...Like A Gentile Or Tax Collector (part 2)

Shortly after the statements of verses fifteen through seventeen, Jesus makes His famous and popular statement of “For where two or three are assembled in My name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20).  So many tend to revel in this statement, while also tending to forget that it is offered in the context of conflict and what appears to be discipline.  This discipline, it shall be seen, is not necessarily the discipline of the individual in question that is being brought before groups of brothers or before the church, but rather the teachings of Jesus that are meant to provide a disciplining effect for the covenant community---guiding their actions and behaviors. 

Along with this, one does well to recognize the fact that these words on offer by Jesus, as reported by Matthew and as placed in the structure of His narrative concerning Jesus, follows immediately from the parable of the lost sheep.  That parable presents a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep to go after just one that is lost, and closes with Jesus saying “In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost” (18:14).  This statement must be kept in mind when Jesus is heard to say “treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector.” 

At the same time, the reader is forced to come to grips with the fact that Jesus, after speaking about His presence in the midst of gathered ones, is reported to have conducted a conversation with Peter, who has asked about the necessity of multiple offerings of forgiveness.  Jesus effectively informs Peter that forgiveness must be limitless.  This demands to be understood within the narrative flow of the entirety of Matthew’s Gospel, as well as the flow of the section in which it is to be found (not to mention that seventy times seven, or 490, would have a strong connection to Daniel and the end of exile), so it can be asserted that it does have bearing on the way Jesus’ insistence in regards to treatment as a Gentile or tax collector is to be understood.   

The questions that must be asked are “What would this mean to Jesus’ audience?” and “What would this mean to Matthew’s audience?”  These are interesting, provocative, and interesting questions.  Jesus’ audience would not be unaware of His activities to that point.  They would have known who it was with which Jesus surrounded himself, and they would have known things that were thought and said about Jesus by both His supporters and His detractors.  In the case of Matthew’s audience, one must never lose sight of the fact that Matthew’s written narrative---apparently drawing from Mark, perhaps some unknown written collections of Jesus’ teaching, and a community-controlled oral tradition---would have been composed for a largely oral community, and would have been designed to be orally performed in a communal setting, presented from start to finish in a single sitting. 

So what would both Jesus’ and Matthew’s audience already know when it comes to their hearing of the words recorded in the eighteenth chapter, that would inform their comprehension of Jesus’ words about Gentiles and tax collectors?  In the fourth chapter, Matthew records Jesus’ re-location from Nazareth to Capernaum (in the region of Zebulun and Naphthali).  This is picked up on as a historical actualization of words from Isaiah, which read “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphthali, the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles---the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and on those who sit in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned” (4:15-16).  Though it is not possible to come anywhere close to presuming that Jesus’ audiences would have made this connection, Matthew’s audience hears this reference to a light to the Gentiles very early on in the telling of the Jesus story. 

Measure Given, Measure Received (part 5)

With such light cast upon the text, the potential exegete is now in a much better position to move forward in a quest to better comprehend what Jesus means when He says, “Give, and it will be given to you… For the measure you use will be the measure you receive” (Luke 6:38a,c)  Before continuing that quest, it is worth reiterating how imperative it is that one must always resist the temptation to pull isolated verses out of their context in order to meet a perceived need or to pursue an ideological agenda.  Rightly understanding the context is the effort that has been undertaken to this point. 

Remember, the Gospels are biographical, historical, literary narratives that reflect specific social settings with both sociological and anthropological underpinnings and presuppositions that are designed to make a theological point.  They are, most assuredly, not merely collections of random sayings or high-minded teachings (this is the tendency of the later Gnostic gospels and similar materials).  If they are treated as such (collections of random sayings or high-minded teachings), it is quite likely that their connection to the Hebrew Scriptures (the foundational narrative for the person of Jesus and all of His followers) will be missed, as that too (Hebrew Scriptures) also function as a grand, historical narrative that makes a theological point.  By failing to adequately tackle statements in their social, historical, cultural, and literary context, a grave disservice is done to the text and to the reader/hearer of the text.

With the points that have been made thus far (parts 1 through 4), this study is now better positioned to assist the reader in becoming one of Jesus’ first-century hearers, so as to feel the full weight of His word when He says, “To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either” (6:29-30), as this is part of the same discourse in which Jesus speaks of giving and receiving.  Though Luke does not make mention of it, it is worth mentioning Jesus’ directive, found in Matthew, in which He says, “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two” (Matthew 5:41).  In Matthew’s “Sermon on the mount”, this follows Jesus’ statement about the tunic.  Luke has Jesus offering this teaching on a plain rather than on a mountain.  This is not to be perceived as a contradiction, as one must be realistic, understanding that Jesus would have repeated such things numerous times in numerous places.  One needs only think of a campaigning politician in order to make this connection. 

Now, though it is certainly possible and necessary to hear such “second mile” talk as a principle of good-hearted, Christian service, those who heard it would not be thinking in such a way.  They would have immediately thought of the requirement of their subservience to Rome, and the lamentable fact that a Roman solider could requisition anybody into service to carry his gear, or his pack, for one mile.  Jesus says to not only go that first mile, but to offer to go a second mile as well.  Why?  Well, numerous reasons come to mind.  The primary reason is that any Roman soldier that allowed a person to carry his gear for more than one mile was subject to harsh discipline.  By insisting on going the second mile, the carrier put the soldier in the position of requesting (begging for) the return of his pack, thus equalizing the relationship between the two.  

Another reason would be that in doing so, that member of the people of the Creator God could make an impression on that soldier, becoming a light to him as their God intended His people to be.  A final reason could be the fact that, at the end of that one mile, the solider is likely to requisition another person for the next mile.  Thus, going the second mile would alleviate that necessity, and also enable the one doing the carrying to relieve one of his fellow brethren from having to be called into the task of bearing up under that burden.  This moves a bit afield of the scope of this study, but this third way of approaching Jesus’ statement about the second mile fits quite well with the Apostle Paul’s instruction and exhortation to the Galatians to “Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).  Paul would have been very familiar with this practice, and apparently, also familiar with the words of Jesus (“the law of Christ”), as the word that he uses for burden there (unlike the one he will later use in the fifth verse of the sixth chapter of Galatians), refers to a soldier’s pack.