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.

 

 

 

For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance

 

 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 that 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 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, following the encounter and exorcism of the Gergesene demoniacs, Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came back to His own city of Capernaum.  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 that 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 tells us that Matthew is also called Levi (Mark 2:14).  It explains that Roman overlords would assign specific areas to Jewish tax collectors.  These Jewish tax collectors were then free to collect extra revenues for their own profit, using the power of the Roman state.  Because of their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption, other Jews hated them and considered them to be unclean (Matthew 11:19).  Here Jesus is dining with them and has accepted a tax collector as a disciple ("Follow Me"), and so the Pharisees are offended.  But Jesus' defense is quite simple:  He goes where the need of the physician is greatest.  "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" is a quotation from Hosea 6:6.  This is not a rejection of sacrifice per se, my study Bible explains, but it teaches that mercy is a higher priority (see Psalm 51).

 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do 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."  The Jews would typically fast twice a week, my study Bible explains (Luke 18:12), on Monday and on Thursday.  In addition, public fasts were regularly observed or occasionally proclaimed (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21-23; 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 the Jews saw the day of the Messiah as a wedding feast -- a time of joy and gladness.  Here, Jesus is proclaiming that day, and He declares Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  For Christians, my study Bible notes, fasting is not gloomy but desirable; it's a "bright sadness."  This is because, by fasting, we gain self-control and 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 who dwells in renewed people; who cannot be constrained by the old precepts of the Law.

 

 Jesus makes a seemingly radical choice in today's reading: He calls a tax collector to become His disciple.  We're told that He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  This might seem almost like a random event in terms of the way that you or I might read these words, but with Jesus, nothing is random.  He knows the hearts of people and He knows the ones He calls.  Matthew's response is an indication of how ready He was to follow and to become a disciple.  But Jesus' calling of the disciple Matthew (the author of our Gospel) is indeed a radical act, because Matthew is a kind of outlier.  He is, moreover, scorned and shunned by the community because he's a tax collector.  The next thing we read is that Jesus is sitting at table with a whole houseful of tax collectors and sinners, no doubt St. Matthew's friends.  This is yet another radical step, for He's openly among a community known widely as sinners, and unclean in the eyes of others.  In a sense, it's Jesus openly declaring His gospel by this physical act of attending a dinner.  He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.  Note that, yet again, everything is not quite what it might seem to us as we read this Scripture.  For Jesus is not sitting at dinner to simply approve of and enjoy this company.  Matthew has become a disciple, has decided to follow Jesus, and Jesus is calling this table to repentance as well.  The fact that He is eating with them is yet another radical act, for He has no concern that in so doing, He is sharing whatever sinful or imperfect behavior tax collectors and sinners might practice.  Just as He touched a leper when it was forbidden to touch the "unclean" (in this reading) in order to heal him, so Christ's sitting among these people is also an act of healing.  Christ has nothing to fear from closeness to those who are either physically or spiritually unwell in any sense.  This is because He is the divine Physician; He has come to heal, to set us on the right path and give us the right medicine we need for our ailments.  This invites us to understand ourselves as those who might also sit at that table, and the particular perspective that engenders in us.  Jesus doesn't come to Matthew's table to celebrate and laud Matthew or the other tax collectors and sinners, He comes as honored teacher, while Matthew is pleased to tell the world that he has become a disciple, and to share this with his friends.  So even if one is not a notorious sinner, nor hated as unclean or despised in community for some reason, we think of ourselves at this table as one of those who are imperfect, and who need Christ's guidance and healing prescriptions for our lives.  It invites us to think of ourselves as part of a community, in which there may be all kinds of sins and their effects present, and so therefore whoever we are, we are a part of a community that needs Christ and what Christ has to offer.  He, Jesus, has come into the world to be part of this community, to do His healing and preach His gospel within this community, and to call us out of that community to be His followers and practice His gospel as He teaches.  St. Matthew will go on to become an apostle, and author of this first Gospel that appears in our New Testament, and so he continues to call people to Christ from the midst of our communities all over the world.  Let us understand ourselves also as those who need Christ in our lives and our communities, and be grateful as Matthew who invites all to sit at His table with joy and thanks for His Teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted

 

 Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.  And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"  But they kept silent.  And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"  And they could not answer Him regarding these things.  

