In keeping with the promises God made in the time of the dedication
of the temple under Solomon, that if the nation turned to Him and repented of their
apostasy He would hear their prayers and forgive them, the Lord promises to
Josiah that he will be gathered to his fathers and not see the destruction of
all. It will, however, come about that
this temple and this city will be laid low in accordance with the prophecy
already given. What could Josiah have
done when he received this prophetic word?
He could have said, "to heck with it then, I will just live out my
life quietly before the Lord but there's no hope for the city so I will leave
it to its own rot." He didn't say
that though. In spite of the fact that
he heard that it would all be ruined in the end Josiah began to attempt reform
among the leaders and people. He didn't
give up on it all and wasn't just concerned about himself.
When Jesus calls a tax collector to be part of the group of
disciples He is preparing for ministry it immediately introduces tension into
the group. Tax collectors were reviled
by all Jews because they were collaborators with the Romans. They essentially bid on a territory to
collect taxes. Imagine that the county
set the tax rate on your house but not the value. Now, they determine what total revenues need
to be for the county. Then they contract
out the collection of the tax to the highest bidder. As a bidder you have to work out for yourself
two things, what would the total value of real estate need to be to cover the
county's part and how much you want to make after that is paid. The only way to make money is to inflate the
value of the real estate. That is
roughly how the system worked so tax collectors, even more then than now, were
seen as greedy and rapacious. If they
were wealthy it was only because they were taking advantage of the people. Matthew immediately invited Jesus and the
others to dinner with his buddies, the other tax collectors. The question of why are they eating with tax
collectors is addressed to the disciples who have no idea and likely aren't
happy about it. Jesus, however,
acknowledges that these really need to repent, no one here claims to not be a
sinner at some level. The Good News is
that He is there and He can forgive and these can change but only if they hear the
Good News.
What does it mean to discern the body? I believe it means two things, discerning
your body and discerning Jesus. In our
worship we do both those things prior to communion, at least in theory. Just because we confess Jesus in the words of
the Nicene Creed doesn't mean we have discerned Him and fallen to our knees in
worship as we confess Him does it? Similarly,
saying the words of the confession of sin isn't the same as confessing our
sins. Discerning the body is more than
just reading or saying words from memory.
Discerning Jesus in worship should cause us to fall to our knees in
worship of Him for His greatness, His mercy, His grace, His kingship. Discerning our body is to recognize our own
sinfulness, even if that sin primarily relates to slothfulness in sharing Him
with others and lovelessness, coldness of heart towards Him or towards our
neighbors. Communion is important
business, let us prepare ourselves for the encounter in order that we might
receive the benefits.
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