JESUS SUPPORTS THE TOILED
The Lord Christ, in His ministry, set forth to support the toiled;................. to fill the nets of those who toiled the whole night in
vain;………to cleanse someone full of leprosy; ……….to correct the inner views of the Pharisees and teachers of the law;.............. to
draw the tax-collectors from their locations; ……… and to proclaim the new life that he grants to His disciples............... He supports
whomever accepts Him; and grants him fruition, purity, and sanctity for his mind and behavior through the new life.
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1- Fishing |
1 - 11 |
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2- Cleansing a leper |
12 - 16 |
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3- Healing the paralyzed |
17 - 26 |
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4- Calling Levi the tax-collector |
27 - 32 |
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5- Proclaiming the new wine |
33 – 39 |
- FISHING:
In our study of the two gospels, according to Matthew (4: 18) and Mark (1: 16-20) we saw how the Lord Christ, in choosing His disciples, started by those four illiterate fishermen: Simon Peter – representing faith (the rock of faith); Andrews – representing maturity and seriousness; James – representative of strife (persistence); and John – representing the compassion and grace of God. The Lord chose them to preach, not by the philosophy of the world and the wisdom of this age, but by the grace of God working in them. We said that those four represent the horses of the chariot of God to carry the Church setting forth to heaven; namely the new faith, and the strife bound to God’s grace and compassion.
We saw how those four men, at the beginning followed the Lord intermittingly, then go every now and then to fish, to earn their living; until they were commanded to dedicate themselves completely to the Lord, when “they forsook all and followed Him” (11)
St. Luke presents to us the Lord’s encounter with them while totally exhausted physically and mentally, after “toiling all night and caught nothing” (5); it is as though an exalted command was issued to the fish not to enter the nets of the two boats all night long, until the Sun of Rightness, our Lord Jesus Christ, comes and enters into one of the boats, and instruct them to go to the deep in mid- day, and cast their nets to catch enough fish to fill the two boats.
In this event we notice the following:
- The Lord saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets” (2)
According to St. Augustine: [There were two boats, from which He called His four disciples; referring to (the two peoples) from whom, when they cast their nets of preaching, “they caught a great number of fish, that their nets were breaking”. The two boats refer to one Church of two peoples, and despite being from two different sources, are united together in Christ.
Concerning that, we find as symbols, two wives of one man – Jacob – Leah and Rachel (Genesis 29: 23, 28)............... We
also find two blind men, sitting on the side of the way, whom the Lord granted them eyesight (Matthew 20: 33)).
Meditating in the Holy Book you will find, in many locations the two Churches which are actually one Church, to which the Cornerstone came to bind together, and to make them one.
- The men washed their nets, for the whole night passed and they caught nothing, to remain all day in bitterness, waiting for the new evening to resume their effort anew. Those fishermen, though, were not aware of the fact that their failure was planned by the Lord for an eternal and temporalsuccess The two boats having been completely empty of fish, was
also planned, so that the fishermen would not be preoccupied with gathering, sorting, and selling the fish, but to receive the Lord in the boat and use it as a podium for teaching, through which He catch the fishermen as well as the multitudes.
……….. Yet, at the same time, not to deny them the pleasure of catching fish, He commanded them to cast their nets in the deep, where they caught enough fish that their nets were breaking.
When doors are closed shut before our eyes, and feel that our luck is bad, which is actually a kind of feeling not befitting of believers, let us openour hearts wide before the Lord, let us present to Him the boat of our life to sail it according to His good will; for He will certainly bring to us “gladness of salvation”; and will present to us spiritual fruition, without denying us, even, of the temporal necessities.
- After enjoying the pleasure of catching fish, well known to fishermen, the Lord lifts them up to a deeper pleasure, namely to catching souls, and bringing them out of the sea of this world. They would never taste such experience, unless they, themselves, are caught first by the Lord in His net, and brought forth into His boat – the Holy Church – about which St. Cyril the Great says:
[Let us commend the way those disciples became the fishermen of the whole world, submitted to Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth. Commanded to catch the other peoples in their nets, the disciples first were themselves caught in the secure net of the Lord, so that, when they cast their own nets, they would catch a multitude of believers to the true boat of Christ. That was prophesied by one of the saintly prophets, saying: “Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish them, then afterwards I shall send many hunters, and they shall hunt them” (Jeremiah 16: 16). The fishermen in this verse refer to the blessed apostles; while the hunters refer to the shepherds of the churches].
