Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
We see today the calling of Matthew, also known as Levi. He had been until that moment a tax collector, a group known for oppression and malicious speech, a group not known to bestow their bread on the hungry or to satisfy the afflicted. Even an otherwise decent individual who was driven to such a position out of desperation would not easily remain unstained by it.
Matthew was able to recognize that he was sick and in need of a physician. He was tired of a life that defined by falsehood, that was so dominated by the importance of money. Unlike the Pharisees, Matthew had no illusions of righteousness on from the law. The Pharisees thought themselves righteous, that their works meant that were not sinful or sick or in need of healing. But they did not recognize that "by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight" (see Romans 3:20).
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
Matthew was able to recognize two things that enabled his profound response to Jesus. He recognized that he was sick, that is, his soul was languishing, not realizing the potential for which God intended made him. And he recognized in Jesus one who could heal him. In fact, he recognized in the very invitation to follow Jesus that he was being invited to come and be healed. What he was being offered was to leave the old life of sickness behind and embrace the new direction which Jesus represented, filled with hope and possibility.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you,
“Restorer of ruined homesteads.”
There is hope for all people who are able to recognize their need for the Divine Physician. The Pharisees offer us a cautionary tale, showing how our pride causes us to entertain illusions of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency that prevent us from recognizing our need for Jesus and turning to him. Let us instead see how our own efforts, like those of Matthew, left us still empty, still wounded, still in need of grace, so that we can welcome the invitation to receive that grace whenever it is offered.
When we receive Jesus from the raw and vulnerable place from which Matthew did we will too will want to invite others to share in the feast we have discovered.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
Jesus does not exclude anyone from his call. Pharisees and tax collectors are both welcome, and all stand in the same need of grace. Jesus shows favor to the strangers, the outcasts, the seemingly irreparably broken people of the world, in order to show that there are no limits to his mercy. We ourselves are often more like the Pharisees who don't recognize that we still, in every moment, stand in need of mercy. Witnessing profound conversions in the lives of others is meant to remind us that we are meant for more as well. Our own conversion must be ongoing. Our own healing is not yet complete.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment