Belief or how we live

In the Gospels there is a sort of hierarchy. Not of precedence or importance but of history – which one was written first. We have Mark’s Gospel which scholars believe was the first to be written, followed by Matthew and Luke, and then by John’s Gospel. There is a mother Gospel, known as Quelle or Q, which has been lost in the annuls of time which links Mark with Matthew and Luke.

OK, why mention this? Because Matthew – or whoever wrote this Gospel – seems to have taken much of what is written in Mark 2:14-17. We could easily fall into the belief that hierarchy also exists in this passage of Matthew 9:9-13. Is it belief or how we live which is important?

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour.
That is the whole Torah: the rest is commentary. Go and learn it”

Context

Unlike Bruce Springsteen, Jesus is on his first tour. He has just been Capernaum on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee. This was a prominent town, rich on the sediment of the rover flowing into the Sea from the north (River Jordan), prosperous with the fishing trade, where Jesus draws many of his disciples from. It is a freshwater lake, so not really a sea.

In Matthew 9:2 Jesus has healed a paralysed man, and the local teachers or Pharisees are not best pleased. Jesus has responded to their anger that he has the authority. This authority is not held totally within Jesus but one that flows out to all who follow Jesus. It is the difference between dunamis – where we get the word dynamite, an explosive power from within the sticks of TNT, and exousia, a power which is shared within a community. They are used approximately in equal measure in the New Testament (117 vs 103). In healing their paralysed man, Jesus uses that power to share. The faith of the man and his mates was a key factor in his healing. Is it about the right belief, the right words but how they lived?

Tax Collector

There is Levi, son of Alphaeus, (according to Mark) but Matthew in this Gospel. He would be sitting either at the edge of the town or on a main pathway, dividing two areas. For anyone travelling that area, there would need to pay their taxes to the local owner or ruler – and this is where Matthew comes in. He takes the taxes and possible adds a tadge to keep himself going. ‘There were what the Jews called publicans aka tax collectors like Matthew who collected taxes for customs or tolls on imports, exports, and merchants who came to buy or sell in Israel.’

Capernaum, with around 1500-3000 inhabitants at the time, was on the Vita Maris, an arterial route – good for travellers and business, and taxes. Furthermore, ‘a lease to fish in Galilee may have been prohibitively expensive for just one fisherman, thus the need for a cooperative involving many fishermen. They may have been allowed to pay their taxes “in kind” by means of their fishing catch. Historical evidence shows that some professional fishermen paid 25 to 40 percent of their catch in exchange for the right to fish. It is possible that the tax collector named Levi (also called Matthew) whose tax office was in the city of Capernaum, may have been responsible for assigning contracts with local fishermen for the lease of fishing rights.’

There is some speculation that the supposed author of the Gospel, Matthew, substituted his name for Levi – why do you think. that might be?

Matthew, Cambridge University Press, p202.

Jesus was in his own town, not Nazareth, but his power base, that of Capernaum. Approaching Matthew, he says “Follow Me”, and Matthew follows. There is an invitation to dinner offered to Jesus and his disciples, together with some of Matthew’s friends – deemed to be sinners by the Pharisees. Is it about belief or how we live?

Din Dins

The Pharisees respond with a slur: “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” (Matt 9: 11) Those who were deemed sinners were ones that were presumed to fail to observed the traditions of the Jews – all down to ritual impurity. Not also the lack of criticism of the Scribes, noted in Mark and Luke’s Gospel.

It would seem that Jesus and others aren’t meeting up to the standards of the Pharisees.

Jesus declares that healthy people don’t need a doctor. Those who seemed to have failed to meet the Pharisees’ standards aren’t ill, or not worthy – just the opposite. Is that it?

The last line

From Mark’s Gospel, he records Jesus words as”I have come to call not those who think that they are righteous, but those who know that they are sinners”. But Matthew appends that to “Go and learn what this means ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice'”. No sacrifice? That would have resonated with Jews. Matthew is using Hosea 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice” – the knowledge of God rather than burning of offerings” or rituals.

How does that sit with us? Do we go through the motions, hoping that by attending a service on Sunday, all will be well? Or do we reflect on what is God saying to us, today? Is it belief or how we live which is important?

As the Rabbi Hill said “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Torah: the rest is commentary. Go and learn it”