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:  "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.'  Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 

- Luke 14:1–11 

 

Yesterday we read that some Pharisees came to Jesus, saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."  And He said to them, "Go, tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'  Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

 

Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.  And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"  But they kept silent.  And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"  And they could not answer Him regarding these things.  Here Jesus once again builds on His words from earlier in the chapter, when He spoke to the ruler of the synagogue, who objected to His healing of a woman oppressed with a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years (see this reading from Wednesday).  Here He eats with scribes and Pharisees, in the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees.  They watched Him closely to catch Him so they might accuse Him (Luke 6:7).  Jesus is, of course, aware of this, so we know that all of His actions and words are chosen deliberately to teach.  This is the second time He mentions the efforts to save the life of an animal on the Sabbath, comparing it to their attitude toward healing human beings on the Sabbath.  We note that the animals are useful work animals, needed for commerce or produce or transport.

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:  "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.'  Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  This parable is directed toward guests (and will be followed in Monday's reading with one directed to hosts).  In imitation of Christ, my study Bible comments, perfect humility is expected of guests -- and we will see that boundless charity is demanded of hosts (see James 4:6).

Jesus teaches a lesson about humility in today's reading, as He addresses guests in His parable.  But clearly, Jesus does not simply speak to those at this particular table, nor is He simply teaching us about good manners.  (Although, frankly, this is a good teaching on being a guest and how humility is the basis for what has come to be understood as good manners.)   In the tradition of the Church -- especially the monastic tradition -- humility has come to be understood as the foundation for all the rest of the virtues, and the gateway to the rest of them.  For without humility, we first of all cannot honor God as properly we should be doing.  How does one honor God if we cannot put consideration of self second, and God first?  How do we learn and grow without humility?  For if we put ourselves as front and center of what we know, we are not going to be open enough to reconsider our opinions or be willing to allow a little light to change our minds, or to reveal new things we don't already know.  Moreover, one has to consider the primary importance of repentance to Christ's preaching and the message of the Kingdom, even from the prophets who came before, and John the Baptist who prepared the way in Christ's lifetime (Matthew 3:1-2).  To repent is to turn around, to change one's mind, to go from one road to another.  Repentance is not possible without some degree of humility, putting our own opinion second to something better.  So, Christ's words here in this parable teach us about God's response to our humility.  To be offered the more generous place at the table, to go up higher in the sense of glory as Christ uses that word here ("Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you"), is to be recognized in terms of our capacity for that honor.  In John's Gospel, Jesus tells the religious leaders, "How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?" (John 5:44).  In this sense, Jesus gives us this teaching:  "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  We will not find the honor that comes from the only God without first having the humility to seek it, and to put God first, before our own limited understanding of what is great, and good, and true.  Christ cannot say to us, "Friend, go up higher" unless we first are capable of advancing into the reality that He offers, the truths of the gospel He teaches, the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Luke 8:10).  It's also clear that there's another layer to the parable, and that's as it's directly told to these Pharisees and scribes (lawyers) who join Him at table at the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees.  All of these are the elite and educated of their time, the ones who are experts in the Law and the faith, who would spend all their time debating Scripture and the commands found therein.  So, their understanding of what is lawful and what is not is something they put great store in, so secure are they in their zealotry.  But Jesus' parable is a reminder that they shouldn't be so secure in what they absolutely think they know, and it's also a hint that they don't really know the Person they sit at table with.  They have no idea that He is Lord, and will be their Judge.  Humility, then, is their only key to hope, to be able to see what they don't know, and to learn what they need to learn, to find the only One who can tell them, "Friend, go up higher."  Then they will quite literally "have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you."  As they are in their worldly roles, they consider themselves to be the exalted ones, even as Christ is warning them, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 

 

 

 

 

 

But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me

 

 Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.  And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.'  But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.  For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves?  Is it not he who sits at the table?  Yet I am among you as the One who serves.  

