Ep. 24: Call of Matthew

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MATTHEW 9:9-13, MARK 2:13-17, LUKE 5:27-32

There are two main differences between Christianity and all other religious systems, including Rabbinic Judaism. All others offer no hope to the sinner until, through some means. He ceases to be a sinner. Only then will he be welcome to God. By contrast, Jesus first welcomes him to God and so makes him a forgiven sinner. The one demands and the other imparts life. And so Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners, not to repentance, as is implied in Matthew 9:13, Mark 2:17 and particularly Luke 5:32, but to himself, to the Kingdom. And this is the beginning of repentance.

But, as the Rabbis were powerless regarding the forgiveness of sins, so they accordingly had no word of welcome or help for the sinner. The very term Pharisee or ‘separated one’ implied the exclusion of sinners and reeked of self-righteousness. The contempt for those ‘others’ arose from the thought that, as ‘the Law’ was the glory and privilege of Israel, ignorance of it was inexcusable. It was a principle, that ‘the ignorant cannot be pious.’ The yoke of ‘the Kingdom of God’, as they saw it, was the calling of every ‘true Israelite’. To them, it lay in external, not internal conformity to the Law of God, ‘in meat and drink,’ not ‘in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ They had got it all so wrong!

As regards repentance, the teaching of Jesus is in absolute and fundamental opposition to that of the Rabbis. According to Jesus Christ, when we have done all we can, we are not to feel condemned in any way. According to the Rabbis, as Paul puts it, ‘righteousness comes by the Law’ and, when it is lost, the Law alone can restore life, whereas, according to Christian teaching, it only brings death.

Thus there was, at the very foundation of religious life, an absolute chasm between Jesus and his contemporaries. In one respect, the view of the Rabbis was in some measure derived from the Old Testament, though by an external and, therefore, false interpretation of its teaching. In the Old Testament, also, ‘repentance’ was Teshubhah meaning ‘return’ while, in the New Testament, it is ‘change of mind’. In point of fact, the full meaning of repentance as Teshubhah for the Rabbis is only realised when a man has returned to the observance of the Law. Then, ‘sins of commission’ are looked upon as if they had been unintentional. In truth, the Rabbis knew nothing of forgiveness of sin, as something free and unconditional.

So, in terms of the need for repentance, the vital difference between the Rabbis and the Gospel lies in this; that whereas Jesus Christ freely invited all sinners, whatever their past, assuring them of welcome and grace, the last word of the Rabbis is only despair and a kind of pessimism. For it is repeatedly declared in the case of certain sins that, even if a man genuinely and truly repented. He must expect immediately to die. Indeed, his death would be the evidence that his repentance was genuine, since, though such a sinner might turn from his evil, it would be impossible for him, if he lived, to lay hold of the good, and to do it. Where was the possibility of hope in that?

It is in the light of above that the call of Levi-Matthew must be read. We are probably by now in the early springtime when Jesus ‘went forth again by the seaside.’ Matthew must have frequently heard him as he taught by the seashore. For this would be the best place for this purpose, as it would be close to the landing place for the many boats that used the lake, as well as close to the highway up to Damascus, the Upper Galilean road. Maximum footfall, as modern marketeers would declare!

Matthew’s profession was one held in low esteem by the Rabbis (as well as just about everyone else!) It was said that repentance was especially difficult for tax-gatherers and custom-house officers. The Talmud distinguishes between two classes of ‘publicans’; the tax-gatherer and the Mokhes, the custom-house official. The latter, which included Matthew in its ranks, was especially hated. There was tax and duty upon all imports and exports, on all that was bought and sold. If it moved (or didn’t move) they would find a way to tax it from 2½ to 12½ %! The very word Mokhes seems, in its root meaning, to be associated with the idea of oppression and injustice. He was literally an oppressor.

So, here were Jesus and Matthew, the hated and ‘irredeemable’ Mokhes. But Jesus wasn’t like the other Rabbis, there was not this great and almost impassable gap between him and Matthew. Matthew had seen and heard him in the synagogue and knew that he was different, so unlike the other Rabbis who told him that, for him, repentance was next to impossible. And so Matthew sat before his custom house and hoped. Perhaps he may have witnessed the call of the first disciples; he certainly must have known the fishermen and shipowners of Capernaum. And now it appeared as if Jesus had been brought still nearer to Matthew and when Jesus fixed on him that look of love which searched the inmost depth of the soul and made him the true fisher of men, it needed not a moment’s thought or consideration.

‘Follow Me’ and the past seemed all swallowed up in the present heaven of bliss. He said not a word, for his soul was in the speechless surprise of unexpected love and grace; but he rose up, left the custom-house, and followed him.

Jesus answered the Pharisees. And he not only silenced them but, by doing so, demonstrated his very purpose and mission. ‘No need have they who are strong and in health of a physician, but they who are ill.’ he pointed them towards what their own Scriptures meant, their misinterpretation of the doctrine of sacrifice, their ignorance of the fundamental principle of the spiritual meaning of the Law rather than the letter of the Law. ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.’ They knew no mercy that was not sacrifice; he knew no sacrifice, real and acceptable to God, that was not mercy. And this also is a fundamental principle of the Old Testament, as spiritually understood. ‘To call not righteous men, but sinners.’ This marks the standpoint of Jesus and points to his true Kingdom.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)