Tuesday 08 October 2013

Background

One of the questions at the heart of this section of Matthew'sGospel is, 'What does it mean to be holy?'

For the Pharisees in yesterday's passage, it was incomprehensiblethat someone who is good and of God should eat with tax collectors.Today it is the disciples of John the Baptist who cannot understandthat being good and of God are not the same as keeping the puritylaws of the Jewish Scriptures. They are worried that the disciplesof Jesus do not fast at the right times (verse 14). But there aremore shocking revelations to come: Jesus first allows himself to betouched by a woman who is bleeding (verses 20-22) and then hereaches out to touch a corpse (verse 25). Both of these acts wouldhave made him ritually unclean.

 It is not that Jesus was opposed to fasting or wanted torubbish the Jewish Law (Matthew 5:18). Jesus was well aware that thereare times for fasting as well as celebration and he warned hisdisciples that when the bridegroom (a reference to himself) istaken from them they will fast and mourn (verse 15). But, just asit is not time yet for the flute players to play the funeral dirgefor the little girl (verse 23), so it is not time yet for thedisciples of Jesus to mourn. Rather, now is the time to celebrategood news because the kingdom of God is breaking through in theirmidst.

This good news is enacted here. In the person of Jesus, theloving kindness of God cannot be contained by ideas about holinessthat keep women at bay, nor by patterns of religious observancethat ignore the need of the moment, nor by physical sickness, noreven by death.

The metaphors of the patch on the old cloak and the new wine putinto new wineskins sum it up: the old ways of thinking and behavingcannot contain this outpouring of God's kingdom. Holiness cannot beseparate from the wholeness of individuals and communities. Suchwholeness is in fact the purpose and fulfilment of the JewishLaw.

To Ponder

• Where do you see God's kingdom breaking through genderinjustice and sickness and death?

• In your experience, to what extent does the desire to be holykeep Christians away from meeting the most excluded members ofsociety, or propel them towards seeking them out?

• What do you think is the connection between holiness andwholeness?