“THEY THAT BE WHOLE NEED NOT A PHYSICIAN.”
-FEB. 13.-“FOLLOW
ME!”-MATT. 9:9-17.-
HERE we have
Matthew’s own account of his acceptance to the apostleship. He had undoubtedly
been acquainted with the Lord and his work, and the Lord acquainted with him,
prior to this call. The Lord had evidently seen in his heart an honesty of
intention that made him worthy, not only of the truth, but of this great
favor-the apostleship. It is worthy of note that Matthew tells us of himself
that he was a publican (Matt. 10:3), while none of the other evangelists make
this comment, doubtless because the occupation of a publican was considered a
very dishonorable one-unpatriotic. Publicans were usually men of some ability
as business men, sharp, shrewd, quick at accounts and discerning. Their
occupation was that of collecting taxes for the Roman government, and it must
be said that, while there may have been honest publicans who collected their
taxes with justice, both to the Roman government and to the tax-payers, yet the
class as a whole had the name of being tricky, unscrupulous, dishonest. It was
claimed on the part of the taxpayers that they were frequently oppressed and
made subjects of extortion by the tax-collectors who thus accumulated wealth
not only as foreign emissaries, but as leeches and parasites upon their own
suffering countrymen.
Hence, for Matthew to tell us of his previous occupation as a publican may
be esteemed an evidence of his humility, and his desire not to represent
himself more honorably than was truthful. On the other hand, our Lord’s choice
of a publican to be one of the favored apostles indicates the impartiality of
his selections; and implies that Matthew could not have been one of the
dishonest publicans. It shows us also that our Lord passed by no Israelite
indeed merely because there was prejudice amongst the people against him or his
class. As an evidence of the detestation in which the publicans were held by
their Jewish brethren, we note the fact that they were classed with sinners and
harlots in New Testament usage, and that the Hebrew Talmud classes them with
murderers and thieves, and regards their repentance as impossible.
Matthew was known by the name of Levi, while he was the publican (Luke
5:27), but his name was changed when he changed his occupation and became a
member of the Lord’s company. His new name, Matthew, signified “the gift of
God,” just as Simon, the son of Jonas, had a new name given to him, namely, Peter,
“a rock.” But how great a change the gospel of the Kingdom produced upon
Matthew, to lead him to forsake all-the profitable income of his occupation,
leaving it to others-and to become a follower of the despised Nazarene!
The influence of the fact that our Lord would accept a publican to be his
disciple, was far-reaching, and no doubt inspired an interest in our Lord
amongst the degraded and outcast classes. We are not surprised, therefore,
when we are told shortly afterward, that many publicans and sinners resorted to
our Lord, and gave ear to his teachings. Nor did he treat them after the
manner of the scribes and Pharisees, but on the contrary received them as the
children of Abraham-as some of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
This breech of the rules of etiquette amongst the Jews was a great
surprise to the scribes and Pharisees who, however much they opposed the Lord,
recognized him as a great teacher; hence, they did not think of him as
demeaning himself or degrading himself by receiving sinners, but asked the
question, Why he did this, and promptly received the answer that the more sick
a man is, the more need he has of a physician. They were ready to admit that
the publicans and sinners were in need of a physician, but many of them did not
realize their own need of a physician: hence, Jesus was certainly giving his
services where they were needed. This furnished our Lord with an opportunity
to preach a very short sermon from a text in Hosea (6:6) to the effect that his
message was not a message of destruction, but a message of mercy, and that his
call to the Kingdom was not a call of the righteous, but of those who realized
themselves to be imperfect. And herein lay the distinction between the two
classes and the reason why publicans and sinners were more attracted than the
self-satisfied Pharisees: the latter trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and spurned to ask or accept mercy; the former admitted that they
were unrighteous and had need of mercy. Humility and a realization of the need
of a Savior, and a great one, are essential to all who would come unto the
Father through Christ and his atonement.
The influence of Jesus’ ministry was beginning to be recognized; it was
increasing while John’s work had for some time been decreasing, and comparisons
were naturally instituted. One of these was respecting the fact that Jesus had
given his disciples no specific directions respecting fasting; and the inquiry
as to why this was so. Did our Lord disapprove of fasting? The answer came
promptly to the effect that fasting is a concomitant of mourning and sorrow,
and that our Lord’s disciples could not consistently fast and be troubled at
this time;-because the Bridegroom was with them and their joy was at its full.
He pointed out, however, that, later on, times of trial and sorrow and fasting
would come to his disciples.
Fasting is proper enough when intelligently done and from a right motive,
but it is certainly worse than useless when done as a formality or ceremony, or
to be seen of men, that they might think us holy. Fasting
is specially commendable to the Lord’s people at times when they find
themselves lacking in spirituality and exposed to severe temptations from the
world, the flesh and the devil; for by impoverishing the physical force and
vitality, it may assist the full blooded and impulsive to self control, in
every direction. We believe that a majority of Christians would be helped by
occasional fasting,-a very plain diet for a season, if not total abstinence.
But fastings, to be seen and known of men or to be conjured up by our own minds
as marks of piety on our part, would be injurious indeed, and lead to spiritual
pride and hypocrisy which would far outweigh their advantages to us in the way
of self-restraints.
The Lord wished his disciples to recognize the difference between
the work he was doing in starting a new dispensation, and the work that John
the Baptist and the Pharisees had been doing in attempting to reform the Jewish
nation. He illustrated this under the figure of patching an old garment with a
piece of new cloth, or putting new wine that had not yet fermented into old
wine-skins whose strength and elasticity were gone and which would be sure to
burst under the pressure of the fermentation. This was perhaps the first
intimation our Lord had given of the fact that Israel as a nation would not be
found worthy of the Kingdom and would be rejected. Likewise, it was the first
intimation that the class which he was gathering was not being gathered with a
view to reforming the nation or readjusting its affairs, but with a view to
constituting the nucleus of a new nation, “a holy nation, a peculiar people,”
which, when fully developed, would be fit to be his joint-heirs in the Kingdom
and to engage with him as his bride in inviting all the families of the earth
to receive divine favor, symbolized as “water of life,” which will be offered
free.-Rev. 22:1,17.