According to St. Ambrose:[What are the net, the apostles are commanded to cast in the depth, but the power of reason in their preaching, which would make it difficult for those it catches to get away. How convenient is the net as the tool the apostles use, for it causes no harm to those it catches, but bring them intact and safe from the pit to light; from the deep to high places].
Such an experience was lived by our teacher the apostle Paul, whom, since he himself was caught by the net of the mercy of the Lord, he did not cease to cast his own net to catch people by the grace of God; he says: “Since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4: 1).
- The divine command was: “Launch out into the deep, and let down your net for a catch” (5)
If such a command came from a regular person, it would offend the professional fishermen, who by their long experience know that catching fish would be better by night, close to the shore, and not during mid-day, into the deep.
Simon Peter’s response came bearing two tunes: that of the old human experience, with what it includes of failure and despair; and a new tone, separated by the word “nevertheless”; namely entering from the mere human experience to ‘the experience of faith in the active word of the Lord’ (5).
According to St. Augustine: [The Lord Christ did not tell the fishermen to cast their nets from the right hand side of the boat to catch the good fish; nor from its left hand side to catch the bad fish, but told them to cast them into the deep to catch both. For the call is for all to enter into the nets of the Church, to enjoy the evangelic life]. And [The fishermen did not bring the fish to the shore, but poured them into the two boats, intending for all to enjoy life in the Church, and not outside her.
- “”But Simon answered and said to Him: ‘Master, we have toiled all night and caught Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net’” (5)
However man strives in ministry, without trusting in God, and holding fast to the word and promises of the Lord, is counted by Simon Peter, as nothing but toil through the darkness of the night without fruition; Nevertheless, at the word of the Lord, man would let down his net to get fruition. …. According to St. Ambrose, on the tongue of Simon Peter: [Master, I know for sure that the darkness of the night will be over me when You are not my Leader; that darkness will surround me if I throw vain words (on my own)].
St. Ambrose goes on to proclaim that Simon Peter’s strife all night without fruition, refers to him who preaches with human eloquence and mere philosophies. Therefore came the urgent need for preaching to be (in the day time), when Christ, the Sun of Righteousness shines, giving His active word that fills the nets of the Church with live fish; saying: [So far, they caught nothing, but, at the word of the Lord, they caught an enormous quantity of fish; not the fruition of human experience, but of the seed of heaven. Let us, therefore forsake the human way of convincing, and hold fast to the work of faith by which peoples would come to believe].
- “When they had done this they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink” (6, 7).
The Lord Christ used to perform miracles, as a sign of compassion on the sick, on whoever possessed by an evil spirit; to raise the son of a suffering widow; or to feed the hungry multitude.................................................................................................................. But this miracle, came, not to fulfill a physical
need, nor as compassion on a destroyed soul, but to proclaim the work of the Lord Christ in His future Church of both the Jews and the Gentiles, to fill her with live fish.
In our study of the symbols, we saw that “the fish” symbolizes the Lord Christ Himself, as well as to His believers. The Church is full of the chosen, the fish which perpetually live in the water of baptism, attached to “The Fish”, the Grantor of life.
Commenting on such a great catch, St. Cyril the Great says:[Their nets got filled by miracle, for the disciple to trust that their preaching work, among the pagans and the lost, will not be in vain; But, being unable to haul the net, they, in awe, had to signal to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. This means that, along the generations, many of the teachers and shepherds of the people have, seriously and actively, helped the saintly apostles in their preaching work; and still are, to make the people understand the meaning of the exalted verses of the gospel, and the teachings of the sound truth.
