As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
Sitting at the customs post represented Matthew's whole life to that point. Because he was a tax collector he was lumped in the category of sinners and treated as an outcast. The horizons of his life were limited by that choice of occupation. Even if he managed to make a living he did not have much in the way of true freedom. We can imagine that he found his situation unsatisfying but could not think of a way out. Until Jesus appeared.
He said to him, ""Follow me.""
And he got up and followed him.
Just like that what had seemed impossible became possible. Where they had been no way there was now a way. Jesus spoke the possibility of a new way of life into being by his invitation to follow him. This was so obviously the very thing for which Matthew always longed but which he could never define or explain that when it was revealed to him he responded immediately. He was captivated by Jesus and his invitation as by beauty, shocked out of his complacent ego protected shell and given a glimpse of a larger world.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
Matthew, because he himself was a tax collector, had no qualms about welcoming any others who wanted to be near Jesus himself. The Pharisees, by contrast, because they thought so highly of themselves, were scandalized. But the pride of the Pharisees did nothing and achieved nothing accept keeping them from coming to Jesus. They supposed themselves to be those who were well and therefore refused to come to the physician. But their sin sick condition was evident to all but themselves, since, as they Jesus told them later, "you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in" (see Matthew 23:13).
We know that we are encouraged to see ourselves as sick and in need of a divine physician, as sinners in need of mercy. But often we slip into acting as Pharisees almost without realizing it. We come to believe that we have already been transformed enough and no longer need Jesus moment to moment. We come to act independently and even selfishly once again, and the telltale sign is that we take offense at the sort of company Jesus continues to keep, with the tax collectors and sinners of our day. It takes humility to realize that our transformation in Christ is not one and done. The sacraments we receive are seeds of grace that take a lifetime and beyond to fully bear their fruit. This life is still a battle between the old self and the new, and it is a battle we can only win if we remain under the care of the divine physician himself.
""Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.""
It is better to see ourselves as broken and in need because then we are among those who most qualify for grace and mercy. Then we won't posit obstacles between ourselves or others and Jesus himself. His plans for us are better than our own plans, which usually amount to little more than those of Matthew the tax collector. His plans are in fact for a wedding feast. We who were once sick will then find to our surprise that it is we who are his spotless bride (see Ephesians 5:27) as many nuptial meetings in the Old Testament foreshadow.
Then Isaac took Rebekah into his tent;
he married her, and thus she became his wife.
No comments:
Post a Comment