Matthew 9:9-17

VThe miracle of the call of Matthew to the Apostolate; the feast of the Lord with the publicans; twofold stumblingblock of the Pharisees and disciples of John: or, Christ’s gracious working despite the contradiction of legal piety.

Matthew 9:9-17 (Mark 2:13-22; Luke 5:27-39)

9And as Jesus passed forth [on] from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom [custom-house]: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. 10And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat [reclined at table] in the house, behold, many publicans4 and sinners came and sat down [reclined] with him and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples,Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? 12But when Jesus5 heard that, he said unto them, They that be [are] whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.: for I am not come to call the righteous6, but sinners to repentance.7

14Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft [often], but thy disciples fast not? 15And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days8 will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.16No man putteth a piece [patch] of new [unwrought] cloth unto [on] an old garment;9 for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is madeworse. 17Neither do men put new wine into old [skin.] bottles: else the bottles break [the skins burst], and the wine runneth out, and the [skin.] bottles perish:10 but the, put new wine into new [skin.] bottles, and both are preserved [together].11

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Matthew 9:9. On the identity between Matthew and Levi, comp. the Introduction; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27. Probably Matthew had already, at a former period, entered into closer relationship with the Lord.

Ἐπὶ τὸτε λώνιον.—The place where custom was levied, toll-house, custom-house, collector’s office. His way led Him past the receipt of custom (παράγων) .

Matthew 9:10. As Jesus sat, better: lay, or reclined, at table in the house—according to Eastern custom. It was the practice to recline on divans, resting upon the left arm. The house, which is here designated with the article, was, no doubt, that of the publican. Meyer maintains that it was the house of Jesus,12 since we read in the former verse that Matthew followed Him, as if to follow the Lord meant to accompany Him across the street! Luke relates that the feast took place in the house of Levi (Matthew). We cannot see any difficulty, unless, like Fritzsche and Meyer, we were to take in its gross literality an expression which evidently means, that from that moment Matthew followed Christ as His disciple in the narrowest sense. De Wette correctly remarks that it is not likely that Christ ever gave dinner-parties.13

And sinners.—Meyer: Worthless persons generally (!). We should rather say, in general, those whom the Pharisees had excommunicated from the synagogues.

Matthew 9:12. The whole—the sick,—i. e., according to Matthew 9:13, the righteous and sinners. De Wette supposes that the former referred to persons who were really righteous in the Jewish and legal sense; while Meyer takes it ironically, as applying to their boasted righteousness. We would combine the two ideas. They imagined that they were righteous, regarding legal righteousness as sufficient before God. On the other hand, those who in the text are called sinners, were not merely such from the Jewish point of view, but felt themselves guilty when brought in contact with the righteousness of Christ. Most aptly, therefore, does Calvin designate this as an ironica concessio.

Matthew 9:13. I will have mercy.—I take pleasure, I desire. Hosea 6:6, after the Septuagint. The opinion of de Wette, that the term חֶסֶד, in Hosea, means piety, is ungrounded.—And not sacrifice. The comparison may be relative; but when mercy and sacrifice are placed in opposition to each other, it becomes absolute, because the sacrifice then loses all its value, and becomes an act of hypocrisy. The expression, πορευθεντες μάθετε, go and learn, answers to the rabbinical formula, צא וּלְמֹד. Schöttgen.

Matthew 9:14. The disciples of John, etc.—St. Luke represents the Pharisees as in this case also urging the objection, and Schleiermacher considers this the authentic version of the event. De Wette regards the narrative of Luke as a correction upon Matthew, and deems it improbable that the disciples of John should have come forward as here related. Meyer decides simply in favor of the account of Matthew. Luke may have represented the Pharisees as putting the question proposed by the disciples of John, because the latter shared many of the views of the Pharisees, and were in danger of going further in that direction, from their attachment to John and to his asceticism. These were the disciples of John who would not be guided by their master’s direction to the Lamb of God.

