives shape to our lives.  This is true, also, of negotiating the evil in our world, and our own temptations and desires and needs for change.  So let us consider all things together and not leave out what we need to guide us, as we are shaped by our faith in Christ.