A Lenten Reading of Matthew - Day Thirteen

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:1-38 (NRSVUE)

We've got a whole lot of healing going on here.

Earlier Jesus had told a man to pay what was appropriate to the Temple for his healing.  Now he forgives sins outside the authority of the Temple.  It was thought that one could only heal through God and if the man was healed, God must be blessing Jesus and approving of his teaching.

Jesus' open table fellowship would have been a real head-scratcher to the Pharisees whose very name comes from the word meaning "separate."  To eat with the unclean was to do more than associate with sinners - they saw it as a lowering of one's status to theirs.  And so, a Pharisee would avoid eating with tax collectors and sinners like the plague.

Jesus sees it as elevating them - the righteous need no elevation.  And Jesus doesn't see them as lowering his status no matter what polite society would say.

I bet Jesus would eat at the kid's table

The disciples of John the Baptizer were evidently ascetics - fasting in order to gain clarity.  The disciples of Jesus seem to prefer feasting to fasting - can the joy of fellowship with other people be a spiritual discipline?  Only, it seems, if you continue to widen your circle.

Jesus continues his mastery over the unclean - a woman who was bleeding should have separated herself from any type of crowds.  In her desperation, she touches Jesus.  It was thought that if one touched the fringe of the prayer shawl of the Messiah, one would be healed.  He applauds her faith rather than chastising her.  And to touch the dead was to make oneself unclean.  Jesus not only touches the dead girl but life flows into her from the touch.

The healing of the blind and the mute as we move into the need for laborers is a movement for Matthew as he places these stories in a certain sequence.  How often are we blind to the greater spiritual realities that God is trying to show us?  The blind could easily represent the Pharisees earlier in the chapter.  But then, how often are we witnesses to miraculous things that we refuse to speak of?

The harvest is plentiful, but it may be that we need to be willing to share life as we recognize that we've received it.  We may just find healing along the way.

Prayer for the day:

Lord, still me.
Let my mind be inquiring, searching.
Let my heart be open.
Save me from mental rust.
Deliver me from spiritual decay.
Keep me alive and alert.
Teach me, that I may teach them.  Amen.

Prayer by Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 20th Century

Photo by LeoLondon via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.