 

"But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials.  And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

 

- Luke 22:24-30 

 

Yesterday we read that, when the hour had come, Jesus sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.  Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."  And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.  But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.  And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"  Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.

 

  Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.  And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.'  But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.  For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves?  Is it not he who sits at the table?  Yet I am among you as the One who serves."  My study Bible comments that this small-minded dispute is out of place in the context of the mysteries Christ has just revealed.  He corrects the disciples by first comparing them to the power-hungry Gentiles, whom they themselves considered an abomination, and contrasting them to Himself.  For Christ serves us even though He is Lord of all.  

"But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials.  And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."  Here my study Bible quotes St. Ambrose of Milan, who writes, "Christ judges by discerning the heart, and not by examining deeds.  So also the apostles are being shaped to exercise spiritual judgment concerning faith, and in rebuking error with virtue."  My study Bible also notes that the apostles will judge not with earthly judgment, but by the witness of their own lives.  As God's kingdom begins with the Resurrection of Christ, it says, so the authority of judgment has already been given to the apostles and their successors in the journey of the Church on earth (Matthew 16:19; John 20:23). 

 

 What does it mean to be a part of the kingdom of God? Here Jesus makes it clear that to participate in this kingdom, we must first receive it as it is given to us by Him (I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me).  We must understand it as a gift.  He makes it clear that this is linked to the fact that these disciples "are those who have continued with Me in My trials."  St. Ambrose, in the quotation from my study Bible, also clarifies that the means by which the apostles participate in that bestowed kingdom of God is "by rebuking error with virtue."  In this way they become the living stones spoken of by St. Peter:  "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4-5).  So if we are to break down these teachings about the kingdom of God, we are to understand that the gift the disciples are given really has to do with the persistence of their faith, and their willingness to engage in what we can call spiritual battle in this context:  they have persisted through participation with Christ in His trials, and fought such battles by rebuking error with virtue.  If the gift of the Kingdom also comes with the enduring presence of the Holy Spirit, then our lives as followers of Jesus, and inheritors of this Kingdom as successors and fellow disciples means that we, also, must seek to live this kind of life.  This is how we carry the kingdom of God within us and through the world.  This is given to us in contrast to the earthly desire for greatness expressed by the apostles, their misunderstanding of what Christ's kingdom will be about, and what it will mean to be participants in it.  Jesus is leading them through His example of service, and not greatness on worldly terms.  As those who are given this Kingdom, they also will continue in trials, as Christ did before them, and they also must rebuke error with virtue, as Christ did, and showed them His blessed way of life.  Imagine what kind of repentance must have happened among them to go from one expectation (of worldly greatness in an earthly kingdom) to another (of service, endurance in trials, and the virtue exemplified and taught by Christ).   As those who would seek to inherit this Kingdom, and to participate in it, perhaps we must also consider what that means in the same way -- that expression of virtue in response to error.  In a very pragmatic and materially-oriented society, it seems that many have given up on such a standard in social mores.  Where once there were socially-acceptable characteristics of politeness, today we experience applause for behavior that shocks or outrages (nominally in the name of "progress" or "rights"), or is violent or provocative, often for similar reasons.  Unfortunately thanks to the widespread use of all kinds of media, and the attention that follows, such behavior and its public expression frequently goes viral thanks to social media and its addictive and even voyeuristic nature.  So, rebuking error with virtue, in such an environment, remains a challenge within yet new contexts.  But we are still those who would inherit this Kingdom, and the one way to do so is by being those living stones, and participating in the ways that we are called to do so.  If Christ's kingdom is born through His trials, so that it may open to the world through His Resurrection, then such struggles, and the full story of Resurrection, become what we're a part of -- the energies of grace in which we participate.  Let us consider what our struggles are and hold fast to Resurrection, for there is where we find ourselves as members of that Kingdom.  Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.  We have already noted St. Peter's understanding of "living stones."  Let us quote from St. Paul also, relative to today's passage:  "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.  If we deny Him, He also will deny us" (2 Timothy 2:12).  Let us endure as living stones!

