.jpg)
a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
We might imagine that Matthew was not entirely satisfied with his work as a tax collector. The Romans would not have entirely accepted him because he was Jewish. And his own people would have seen him as a traitor who collaborated with the occupying force. It paid the bills, perhaps, but at the cost of cutting him off from socializing with any but outcasts like himself.
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
When Jesus came to Matthew he was still sitting at the customs post. If he was indeed dissatisfied with this work he had not yet expressed it, not yet made any attempt to extricate himself from it. Maybe it still seemed like his best option or maybe he simply despaired of the existence of any better choices. But this lack of movement on the part of Matthew did not stop Jesus. He did not wait for Matthew to first remove himself from that situation, but rather entered into it, and called him out from it.
He said to him, "Follow me."
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Why were these words of Jesus so immediately compelling to Matthew that he immediately got up and left everything behind? It was not simply because Matthew was dissatisfied, and here at last was an option other than his current one. It wasn't merely another competing choice, something that would compare favorably in a cost/benefit analysis. There was something more immediately irresistible about the invitation Jesus gave, having in it the same sort of power that made fishermen leave their profession and their nets to follow him.
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi
Jesus saw Matthew. We may easily imagine that this was the first time, at least in a while, that Matthew had felt so fully seen, known, and comprehended. For years, most folks probably saw only categories: tax collector, traitor, collaborator. But Jesus saw his heart. Because Matthew experienced being seen by Jesus he was thereby elevated out of mere categories into his unique human individuality. It was in this condition that he heard Jesus say, "Follow me."
He said to him, "Follow me."
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
How could he not follow this one who saw him and knew him, whose very gaze opened no vistas of possibility and promise? Of all the alternatives to tax collecting Matthew might have considered it is doubtful that this possibility ever entered into his mind. It was Jesus himself who, by inviting him, opened a new path that he was now free to choose. By this invitation Jesus shattered the bondage Matthew recognized in every other option he might have chosen. Here, to Matthew's surprise, he found a new and radical freedom, one only possible in response to the invitation of Jesus himself.
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.
We can see in the response of Matthew a joy he had never experienced before and which he now felt so intensely that he had to share it. It demonstrated to tax collectors everywhere that there was hope for them, just as there was for Matthew.
"Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
The Pharisees, however, spoke aloud what must have been the initial suppositions of Matthew and all tax collectors, that no holy man could possibly welcome tax collectors and sinners. Jesus had already shattered that supposition for Matthew by his invitation. He now shattered it for all at the banquet, giving all of them permission to hope in him.
Jesus said to them in reply,
"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."
Jesus did not plan to leave those sick with sin in their illness. Accepting his invitation was radical and dangerous because doing so would necessarily result in an inner transformation. By accepting it repentance was already implicit. As those who accepted it followed Jesus that transformation would reforge old habits of thought, word, and deed, until they became like the one whom they chose to follow.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples
The Pharisees were apparently intimidated to go to close to the unpredictable wellspring of freedom that Jesus himself was proving to be. But they weren't done trying to shut the doors Jesus had opened, their preconceptions and prejudices scrambling to remove the healing salve Jesus had already begun to offer. We should see in them a warning. We become like them whenever we allow ourselves to be convinced that there is a person that Jesus cannot reach, to whom he cannot offer freedom, at least until that person takes a few steps on their own. We should instead recognize the lesson Matthew learned: that Jesus can burst suddenly and unexpectedly and to the darkness of any situation offering in its place freedom and life.
The Lord is calling us to see others generously, with an eye toward their potential for fulfillment in him. We are called to do all we can to make the unlimited potential the Lord sees in them to be a concrete reality in this world for them, to give them choices were there seemed to be none.
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
No comments:
Post a Comment