Lectio Divina: Matthew 9:9-13

Jueves, 04 Marzo 2010 08:16

Lectio Divina: Matthew 9:9-13

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Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Father,

You call Your children

to walk in the light of Christ.

Free us from darkness

and keep us in the radiance of Your truth.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,

who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" He heard this and said, "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."

3) Reflection

• The Sermon on the Mount takes chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew. The purpose of the narrative part of chapters 8 and 9 is to show how Jesus put into practice what He had just taught. In the Sermon on the Mount, He teaches acceptance (Mt 5:23-25, 38-42,43). Now He puts it into practice by accepting the lepers (Mt 8:1-4), the foreigners (Mt 8:5-13), the women (Mt 8:14-15), the sick (Mt 8:16-17), the possessed (Mt 8:28-34), the paralytics (Mt 9:1-8), the tax collectors (Mt 9:9-13), unclean people (Mt 9:20-22), etc. Jesus breaks the norms and customs which excluded and divided people: fear and lack of faith (Mt 8:23-27) and the laws on purity (9:14-17) and He clearly states the requirements for those who want to follow Him. They should have the courage to give up many things (Mt 8:18-22). In the same way in the attitudes and in the practice of Jesus we see in what the Kingdom and the perfect observance of the Law of God consists.

• Matthew 9:9: The call to follow Jesus. The first people called to follow Jesus are four fishermen, all Jewish (Mt 4:18-22). Now Jesus calls a tax collector, considered a sinner and treated as an unclean person by the community of the most observant of the Pharisees. In the other Gospels, this tax collector is called Levi. Here, his name is Matthew, which means gift of God or given by God. The communities, instead of excluding the tax collector and considering him unclean, should consider him a Gift of God for the community, because his presence makes the community become a sign of salvation for all! Like the first four who were called, Matthew, the tax collector, leaves everything that he has and follows Jesus. The following of Jesus requires breaking away from many things. Matthew leaves the tax office, his source of revenue, and follows Jesus!

• Matthew 9:10: Jesus sits at table with sinners and tax collectors. At that time, the Jews lived apart from tax collectors and sinners and they did not eat with them at the same table. The Christian Jews should break from this isolation and sit at table with tax collectors and with the unclean according to the teaching given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, the expression of the universal love of God the Father (Mt 5:44-48). The mission of the communities was that of offering a place to those who did not have one. But this new law was not accepted by all. In some communities people coming from paganism, even if they were Christians, were not accepted around the same table (cf. Acts 10:28; 11:3; Gal 2:12). The text of today’s Gospel shows us Jesus, who sits at table with tax collectors and sinners in the same house, around the same table.

• Matthew 9:11: The question of the Pharisees. Jews were forbidden to sit at table with the tax collectors and with sinners, but Jesus does not follow this prohibition. Rather, He becomes a friend to them. The Pharisees, seeing the attitude of Jesus, ask the disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” This question may be interpreted as an expression of their desire to know why Jesus acts in that way. Others interpret the question as a criticism of Jesus’ behavior, because for over five hundred years, from the time of the exile in Babylon until the time of Jesus, the Jews had observed the laws of purity. This secular observance became a strong sign of identity. At the same time it was a factor in their separation in the midst of other peoples. Thus, because of the purity laws, they could not sit around the same table to eat with tax collectors. To eat with tax collectors meant to get contaminated, to become unclean. The precepts of legal purity were rigorously observed in Palestine as well as in the Jewish communities of the Diaspora. At the time of Jesus there were more than five hundred precepts to keep purity. In the years of the 70’s, at the time when Matthew wrote, this conflict was very timely.

• Matthew 9:12-13: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice.” Jesus hears the question of the Pharisees to the disciples and He answers with two clarifications: the first one is taken from common sense: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” The second one is taken from the Bible: “Go and learn the meaning of the words: ‘Mercy is what pleases Me, not sacrifice’.” Through these clarifications, Jesus makes explicit His mission among the people: “I have not come to call the upright but sinners.” Jesus rejects the criticism of the Pharisees; He does not accept their arguments, because they came from a false idea of the Law of God. He Himself invokes the Bible: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice.” For Jesus, mercy is more important than legal purity. He refers to the prophetic tradition to say that mercy has greater value for God than all sacrifices (Hos 6:6; Isa 1:10-17). God has profound mercy, and is moved before the failures of His people (Hos 11:8-9).

4) Personal questions

• Today, in our society, who is marginalized and excluded? Why? In our community, do we have preconceptions or prejudices? What is the challenge which the words of Jesus present to our community?

• Jesus asks the people to read and to understand the Old Testament which says, “Mercy is what pleases Me and not sacrifice.” What does Jesus want to say to us about this today?