The net is still cast, and Christ is still filling it with ministers from among those sunk in the stormy seas of the world; it came in the psalms: “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me” (Psalm 69: 14).
- Simon Peter did not care to see such an enormous catch of fish; as much as his depths were immensely drawn to the Person of the Messiah, who has such an authority on heaven, earth, and seas (Psalm 8:8). Unable to perceive that exalted light, nor endure to approach the Holy One, to confess his sins, In awe filling his depths, revealing his inner sins before the Lord,
“he fell down at Jesus knees, saying: ’Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (8).
Feeling great awe, he cried out: “Depart from me, O Lord”, and in his humility and his feeling of weakness, he deserved to have the Lord enter into the depths of his heart, there to set His kingdom! As, according to St. John Chrysostom: [Nothing is more acceptable for God like when man counts himself the last of all. That is the foundation of the practical wisdom].
The humility of the apostle peter was not just words or mere emotion, but was a positive reaction to the living work; for it is written about him and his partners,
“When they had brought their boats to land they forsook all and followed Him” (11); ………
they forsook all to dedicate the whole heart to Him whom they loved, by true worship and preaching. Humility is not a feeling of weakness, but is throwing oneself into the bosom of the heavenly Groom, for man to live with all his heart, energies, and possibilities to His account.
Commenting on that forsaking, St. John Chrysostom says: [Tell me what did Peter forsake? ………Was it not just a torn net (6, 11); Yet the Lord opened before him all the houses in the world, stretched before him the land and the sea; all invited him to their possessions; and even sold them all and put the price, not even in his hands, but under his feet]
And commenting on Peter’s humility, mixed with work and forsaking, St. Ambrose says: [Peter so marveled before the blessings poured over his person; that the more he gave, the more was his contrition............................................................................................................................ You, as well, should say to
Him: “Depart from me, O lord, for I am a sinful man”; to hear the Lord’s answer: “Do not fear”............... Confess your sins to
Him; ………….. Do not hesitate to give Him back what you have; for He Himself granted you what He has............... Just
meditate in the love of the Lord who granted man the authority to choose life].
- CLEANSING A LEPER:
If the Lord Christ, as a Friend of humanity, came to us, who toiled the whole night, and caught nothing; and granted us, by His word, an enormous catch from the depths to fill two boats, namely the spirit and the body, not with material fish, but with an increase of spiritual fruition for the spirit and the body together; Now, we see Him stretch His hand without hesitation to cleanse a leper, whom all fear to touch his body, clothes or possessions, lest they would become unclean, according to the law (Leviticus 13).
In our study of the gospel according to Matthew (Chapter 8), and the gospel according to Mark (Chapter 1), we saw how that leper represents a true portrait of whoever raises a true prayer, to enjoy the touch of the Lord’s hand to be cleansed. We also saw the reasons why the Lord sent him to the priest to offer an offering according to the law of Moses; And in our interpretation of the Book of Leviticus (Chapter 14), we saw the true concepts of the rite of cleansing the leper.
According to St. Ambrose, cleansing the leper is a symbol of purifying the believing humanity, whom the Lord did not shy to touch; he says: [The Lord did not cleanse just one individual, but all those to whom He said: “You are already clean, because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15: 3). If the leper was cleansed by a word from the Lord, despising the word of the Lord is therefore, the leprosy that inflicts the spirit].
And commenting on the Lord touching the leper to cleanse him, St. Ambrose says: [Not that He could not cleanse him without touching him, but to show that He is not a captive of the law; and that he has no fear of catching the disease, that would never happen].
At the same time He touched the leper without fear of getting unclean (according to the law); He seeks from the leper to observe what came in the law after being cleansed, to show that He is not a Breaker of the law.
Commenting on the Lord sending the leper to the priest, in observance of the law, the scholar Tertullian says: [Rejecting every human glorification, the Lord instructed the man not to tell anyone that He has cleansed him; But for the sake of observing the law, He sought from him to obey what came in it ………. Heintended to consummate the symbolic prophetic role of the law Those
symbols mean that whoever has been a sinner and was cleansed of defilements by the word of God, is committed to present an offering to God in the temple; namely a prayer of thanksgiving in the church by Jesus Christ, the ecumenical Priest of God the Father.