 

 

Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it

 

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  

 

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

 

- Mark 7:24–37 

 

On Saturday we read that the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Jesus, having come from Jerusalem.  Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.  For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.  And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"  He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:  'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me,  teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."  He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.'  But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban" -- '(that is, a gift to God), "then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.  And many other such things you do."  When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:  There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"  When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.  So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also?  Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying al foods?"  And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man." 

From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.   As this story appears in Matthew's Gospel  (Matthew 15:21-28), it includes a couple of details Mark's does not.  In Matthew's Gospel, the Jewish orientation of the Gospel is clear:  Jesus states there that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the woman uses the title "Son of David" for Christ, a Jewish term for the Messiah.  My study Bible comments that Christ went to the Gentile cities not to preach, but to withdraw from the faithless Pharisees, with whom He's just had another dispute (see Saturday's reading, above).  Here in Mark's Gospel, this is made clear when we read that Christ wanted no one to know He was there.  But, as we read, He could not be hidden.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."  In keeping with what was noted in the previous section (that Christ wanted a respite from His conflict with the Pharisees), Jesus makes His way back toward the Sea of Galilee in a kind of "roundabout" way.  He goes through the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon.  The Decapolis (a name meaning "Ten Cities") was a region of Greek and Roman cities, at His time mixed with Jewish populations.  My study Bible comments on fact that we are told, "He sighed," as Christ looked up to heaven and gave the command that His ears  be opened.  It says that Christ's sigh is a sign of divine compassion for the sufferings of our fallen human nature.  In His command to tell no one my study Bible sees a teaching that we mustn't seek acclaim or praise when we do good to others.  But Theophylact upholds those who disobey Jesus in this circumstance, and sees them as a good example -- that we should proclaim those who have done good to us even if they do not want us to.  Both teachings are valuable and compatible with one another.  We might also look upon this command as yet another attempt by Christ not to unnecessarily draw the attention of the Pharisees before His hour.  

