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Wilfrid J. Harrington: Matthew, Sage Theologian Chapter 5.
Miracles and Encounters 8-9
A) Leper;
Centurion's Servant; Peter's Mother-In-Law
B) Storm,
Demoniacs, Paralyzed Man (8:23-9:8)
C) Jairus'
Daughter; "Bleeder"; Blind Men; Dumb Man
Physician
at Table 9:10-13
Mission Sermon 10:5-42
Introduction
9:36-10:4
Mission to
Israel 10:5-15
Trials
10:16-25
Trust in
God 10:26-33
Commitment
10:34-39
Recompense
10:40-42
The Sermon had shown Jesus powerful in word, a
word that astounded his hearers (7:28). Now, Matthew sets out to demonstrate
his power to heal. Jesus' reputation as healer is emphatically attested by
all four evangelists. This healing activity covered a range of afflictions:
paralysis, blindness, deafness, leprosy and other ailments. In chs 8-9
Matthew has nine healings; all but one, the cure of the centurion's servant
(8:5-13), come from Mark. He has rearranged and abbreviated them. He has
included the stilling of the storm (8:23-27).13
The first three healings (8:1-17), at Capernaum,
were of a leper, a centurion's servant and of Peter's mother-in-law: healing
of an outcast Jew, healing at a Gentile's request, and healing of a woman.
Jesus was displaying his special concern for the marginalised. Then (8:18-34)
he crossed to the eastern shore of the lake, stilling a storm on the way -
doing what God does. In the country of the Gaderenes he healed two violently
insane men, two 'demoniacs', manifesting his power over evil. On returning to
Capernaum (9:1) he healed a paralytic (9:2-8). This story demonstrated that
Jesus could heal not only physical ailments but also the spiritual sickness
of sin. The episodes of the stilling of the storm, of the exorcising of
demons, and of the forgiving of sins helped to answer the disciples' question
in 8:27 - 'What sort of man is this?'
Three further miracles are inserted between the
episode of the would-be followers (8:18-22) and the call of Matthew the tax
collector. In this whole section we see the evangelist's careful organising
of the material that he adapts from Mark.
There are further healings in 9:18-34. A
synagogue leader pleaded for the life of his twelve-year-old daughter. On his
way to the man's home, a woman suffering from a chronic haemorrhage
encountered Jesus; she met him with faith and was healed. Matthew, despite
radical abbreviation (see Mk 5:21-43) has preserved the main drift of the
episode: on faith and salvation (Mt 9:18-26). This is, notably, in the
exchange between the woman and Jesus. She had said to herself: 'If I only
touch his cloak, I will be made well.' Jesus said to her, 'Take heart,
daughter; your faith has made you well' (vv 21-22). Each time the verb is
sozo which means also 'to save'. Matthew has in mind more than bodily
healing. But, salvation comes in close relation to faith. Two blind men cried
out for mercy to the 'Son of David.' They responded to his challenge to faith
and were recompensed: 'According to your faith let it be done to you'
(9:27-31). The reaction to Jesus' healing of a deaf-mute was-the amazed
chorus of the crowd: 'Never has anything like this been seen in Israel!'
(9:32-33). The Pharsisees were not impressed: 'By the ruler of the demons he
casts out the emons' (9:34). Matthew sounds a note of warning., The
opposition to Jesus will be developed in his next narrative section (chs
11-12).
The compassion of Jesus, manifest in his
healings, is highlighted by the passage 9:10-13 set among the healing
stories. That scene, Jesus' meal with 'tax collectors and sinners', follows
naturally from the call of Matthew, a tax-collector (9:9). The passage
illustrates that Jesus' attitude towards outcasts was a scandal to the
religious authorities. We know that tablefellowship (between Christians of
Jewish and of Gentile backgrounds) was something of a problem in the early
church (see Acts 11:3; Gal 2:12), and it would have been crucial in the
matter of eucharistic tablefellowship. It may well be that this interest
accounts for the formation and preservation of the original story.
The Pharisees (the 'separated ones') regarded
Jesus' openly shared meals with tax collectors and sinners - people whose
lifestyle surely did not meet proper religious standards - as scandalous
behaviour. In the gospels the Pharisees, for historical and polemical
reasons, get a bad press. They are cast as legalistic rigorists with little
respect for people, with contempt for ordinary folk.
This is less than fair. Jesus had a good deal
in common with Pharisees. And, where the gospels might seem to give the
impression that the Pharisees are those mainly responsible for the death of
Jesus, it was, in fact, the Jerusalem priestly authorities (not Pharisees)
who, together with Roman authorities, engineered the death of Jesus. The
prevalent view of Pharisees has exaggerated their influence and
misrepresented their religious outlook. Given, however, their perception of
themselves as people of the law, they would count themselves guardians of the
law and of the ancestral customs. Zeal for the law became an identity marker
of the 'sect' of the Pharisees. It is reasonable, then, to take 'sinners' as
a functional term, describing those whose conduct was regarded as
unacceptable to a sectarian mentality.
