( Matthew 9:9-13 ) - [ Deutsch ]
„Does the Name „Checkpoint Charlie“ mean anything to you?
Checkpoint Charlie takes you back to the time of the Cold War.
The time when the West and the East faced each other, ready for action, and watched each other. Berlin was divided into East and West Berlin then and the Wall was omnipresent there. There were only a few ways for people to cross from one zone into the other. One very important crossing point was Checkpoint Charlie.
Military checkpoints are special places: they reveal divisions and conflicts. At Checkpoint Charlie, the West and the East opposed each other. Checkpoint Charlie was a symbol of the Cold War. Certain control points have another characteristic. Everything is reduced to "us" and "them". At Checkpoint Charlie: either you belonged to the West or to the East, there was no option in-between. Boundary points always pose the question: Where do you belong? To us or to them? Boundary points focus conflicts on a feature or a characteristic. Either you have that, or you don’t, and you are let through or rejected.
There were also checkpoints in Israel at the time of Jesus. The New Testament calls them tax collection posts. They were set up by the Roman occupying power at bridge crossings, road junctions, at entrances and exits. Here they controlled and collected. The tax collection posts were rarely run by the Romans themselves but were leased to locals for good money. Naturally, the tax collectors themselves, wanted to get as much as possible out of the collection post. The fees therefore rose quickly and the disgust against these "cut-throat thieves" grew rapidly among the population.
Tax collectors were unpopular especially among the group of Pharisees. Pharisees were believers who firmly anchored their faith in God in everyday life. They distinguished between clean and unclean, and they strictly observed all boundaries. Tax collectors were particularly unpopular with them. They cooperated with the occupying power. They had contact with the unclean, i.e. they hardly kept to the Pharisees' rules of faith. Pharisees and tax collectors - it often came to blows at these posts.
The evangelist Matthew tells us in one passage how Jesus finds himself in such a conflict and how he deals with it.
The Calling of Matthew
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
What is important is how Jesus deals with the conflict. Will he take sides? Living the faith in everyday life and thus serving God well is also his concern. He knows the religious way of the Pharisees and is very close to them in many aspects. He knows how they think and argue. He can understand many things and is certainly closer to them than to many other groups in Israel at that time.
So, what happens here in this short story? First Jesus addresses the tax collector. Not aggressively or provocatively, as the Pharisees might have done, but in a friendly, even inviting way. "Would you like to come with me? I invite you to have dinner with me. Let's sit together for a bit, eat something and celebrate!" Matthew senses that Jesus is sincere and responds in the same way. He even tells others about this in his circle and brings several colleagues with him to the small celebration. Note that Jesus has shifted the place of the conversation. They no longer sit at the place of the dispute, at the collection office, but somewhere in a friend's house in hospitable surroundings.
Of course, all are not instantly friends. Pharisees are also present. The muttering starts from the back. It is not directly addressed to Jesus but aimed at him. The disciples, who have been Jesus' friends for a long time, are asked: "What is Jesus doing? He is eating with tax collectors, these terrible sinners!
The grumbling is not hidden for long. Especially not in front of Jesus. He speaks to them as he spoke to Matthew before. Friendly, attentive, and also appreciative. He tries to see the situation from their point of view. "I am right here with you. Some people need to change something in their lives to please God, to conform to his will. But precisely because they must and can do that, they are not eternally damned! Of course not, rather, they are sick and need to be healed. The sick need the doctor, not the healthy. And healing people is what I want to do. And you do too, actually."
Pharisees hold the Torah and the prophetic scriptures sacred. Their interpretation determines their everyday life. And so, Jesus quotes a verse from the holy scriptures: "Remember the prophet Hosea: 'Mercy is what I want, says God, not sacrifice.' That is what I am about. I don't want to call to repentance righteous people who are already walking in the way of God, who are essentially healthy. They don't need that, but sinners, the sick, who need me much more than others. And what can be more healing than an intimate meal together? Come and eat. God is with us all!
We do not know how the Pharisees reacted to Jesus' words. The Pharisees were the most influential group in Israel a few years after Jesus' death. Until today, we can find guidelines in the stories that help us to follow Jesus in our time, that is, to shape the church. What might these be in the story of Matthew the tax collector?
1. Let us be a hospitable church. Especially with those who are strangers to us. Perhaps they need a doctor, but perhaps they are the strong ones and have healing things to say to us.
2. Let us find room and space where everyone is welcome and where reconciliation takes place, where we communicate. Where there is not only black and white, friend or foe. Many points of view have their place here.
3. From a Christian perspective, Jesus' presence is an essential part of this. We celebrate his presence again and again in Holy Communion. We must start from here. It is our task to bring reconciliation from here into the world.
4. Who is strong and who is sick in the sense of this story, who is righteous and who is a sinner, is decided by Jesus alone. That is not our task. One thing is certain: mercy, hospitable love, comes before everything else. Only then other rules may be important. They need to be addressed, but they do not come first. Mercy is at the top of the list.
And mercy we all need. Again, and again. Amen