Main news for 20 April 2022

What exactly so outraged the Pharisees when they saw Jesus beside a tax collector? Association with a sinner? But the Torah too knows conversion and repentance. More than that, it even knows special purification rituals performed by repentant sinners to be cleansed from the impurity caused by that sin. In essence, nothing more was required of the sinner: he had only to repent of it, then perform a purifying washing and bring a purification sacrifice, otherwise called a sin offering or guilt offering. At the same time, however, one indispensable condition had to be observed: it could concern only a sin committed involuntarily, through ignorance or weakness. If the sin had been committed consciously and voluntarily, no purification at all could be in question, even if the sinner repented of his sin deeply and sincerely. God, as was believed, could of course forgive a person even such a sin, but it was impossible to be freed from the consequences of a deliberate sin; they weighed on the person his whole life.

The tax collector's sin was exactly such a sin: everyone who took up this work entered into conscious cooperation with the Roman authorities, and not forced cooperation but voluntary cooperation. In the synagogue environment this was considered betrayal, a terrible and unforgivable sin, so that the one who committed it was forever cut off from his people, losing everything he could count on as a representative of his people, including the covenant and all the promises connected with it. Jesus, meanwhile, considers that even such a sinner, if he repents and turns, can be saved.

So what, then: was the pre-Christian approach too rigorist and completely without mercy? Hardly. Rather, one can think that with the coming of Christ the spiritual situation in the world in general, and among the people of God in particular, changed radically. Previously the inner intention with which an action was performed completely determined its consequences, and a conscious sin committed once, or rather its consequences, truly weighed on a person for his whole life, so that even God could not change it: for then, in essence, the world would have had to be created anew. But in the Kingdom one can begin with a clean slate, even one who has sinned consciously and voluntarily: repentance for what has been done is enough. And not because the world has become different, but because the laws of the Kingdom entering the world differ from the laws of this untransformed world. And the chance for salvation is now given to everyone who wants to be saved.

Today's passage begins, perhaps, with the most personal moment in the Gospel according to Matthew - the moment when Jesus calls Matthew himself. Everything is described very simply: Jesus said to him, "Follow Me," and Matthew got up and, leaving everything, went after Him. Matthew does not describe his inner experiences, but they were certainly there, because at that moment his life was broken into two parts. This is how the Lord builds His Church.

After that Matthew again tells of His preaching of the Kingdom. It turns out that Christ's teaching, while not contradicting the Scripture of the Old Testament, is in constant conflict with legalistic interpretations of that Scripture. Perhaps the key to this conflict is found in verse 13.

Christ called Matthew at the moment when he was carrying out his official duties, so hated by the whole people. Christ does not demand that Matthew repent beforehand, does not preach sermons to him, but immediately calls him to follow Him.

Meanwhile, not only for the fastidious Pharisees, but surely for a huge part of the people as well, Christ's association with tax collectors, the collaborators of their time, appeared monstrous. Few preachers of that era, even the wisest and most merciful, would have addressed such people without risking their own reputation. But the Lord sees hearts, and Christ saw Matthew's readiness to leave everything and follow Him, a readiness to do something many people with spotless reputations proved unable to do.

Here before us is a witness to the possibility of forgiveness even for people whom public opinion has grown used to considering hopeless, and this means that forgiveness is possible for any of us. And here, too, we see a warning to those who consider themselves, if not impeccable, then "not the worst," that is, again, each of us: do not exalt yourselves over anyone, for you know nothing about those whom you have grown used to despising.