What we find in Matthew 12 is less a conflict over hospitality than a debate over the recognition of human biological need. Human need and biological vulnerability fill Matthew 12. The issues swirl around hunger, an animal in a ditch, and a deformed hand. Each of these, as we have seen here in Part 4, is a disgust trigger. Animals, metabolic functions, and physical malformation are all disgust stimuli. And we are also now positioned to note that these stimuli are often disgusting because they remind us of human need, vulnerability, and, ultimately, death.
