Sunday 13 OT. Cycle A
The long discourse addressed to the apostles (summarized in Sundays 11-13) ends with a series of Jesus’ sayings that are, at the same time, severe and consoling. The severe ones are directed to the apostles; the consoling ones, to those who welcome them.
Who is not worthy of Jesus?
The section begins with three sayings that end in the same way: “is not worthy of me”. The first two are closely related: the one who loves his father or his mother more than Jesus is not worthy of Jesus, or the one who loves his sons or his daughter more than him.
To understand these demanding words of Jesus, one must take into account what he says immediately before (omitted by the liturgy). The warning that they can lose their life (the theme of last Sunday) can cause confusion in the disciples. Why has Jesus come? To this he responds that he has not come to bring peace but a sword. That his person and his message will create problems even among family members. There will come moments when the apostles, and all Christians, will have to make a choice.
The choice for God of the Levites
In the book of Exodus it is told that, while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the tables of the Law from the Lord, the ten commandments, the people, tired of waiting, decided to make a golden calf and worship it. When Moses comes down from the mountain and beholds the spectacle, he breaks the tables, stations himself at the entrance of the camp and cries out: “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the Levites gathered to him. Moses orders them: “Each of you strap a sword to your side; go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, killing your brothers, your friends, your neighbors”. The Levites carried out Moses’ orders and he, in the end, tells them: “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, and so he has brought a blessing upon you this day” (Exodus 32,25-29).
The modern historian doubts that the Levites had swords in the desert and that they carried out this slaughter. But the ancients were not so critical. They accepted the things that were told, and even praised the Levites, since in a case of grave conflict between family ties and fidelity to God, they chose the latter: “They said to their fathers: ‘I do not heed you’; to their brothers: ‘I do not acknowledge you’; to their sons: ‘I do not know you’. They kept your precepts and your covenant” (Deuteronomy 33,9).
The choice for Jesus of the disciples
One could say that Jesus demands of his disciples the same attitude as the Levites. But there are two very important differences: 1) Jesus does not order the killing of parents or brothers in case of conflict. 2) The Levites behaved this way out of fidelity to God’s commandments and his covenant; the disciples must do so out of love for Jesus. By demanding this love superior to that of the dearest ones, Jesus is placing himself on the level of God, whom one must love above all things.
The first Christians, in times of persecution, sometimes found themselves in the need to choose between love and fidelity to Jesus and love for family. The choice was difficult, but many made it, convinced that they would recover their parents and children in the life to come.
The following saying (“whoever does not take up his cross…”) is also better understood in light of the text from Deuteronomy. In it, it is said that the Levites, for having shown this fidelity to God, received a great reward and dignity: “They shall teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.” Jesus does not promise any of this to his disciples, he only demands.
To love Jesus more than family was already done by Peter and Andrew, James and John. What Jesus now demands is infinitely harder: to carry one’s cross. Should it be interpreted literally or symbolically? Symbolically, but with possible practical repercussions: one must be willing to carry it and walk on the way to death. Not just any death, but the most shameful, typical of rebels against Rome and slaves. When Jesus demands carrying the cross he is asking for something terrible from the physical, moral, and social point of view. Moreover, the demand is not without macabre irony when we compare it with vv.9-10: those who are to preach the kingdom without carrying anything, now have to follow Jesus while carrying the cross.
It is worth noting that love for family and love for Jesus do not exclude or oppose one another. They are compatible, provided one maintains the proper order. The sons of Zebedee abandon their father, but their mother accompanies them and even asks Jesus a special favor for them. Mary, at least according to the version of the fourth gospel, is at the foot of the cross. Paul recalls that “the rest of the apostles, the brothers of the Lord and Cephas” are accompanied by their Christian wife (1 Cor 9,5).
Welcome and reward
The last part is addressed to those who welcome the disciples. Two things he tells them:
1) To receive them is equivalent to receiving Jesus and receiving the Father. What they do is much more than they can imagine. It is not just an act of charity, but an immense honor, much greater than that of a person who could welcome in his house an artist, a sports figure, or a world-famous personage.
2) That welcome will have its reward, just as it did in the Old Testament with those who welcomed prophets and the just. The first reading tells how a couple from Shunem decided to welcome the prophet Elisha to their house when he passed through the town; they built him a room upstairs and provided him with a bed, a chair, a table and a lamp. A great investment for that time. But they received their reward with the birth of a son.
In comparison with Elisha, the disciples may seem like poor, unimportant fellows. No one would think of giving them permanent lodging. But a single cup of cold water (something much appreciated when there are no taverns and no running water in houses) is enough for those people to receive their reward.
Summary
If in the first part we glimpsed the great family conflicts caused by persecutions, in this ending we intuit what Christian missionaries experienced many times: the kind and simple welcome of people who did not know them. Of these last verses, only one has a parallel in the gospel of Mark. The rest is original to Matthew, who wished to leave us, at the end of this harsh discourse, a good taste.
José Luis Sicre