Thicker than blood
There’s a saying: blood is thicker than
water. But for Jesus, obedience of God is thicker than blood. This chapter is
about authority and obedience. It is the chapter where Jesus’ authority is beginning
to be seriously questioned by his religious opponents and where he turns the
questions back on his accusers. It is where Jesus even suggests that his true
family members are those who obey God – not a posse of brothers and his mother
showing up to see him.
Some have commented on the apparent
harshness of the language Jesus is said to speak in Matthew’s gospel. He
certainly is not afraid to mince his words or cause offence or take on the
powers that be, be they religious leaders or cultural icons (such as ‘the
family’). What I think Matthew does so well is show us Jesus’ laser-like mind,
which is a truth-seeking slingshot against those who attack his character, his
authority and his mercy.
Confrontation is in the air as Chapter
12 begins. Jesus meets opposition first for letting his friends glean grain
from a field to fight off hunger on the Sabbath. Hang on a minute: is this
group now under surveillance? Who is following them so closely as to notice
these blokes munching a few grains of wheat?
Jesus uses Scripture for his defence; he
can play the legally-minded truth-seeking Pharisees at their own game (cunning
as a snake, gentle as a dove? Maybe not so gentle, here). Again, he uses the
Hosea 6.6 quote (‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’) to defend his actions – this
time Petersen paraphrases it as: ‘I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible
ritual’. Interesting this, how Jesus uses Scripture to take on hard hearts and
minds. Wonderfully, he then allies his toughness of mind with his heart of
compassion. And with devastating effect the Pharisees are reduced to furiously
spluttering as they have no answer to an act of mercy. Jesus heals a man with a
crippled hand right before their eyes. He lays down the gauntlet with both
mercy and cunning.
Again, his tough mind urges caution as
his healings automatically cause yet more notoriety in the community. He tries
to damp down the joy he was causing with his Kingdom work. Matthew suggests
that, in doing this, Jesus was fulfilling prophesies by Isaiah regarding the
Spirit-filled servant of God who won’t yell or raise his voice, but the mere
sound of his name will signal hope.
This prophesy is perhaps one of the only
hints we get as to how Jesus operated: perhaps he really did speak softly and
let his actions do the talking. How infuriating that must have been to the
Pharisees, so used to winning arguments with their encyclopaedic knowledge of
the Torah and the Tradition.
It seems that as we get deeper into
Chapter 12, the confrontation becomes more intense. Jesus refutes every
argument set against him by the Pharisees. He is not in league with the devil
and practicing black magic as he heals; and at the same time, his healings are
not going to prove anything for those who want to catch him out, he says. Hard
hearts and minds will not accept mercy. And tough minds without merciful hearts
cannot counter Jesus’ practical theology.
As a tree is known by its fruit, with a
good tree producing good fruit – so, he says, it is with a person. The good
fruit produced by a person flows from a merciful heart; bad fruit in a person
comes from an unmerciful heart,
Finally, we come to an uncomfortable
reality check; something thicker than blood. Jesus’ mission is ultimately for
everyone who is willing to accept the liberating power he is sharing. Those
willing to enter this new structure of liberation – the kingdom – become brothers
and sisters through faith and action, not blood. Matthew again seems to present
a harshness in Jesus which we find difficult. Families – our children, our
parents, our wider family of cousins and uncles and aunts and nieces and
nephews – mean so much to us. When we are with people from our own ‘kith and
kin’ we can relax, we don’t have to put on a show, we discover something
profoundly real, a link that needs no words, a connection that is deep that we
can call love. [Of course, it is rarely that straight forward. Families also
hold rivers of sad or even toxic memories, unresolved hurts, words that have
not been forgotten (or confronted or reconciled), misunderstandings and unmerciful
or destructive power relationships.]
But Jesus’ apparent disregard for his
mothers and brothers always seems harsh. He asks: ‘Who is my mother or my
brother?’ I don’t think Jesus is attacking family per se. I think he is
expanding the reality of what is good in the family relationship to all who are
discovering a new sense of family in the kingdom of liberation. Obedience to
this new rule of mercy unites those who share that obedience in ways that are
even more powerful than blood. We become brothers and sisters of Jesus, who
spills his blood in his obedience to his liberty mission. His blood is shed for
all. We are his kith and kin.
I remember back in the 40s and 50s how my Sundays were the most boring day of the week, I used to hate Sundays. From a very young age when gran was alive I was taken to Sunday school and that was fun, we had story’s and children’s choruses. I remember singing (Twelve spies were sent to spy in Canaan, ten were bad two were good) and when we got to the part, “some saw the grapes in clusters fall”, we all jumped off our chairs and made a clatter. But then gran died and we didn’t go into Langley anymore so they stopped taking me to Sunday school and Sundays became a boring. We sat and listened to the radio from morning till night because it was custom to do that. We sat all morning, had lunch and sat again had tea and then sat again until bedtime. I wasn’t allowed to knit or play games, definitely not cards and we didn’t go out anywhere. I was allowed to read and that was about it. I once asked for chips for Sunday tea but the answer was “not on Sundays.” When I got into my middle teens I used to be excused to go and visit a friend and we would sneak off to the park, of course there were no shops open in those days because Sunday was a day of rest.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me the senseless rules I followed as a child were much like the Pharisees rules, they were there because they had always been there.
The name Pharisee in its Hebrew form means separatists or the separated ones. They were also known as Chasidim, which means loyal to God or loved of God - extremely ironic in view of the fact that by His time they made themselves the most bitter and deadly opponents of Jesus Christ and His message.