This brings us back to the conduct of Jesus and
to the charge against him. A welcome, on his part, for repentant sinners who
had made amends, who had 'paid their debt to society' would have been quite
acceptable to the 'righteous' - whatever else they might have thought of
Jesus. The scandal was that he associated with sinners and rejoiced in their
company. He did not call them to repent as normally understood, which
involved restitution (in personal offences) and a formal offering of
sacrifice in the Temple. He asked only that they accept his message - which
offered them the kingdom. This was the scandal - a fatal scandal for Jesus -
of the righteous. Jesus preached forgiveness rather than repentance. And he
turned forgiveness into celebration (Lk 15:7,10,22-24,32; 23:43).
In dining with tax-collectors and 'sinners',
the pariah elements of contemporary society, Jesus expressed his solidarity
with them. This was behaviour which elicited the objection of the Pharisees.
The Matthean Jesus' reply, recalling Hos 6:6, shows that the correct attitude
to social dropouts is not one of sequestration and condemnation but of
familiarity and service. The Pharisees are seen as the hypocrites of Hosea's
day who were assiduous at attending the liturgy of the sanctuaries while they
ground the faces of the poor. They did not realise that the word 'liturgy'
means, precisely, 'service', in both senses of service of God in the liturgy
and the service of humans by love. Jesus revealed that these are two sides of
the same coin.
The Pharisees' rightful insistence on purity
should, if it be a matter of true holiness, have pressed them to help the
'unenlightened'. Jesus' association with the 'outlaws' of his day was not
tantamount to a condonation of their actions or situation; rather, he
associated with them in order to raise their sights, to show them a new life.
But he could not do this unless he were sympathetic towards them.
Against the background of the Old Testament,
where Yahweh alone is Physician (see Hos 14:4; Jer 3:22; 17:4; 30:17; Sir
38:1-15) and healing a sign of the messianic age (see Is 61:1; Mt 10:1,8),
Jesus' reference to himself as 'physician' (Mt 9:12) implies more than a
proverbial justification of his conduct: if he eats with sinners it is
because the sick have need of the Physician, For those who can see, his
action is a declaration that the messianic age has dawned: the Physician has
come.
The saying of v 13b ('for I have come not to
call the righteous, but sinners') infers that messianic forgiveness is the basis
of tablefel-lowship. And the truth was, as the early Christians were well
aware, that the saving call of Jesus had been to sinners. It was for this
that Jesus had come into the world, to summon such as they to the messianic
banquet. This was the comforting assurance addressed to all who have ever
heard the call of Jesus (see Jn 1:8-10). The first Christians knew that the
church was made up of sinners. This is a fact of life of the earthly church.
Sight of a leaderless crowd moves Jesus to
think of the need for a mission by his disciples. The kingdom of God has
come, the last age, and the mission of bringing the good news to others, of
gathering believers into his community, is part of the great final event. It
is a task that will challenge Christians while this world lasts. Indeed, we
see the harvest-field grow wider and more lush decade by decade. It could be
a discouraging task, given the immensity of the harvest (all humankind) and
the handful of missionaries. The workers should not yield to discouragement.
The Father, the Lord of the harvest, is in control. They should ask him to
send out labourers. Prayer becomes a missionary work. The church was true to
this word of the Lord when it proclaimed a Carmelite contemplative nun
(Therese of Lisieux) patroness of the missions.
That helpless multitude (9:36) is the backdrop
to the choice of twelve disciples who would continue Jesus' own messianic
work. They will alert people to the advent of the kingdom and the
availability of salvation. Like Jesus, they too are endowed with the ability
to relieve human need, 'to cure every disease and every sickness' as a sign
and pledge of a more fundamental salvation. They also share Jesus' messianic
authority to loosen evil's stranglehold on humankind. For the moment, they
are given an apprentice mission. Like Jesus himself (15:24), they are to go
only 'to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' After the
death-resurrection, however, they will be formally commissioned by the risen
Lord to undertake a universal mission.
'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel' (15:24). Jesus firmly stated the firm limits of the range of his
mission. He adhered to the salvation-historical precedence of Israel. His
instructions to the Twelve, not surprisingly then, include the same
limitation: their mission is to 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel. '
The mission of the disciples mirrors that of
Jesus. The proclamation of the kingdom is the same: 'The kingdom of heaven
has come near' (see 4:17). They are to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
lepers and cast out demons - just as Jesus had done. Significantly, there is
no mandate to teach. They can teach confidently only whey they have received
the full teaching of Jesus - 'teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you' (28:20). Because the disciples had received their call and
commission and the gifts that went them 'without payment' (v 8) they must
demand no payment. Instead, in their fidelity to mission, they will earn and
deserve support (see 1 Cor 9:3-12). 'Shake off the dust from your feet' (Mt
9:14): Jews would shake off Gentile dust when they returned, from abroad, to
the Holy Land. Here the point is that those who will not hearken to the
gospel (good news) are no better than pagans. The strong language of v 15
carries a distinctive Matthean theme: judgment is severe for those who have
heard the good news but have failed to act upon it.