In certain senses, today's reading conveys to us a character of humility in Jesus.   It's important to note, also, that this trait of humility is mingled with Christ's striking hallmark of compassion.  Perhaps it is most significantly these two qualities that mark saintliness in those whom the Church has honored as holy people.  We can read humility into the idea that Jesus really wants to disappear from sight for a while, and avoid confrontation with the Pharisees -- and so He travels into Gentile territory.  Looking closely at this map, one can see the cities of Tyre and Sidon on the coastline north of Galilee (in the area marked as Phoenicia).  And in the second part of today's reading, we can see that He goes out of His way to travel eastward in a roundabout circle, via the Decapolis, to come back to the Sea of Galilee.  All of this is to avoid more confrontation with the religious leaders from Jerusalem, the center of Jewish religious life.  All we have to do is recall Christ's divine identity, witnessed to by the miraculous healing that He does as well as His authority over the unclean spirit in the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman, to understand that His power and authority could obviously work to achieve all kinds of things for him -- including avoiding the Pharisees.  But He doesn't do that.  The time for confrontation is not up to Him alone or what His preferences are; in all things, Christ follows God the Father.  And that time for open confrontation will come when He enters Jerusalem on His way to the Cross.  In humility, He does what human beings need to do when the time for confrontation is not appropriate:  He avoids it, and travels far from the scrutiny of the religious leaders, and does not want Himself to be known, as the text tells us.  This is humility on a number of levels:  He won't use His extraordinary power to achieve what He means to achieve by some spectacular miracle or proof, He won't use that power in some miraculous way to avoid the Pharisees, He won't use any sort of manipulative power to overwhelm the human beings who seek Him.  He humbles Himself in accordance with His mission, and His fulfillment of the promise of the Incarnation that He live as one of us.  If we consider His reluctance to heal this woman's daughter, He also displays a kind of humility in accepting her request, as well as compassion.  Now, we might take a look at His words to her, comparing her to the little pups who beg under the table, and consider that what He says is uncharacteristically insulting and harsh!  But nonetheless, her bold and clever to reply to Him tells us another story -- that there is something conveyed in His manner so that she still has the confidence to approach Him and reply back.  Moreover, He yields and richly replies to her answer, even praising her for her persistence, and, we might suppose, her quick response using His own metaphor back to Him!  Reminding ourselves again of His majestic divinity as Son, we might find it surprising that He shows what appears to be a change of mind on His part, and yields to her persuasion.  Again, for the Son of God, this is a deep appearance of humility, to be persuaded by this particular woman to do something He at first refused.  But of course, this is also an expression of compassion, an exception that proves the rule, so to speak.  In the second healing, we find similarly a kind of humility in going far away from the crowd, and also admonishing the healed man's friends to tell no one.  In conventional human terms, we might think one would typically seek to be known for the good we do -- but not Jesus.  He has a mission to accomplish, and that is not how it will be accomplished.  That would not be in keeping with His obedience to God the Father.  Christ's sigh, as noted by my study Bible, is an expression of compassion for the suffering of human beings.  The command He gives, "Be opened!" as well as the expression that the healed man's tongue was "loosed" is an indication of liberation for human being kept captive by and hobbled by the things that ail us.  If we examine closely the actions of Christ throughout the Gospels, we will see consistent expressions of these qualities of humility and compassion, even as He heals and liberates.  His is a ministry that does not seek to "prove" things to those who won't believe, nor to "Lord it over" others by manipulation or force of any kind.  We must somehow meet Him with the faith that recognizes the goodness in His qualities, the desirability of such a Lord who is gentle and lowly of heart, and seeks to be "like Him."  If we think about it, the traditional qualities we learn from custom and culture which indicate what it is to be a gracious person all come from Christ.  Let us all endeavor to remain the people who can appreciate and cherish these qualities, seeking to emulate and value them in our lives.  

But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved

 

 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 healing two demon-possessed men in the country of the Gergesenes, Jesus got into a boat, crossed back over the Sea of Galilee, and came to His own city of Capernaum.  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."  Matthew (the author of the Gospel we are reading) is also named Levi (Mark 2:14).   As Israel was under the rule of Rome, Roman overlords assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors, and my study Bible explains that these tax collectors were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit.  Backed by the Roman state and power, they could practice extortion on their own people.  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 to be unclean (Matthew 11:19).  As Jesus both dines with them and accepts a tax collector as a disciple ("Follow Me") , this offends the Pharisees.  But Christ's defense is simple:  As our ultimate healer, He goes where the need of the physician is greatest.  My study Bible adds that Jesus' quotation from Hosea's prophecy (Hosea 6:6), "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," isn't a rejection of sacrifice per se, but rather 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 explains that the Jews typically fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12), on Monday and Thursday.  Additionally, there were regular public fasts which were observed and occasionally proclaimed (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; 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 the day of the Messiah was seen as a wedding feast -- a time of joy and gladness.  Here Jesus is proclaiming that day, and declaring Himself to be the Messiah/Bridegroom.  My study Bible adds that for Christians, fasting is not gloomy but desirable, a "bright sadness," for by 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, 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.  