Matthew 9:15. The children of the bride-chamber, οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ νυμ φῶνος.—On the day of marriage, the bridegroom went, adorned and anointed, to the house of the bride, attended by his companions (מֵרֵעים, Judges 14:11), and led her, attended by her maidens, in festive procession, with music and dancing, at even, by torchlight, into the house of his father. The marriage feast, which was defrayed by the bridegroom, lasted seven days. (See the Bibl. Encyclops. sub Marriage.)

Mourn.—The Lord here indicates that fasting must be the result of πενθεῖν. The other Evangelists have νηστεύειν. “Fasting should be the expression of sorrow; not merely an outward exercise, but the expression of an inward state.” De Wette. The primary object of our Lord, therefore, was to show the impropriety of those fasts which had no proper motive, and hence were untrue. The present was the festive season for the disciples; and it was theirs to show this by their outward gladness. “The Roman Catholics infer from this verse, that, since the death of Christ, it is necessary to fast.” Heubner. If this were to be consistently carried out, we should have to fast the whole year round.

Matthew 9:16. No man putteth a patch of un-wrought [or unfulled] cloth.—Two similes taken from common life to illustrate the principles of the Divine economy. In both cases, it is not so much the unsuitableness of adding the new to the old which is brought out, as the folly of bringing together what is not only new, but fresh, with that which is not only old, but antiquated. Hence, in the first example, we have not only a piece of new cloth, but of raw and unwrought material, which will shrink. Accordingly, the piece inserted to fill it up (πλήρωηα) will make the rent worse by the strain upon the old cloth. Similarly, the new wine which is still fermenting, expands, and will thus burst the old skin bottles. The antagonism between the old and the new arises, therefore, not merely from the imperfectness of the old, but also from that of the new, which, however, from its inherent nature, must develop and expand. An arrangement of this kind were, therefore, not merely unsuitable, but even destructive,—making matters worse, instead of improving them. The result in both cases would be, that the old and the new would perish together. A careful examination shows that the two similes are intended to supplement each other. The first meets the case of the disciples of John, with whom the old was the principal consideration, and the new only secondary; i. e., they regarded Christianity merely as a reformation of the Old Covenant, as a piece of new cloth to fill up a rent in the old garment. The second simile applies more especially to the disciples of Jesus. Here, Christianity is the primary consideration (the new wine from the Vine of Israel), whilst the old forms of the theocracy were secondary. In both cases, the result is the same. But, besides its special lessons, the second simile is also intended to show how entirely false the view alluded to in the first simile was, that Christianity was only a piece of new cloth to mend the torn garment of the old theocracy.

Matthew 9:17. Bottles, or lit.: skins, ἀσκοί.—In the East, water, milk, wine, oil, and similar commodities, were, and are still, preserved and transported in leathern bottles, which were commonly made of the hides of goats, rarely of camels, and asses. The exterior of the skin, after having been suitably prepared, was generally used as the interior of the bottle. See the quotations of Heubner (p. 128) from Lucian and Aulus Gellius.14

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is important to study the external and internal connection between the call of the publican to the apostolate, and the commencement of open hostility to the gracious forgiveness of sins by Jesus on the part of the Pharisees. When they who had a historical claim upon the Gospel rejected its provisions, they were offered to those who had a spiritual claim upon the glad tidings, by being prepared and ready to receive them. Christ, the Saviour of sinners, reviled by the Pharisees, turns to the publicans, and calls one of their number to the apostolic office. Thus, at a later period, the hostility of the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem led to His entering a heathen country, when He passed into the territory of Tyre and Sidon, there to display His grace in the case of the Syrophenician woman, Matthew 15:0. In an analogous manner, also, the Lord interpreted the Old Testament narratives concerning Elijah and the heathen widow of Sarepta, and Elisha and Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:25, etc.). The conduct of Paul was precisely similar. When the Jews in their unbelief rejected the Gospel, he turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46; Acts 18:6). Hence, while the conversion of the publican was a grand sign that the Lord now turned to the outcasts, the call of Matthew to the apostolate was a miracle of grace.

