|
Throughout
history many leaders have made terrible decisions
based on false premises. Look at the tens of millions
of people that Communist leaders killed in the
20th Century based on a false political-philosophical
system. Many leaders have done terrible things
based on prejudice. Look at what Hitler did to
the Jewish people, and the genocide that recently
happened Rwanda.
Mankind
needs a Leader who will not judge by what His
eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears
hear; but with righteousness He will judge the
poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted
of the Earth (Isaiah 11:3-4). We need a leader
who is able to get beyond the appearance of truth,
beyond prejudice, beyond human traditions, who
knows the truth and makes his decisions by the
truth. Yeshua is that Leader! He is the King who
came from Heaven to free mankind from false teachings,
harmful traditions and human prejudices.
Previously,
we left off with Yeshua teaching a house that
was so full of people that the friends of a paralyzed
man climbed onto the roof, dug through the roof,
and lowered their friend into the presence of
Yeshua. Because of their faith, Yeshua healed
the man both physically and spiritually.
Yeshua
is able to heal those who are physically paralyzed,
and those who are spiritually paralyzed by sin!
He is Adonai Rofaynu, the Lord our Healer, and
Elohay Slichot, the God of Forgiveness, who can
heal both body and soul. Our souls can be healed
right now when we have faith in Yeshua, and come
into His presence, despite the obstacles. Yeshua
will say to us, "child, your sins are forgiven"
and our sins will be forgiven! Generally, the
healing of our bodies awaits the resurrection.
Let's
pick up with verse 13. And He went out again by
the seashore (along the Kinneret); and all the
people were coming to Him, and He was teaching
them. Yeshua continued to be very popular with
most of the people -- all the people were coming
to Him. Again, we see the King teaching the people.
The One who knows the mind of God, and perfectly
understands the Word of God, who is Himself the
Living Word of God, the Wonderful Counselor and
Supreme Teacher of Mankind, was teaching them
about the God who can restore human beings, and
redeem them, if they will only turn to God, and
turn away from their sins.
But the
Rabbi was not popular with everyone. The opposition
to Yeshua was growing -- primarily from the religious
leaders. Even though they were impressed with
His miracles, they didn't like His teaching that
He was able to forgive sin, or that He was equal
to God. They will not like Yeshua's teaching about
some of their traditions, like picking and eating
grain on the Sabbath. Some of the leaders, particularly
those from the Pharisees -- the separatists, didn't
like His associations with those they thought
should be excluded from fellowship with the godly.
The next
significant incident -- Yeshua's choice of Matthew
to be one of His disciples, and what happens at
what seems to be Matthew's home, reveals how Yeshua
was different from so many of these religious
leaders.
2:14 As
He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus
sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him,
"Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him. It
seems like Yeshua passed by, met Matthew for the
first time, called Matthew to be a disciple, and
Matthew was so overcome by the charisma of the
Rabbi that he immediately got up and followed
Him. While that is certainly possible, it is also
possible that like with some of the other disciples,
Matthew may have know about Yeshua, or heard Him
teach, before Yeshua called them to follow Him.
He may have been prepared and was now ready to
make a final commitment.
I have
found this to most often be the case -- people
need exposure to Yeshua and His teachings before
they are ready to make a genuine commitment to
follow Messiah. I am not impressed by pressuring
people to recite a prayer to become a Christian
or Messianic Jew without first adequately preparing
them to make this most serious commitment.
Levi is
another name for Matthew. It was not unusual for
Jewish people to have more than one name. But
it was not common for a rabbi to choose a tax
collector to be one of His disciples, especially
one who would be entrusted to chronicle His life
and teachings. In fact, most of the Jewish people
would have despised Matthew, because tax collectors
in Israel were despised by almost everybody --
and for good reason. They collaborated with the
hated Romans, and helped them squeeze money out
of the already impoverished Jewish people.
The Romans
demanded a certain amount of taxes from the Jews.
They appointed Jewish tax collectors who were
responsible to collect those taxes for the Romans.
In addition to collecting taxes to give to the
Romans, the Jewish tax collectors charged an extra
amount and kept it for themselves. They got rich
off of the labor of the rest of us. They were
seen as collaborators, traitors, and parasites,
who sided with the oppressors, and sucked the
life blood out of the already impoverished Jewish
people. You know, it's bad enough when your enemy
oppresses you. But it's even worse when one of
your own people sides with the enemy, and helps
them, and makes things even worse.