The Pharisees were handed the Law through Moses, the Ten Commandments being a few of the 613 rules which since then have been added to. At first perhaps they meant to obey God, but eventually they became so devoted and extremist in very limited parts of The Law, that they became blind to The Messiah when He was in their very midst. They saw His miracles, they heard His Words, but instead of receiving it with joy, they did all that they could to stop Him - eventually to the point of getting Him killed because He truthfully claimed to be the Son of God.
Now, being a mother I could well imagine Mary, the mother of Jesus, being hurt by her son’s remark, “Who is my mother.” I realise that he is referring to our spiritual family but initially the sentence would have sounded a bit hard. I have often been accused of being told, “You can’t say things that way” and I think what people mean is we can’t always speak directly because its sounds harsh. But sometimes thoughts are there and out they come and I think that’s what happened on this occasion.
Very often it isn’t what you say that’s upsetting it’s the way that you say it.
I’ve got a lot to learn.
This chapter has been a turning point in my reading of Matthew. I hear Jesus not giving up on loving, being persistent in bringing the Kingdom of salvation to broken lives, refusing to be silenced or bound by tradition and rules, widening the welcome of sinners and Gentiles into the Kingdom. But the more mercy Jesus shows, the greater the opposition, so now in v.14 we read the Pharisees "conspired against him how to destroy him". Mercy points us to the cross. If we are to be merciful we too walk the way of the cross. Once again we look to the cross.
ReplyDeleteReading this chapter, as in previous chapters, the importance of the Old Testament in Matthew's understanding of Jesus is highlighted. So we hear from Isaiah, Jonah, the queen of the south, Solomon, as well as references to the Jewish Law. The question is how well do we, do I, know and understand the Old Testament? How might we help one another in our reading of it?
To understand the Old Testament we need to get our mindset into that time, we have to have an insight as to the culture of the people who lived then, we have to know their history. Then we might begin to understand just how challenging the words and actions of Jesus were.
DeleteThe disciples are back from their mission in chapter 12, but we learn nothing of their reception around Galilee or their success. They just pop up with Jesus again one Sabbath, out in the fields rubbing the ears of wheat between their hands as they walk through the corn. This was anathema to the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, for it broke the command to rest on the Sabbath and not do any work. It is a great example of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to behaviour, the joy of people who like to define what the way of God must be closely and narrowly, but anguish to those who see faith as leading to liberation and release.
ReplyDeleteThese two approaches to what God wants from the faithful, obedience to strict rules or openness of heart, is the source of the antagonism between Jesus and the Pharisees. Their views of what it takes to please God were so different, poles apart, that a clash was inevitable. The authority of the Pharisees, and their power and control over people, was deeply threatened by Jesus’ approach of love and compassion. After the incident with the corn, followed by the man with the withered hand being healed on the Sabbath (also work in the eyes of the Pharisees), the Pharisees were so outraged and afraid where this new preaching would lead, they decided that Jesus must be removed – the first time that Matthew records this.
Unfortunately, this tension still persists to varying degrees within the worldwide Christian church today. We can identify it in church controversies today, such as the issue of gay marriage, or that of appointing women as priests or bishops. These are not simple issues, but so often the question of love and compassion, so central to the Good News, seems to me to be absent from the attitudes of many Christians. Or perhaps it’s just that my particular non-conformist background has just made me a woolly-headed liberal who prefers the challenge of love to the constricting authority of rules.
Two other confrontations with the Pharisees follow. In the first, they accuse Jesus of casting out demons in the power of Beelzebub, Satan himself, and Jesus rebuts their arguments, showing that his healing comes from God. The second is when they ask Jesus for a miraculous sign, and he says they will be given none, except for the Son of Man being three days and nights in the earth; this is Matthew’s first reference to his coming death, burial and resurrection. So, in this chapter, Matthew has introduced a new element, concentrating on the increasing antagonism of the Pharisees towards Jesus’ teaching that necessarily would lead to his trial and death.
Everytime I come across the passage , " when an evil spirit comes out of a man , it goes through arid places seeking rest.....the final condition of that man is worse than the first", it makes feel sorry for the person who has tried to put their life right and landed in a worse state than to start with. I have wondered why Jesus said this. He speaks as though there is no hope for the one who has gone astray and later tries to reform. As I read about the passage, and meditated on it, I was reminded of an alcoholic who had tried to put his life right for a period of time, but later relapsed and was incarcerated for drink driving and causing harm.
ReplyDeleteListening to the stories of the charity " St Martin in the Fields " , I came to the conclusion that the stories of success are those where an addiction is replaced by an occupation that takes place of the habit. Merely stopping the habit does nothing long term; it is replacing that emptiness with a life giving occupation or past time that sustains the change. Many of those I heard about, who were successful, volunteered at a charity, became counsellors or youth workers.
I see the evil spirit, that Jesus speaks of, as an addictionof some sort, the leaving of the spirit , as an attempt to break free, and the return of the spirit with seven more, as the deterioration of that person. Finding the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order, is the heart that has not replaced the habit with anything that will be a source of strength.
Proverbs tells us to guard our hearts with all diligence, for it is the wellspring of life. Jesus said it was not what went into the mouth that made a person unclean, but what came out, for it was out of the fullness of the heart that the mouth spoke. Let us fill our hearts with God's word. As the psalmist said, " Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I may not sin against you."