2. The quotation of Christ from the prophecies of Hosea, is generally adduced as expressing the contrast between the New Covenant and the degenerate form which the Old had assumed. Similarly, it may be applied to the contrast between Evangelical Protestant Christianity and the secularized mediæval Church. Nor are we, perhaps, mistaken in tracing a like difference between a devout and living piety and a fanatical orthodoxy, which too often contravenes the demands of the heart, and is radically opposed to Christian humanity.3. Perhaps the circumstances in which John the Baptist was placed, may in part account for the gloomy disposition of his disciples. For some time past John had been in prison, and they looked to Jesus for help in this emergency; nor could they understand how, in the meantime, He could take part in festive entertainments.4. It is significant, that even at that period the objections of the disciples of John were allied to those of the Pharisees. But there was this difference between them, that while the latter questioned the disciples, as if to turn them from their Master, the followers of John addressed themselves directly to the Master Himself. Even in their case, however, we miss that full παῤῥησία which should characterize the Christian. They do not venture to blame Christ openly. The Pharisees had questioned the disciples, “Why eateth your Master?” etc.; while the disciples of John ask the Master, “Why do Thy disciples fast not ?” Fanaticism assumes only the appearance of παῤῥησία, especially when, kindled by the sympathy of an excited majority, it is arrayed against a minority. Then those flaming declamations of self-satisfied eloquence burst forth, which the multitude regard as the voice of an archangel, while they are utterly opposed to that deep calm engendered by the Spirit of adoption, who inspires even a weak minority to speak with παῤῥησία. Finally, this occurrence seems to form the turning-point in history at which the later disciples of John separated from their teacher. The difference, which was afterward fully established, continues even to this day.

5. The reply of the Lord to the disciples of John contains a canon perpetually binding, in respect of the relation between form and substance. The principles itself has never been sufficiently appreciated. Even Master Philip [Melanchthon] seemed always prone to put the new wine of Gospel truth into the old bottles. The same attempt was made at a later period by the Jansenists, and gave rise to the tragic history of the Port Royal. In our own days, also, some seem still to be of opinion that the unwrought cloth may be put upon the old garment, and the new wine be preserved in decaying bottles. “The warning of Christ applies to all times, that the life of His Church is not to be surrendered by forcing it into antiquated forms. But it also implies that genuine Christian forms should be preserved, along with the truth which they convey.”