It's a
wonderful thing that Yeshua would invite a man
like this to follow Him. He did it because He
saw something special in Levi. He knew there was
something in him which made him discontent with
this kind of selfish, materialistic life. He knew
that there was a hunger in his heart for something
else. Therefore He called him and said, "Follow
Me."
Yeshua
didn't care that having Matthew, a despised tax
collector, as a disciple would damage His own
reputation. Isn't it wonderful that Messiah invites
not just respectable people, like honest fishermen,
but also tax collectors and sinners, to follow
Him and be with Him?
These
two words, "Follow Me," reminds us that Christianity
and Messianic Judaism isn't primarily about theological
systems, or keeping rules, or even helping other
people, although these things are important. It's
essentially about a close and personal and intimate
and living relationship with the Living God that
includes the Messiah. It's about hearing and then
making a commitment to follow the Lord.
The next
incident is closely connected with the call of
Matthew. It shows us that Yeshua does not have
the prejudices that most human beings have. The
King is willing to associate with all kinds of
people. 2:15 And it happened that He was reclining
at the table in his house, and many tax collectors
and sinners were dining with Yeshua and His disciples;
for there were many of them, and they were following
Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that
He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors,
they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating
and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?"
After
Matthew made a decision to follow Yeshua he invited
his old friends, his tax collecting buddies and
their crowd, and his new Rabbi and friends, the
disciples, to what seems to be his home for dinner.
What an interesting mixture of people were there
that day! Tax collectors and some of the notorious
sinners of Capernaum were there -- and there were
many of them! Simon and Andrew, James and John,
respectable fisherman from this same city, and
perhaps other disciples, were there as well. And
in the midst of it all, among the food and drinking
and fun and the tax collectors and sinners and
the disciples, sat Yeshua, eating and drinking
and talking with them all.
Now, these
tax collectors and sinners were not religious
people. Yet they were genuinely attracted to the
rabbi from Nazareth, because He was different.
He was not a typical rabbi. He was a holy man,
but He didn't automatically shun them. He was
willing to be with them, and get to know them,
and talk with them, and eat with them, and teach
them, and help them come closer to God.
When the
Torah-teachers of the Pharisees, the religious
experts who belonged to the party of the Pharisees
(and the Pharisees were separatists who didn't
want to be defiled by those they considered unclean
sinners), saw Yeshua and His disciples with these
tax collectors and sinners, they were appalled.
Didn't the rabbi from Nazareth know that eating
with someone was a sign of friendship, intimacy
and acceptance ? Why would a holy man defile Himself
with the unholy? A rabbi of all people, should
separate himself from sinners!
I don't
know if these Torah-teachers were at this meal,
but they found out what was going on in the home,
and they approached Yeshua's disciples, who were
there, and asked them, "Why is Yeshua eating and
drinking with tax collectors and sinners? Doesn't
He know who these people are? How can He allow
Himself to be seen in the company of such men?
Don't you know that He and you will be defiled
by these sinners? Don't you know that His reputation
will be ruined? Just what kind of rabbi is He
anyway?"
Yeshua
found out what these Torah-teachers said to His
disciples. 2:17 And hearing this, Yeshua said
to them, "It is not those who are healthy who
need a physician, but those who are sick; I did
not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Both the Torah-teachers of the Pharisees and Yeshua
saw the same condition, but their response was
totally different. Yeshua agreed with these religious
experts that these tax collectors and sinners
were not spiritually healthy men and women. Their
rebellion against God, their ignoring the Lord
and His ways had made them spiritually sick. Yeshua
was aware of their spiritual illness, but He understood
that just as a seriously sick person needs the
help of a good doctor, a good religious leader
sees the evil in men and women, and although he
is repulsed by it, he tries to heal it, and transform
the sinner into a saint. Yeshua wanted to heal
them, but the Torah-teachers wanted to avoid them.
The truth
is that all of mankind is spiritually sick. Sin
has sickened us, so that we can't live a full,
healthy spiritual life. Our relationship with
God suffers. Our ability to do God's will is weak.
Our relationship to each other, and to nature,
even to ourselves, isn't healthy. But the Great
Physician came to treat those who are spiritually
sick. He came to help the sinners. But, it is
only those who know that they are spiritually
sick and need God's help who are willing to come
to the Doctor of our Souls for treatment.
Those
who think they are righteous, like these Pharisees
and Torah-teachers did, are just as needy as those
they regarded as sinners and social outcasts!