What is your new wine?  What does your new wineskin look like?  Our faith often seems to teach us that we live in a kind of fine tension between practices we know and honor, and which are always helpful to us, and the new exuberant life which is sudden and surprising and through which the Holy Spirit works in us.  Sitting in a liturgy that dates itself to centuries past, we find tremendous truths and beauty that is waiting for us to discover it, as the Holy Spirit, while we're in prayer, will open up our eyes to what is there, what has always been there, and yet is working in us now.  We might engage in fasting practices which don't find much popular favor necessarily in the Church worldwide, but we'll find that they do indeed teach us the kind of self-mastery that allows us to rise above our own habits and seeming limitations, teaching us that we have a power to aspire to the capacity to say "No" to what plagues and ails us.  These old practices are not meant to be restrictions in and of themselves, but rather platforms; they are meant to give us structure, rails within which we can move and live and move forward on the right track, so to speak.  Just like the stunned and offended Pharisees in today's reading, we might not necessarily like or expect what that surprising new wine will do, what the new wineskins look like.  But there is one thing we can be certain about, and that is that when we plant our faith where it belongs and do all we can to nurture it, we are calling on the Physician who knows what's best for us, who will call all of us beyond what we know and expect -- even through the practices that are meant to give us proper structure for that journey, which have served for many centuries, through the saints who came before us and helped to show us the way, God's power in that new wine revealing itself through those who came before us in faith.  Let us take on those new wineskins and become the new wine, and turn to the fasting that is in preparation for the Bridegroom, the resources ready to help make that happen, to a faith that is always surprisingly new.  The Bridegroom says, "I am always making all things new" (Revelation 21:5).  The tension between what is, what was, and is to come, is always there in His presence and in the Church, and it is there we dwell and practice our faith (Hebrews 13:8, Revelation 4:8).

 

 

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

St. Matthew.  Painted miniature, Gospel head-piece.  Illuminated Armenian Gospels with Eusebian canons, 1609.  Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

 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 Christ's healing of the demon-possessed men, Jesus got into a boat, crossed over the Sea of Galilee, and came to His own city of Capernaum, the site of His Galilean ministry "headquarters."  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."   Mark's Gospel tells us that Matthew is also called Levi (Mark 2:14).  My study bible explains that Roman overlords assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors.  In turn, these tax collectors (such as Matthew/Levi) were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit, backed by the might of the Roman state.  Because of their collaboration with the occupying Romans, their fraud, and their corruption, other Jews to hate them and to consider them unclean (11:19), my study bible says.   We can understand, then, how shocking it is that Jesus dines with them and also accepts a tax collector as a disciple ("Follow Me"), and therefore the offended response of the Pharisees.  But this gives rise to the occasion upon which Christ can define His surprising ministry:  "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  His answer frames His ministry as movement for healing of all kinds:  Christ goes where the need of the physician is greatest.  My study bible says that "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" (as Jesus quotes from Hosea 6:6) is not a rejection of sacrifice per se.  Rather it shows that mercy is the higher priority (see Psalm 51).   In this case, Jesus makes it clear that repentance is a form of healing, and is part and parcel of God's mercy.

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."  In Jewish traditional practice, fasting was done twice a week, on Monday and Thursday  (Luke 18:12).  Additionally, there were regularly-declared public fasts or others were occasionally proclaimed (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).  But Jesus contrasts fasting with the wedding feast of the day of the Messiah.  This is a time of joy and gladness, and the Incarnation is the time when the Bridegroom is with His friends.  So Jesus declares in this passage.  My study bible says that for Christians, fasting is not gloomy but desirable, and calls it a bright sadness, because by fasting we gain self-control and prepare ourselves for the Wedding Feast (Christ's return). 

"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 explains that the old garment and old wineskins stand for the Old Covenant and the Law.  In this perspective, as Christ presents them here, they are viewed as imperfect and temporary.  The new wineskins are the New Covenant and those in Christ, and in particular the healing ministry He characterizes by referring to Himself as Physician, and the joy of the friends of the Bridegroom through the Incarnation.  My study bible explains also that the new wine is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed people, who can't be constrained by the old precepts of the Law, which cannot expand to hold what is new.