The emphasis on a mission to Israel is of particular
concern to Matthew's community. It viewed itself as the authentic way of
Judaism after 70 AD. It wanted fellow Jews to see the light. Matthew works on
two levels. One is confined to the time and characters of his narrative world
(the ministry of Jesus). The other reaches beyond to the reader who reads the
text with the eyes of resurrection-faith. This is why, despite the seeming
limitation here, a mission to the Gentiles is emphatically in place (28:19).
A contemporary mission to Israel is not at all excluded.
Christianity's continuing mission to Israel
remains a very delicate matter in Christian-Jewish relations. On the one
hand, the mission to the Gentiles (Mt 28:19) does not exclude the mission to
Israel (10:5b-6). Indeed, if Christians are convinced of the Tightness and
importance of the gospel, they are obliged to share it with others, including
and especially Jews. On the other hand, the history of the Christian mission
to Israel with its persecutions, forced conversions, and insensitive approaches
to evangelisation have correctly made most Jews suspicious of such a mission.
In its third millennium Christianity needs to find a better way both to be
faithful to the gospel mandate and to be sensitive in its efforts in carrying
out that mandate.14
'A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a
slave above the master' (10:24). The missionaries have been told that they
will share the mission and authority of Jesus; now they are told that they
will participate in his rejection and persecution and, it may be, in his
death. This is spelled out in 10:17-22, a text which very closely follows Mk
13:9-13. Noteworthy is the threefold repetition of paradidomi, 'to deliver
up' (vv 17, 19, 21): persecution and suffering are their lot, serving a divine
purpose. They will be haled before Jewish tribunals (v 17) and Gentile
authorities (v 18). Paradoxically, as prisoners on trial, they bear witness
to the Name. They are promised help (w 19-20). It is not said that the Spirit
will speak up on their behalf. Rather, the help of the Spirit means that the
preparation of the defence is less an apologia than a prayer. Most painful of
all is the factor of family division (w 21-22). This had become a commonplace
of apocalyptic (e. g. 2 Bar 70:3; 4 Ezra 5; 9). Here, however, denunciation
from within would suggest the experience of Jewish Christians after 70 AD:
they found themselves at loggerheads with other family members. The saying of
v 23 envisages an imminent coming of the Son of Man - a prevalent expectation
in the early church (see Mk 9:1; 13:30). It is not clear how Matthew would
have understood it. V 25 states the principle underlying the passage: as
disciples and slaves Christians cannot expect a better fate than that of
their teacher and master.
The missionaries have a role very like that of
Jeremiah and the other prophets, whose successors they are (5:12). For, the
Good News which they are to preach is not 'good' for everyone. In this
passage, towards the end of the mission sermon, Jesus exhorts his disciples
to fearless and confident proclamation of the gospel in the teeth of
persecution. 'Do not fear' is a refrain (vv 26, 28, 31): the preachers are to
fear God only, not human beings; they are to trust in God's care of them. The
disciple of Christ must steadfastly proclaim the teaching of the Master and
faithfully bear witness to him. The apostle must not fall silent; one may not
avoid fearless confession of one's faith. On the contrary, one must seek
every opportunity of communicating the saving message of Jesus. One must
preach from the housetops and gain the maximum attention for one's words.
These gospel words do not promise the witness
of Christ that he or she will escape suffering or even martyrdom. Indeed, all
who wish to remain true to the gospel must be prepared to suffer (see 2 Tim
3:12). But the Lord who knows every detail of the lives of his witnesses will
take special care of them in every trial and support them in every crisis.
If, in their turn, they are faithful, they will meet Jesus' approval at the
final tribunal. A warning sounds for one who will have shrunk from bearing
witness to Christ: such a one will not be acknowledged as a true child of the
Father.
Jesus had come to offer peace. Paradoxically, the
challenge of his good news brings strife. This is due to rejection of the
good news. Family dissension emerges again: a dramatic presentation of the
divisions he occasions. It echoes Micah 7:6. The theme of suffering
re-emerges (v 38). Jesus did not shrink from the cross; the faithful disciple
will be ready to shoulder it. 'Life' (psyche) means both 'life' and 'self'.
The meaning of the paradoxical saying (v 39) is that one who, through fear of
losing one's (earthly) life, denies Jesus and thus thinks to save oneself, in
reality loses one's eschatological life ('eternal life', Jn 12:25) in God. It
is the paradox of the cross.
It is a rabbinical principle that 'the
representative of a person is as the person.' Jesus, as the 'one sent', is
the Father's representative; the disciples, sent by him, are his
representatives. V 42 gives the assurance that the smallest act of kindness
shown to a disciple on the ground of one's being a disciple of Christ will
not fail to have its ¦ reward. What is presupposed is a gracious God who will
not overlook the slightest deed of generosity. 'Reward' is not something we
earn: it is always free gift of a generous God. In vv 40-42 it is arguable
that Matthew has established an order which may reflect the structure of his
community. We get: apostles ('you'), prophets, the righteous person (a
prominent member), little ones (the 'simple faithful'). Matthew closes the
discourse with his customary transitional formula (11:1).
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