7. Miracles and Vocation

After the discourse on the mountain, the Gospel according to Matthew resumes the narration of episodes about Jesus. We already know that the first gospel is organized around five great discourses, each of which is preceded by a narrative section.

Chapters 3 and 4 present the public ministry of Jesus that begins solemnly with the programmatic discourse which occupies chapters 5, 6 and 7: The discourse of the mountain, where we find the great texts of the beatitudes and of the Our Father.

At the beginning of chapter 8, the evangelist marks the passage and with a closing verse he says: "When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him." In chapters 8 and 9, which separate the discourse of the mountain from the missionary discourse of chapter 10, we found an anthology of miracles.

It is another example of how the evangelist Matthew proceeds editorially, that is, he compiles apostolic traditions according to his own criteria; forms of the stories and the ‘loguia.’ And as he gathered a series of details to form a great programmatic discourse, he gathered a series of stories and forms this section where 10 miracles are narrated, one after another, however, the stories are nine because the last one is a single story that includes two miraculous episodes. The series then unfolds with three plus three plus three tales of miracles. Between one series and another there are short episodes or sayings of vocation.

This collection system is interesting; it is an observation that we do not usually make because, accustomed to the liturgy, we read the separate texts, one narrative at a time, without noticing the connections. It is rare to read all the gospels in succession and, therefore, by not doing so, we lose the narrative text in its entirety. However, they were composed precisely to be an organic fabric and the relationship of one story to the other is significant for the whole.

"When he came down from the mountain a large crowd followed him." And began these wonders. Jesus is powerful in words, but also powerful in deeds. Jesus demonstrates with facts that his word heals. Heals a leper; heals a centurion's servant; heals Peter's mother-in-law. Episode break. A call to some data related to the needs of the apostolic vocation. Then he resumes: Jesus calms the storm; heals the demoniacs of Gadara and then heals a paralytic. Pause. Vocation scenes: call of Matthew and meal with sinners and tax collectors, then he resumes.

He heals the woman with hemorrhage and raises the daughter of a chief; heals two men, heals a mute possessed by demons. At the end, a synthesis formula that presents the typical actions of Jesus with a summary. This insistence on the prodigious actions with which Jesus heals humanity affected by various problems, is marked with vocational breaks.

We can wonder why the editor inserted, in the midst of miracles, episodes of vocation including verse 9 of chapter 9, the account of his own vocation. Matthew’s gospel tells of this calling “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.” A story reduced to minimal words. There are almost only verbs, no particular adjectives or descriptions nor adverbs. Jesus sees a man named Mathew; it is the name of the evangelist. It should be an autobiographical story, but instead, it is reduced to the bare minimum. "He saw a man sitting at the customs post." Therefore, in a firm position, lying in a sinful condition as a publican,

Matthew was a collaborator of the Roman Empire; he was on the side of the enemies, of the invading Romans and collected taxes in their name. Of course, he did it in order to make money. The fact that these people were despised tells us that their attitudes were corrupt. The Romans established a certain amount of taxes for a certain area, and they gave the contract to someone from the place who, knowing his people well, could make them pay. Matthew, then, had a type of contract with the Roman treasury and he would have to pay a certain sum each year; everything extra he raised was his. Naturally, it was a position protected by the Roman soldiers, but logically hated by the inhabitants of the country.

For the people, those who chose to become tax collectors, had compromised esteem and solidarity with the people themselves. They were people who wanted to earn and accepted to make themselves hateful to their fellow citizens just to make money. Jesus saw a man sitting at the custom’s post. He says: Follow me. A word. It is not the simple and chronicle portrait of the fact, but it is the theological synthesis. One word is enough to change that man's life. "He got up and followed him." He was sitting, and hearing the word he got up and followed him.

There is a catechetical intention in this essential choice of words; there is a summary description of a change in life. By meeting Jesus, Matthew's life has changed. He didn't just change job, he changed his mind-set. Someone like him who lived to earn money left that world and began a preaching work, a free evangelical service, and has become someone else.

Let's ask ourselves why the editor, who is Mathew himself, inserted this episode in the middle of all the miracle narratives. As soon as I asked the question, the answer is obvious to me. The problem is asking the question. If I only read this episode, in itself, extrapolating it from the context, I fail to understand the issue. If instead I can get the full picture of chapters 8 and 9 in its structuring, I notice this detail. Matthew's vocation is a true miracle and the narrator, the implicit author of the Gospel, says that someone like me has left the custom`s post, got up and followed Jesus, it's a miracle.