In today's reading, it's important to understand that Christ presents His ministry as that of a physician.  He's come to heal.  Therefore He goes to the ones who transgress the Law in order to bring repentance to them.  Moreover, He is the Bridegroom, the One whose wedding feast brings joy to the people.  This also is a picture of healing, as the wedding feast is the union of Creator and God's people, a supremely longed-for restoration of true community and harmony, and a return to the life meant to be good as given by God.  So what is healing for us?  How is it related to repentance?  If we're thinking in a highly legalistic way, there aren't going to be a lot of gray areas.  If one thinks in terms of transgression and failure, we can get stuck in limited thinking that fails to consider that repentance, in the context of the grace which Christ brings,  is able to heal and restore right-relationship and community.  Let us keep in mind that "right-relationship" can be among the community, between ourselves and God, and even an internal disposition to the things which are truly good for us, the true "natural" state for which we were created to begin with.  Repentance can work to build such a state in us, and it can work on a continual kind of basis -- and especially through prayer -- to help to heal us in ways we wouldn't expect through merely worldly considerations or expectations.  How does one heal, for example, abuse which has fractured or disfigured an understanding of what love is?  How can God as Physician step in and remedy what has been broken in community?  If we take the example of the Jewish tax collectors of this Roman period, they are seen as breaking community by acting as predators for outside, occupying forces.  Therefore, they could remain on the outside, or through the "intervention" of the Incarnation, they can come to a repentance and forgiveness of sins so that they may be restored to community, and participate as those who may be restored to right relationship through repentance.  There is the exercise of medicine at work, a corrective effort which means restoration in the eyes of God.  This requires the capacity to expand, to see what is possible, to allow for repentance to do its work.  But it also asks us to admit that as human beings we can be healed.  A tax collector can be restored to community through divine help, even to repentance which does not come from punitive measures but rather from a change of heart, the work of a kind of love (or mercy) that can reach where the worldly can't go.  My study bible calls the "new wine" the Holy Spirit, whose energies in us can bring surprising change which can't easily be explained through worldly experience.  Anyone with a deepening life of prayer, for example, may testify to the kind of love encountered that expands our own worldly experience of love to include potentials we may not have been given within a worldly family life.  So even a tax collector, used to extorting with the help of the Roman state, can come to terms with a justice that must be practiced for true community, and find a new way to live within the community of Christ.  It calls us to wonder about the ways in which we, too, need to expand our understanding of potential and possibility within the healing ministry of Christ the Physician in our own lives and communities, as we see new ailments (or old ailments in new forms) through rejection of the good.  Where do you need restoration and healing?  How do you find a way to a better life in the community of the friends of the Bridegroom, the entire communion of saints and the Body of Christ?  Are there examples that help us expand to see a better way, with the new wine and the new wineskins that will make room for new potentials?  These are the questions to ask ourselves.  And it is important to remind ourselves that they are continually expanding.  What we may think is impossible to solve becomes possible with God, and with faith.  We simply need to make room for our own "change of mind" to find Christ's way to do it.  We will always be asked to stretch.  The new wine continually expands, and so do the wineskins.    This is something we need to keep in mind through the whole of our lives, as the way of our faith may bring us new surprises, and call on us to encompass new possibilities all along the way.   So important is the idea of expansion that Christ's example of new wine and its enzymatic action isn't the only metaphor he'll give for the work of the Spirit.  He will also use leaven, as a positive image, to teach us about the work of God in us (Matthew 13:33)  Let us endeavor to find His way through all things, especially when we feel we're stuck, or we've come to a "dead end," or an impossible hurdle or impasse.    For Christ our Physician there is no such thing, if we seek His way.

Your faith has saved you. Go in peace

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him.  And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.  And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.  Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you."  So he said, "Teacher, say it." 

