Daily Devotional • July 16
A Reading from Mark 2:13-22
13 Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eatwith tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
Meditation
For Holy Week this year, my family watched Franco Zephirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. One of the parts I especially appreciated was how the adaptation uses the gospel lesson we read this morning to flesh out the conflict, and then reconciliation. between Peter and Matthew. Jesus calls Matthew, but unlike the first disciples, who, we are told, simply dropped their nets to follow him, Matthew then invites Jesus to his house, with a lot of his disreputable friends.
In the movie, the earlier disciples, especially Peter, do their best to talk Jesus out of going, both because it will reflect poorly on Jesus if he goes to socialize with notorious sinners, and also because Peter really hates Matthew—and, let’s be fair, he has good reason. Peter has to forgive Matthew because Matthew has a lot to repent of.
Jesus has a surprisingly complex agenda: first, to call Matthew to repent and follow him as a disciple, which he does by accepting Matthew’s invitation. I’m tempted to wonder what Matthew’ motivation was. Was he really thrilled with Jesus’ interest in him and wanting to share Jesus with his friends? Or was he testing Jesus, to see if Jesus would still call him when he saw just how bad Matthew had been? Either way, Jesus brings Matthew to repentance by being unafraid to come closer. But he also calls Peter to forgiveness by refusing to acknowledge the reality of the social division, which forces Peter to see Matthew as a person, and not just a tax collector. Not to mention, Jesus has some things to say to the Pharisees while he’s there.
Jesus shows a balance here that we can all, always, do better at: coming closer to those in need while not diminishing their need to repent. He comes to Matthew’s house, but he also brings along the very fishermen whom Matthew has wronged.
Elizabeth Baumann is a seminary graduate, a priest’s wife, and the mother of two small daughters. A transplant from the West Coast, she now lives in “the middle of nowhere” in the Midwest with too many cats.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, New York
The Diocese of Central New York – The Episcopal Church