That word did a wonder. He has healed a paralytic immediately before; has raised a dead person immediately afterwards ... and, in the middle, there is a sinner who becomes an evangelist. It's another miracle, maybe even bigger. Humanly, he was paralyzed: in his morals, because of his attitude, he was dead and that word "Follow me" is a creative word, which creates life, which makes him get up. Let's not forget that ‘get up’ is the verb used to describe the resurrection.

To a Greek ear, the fact that Matthew “got up” sounds as if he was said to have risen; he has risen to a new life, he has changed to a new life, he has become someone else. To confirm this idea of vocation as a miracle, let's try to compare this verse with another very short miracle story that we find in chapter 8, verses 14 and 15. It is the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. The miraculous episode about a sick person is formulated in exactly the same way.

First of all, there is a verb of movement: Jesus moves, he entered Peter's house. It corresponds to chapter 9, to the expression 'getting out of there.' The subject is Jesus, who takes the initiative and it all starts from his vision. "Jesus saw Peter's mother-in-law"—"Jesus saw a man named Matthew." Jesus sees a person and he understands the situation. The person seen by Jesus is found in a dejected state, she is depressed. The woman was in bed with a fever, the man was sitting on the custom’s table: 'lying down'—'sitting'; ‘sick’— ‘sinner.’ There is a condition of dejection, Jesus sees humanity in this state, he does not need anyone to tell him, no one explains, no one asks. It is his own initiative; he sees the person in a condition of need and intervenes, shows mercy. "He touched her hand"—"he says: Follow me." An almost sacramental gesture: the touch of the hand; an almost sacramental word, like an imperative: 'follow me.' And he gets a result: "The fever left her and she got up and began to serve him." And Matthew got up and followed him. The word, the gesture of Jesus, the intervention of mercy, changes the situation. The sick woman gets up; the sinful man stands up. They get up. She begins to serve him, he begins to follow him.

They are two synonymous verbs: to serve and to follow; these are the verbs of the disciples. Serving Jesus means putting life at his service; it means to follow him, that’s what Matthew did, he followed Jesus, but he didn't just follow him with his feet going after him, he followed him with his mind, with his heart, he put his life in the hands of Jesus and the rest of his life was spent talking about Jesus, letting others know that prodigious power that Jesus transmitted to humanity.

In this section, therefore, the evangelist Matthew shows vocations and miracles. Becoming a Christian, accepting the word of Jesus is a prodigious intervention, the fruit of an action of grace; it is the mercy of God that helps people to overcome.

Chapter 9 ends again with a vocational clue: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is —the grain is ripe grain waiting to be harvested— ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” “Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.”

In chapter 10, we find the second discourse in the Gospel of Matthew. It is the missionary discourse. Jesus calls the 12 disciples and transmits to them his power, his ability to drive out evil and cure all diseases. As usual, the speech ends with an editorial verse in 11:1: “When Jesus finished giving these commands to his twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.” It is the editorial hint at the end of the second part.

It is also formed It is the editorial clue to the end of the second part, also made up by narrative episodes and a discourse, anthology of ‘loguia’. Eight and nine episodes of vocations and miracles. Chapter 10 is the missionary discourse; then begins again in chapter 11 a series of narrative episodes in which the tension begins with the people of Israel who reject this teaching; tension arises within the cities of Galilee who saw the wonders performed by Jesus and they did not take his word for it. Some have accepted them, but others were closed and rejected it.

In this context, the evangelist places a hymn of joy in which the Lord praises the Father because he wanted to reveal his plans to the little ones. Only Jesus the Son is capable of knowing God, the Father; only Jesus can make God known to humanity; only by passing through Jesus, can God be reached. And this revealing discourse ends with an invitation: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

This is the novelty of Jesus. Carrying the yoke of the law was a common expression used by the rabbis to become disciples: commit to observe the law. The condition of Jesus is to assimilate his person, to welcome his person in our life. And this condition becomes easy, light, because the effort will be done by Jesus. People are oppressed and crushed by a law they cannot enforce, because they are alone. You just can't do it. ‘Come to me’, ‘come’ ‘join me and life will be easy.’ It is a resounding announcement; being a Christian is easy and sweet and light united with Jesus. It is easier to live; you are able to face it better. You find the possibility of fulfilling the law that the Lord proposes. He came to liberate, to give relief, to give skill and strength. He did not come to abolish, but to bring relief and strength. ‘Come to me and I will restore you.’

It is a very important discourse that Matthew was also able to make about his experience. 'I was downtrodden, tired and fatigued and taking Jesus' burden I got up. I followed him. My life became sweet and light.'