"There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.  One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he free forgave them both.  Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more."  Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more."  And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."  Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see the woman?  I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.  You gave Me no kiss, but the woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."  Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace."

- Luke 7:36-50

In yesterday's reading, two disciples of John the Baptist were sent to Jesus, asking, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"  John is in prison.  Just at that time, Jesus cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight.  Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard:  that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me." Then He began to defend John to the crowd.  "What did you go out into the wilderness to see?  A reed shaken by the wind?  But what did you go out to see?  A man clothed in soft garments?"  Jesus said John was a prophet and more than a prophet.  "For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Luke tells us that when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.  But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. Jesus compared them to children playing an ancient game, in which one group either played or mourned, and the other was to respond by either dancing or weeping.  He said the "men of this generation" are "like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:  'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; We mourned to you, and you did not weep.'  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'  The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'  But wisdom is justified by all her children."

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him.  And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.  And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Here's an interesting scene:  Jesus is dining in the home of a Pharisee, an individual who is open to Jesus' ministry although as a group the Pharisees oppose Him.  And then a woman, who is known as a sinner, came to the home, and with this great act of love and apparent contrition, came to Christ.  Perhaps we can read into her anointing of His feet her recognition that He is the Christ, the Anointed One.  We note that she also "anoints" with her tears.  Her actions in some way resemble baptism -- what she seeks, to be reborn:  washing with water, anointing with oil.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you."  So he said, "Teacher, say it."  "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.  One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he free forgave them both.  Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more."  Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more."  And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."  Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see the woman?  I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.  You gave Me no kiss, but the woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."  Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace."   My study bible notes, "This is a great encouragement to all who feel so much of their lives has been given over to sin.  In the mercy of God, a sinful past is not a hopeless liability.  Forgiveness comes to those who truly love Christ."  It adds, "The Scriptures speak of many things that contribute to our salvation:  a believing spouse (1 Cor. 7:14-16), prayer (James 5:15) and baptism (1 Pet. 3:21).  Here Jesus names a basic one:  personal faith." 

With Jesus, love, faith, and forgiveness all go hand in hand.  We have to remember our basic relationship with Him and what is characterized in it.  I find that when I go to God with whatever problem I have, whatever shortcoming I find or think I'm guilty of, there's always a serene sort of acceptance with the resolution that I simply try and start over and try to do better.  Christ is like the parent who simply wants His child to truly love Him, to learn and to grow.  It seems that God's love extends to us in ways in which it is clear that what is desired is always what is best for us.  Here, there's no doubt from the story that she truly is a sinner, whatever that may mean has happened in her life.  She accepts it as well.  But her love and faith is great; her total confidence given over to Christ in tears and the beautiful fragrant oil so powerfully and vividly described by Luke.   But there is a real exchange of love here.  This is not a formulaic answer to problems, a kind of exchange of payments or penance.  There is something more, greater and deeper.  An exchange of love like this is true koinonia, communion in the Greek.  In communion with Him, we exchange our sinfulness in love, we start over in faith.  There's an assumption here, with her tears, that she wishes to change her life, as she wipes her own past clean with the tears that bathe Christ's feet.  What she does for Him in her act of love is also what she wishes for herself, and this she receives and so much more:  His blessing, His peace, His forgiveness.  In the relationship of love and faith in Christ, a depth of communion, we make an exchange that is quite above and beyond any legalistic framework that we understand on our worldly terms of daily life, and instead receive an abundance in a kind of sacramental love.  We give up our pasts, our understanding, our lives, in exchange for what He offers to us instead, walking with Him in His Way.  And that's what we have to remember that God's love is all about.  It's a relationship of the depth of communion.  Christ takes everything we can offer Him to His heart, and in exchange gives us new life.  This happens through love and faith.  Our brokenness, our imperfection is what He asks us to offer; our tears, our prayers, our faith and trust, and our love.