6. “The reply of Jesus to His disciples appears the more striking, when we remember the last testimony of the Baptist concerning Him.” He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice (John 3:29). Jesus seems only to continue and to follow up the speech of their master when He replied to John’s disciples: “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn and fast, so long as the bridegroom is with them?” Lastly, the Lord here points forward to His future sufferings and death as a period for inward fasting. This fasting, which is to succeed the sufferings and death of Christ, consists in a complete renunciation of the world.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Jesus goes to all classes, into all streets, and to all men.—The greatness of Divine grace, which can make of a publican an Apostle. 1. According to Jewish traditionalism, the publican was an excommunicated person; but he is now called to assist in founding the communion of Christ. 2. He was an apostate from the people of God, but called to become one of the pillars of the Church of God. 3. An instrument of oppression, but becomes an instrument of glorious liberty. 4. A stumblingblock and a byeword, but becomes a burning and a shining light.—Grace is not stopped by any customhouse, and pays no toll.—High call of the Lord to the publican, and great faith of the publican in the Lord.—Matthew the Apostle relates, to the glory of God, that he had formerly been a publican.—The publican and the Apostle.—The Divine call must determine us to relinquish an ambiguous occupation.—Strange circumstance, that the Lord and His disciples should sit down at meat with publicans and sinners. 1. How can this be? Because the Lord does not conform to the publicans and sinners, but they to Him. He not only continues the Master, but becomes theirs. 2. What does it convey to our minds? Infinite compassion, manifesting itself in full self-surrender, despite difficulties and objections.—Christ and His disciples are still at meat with publicans and sinners.—When the Pharisees saw it, they said, Why? How this question has ever since been reiterated in the history of the Eucharist (Novatianism; refusal of the cup; Eucharistic Controversy).—The reply of Jesus, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick:” 1. A calm exposition: they that are whole are really whole, and they that are sick, really sick, in the legal sense. 2. A solemn warning: they that are whole are sick unto death, because they deem themselves whole; while a sense of their spiritual sickness renders the others capable of life. 3. A decisive judgment: salvation is for sinners who feet their need, not for the self-righteous.—Eternal import of the saying, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” 1. Rather mercy than sacrifice, if the two be put in comparison; 2. only mercy and not sacrifice, if the two are put in antagonism; 3. mercy exclusively, to the rejection of sacrifice, if the one is set up in contradiction to the other.—Mercy the most acceptable and holy sacrifice.—Sacrifices, to the exclusion of mercy, not offerings, but robbery.—Sad conflict between mercy and sacrifice, throughout the course of history.—Lessons derived from the declaration of Jesus, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance:” 1. Character and prospects of the sinners who listen to the call of Jesus. 2. Character of the religion which ignores Christ and His pardon.—Inquiry of the disciples of John, or characteristics of the legalist: 1. He would give laws to others as well as to himself; 2. he would give laws without heeding the requirements of the case; 3. he is ready to take the part of the worst legalism (“we and the Pharisees”), and to assail with his puny objections the holiest liberty (“but Thy disciples fast not”).—Arrogance of legalism: 1. The disciples of the Baptist assume the place of being the masters of the Lord; 2. they venture to censure Him according to the traditions of their school; 3. they adduce the Pharisees as authorities against Christ Himself.—The bridal and the mourning season of the disciples: 1. Wherein each consists; 2. the appropriate manifestation of each.—It is one of the first principles of true Christianity, that every outward manifestation must proceed from an inward state.—The Christian life a continuous marriage feast, which may be interrupted, but is not broken up, by the sufferings of this present world.—Christ the Bridegroom of the Church: 1. As such He came at first; 2. as such He went away; 3. as such He will return.—Sad mistakes in the kingdom of God, which can only entail harm: 1. To mend that which is antiquated by putting on it a piece of new cloth; 2. by forcing the new life into antiquated forms. Or, 1. To garnish legalism with the gospel; 2. to force the gospel into the forms of legalism.—All attempts at patching unavailing.—The law and the gospel cannot be mixed up: 1. Because the gospel is infinitely more strict than the law (the unwrought piece shrinks); 2. because it is infinitely more free than the law (the new wine bursts the mouldering bottles).—Hierarchism might learn many a lesson from those who patch, and from those who cultivate the vine.—The sentence of Christ upon ecclesiastical questions: 1. New cloth, a new garment; 2. new wine, new bottles.—The true principles of genuine ecclesiastical conservatism.—Above all, we must aim to preserve, 1. the life along with the forms; and then, 2. the forms with the life.—Consequences of false conservatism in the Church: 1. These attempts at tailoring in spiritual matters are opposed even to common sense and everyday practice. 2. The old forms are destroyed by the new life, and the new life by the old forms. 3. The work of destruction is continued while they clamor against destruction, until the new and the old are finally separated.—How the Lord prepares the wed ding garment and the new wine for the kingdom of God.—The threefold mark of the new life: 1. It assumes a definite outward form; 2. it cannot continue in the false and antiquated forms; 3. it must create for itself corresponding forms.

Starke:—Christ is not ashamed of the greatest sinners.—Osiander:—It is easier to convert open sinners than hypocrites. This is more difficult than to break through a mountain of iron.—Christ the highest Physician.—Difference in ecclesiastical usages is not incompatible with unity in the faith.—Zeisius:—Constraint and Christian liberty cannot well be combined.