“As a testimony to them just as Moses commanded” (14);
By adding these words He shows that He is not a Breaker of the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5: 17); and proclaims as well that He is the One about whom it was prophesied that He carries our illnesses and weaknesses].
According to St. Ambrose: [The law says that the leper, after being cleansed, is committed to present himself to the priest, not to offer an outer sacrifice, but to offer himself to God a spiritual sacrifice, to have the defilement of his prior works wiped out; and to become dedicated to the Lord as an acceptablesacrifice “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12: 1)].
If the leper resorted, by prayers and supplications to the Lord Christ, to enjoy purification, the Evangelist Luke intends to draw us, every now and then to a life of prayer, as a fountain of the holy life, presenting the Lord Christ, our representative, as a praying Man; when He, Himself, is the Receiver of prayers; saying: “He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and pray” (16)
Even though the multitudes were thirsty to encounter Him; and many of them were healed through getting in touch with Him, or
listening to a word out of His mouth, yet He “He often withdrew to pray”, to proclaim our need for a life of work and meditation, with no separation Bylove, our hearts get wider to work to the account of our brethren; and with the same love, we secretly
encounter with God to enjoy His work in us. In other words, there is no separation between work and meditation; between preaching, namely ministry, and worship.
Commenting on the prayers of the Lord Christ, St. Cyprian says: [If He, who is without sin prays, how much more, it is befitting of us
– sinners – to pray?!.................. If the Lord perpetually prays, watching the whole night with unceasing supplications; how much more
it is befitting of us to watch every night in continuous and repeated prayers?!
The Lord does not pray for His own sake; For What will He seek, He, who is without sin?!......... He seeks for the sake of our sins, as
He proclaimed to Peter: “Simon, Simon,…....... I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail” (Luke 22: 31, 32).
If He toiled, watched, and prayed for our sake, and for the sake of our sins, how much more we are committed to perpetually pray, to supplicate to the Lord Himself, and through Him to bring pleasure to God the Father?!.......................................................................................................................... The Lord Jesus Chris is our
Advocate and Intercessor for the sake of our sins; if we repent our prior sins, and confess them, by which we disobeyed Him; and get preoccupied with walking in His ways, and in the fear of His commandments].
- HEALING THE PARALYZED:
“Now it happened on a certain day as He was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem” (17).
Seeing a paralyzed man, let down by four men, with his bed through the tiling of the roof into the midst before Jesus, He cut his teaching short to grant forgiveness to the soul of the paralyzed, and healing to his body. In His friendship to us He does not confine His effort to teaching, as is common with many teachers; but He seeks our comfort on the level of the spirit together with the body.
We have previously talked about that paralyzed man, in the gospels according to Matthew (9) and Mark (2); quoting the writings of some fathers. Here I shall talk concisely:
This miracle took place in Capernaum the city of the Lord (Mark 2: 1), its name means (the village of repose or comfort); For, wherever the Lord Christ is, He grants repose to the soul as well as to the body.
To Him came a group of Pharisees and teachers of the law. The word ‘Pharisees’ is an Aramic term meaning (the separated), who have actually separated themselves from the common people to live in an aristocratic religion characterized by arrogance and haughtiness; a disease that corrupted their life and denied them the true privilege to encounter the Lord Christ, despite the apparent soundness of their doctrine. The teachers of the law, on the other hand, were the Rabbis, who concentrated their care on the
‘Telmud’, living in a deadly literality.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law came trusting with arrogance in their religious knowledge and human wisdom. Jesus, though, in their midst, was teaching and healing with power and authority.
“When they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop, and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus” (19).
The four men are as though, representing the church with all her ranks and members (Bishops, priests, deacons, and congregation); remove the tiling, namely the thoughts of dust, and the earthly worries, to expose the housetop to see the Lord sitting granting His blessings without limit.
