Weekly Bible Reflection
Matthew's Communities of Justice
Third Sunday after Trinity
Matthew 9.9-13, 18-26 :
"In Bad Company"
Begin by using the Bible Study method as outlined
Sharing together
Do you have any unconventional or non-conforming friends? In what ways do they go against the mores of society? What attracts you to them? Are you ever embarrassed by your relationship with them?
Reflection on the text
There are three little cameos here, which contrast the exclusive and hierarchical nature of Kingdom of Israel within the Roman Empire – and that of the Kingdom which God, which Jesus was establishing.
Jesus appears to be in some bad company in these three brief encounters; tax collectors or more accurately toll collectors, a haemorrhaging and consequently ritually unclean woman, a dying child, and some professional mourners who have gathered like vultures in anticipation of a death.
The toll-collectors, like fishermen of the time, were contracted by the Roman authorities to deliver the needs of the empire, that is income from tolls on the movement of goods to pay its army (9.9) and fish to feed it. Not only were the fishermen and toll-collectors dealing in ritually unclean products, smelly dead fish and Roman coins with the Emperor-God’s image, they were collaborating with the invader. Consequently they were outsiders in religious as well as social terms.
Jesus chooses to include both in his radical household community and in so doing disrupts the economy of Empire. He nurtures that community around his dinner table; bad company by the criteria of Temple and Empire (9.11) becomes good company for Jesus (9.12-13) – the stuff of the kingdom. By inviting he is offering acceptance, by accepting he forgives, by forgiving he heals.
The Pharisees sneer and criticise from a distance. As religious leaders, and pillars of society they were the keepers of Temple purity and of the hierarchical social behaviour required for good order.
But note to which kin-dom the leader of the Synagogue turns at the moment of great need. It’s a study in radical power. In his powerlessness, he goes among the powerless, to Jesus, and kneels at his feet seeking healing for one of the least powerful, a child. His intuitive understanding of God has taken him to a place where he is accepted and his needs can be met. The same might be said of the haemorrhaging woman.Application: some questions for group discussion:
- Make a list of the groups of people in your community who are seen to be un-acceptable by society or the leaders of this United Kingdom
- Why are they not accepted?
- What needs fail to be addressed?
- Make another list of the ones that are also ostracised by the church.
- Why are they not accepted?
- What needs fail to be addressed?
- In the light of this Reflection, who might you now consider inviting to your table and why?
- What would be the benefit
- Might there be the social cost
Praying Together
Say the Lord’s Prayer, but make space after “your kingdom come” in which to name the groups that are ostracised in your community. Pause to reflect on each name.
Continue the Lord’s Prayer with “your will be done” but make another space in which to name the people who you intend to reach out to in some gesture of hospitality in the future.
End by saying the Grace, but add words to include the ‘ostracised’ in your kin-dom.More background information
-
There seems some doubt as to whose house (9.10) the dinner was held at – Matthews’, Jesus’ or Peters’. Does it matter? Probably not, the company rather than the place are the vital element.
