Saturday, January 15, 2022                                                   (today’s lectionary)
Two anointings
Jesus saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed Jesus.
Italian painter Caravaggio painted this scene, and four hundred years later his painting still hangs in the Contarelli Chapel in Rome. The painting is huge, 10.5 feet x 11 feet. Which one of the figures is Matthew? Maybe the well-lit man, pointing beyond himself?
You surely don’t mean me? I’m about as unworthy as they come.
But Jesus means exactly … him. Levi, soon to be renamed Matthew, stands up and follows the one who called him. One observer points out that Jesus’ feet are turned away from the table, toward the door. “Jesus is not waiting for Matthew. The man has been chosen, and the position of Christ’s feet show it’s time to go.”
Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
I will not be going to Rome anytime soon. So I am more grateful than ever for a website like the Art History Project, where with just a click or two you can explore every inch of hundreds of paintings. Caravaggio never had it so good. Nor Levi cum Matthew.
Perhaps Matthew took his skills on the road with Jesus. It would have been easy for him to keep track of the money. He might have taken notes all along the road of every miracle, every sermon, every argument, every day and every night. What a different life for him, such a joyful turn away from secret greed and isolation, his companions no longer money counters, but now the fabled fishers of men.
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.
Matthew was the second chosen one in today’s lectionary. The first anointing doesn’t end so well. The Lord sends Samuel to find Saul and anoint him. And everything is fine at first.
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord assured him, “This is the man of whom I told you; he is to govern my people.
Thus Saul will become Israel’s first king, at age 30, and he will reign for 12 or 22 or 32 or 42 years. By the end his own confusion and disobedience turn him round and round until he seeks counsel from a witch, then falls on his own sword during a battle, dead. Saul is still a head taller than his friends and neighbors, but he is convinced God has turned away from him. And perhaps he was right. The story unfolds in next week’s lectionary passages.
 (1 Samuel 9, Psalm 21, Luke 4, Mark 2)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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