Breaking the Word

13^th Week in Ord. Time, Saturday – 5^th July 2024 – Genesis 27,1-5.15-29; Mt 9,14-17

Messiah’s Presence For A New Era

Jesus is presenting three illustrations to answer one question: Why don’t your disciples fast, as did the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist. First, He referred to wedding guests celebrating the presence of the groom. Second, He pointed to the patching of a torn garment with a new piece of unshrunk cloth. Third, He mentioned the new wine put into old wineskins. All three illustrations described why Jesus’ arrival on earth has changed the old way of doing. His arrival on earth as the Messiah, the bridegroom, has begun the new era of the kingdom of heaven. The old ways of Judaism are the old wineskin and torn garment. The ways of the kingdom will not fit into those old religious practices and observances. New ways are coming where Jews and Gentiles will come to God through faith in Jesus. Therefore, Jesus’s disciples don’t need to fast while He was with them preparing this new way of coming to the Father through faith in Him. Jesus’ way is quite different and new, for he brought his people to a new relationship, a new age of joy and liberation.

13^th Week in Ord. Time, Friday – 4^th July 2025 – Genesis 23,1-4.19; 24,1-8.62-67 Mt 9,9-13

Dining Companions

Jesus simply ignored rules and standards that went beyond the requirements of the law. He is doing so again in this passage: accepts hospitality in the home of Matthew, a tax collector. There he shares a table with his typical crowd, tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees perceive tax collectors and sinners as natural companions. They scorn the company Jesus keeps with them (Mt 11,19), yet Jesus is notorious for his companionship with tax collectors and sinners. He himself compares them not to those who are well but to those who are sick. When Jesus tells his disciples to love their enemies, he notes that “even the tax collectors” love those who love them (Mt 5,46). Later, he admonishes the church to relate to unrepentant sinners as if they were Gentiles or tax collectors (Mt 18:17). Confronted by hostile temple authorities, Jesus puts them in the first place: even tax collectors and prostitutes enter the kingdom of God before the enemies (Mt 21,31). Similarly, Jesus’ companionship with sinners appears to be just. He has many harsh words to say, but he directs none of them at sinners. He denounces the cities he has visited for failing to repent (Mt 11,20-21). He pronounces woe against the scribes and the Pharisees (Mt 23). But Jesus never reproves sinners. He does not criticize them. He does not demand their repentance. He simply eats, drinks and enjoys their company, as they are God’s children and his brothers.