These religious leaders were as spiritually sick
as the tax collectors and sinners, but they didn't
know it. They refused to see their true condition,
and that made their condition even worse.
Why is
that? When people think they have no need of help
from God, they're in no position to be helped.
There is nothing to say to them. There are so
many people today, Jews and Gentiles, who think
that they are they are managing things fine on
their own. They think they don't need the kind
of relationship with God that we are advocating,
and how dare we shove our beliefs on them!
The best
way to deal with such people is to be friendly,
and wait until life teaches them that they are
wrong. In most cases, sooner or later the bottom
will drop out, and all their dreams based on their
self-reliance will collapse. When someone who
is self-sufficient, who thinks that he is a successful,
self-made man, who has everything, finds out that
his wife is leaving him, or his business is failing,
or his children are getting into serious trouble,
or his health is failing, who is realizing for
the first time in his life that he can't handle
life on his own, who perhaps is even entertaining
thoughts of suicide, then he may be open to listen
to someone who will tell him about the Great Physician.
Then you can talk to him; then he will start listening.
That's
why God often allows trouble into our lives. It
makes us stop clinging to the destructive illusion
that we are O.K., when we are not O.K.; that we
are adequate apart from God, when we are most
definitely not adequate apart from God; that we
are able to handle life by ourselves, when the
reality is that we are not able to handle life
by ourselves. As long as people think that they
are O.K., adequate or able to handle life independently
from God, there is little you can say to them.
If Yeshua
didn't come to call the righteous -- since they
really are OK; but if He came to call sinners
and transform them into saints; if the King didn't
come to heal the healthy -- who don't need to
be healed, since they are healthy; but if He came
to heal the sick, then you had better realize
that you are sick, and admit that you are a sinner.
If you think that you are healthy and righteous,
remember that Yeshua didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners. You may well discover that you are
excluding yourself from His wonderful healing
and saving activity!
Yeshua
was willing to be with all people. He ignored
prejudices based on class, social station, race,
wealth, and gender, because He was looking for
any human being who was simply open to receive
His help. Christians and Messianic Jews must treat
people the same way.
Next,
we have an incident that shows us that Yeshua
was willing to oppose the traditions of men when
they contradicted the truth that God has revealed
in His Word. God's Word is so true and so beneficial
and so important, that it must never be overshadowed
or obscured or replaced or superceded by the erroneous
traditions of men. 2:18 John's disciples and the
Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said
to Him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples
of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not
fast?" And Yeshua said to them, "While the bridegroom
is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom
cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the
bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the
days will come when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then they will fast in that day.
Once again
we have a group of religious people who are offended
that Yeshua doesn't follow their traditions. The
Torah required only one day of the year to be
a fast day -- Yom Kippur, which the Jewish people
observe to this day. After the Exile from Babylon
other annual fasts were observed (see Zechariah
7, 8:19), in commemoration of the beginning of
the siege of Jerusalem, and the destruction of
the Temple, and the fast of Esther, and the fast
of Gedaliah. By the first century these fast days
had long been established in custom. It was taken
for granted that religious people would fast on
these days. In addition the Pharisees added other
fast days. The Talmud speaks about one who "fasts
every Monday and Thursday throughout the year"
as not being unusual (Ta'anit 12a).
There
is a certain kind of religious people who love
to do religious things -- like rituals and ceremonies.
That is very important to them. They don't have
a personal relationship with God, and they are
not spiritually sensitive enough to hear the voice
of God talking, so they make up for it with religious
rituals. They get very threatened and resentful
when you don't do exactly what they do, when they
do it and the way they do it. You can almost hear
them asking Yeshua: "Why do You disregard the
traditions like this? Why do you deliberately
ignore these customs? The rest of us fast. Why
don't Your disciples fast when we do?"
Yeshua's
answer is instructive. "You've misunderstood entirely
the nature of the occasion. You don't understand
what God is doing now among us! You seem to think
that we're at a funeral, but we aren't; it's more
like a wedding! A very special Groom is here."
Yeshua is telling us that He is the Groom -- who
has come from Heaven to find, woo, court and marry
a bride -- men and women who really want to be
united to God and live forever with Him. This
is a time of amazement and unparalleled joy! Something
radically new, something radically joyful was
taking place in their midst. The Heavenly Groom
is finally here on Earth after centuries of waiting.