Here, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, not able to endure to watch the whole church, represented by those four men, presenting the paralyzed man before Jesus, and not before them; and feeling a collapse of their authority, and a loss of their honor; concentrated their efforts on trying to catch an error in the Lord’s teaching. And when He said to the paralyzed man: “Man,
your sins are forgiven you” (20); they hastened to accuse Him of blasphemy. But the Lord cared, not just to shut them up, but to proclaim Himself, with the hope that they would probably receive and believe in Him.
Having already quoted much of the sayings of the fathers concerning this episode of the paralyzed man, I shall only mention the following points:
+ The Lord Christ saw the faith of those who carried the paralyzed, not that of the paralyzed man himself (for it is possible for someone to be healed on the faith of others). Saying to the paralyzed man: “Man, your sins are forgiven you”,
the Lord intended to address the whole humanity; on account of that all who believe in Christ will have their souls healed of the ailments of sin, and their iniquities are forgiven them. In other words, the Lord intended to say to the paralyzed man: [I have to heal your spirit before your body; lest, if I do otherwise, you, by the strength of your body will walk on your feet, and resume your life of iniquity. Even though, you did not seek the healing of your spirit, yet, I, being God and Lord, can see the ailments of the soul, and how they have brought on you such a terrible illness.
And as there were a multitude of Pharisees and teachers of the law, and there was a necessity of performing a sign to teach them not to despise the Lord, He performed an unusual exalted thing.
There, before the Lord was laid a man, so inflicted by paralysis that no physician could cure him; and his own relatives and friend lost hope in getting him healed; but now, with a little glimpse of hope, they hastened to bring him forth to the great Physician who came from high up in heaven. Accepting their faith, that scattered the cloud of doubt, the Lord Christ addressed the paralyzed man by the famous phrase: “Man, your sins are forgiven you”.
Someone may ask: [The paralyzed man was in need of healing his body, why then the Lord proclaimed the forgiveness of his sin?].That was to teach us that God sees the works of man and the way he walks in his life; because it is written: “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths” (Proverb 5: 21). And as God is good, and
,“desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2: 4). He often tends to purify the body of whoever commits iniquity and evil, by inflicted it with illness that brings him down, according to the words of the Holy inspiration, saying: “Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest My soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited” (Jeremiah 6: 8).
And in the book of proverbs it is said: “My son! Do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverb 3: 11). It is, therefore, well that the Lord Christ proclaimed the forgiveness of sins and iniquities, which are all the origin and cause of the illness; and once they are wiped out, the man will be healed of what inflicted him.
“And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”(21)
By a divine authority, the Lord Christ proclaimed the forgiveness of the man’s sins; but this provoked the wrath of the scribes and the Pharisees, filled withignorance and envy, to reason among themselves, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies?”………..
O, Pharisees, you would not ask such a question if you know the meanings of the Holy Scripture, read the prophesies of the Holy Book, and understood the great and exalted secret of incarnation. But you, instead you hastened to accuse the Lord of speaking blasphemies, and condemned Him to death, according to the law of Moses which says: “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord, shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 24: 16)………
“But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them: ‘Why are you reasoning in your hearts?’” (23)
By which He means to say to them:[You, O Pharisees confess that no one but God can forgive sins. But you should know as well, that no one but God can perceive what goes on in the mind of man, can reveal the depths of his heart, and expose his secrets and intentions; according to the words of the prophecy, saying: “I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind” (Jeremiah 17: 10); and to which David refers by saying: “He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works” (Psalm 33: 15). Therefore God who searches the heart and test the mind is He who forgives sins and iniquities.
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins........... ” (24)
To scatter the cloud of doubt that covers the scribes and the Pharisees, He, not only forgave the paralyzed man his sins, for man cannot perceive the forgiven sins by his eyes, He, as well, commanded the illness to depart from the body of the paralyzed man, who stood on his feet and walked away sound and well; glorifying the greatness of the divine power that healed him, by the great words, he said to the man who was paralyzed:
“I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house” (25)
+ But, to whom does this verse refer? To himself, or to us?............... It actually refers to the Lord Christ, as well as to us; for
the Lord forgives the sins, being the incarnate God the Lord and setter of the Lord; And we have received this exalted power, through crowning man with such a great honor, when the Lord Christ addressed His saintly apostles, saying: “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18: 18); and in another location: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20: 23).