Gerlach:—Marginal note of Luther: There are two kinds of suffering,—the one of our own choosing, such as the rules of the monks, just as the priests of Baal cut themselves (1 Kings 18:28). The world, the Pharisees, and the followers of John regard such sufferings as a great matter, but God despises it. The other kind of suffering is sent us by the Lord; and willingly to bear this cross, is right and well-pleasing in the sight of God. Hence Christ says that His disciples fast not because the Bridegroom is with them: i. e., since God had not sent them sufferings, and Christ was still with them to protect them, they neither sought nor invented sorrow for themselves, for such were without value before God; but when He was taken from them, they both fasted and suffered.

Heubner:—Compassion and love toward sinners is the sacrifice most acceptable to God—of far greater value than the most pompous worship.—Christianity is opposed to all slavish discipline.—The doctrine of Jesus cannot be combined with the old traditions of Pharisaism. This were only miserable patch-work.

Footnotes:

[4] Matthew 9:10.—[Publicans for τελῶναι is better than taægatherers which has been suggested by some as more intelligible. For, as Dr. Conant correctly remarks, a taægatherer is not necessarily a publican, though a publican is a targatherer. The term publican is as much established in Scriptual usage, as the terms Pharise, Sadducee, scribe, Baptist, etc. It suggests the oppressive system of taxation in the old Roman empire and the arbitrary exaction and fraud connected with it. The taxes were sold by the Roman government to the highest bidders, who gave security for the sum to be paid to the state, and were allowed to collect from the provinces as much as they could beyond it, for their own benefit and that of their numerous agents and subagents.—P. S.]

[5] Matthew 9:12.—Ἰησοῦς is omitted in Cod. B. [also in Cod. Sinait] and in some translations. According to Meyer it was inserted from the parallel passages.

[6] Matthew 9:13.—[Dr. Lange omits the article before righteous, according to the Greek. The art would seem to imply that there are really righteous persons; while there are such only in their own conceit Dr. Conant omits the art., and translates: righteous men.—P. S.]

[7] Matthew 9:13.—Εἰς μετάνοιαν is wanting in Cod. B., D., L., [Cod. Sinait], in several translations and fathers. Comp. Luke 5:32.

[8] Matthew 9:15.—[Days, ἠμέραι, without the article. So also Lange: Es werden aber Tage Kommen. Cod. Sinait omits the words: ἑλεύσονται δὲ ἡμεπαι, ὁθαν ’ αὐτων ὁ νυμφίος.—P. S.]

[9] Matthew 9:16.—[Dr. Lange: Niemand flickt einen Lappen von ungewalktem Zeug auf ein altes Kleid, i.e., a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment, which is more literal.]

[10] Matthew 9:17.—Lachmann, following B. and other Codd. [among which must be mentioned now the Cod. of Mt. Sinai] reads ἀπόλλυνται [instead of ἀπολοῦνται].

[11] Matthew 9:17.—[Preserved together, συν τηποῦνται; Lange: “miteinander erhalten.”—P. S.]

[12][Meyer means, of course, the house in which Jesus dwelt at the time. For from Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58, it is evident that Christ had no house of his own.—P. S.]

[13][It is due to Meyer to remark that he treats this objection as gratuitous, since the Evangelist, he thinks, speaks only of an ordinary meal of Jesus with His disciples. But whence the “many publicans and sinners,” who took part in it?—P. S.]

[14][Comp. also Dr. Robinson, Bibl. Researches, ii., p. 440, and Dr. Hackett, Illustrations of Scripture from Eastern Travel. pp. 44–46. who tells us that he met these skin-bottles, or bags made of the skins of animals for holding water, wine, and other liqui is in the houses, and transporting them on journeys, at Cairo at almost every turn in the streets, and everywhere in Egypt and Syria. It was a ‘water-skin’ (according to the Hebrew) which Abraham placed on the shoulder of Hagar, when he sent her forth into the desert (Genesis 21:14).—P. S.]