He is doing things and saying things that kings
and prophets longed to see and hear.
At a wedding
nobody fasts. It would be totally out of place.
When the Groom is present there must be feasting
-- not fasting. As long as the Groom is around,
there should be festivity and rejoicing, laughter
and gladness. Only those mired in old traditions,
insensitive to the new thing that God was doing,
would want to be fasting and mourning while the
long-expected Messiah was right in front of them,
teaching us so powerfully, and doing amazing things
-- healing people and uniting them to the Eternal
God, enabling them to experience salvation and
eternal life.
Now, there
will come a day when the Groom will be gone, and
then it will be all right to fast. There are times
of mourning in our life, times of sorrow, times
for fasting. But in every such situation, the
King is still here, and available to bring a quieter,
more solemn kind of joy, and a peace that passes
all understanding.
Far too
often religious leaders make religion a thing
of abstinence and self-affliction. Ray Stedman
tells us that he heard that in pre-Reformation
Germany, there were as many as 161 days a year
when pious Christians were expected to either
fast or abstain from certain foods! And, too often
religious leaders create a religious expression
based on the same old traditions that were exciting
and meaningful years ago, but have since become
stale or irrelevant.
But this
is not the kind of religion that Yeshua came to
bring. Instead of a fast, He offers a feast; instead
of sackcloth, He brings us a wedding robe. Instead
of dull, predictable worship services based on
the same traditional prayers and ceremonies, there
should be the excitement and joy of a wonderful
Jewish wedding!
Those
who are connected to the Living God must be open
to new customs and new traditions. Not new doctrine
that opposes the old, but fresh ways of doing
things that takes into account the activity of
God. 2:21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away
from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear
results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins;
otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the
wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts
new wine into fresh wineskins." Christians and
Messianic Jews must strive to create a new wineskin
to hold the new wine of Yeshua's power and joy,
and much of Messianic Judaism and many contemporary
Christians churches have been doing this. There
are fresh forms, fresh music, and a new joy.
We need
fresh forms that relate to our situation, but
we can also use some elements of the old wineskin
-- some of the good, old traditions. Not all traditions
are bad -- for example, many of the elements that
go into the Passover Seder. Some traditions are
good and worth preserving. Some traditions are
neutral, and we can take or leave them according
to our freedom and choice. But some traditions
are bad, and contradict the Word of God, and must
be resisted, just as Yeshua fought the rigid traditions
of His day. We have to know the Word of God well
enough for ourselves so that we can tell where
it conflicts with the traditions of our religious
establishments. We dare not totally trust our
religious leaders and all of their traditions.
For example,
from Jews mired in tradition, I am challenged:
why don't you keep kosher the way the orthodox
do? How come your services are different from
the regular synagogues? Why is your music different?
How come you don't wear a kippah? Why do you meet
in a church when most Jews don't like churches.
From Christians mired in tradition, I am challenged:
Why do you call yourself a rabbi and not a pastor?
Why do you worship on Saturday, and not on Sunday
like the rest of the Christian world? Why do you
celebrate the Jewish holidays?" From Messianic
Jews mired in tradition, I am challenged: why
your services aren't more orthodox (even though
most of the Jewish community isn't orthodox, and
long orthodox services are unattractive and don't
relate to the majority of the Jewish community,
particularly the younger generation). Why don't
you dance during your services like the other
congregations do?
If it
was up to me, I would change some traditions that
are outmoded. For example, one that I don't think
is as helpful as it could be is having Bar and
Bat Mitzvahs take place at age 13. Centuries ago
13 year olds really were adults. The men worked,
and left their parents home, and got married.
That doesn't apply our 13 year olds today. But
it does apply to 18 year olds in our day.
Lord,
thank You for King Yeshua, who came from Heaven
to free mankind from false teachings, harmful
traditions and human prejudices.
Lord,
help us know You, and Your Son, and study Your
Word for ourselves, so that we can overcome the
harmful traditions of men.
Lord,
help us not judge according to appearance, but
judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24).
Lord,
help us to be open to implement what is new and
relevant for our situation.
Lord,
help us, like Yeshua to be open to all human beings,
and not have prejudices based on class, social
station, race, wealth, and gender.
Lord,
help us to be more concerned about transforming
sinners, rather than excluding them.
Lord,
give us a radical measure of the joy that comes
from knowing You, knowing Messiah, knowing salvation!
I am indebted
to the great Ray Stedman for much of this message.
|