(St. Cyril the Great)
+ “When He saw their faith……” (20)
Great is God who forgives the sins of someone for the sake of the request of others., and accepts the supplications of some for the sake of the forgiveness of the sins pf others.
The minister of God has the right and the daring to ask God on your behalf; and is heard by Him.
Learn, O sick man how to supplicate; and if your sins are great, resort to him who can intercede for you; to the Church that will pray for your sake; and for her sake, the Lord will grant you forgiveness.
(St. Ambrose)
+ Some may claim that the paralyzed man was healed for the sake of the faith of those who carried him; which is wrong; for the words, saying:“When He saw their faith”, refer, not only to their faith, but to the faith of the man they carried, Why?!
You may say: [Is it not possible for someone to be healed for the sake of the faith of someone else?]
I believe that this would not be, except in the case if the sick is immature (under age), or too weak to be able to believe.
Do not listen without care to the phrase, saying: “they let him down with his bred through the tiling into the midst before Jesus” (19); but rather meditate to how a sick man could endure the trouble of letting him down from the rooftop. ……..
You may know that the sick sometimes, protest against the way he is treated on the sickbed, to prefer to endure the pain of illness to them But that paralyzed man had the will to be carried out of his house to the market place, in the sight
of foreign spectators, which could be mentally painful for him; and when he saw the place where the Lord was, too crowded to enter by its door, he did not object to being hauled to the rooftop, and being let down with his bed though the tiling into the midst before Jesus. He considered it an honor to let many watch him healed.
We realize his faith, as well, from the fact that when he heard the words of the Lord; who said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you”; he did notget offended nor grumbled, or said to the great Physician: [What do you mean by these words? I came to You to heal me from something, and hereYou are healing me of something else… He did not utter a
word, but left it to the Physician to choose the way He prefers.
(St. John Chrysostom)
+ Why did the Lord heal the paralyzed man right away; but said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you?” He so did with wisdom; to take way the source of the illness before taking away its symptoms.
This was confirmed when the apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians on a certain sin, saying: “For this reason, many are weak and sick among you” (1 Corinthians 11: 30).
By taking away the source of evil, and saying, “Man your sins are forgiven you”, the Lord’s words were enough to lift his soul up; for nothing could create happiness and restore trust, like being liberated from the inner sufferings; and, where
forgiveness is there will be sonhood;............... That is why we cannot call God the Father, except after having our sins
removed in the holy water of baptism; then we can say: “Father in heaven........... ” (Matthew 6:9).
(St. John Chrysostom)
- Calling Levi the Tax collector:
Here, the Evangelist presents to us a living side of the friendship of the Lord Christ for humanity; for when He chose His disciples, He drew them from diverse places; sometimes from among the simple fishermen, and other times from among the tax collectors, who were despised by the Jews, accusing them of treason and of working to the account of the Roman empire.
The Lord Christ called ‘Levi’ the tax collector, who, later on became ‘the Evangelist Matthew’, with just two word: “Follow Me” (27), but strong and active; for:
“He left all, rose up, and followed Him” (28).
And held a banquet of hospitality for the Lord, to give his fellow tax collectors the chance to taste the sweet encounter with Him
According to St. Jerome, some opponents of Christianity, despised the followers of the Savior, for hastening to follow Him, simply, and without thinking, the moment He calls them. He answers with two things: First that they might have seen the many wonders and sign He performed before He calls them; and the second, that the Lord bears a certain Charisma, being the Lord of all creation;
to draw all to Himself.
St. Jerome also noticed that the Evangelist Matthew was the only one who mentioned his name when He was called by the Lord (Matthew 9: 9); while the other Evangelists did not, mentioning only his second name “Levi”, in respect to their fellow Evangelist ‘Matthew’ (Mark 2: 13, 14).
