Calling of Matthew.

(Matt. 9:9-17; Mark 2:13-22; Luke 5:27-39).

This event is narrated by Matthew himself, as well as two other Evangelists — Mark and Luke. Furthermore, only Matthew refers to himself by this name, while the others — as Levi. Leaving the house where the miraculous healing of the leper took place, the Lord saw an individual sitting on a toll-bar (place where taxes were collected), named Matthew or Levi, and said to him: “Follow Me.” And he instantly got up and followed Jesus. It has to be added, that a public overlords or toll collectors — to which Matthew belonged — were regarded as the biggest sinners. The people reviled them, because they gathered dues for the benefit of the Roman authorities, and because of their excessive craving for profits, they collected more from the people, earning themselves the public’s hatred.

Such was the power of the Lord’s words, that the tax collector, although a greedy and wealthy man, dropped everything and followed Him — One Who didn’t even have a place to rest His head. But this also proves that sinners, realising their sins and ready to genuinely repent, are closer to the Heavenly Kingdom than the proud Pharisees with their imaginary righteousness. Gladdened by the Lord’s call, Matthew invited Him and His Disciples to his house for some refreshments. According to eastern custom, people invited to lunch or dinner did not sit at a table, but reclined on special seating or divans arranged around a low table, resting on pillows with their left elbows. Evidently, others joined them, including friends of Matthew and other tax collectors and sinners, reclining with the Lord at the same table. This gave rise to the Pharisees’ condemnation of the Lord for joining with the sinners. “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” — they inquired from the Disciples. Saint Golden-tongue clarifies these words: “Denigrating the Teacher before His Disciples in the hope that they may be detracted from Him,” inasmuch as throwing a shadow on the Lord for seeking bad company. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” — was the Lord’s reply to this slander. The meaning of these words is that, there is no need of the Saviour for those who imagine themselves as righteous — who were the Pharisees — but for those who are sinners. It is as though the Lord is saying, that the place of a doctor is by the bed of the sick, while My place is with those, who ail with the realisation of their spiritual illness — and I am with them, with tax collectors and sinners, just as a doctor is with his patient. “But go and learn what this means:” - adds the Lord — which means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” The Pharisees regarded that righteousness was entailed in the bringing of sacrifices, established by sacrificial laws. But at the same time, they forgot God’s words, spoken through Prophet Isaiah’s lips: “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6). What the Lord had in mind was that sacrificial offerings and all the formal piety, without love for your neighbour, without works of clemency, are worthless in God’s eyes. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance,” or in other words, the Lord came so that the sinners would repent and change. He came to summon toward repentance, those who humbly regarded themselves as sinners and asking for God’s mercy — not those that considered themselves as righteous, imagining that as though they had nothing to repent. True, the Lord did come to save everybody, including those self-styled righteous individuals. However, until such time as they forsake their fantasy of being righteous and acknowledge themselves as sinners, a call to them would be fruitless and their salvation, unrealisable.

Having lost their argument, the Pharisees transfer their accusations to the Lord’s Disciples. They are joined in this by the followers of John the Baptist who, as we earlier related, regarded their teacher higher than Jesus, and were envious of His ever-increasing glory. Saint John the Baptist was very severe in his fasting, and naturally, taught his followers to strictly observe such fasts. Apparently, at that time, he was incarcerated and his followers increased the severity of their fast. The Pharisees drew their attention to the fact that the Disciples of Jesus, do not adhere to the strictly established fasts, and now John’s followers ask Jesus: “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your Disciples do not fast?” The Lord answers them with the words of their own teacher: “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” This means: after all, your teacher called Me the Bridegroom and himself — friend of the bridegroom, who should be joyful; that’s why My Disciples, being members of the of the bridegroom’s party, are happy while I am with them. This happiness is incompatible with a strict fast, which is an expression of grief and sorrow. When the day comes that they are left alone in this world (I will not be with them), then they will fast. In memory of these words from Christ, our holy Church established the Passion Week fast, adjoining it to the Forty day Fast (Great Lent). Wednesdays and Fridays were also made fast days, because it was then that our Bridegroom was taken away — Wednesday, when He was betrayed and Friday, when He suffered and died on the cross. In stating that the time had not yet arrived for His Disciples to fast, the Lord develops this thought further: “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wines into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

According to Saint Golden-tongues explanation, new wineskins and new wine — these are strict fasts, strict demands in general, while old garment and old wineskins — these are impotence and weaknesses of His Disciples, who are not yet ready to bear great ordeals. What the Lord has in mind is: I find the time is not right for Me to impose the burden of a strict life and ponderous commandments upon My Disciples, as they are still weak, while they have not been regenerated — not born again by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Here, the Lord defends His Disciples - from censure — with genuine fatherly love and condescension towards them.