|
would be a non sequitur after Jesus has just claimed and demonstrated a
special personal authority (see on v. 6). It is true that in 16:19; 18:18 Jesus
will share his special authority “on earth” with a few carefully selected
human beings (the Twelve), but that is far from being a blanket
authorization for “human beings” in general to dispense God’s forgiveness.
The view of several commentators that the plural is intended to indicate
that the church shares in Jesus’ authority to forgive introduces an element
which is extraneous to this pericope and which would detract from its
emphasis on Jesus’ unique authority.⁵
4. Following Jesus: Tax Collectors and Sinners (9:9–17)
As Jesus went on from there he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the customs
booth,¹ and he said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.
¹ Now² while he was at a meal in the house along came³ many tax-collectors and
sinners and joined Jesus and his disciples at the meal. ¹¹The Pharisees saw this,
and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and
sinners?” ¹²Jesus heard them, and said, “It is not those who are well who need a
doctor, but those who are ill. ¹³Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and
not sacrifice.’ That is why⁴ I came to call not the righteous but sinners.”
¹⁴Then the disciples of John came to him and said, “Why do we and the
Pharisees fast a lot,⁵ while your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵Jesus replied, “Surely
the wedding guests can’t be sad as long as the bridegroom is with them, can
they? But a time will come when the bridegroom has been taken away from
them; then they will fast.
¹ “No one patches an old coat with a patch of unshrunk cloth: the patch would⁷
tear away from the coat⁸ and a worse tear would result. ¹⁷Nor do they put new
wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins would burst and both the wine
would be wasted and the wineskins ruined. No, they put new wine into new
wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
The previous interlude in the sequence of miracle stories 4. which make up
chapters 8–9 illustrated the demanding nature of discipleship by two e4. xamples
of volunteers who apparently failed to meet Jesus’ high standards (8:18–22).
This one also begins with a case study, but this time it is Jesus who takes the
initiative by calling Matthew, the first and only such call story in this gospel after
the initial calling of the four fishermen in 4:18–22. The authority of Jesus’ call
cannot be refused, and Matthew becomes one of Jesus’ close companions who
will become the Twelve (10:1–4). We are left to assume that the other seven, of
whom we have no biographical details, also had similar experiences.
But Matthew the tax-collector represents a wider group of “undesirables” who
are also interested in Jesus and his message and who join him and his disciples at
a meal in Matthew’s house. Their interest, and Jesus’ acceptance of them, even
to the extent of sharing table-fellowship, give rise to some pungent comments of
Jesus in response to Pharisaic criticism (vv. 11–13), which sharply characterize
the sort of people Jesus is looking for as his followers. Discipleship is not for the
comfortable and respectable, but for those whom conventional society would
rather keep at arm’s length. The Pharisees can see only their failures, but Jesus
sees their need, and the fact that they acknowledge it themselves gives him the
opportunity to fulfill his calling to “save his people from their sins.” (1:21)
There is no explicit connection between the call of Matthew and the encounter
with John’s disciples in v. 14, but perhaps we are meant to understand that their
question was provoked by seeing Jesus and his entourage feasting in Matthew’s
house. Jesus’ extended response to it (vv. 14–17) then adds a further dimension
to the portrait of discipleship which is gradually building up in preparation for
chapter 10. Following Jesus is not like “discipleship” as it was experienced in
other pious circles at the time. It is characterized, at least for the present, by joy
rather than solemnity, by feasting rather than fasting, and the two graphic
sayings of vv. 16–17 indicate a fundamental incompatibility between the dry
formality of existing religious traditions and an exuberant vitality in the Jesus
circle which cannot be confined within conventional forms. To follow Jesus is to
find life on a new level.
Here then is a pair of episodes which are narrated not so much for the intrinsic
significance of what happened (though the call of Matthew is an exemplary story
in itself) as for the radical pronouncements by Jesus to which they give rise.
Together they provide a startling perspective on the new values of the kingdom
of heaven which will increasingly put Jesus and his movement on a collision
course with traditional Jewish piety. The overt criticism of Jesus by the religious
leaders which we first encountered in 9:3 is here developed and further
explained. Matthew is preparing his readers for the parting of the ways which
will reach a threatening climax as early as 12:14.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