+ Following the principle of Solomon, saying: ‘The prudent starts by admonishing himself’; Matthew called himself “a tax collector’, to show his readers that no one should despair of the salvation of his own soul, as long as he goes forth to a better life; for he changed from a tax collector to an apostle.
(St. Jerome)
+ ‘Levi’ was a tax collector who ran after the cursed way of profit; with no limit to his hateful greed; despising the law of justice, to possess what is not his From among those mean category of men the Lord Christ chose one of them
while sunk in a sea of iniquity and evil; called, rescued, and saved him; being said: “He left all, rose up, and followed Him” (27, 28). How true was the blessed apostle Paul when he says that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1: 15). Do not you see how the Word of God, the oly begotten Son, having taken a body, bring back to Himself the servants and possessions of the devil?!
(St. Cyril the Great)
+ When the Lord Christ chose His own apostles to preach His gospel, He chose them from among the sinners; to show that He came, not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.
(Father Barnabus)
Not enduring to watch the Lord’s encounter with the tax collectors and the sinners, the scribes and Pharisees said to His disciples:
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and 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 to repentance” (30, 31).
+ The scribes and Pharisees, believing that, according to the law of Moses: “it is not right to mix between the holy and the holy and the unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Leviticus 10: 10), sought from the Lord Christ to keep the law, yet not out of jealousy on the law, bot of envy and malice. They often tried to catch the Lord in their snares, but He told them that, having come, not as a Judge to condemn, but as a Physician toheal; He is committed to approach the sick to heal.
(St. Cyril the Great)
The scholar Tertullian has a beautiful commentary on the words of Christ: “Those who are well are in no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (30, 31), In the second century AD, certain
heresy appeared which despised the body, claiming that it is defiled, and an enemy which has to be destroyed…............ To respond
to that heresy, the scholar Tertullian proclaimed that the body, with all what it breached of corruption, yet it is (our relative) (our neighbor), a partner of life of the soul, which we are committed to love, the way we are committed to love our neighbor; par5ticularly that the Lord Christ, having bore our sins in His own body, and blessed its nature in Him. Even though our body has been defiled with the illness of sin, yet the Lord Christ, came, not as a Judge to condemn, butas a Physician to heal both the body and the soul.
From the words of the scholar Tertullian, we can get in touch of the look of the early church toward the body: {The Lord Christ seeks from us to love our neighbor, after our love for Him. Now He practices what He seeks from us, by loving the body (His neighbor) He got attached to, and in several ways, despite its confusion and its weakness, as “those members of the body which we think to be
less honorable, on these we bestow great honor” (1 Corinthians 2: 23)3). He honors it even
though destroyed; saying: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke19: 10); honors it, even though a sinner, saying: “I wish for the sinner to be saved, not to perish”; and
despite it is condemned, yet “I wound and heal” (Deuteronomy 32: 39)
- PROCLAIMING A NEW WINE:
The Pharisees could not prevail against the Lord concerning His love for humanity. When they protested that He eats together with the tax collectors and sinners, against the law which discerns between the unclean and the clean, He confirmed to them that He is not breaking the law, but fulfills it in the depths of its essence, by His love for humanity and His compassion toward the weak; for He came, not as a Judge to condemn, but as a Physician to heal Now they are attacking His disciples, saying:
“Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?”
(33)
The Lord in His response, not only answered their question, but revealed, as well, His mission, which concentrates in two things:
- Having come as a Groom to betroth humanity as His bride, it is, therefore, not an appropriate time for fasting, but for celebrating the presence of the Groom with them; but once He is lifted up to heaven , they will fast and supplicate (34).
….. The goal of worship is not fasting and asceticism , but the enjoyment unity with the heavenly Groom, through fasting and asceticism, if they are offered by the spirit and truth
- He did not come to add more burden to the rites of worship, but to take away what is old, and to set what is new; by crucifying the old man, and granting the new spiritual
We have already mentioned some comments of the fathers on the response of the Lord Christ, in our interpretation of the gospel according to Matthew (9: 14), and according to Mark (2: 21)