St. Matthew
Mt.
9:9-13
9/21/14
I turned forty in 2010. Now throughout my thirties I felt like I
could pretty much still consider myself to be young, much as I had during my
twenties. However, the big four-zero was
impossible to ignore. Forty may be just
a number, but to me it was a very significant one. I may have been able to bend the truth a
little in my own mind during my late thirties and still think of myself as
being young pastor. But when I turned forty there was no denying the fact that
I wasn’t young anymore.
I recognized when I turned forty
that I wasn’t young. And so I decided
that it was time to time to be more careful about my health - to be more
responsible. I hadn’t been to the doctor
for a check-up in quite some time. I had
never had my cholesterol checked. I was
now forty years old with a wife and four children and so I recognized that I
needed to have these things done, along with whatever else I might need.
However it was the “whatever else”
that concerned me. I knew that at some
point as you get older, you need to start having a colonoscopy. I had never had one done, but I knew that of
all the regular medical experiences a person encountered, a colonoscopy was the
one that was my dad’s least favorite. As
I learned a little about what a colonoscopy involved, I didn’t think it was
hard to understand why. It was definitely something that I was in no rush to
experience. I was relieved when the
doctor told me that I had a reprieve – that the need for a regular colonoscopy
didn’t arrive until a man is fifty.
There are important medical tests
that people want to avoid because they are inherently uncomfortable or
unpleasant. But sometimes there is
another reason people, and especially men, avoid them. They avoid tests because they are afraid of
what may be found. They are afraid that
the tests may reveal that they are sick.
Fear overcomes reason. They avoid the possibility of finding out they
are sick, so that they can avoid knowing about being sick and having to receive
treatment.
In the Gospel lesson for the Feast
of St. Matthew we see that Jesus calls Matthew to follow him. Jesus calls Matthew because he is sick – because
he is a sinner. And then Jesus eats with
Matthew and other people who recognize their spiritual sickness. Matthew’s experience challenges us to admit
that we are sick, and comforts with the knowledge that Jesus Christ provides
healing.
Our text begins with words, “As
Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax
booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him.” Jesus is in Capernaum in Galilee. This city
in northern Israel served as our Lord’s base of operations during most of his
ministry. As he was walking along, he saw Matthew sitting at the tax booth.
The fact that a tax booth was there
is not surprising. During this time,
Galilee was not part of a Roman province. It was instead part of the petty
kingdom ruled by Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas ruled the land – but there was
no doubt that he worked for the Romans and that they were in control.
Much like in the Roman empire
itself, there was a tax on goods that were being shipped. It was usually around 2-5% that was charged
on the basis of the assessed value of the goods. On trading routes and locations where
shipping took place, tax agents set up shop.
Recently, the IRS has been in the
news with accusations that its power was being abused by those who support the
current administration. Emails were
mysteriously “lost” and government officials have tried to explain why they
can’t produce evidence that those investigating the matter want to
examine.
Taxes involve money and the power of
the government that can force people to do things. That is a combination that
produces great temptation for abuse. From
ancient times there have been problems and first century Palestine was no
exception.
The tax on goods being shipped was
collected by tax agents who had gained their position by being the highest
bidder. Individuals bid on the right to
collect the taxes in an area, and the person who promised to collect the most
money for the government received the contract.
Naturally, the tax agents were under pressure to collect all they had
promised. And then on top of this, they
made their money from a commission that they took from the taxes.
It was a system that was guaranteed
to foster corruption. People were taxed
based on the assessed value of the goods they were moving. And the person who assessed the value was the
tax agent – the very person who had to pay money to the government and make his
own money by collecting as much as he could. The tax agent, backed by the
authority of the government, was in a position to take what he wanted – and
they did. For obvious reasons, these tax
agents were disliked and looked down upon by the people living at that time.
This is the position that Matthew
was in as he sat at the tax collecting booth.
As Jesus was passing by, he saw Matthew and did the unexpected. He said
to Matthew, “Follow me.” He called the
tax collector – the guy that people despised because they assumed he was
corrupt – to follow him as disciple.
This is surprising. And then it is perhaps even more surprising to learn
what happened. Matthew got up and
followed Jesus. In fact we learn from Luke
that he then hosted a meal for Jesus at his house.
Why did Matthew do this? We aren’t told directly. But the interaction that Jesus had with the
Pharisees at the meal goes a long way towards explaining things. In our text we learn that as Jesus reclined
at table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining
with the Lord and his disciples. We hear statements about “tax collectors and
sinners” quite frequently in the Gospels.
It is helpful to recognize that this would have included both people who
actually were engaged in a sinful life, and also those whom the Pharisees
simply looked down upon.
The Pharisees saw that Jesus was
eating with this group, and so they said to his disciples, “Why does your
teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
In the ancient world you were known by the company that you kept. Sharing a meal was often a very significant
statement about how you viewed others.
And here was Jesus, a supposed religious figure, eating with this motley
crew.
Jesus heard the Pharisees and
responded: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are
sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Our Lord describes those he is with as sick because they are sinners.
It is this recognition that prompted
Matthew to get up from his tax booth and follow Jesus. In his Gospel, Matthew summarizes the
beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the following words: “From that time Jesus
began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Like John the Baptist before him, Jesus
called sinners to repentance. He called them to confess their sin and turn away
from it.
But Jesus didn’t only confront
sin. In word and deed he declared that
God’s salvation had arrived in him. He
proclaimed that the kingdom of God - the reign of God – was present in his
person to overcome the forces of Satan, sin and death. Immediately before our text, Jesus healed a
paralytic and enabled him to walk. But
before he did this, he said to the man, “Take heart, my son; your sins are
forgiven.” The scribes present were
angry and said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” And so Jesus said, “But that you may know that the Son of
Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” and then he healed the man and
sent him walking home.
On this Feast of St. Matthew, the
account of Matthew’s call confronts us with the necessity of confessing our own
spiritual sickness. Like a colonoscopy, this is not that we want to do. We don’t want to probe our lives in a spiritual
way because this will reveal terminal heart disease. Jesus said, “But what comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness,
slander.”
This is the sickness that plagues
your life. Anger and hate towards other
people rise out of your heart and take form as words and actions directed
against them. Lust leads to that pornography on the internet or into bed with
someone who is not your spouse. Gossip
is shared as you put others in a bad light and are sure to explain things in
the worst possible way. This is the reality because you are a sinner. Pretending like this is not so or that it
doesn’t matter is like the person with stage four brain cancer who is planning
what he is going to do thirty years from now when he retires.
In our text today Jesus says, “Those
who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick … I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus came to call all who are sick with sin. He came to call Matthew and to call you
because he brings the cure.
Our Lord was in the process of
demonstrating this during his ministry.
He showed that the reign of God was present in him. And then he created the final and ultimate
cure for the sickness of sin. This did
not occur in a research lab, but instead it took place on the cross. As Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come
to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” By the sacrifice of his blood - the blood of
the new covenant – he won forgiveness for all who believe and trust in him.
Because of Jesus, your sin does not
lead to eternal death. Because of Jesus
and his resurrection from the dead, on the Last Day you will receive the total
and complete transformation of the resurrection. But until this happens, you
must continue to receive Jesus’ life sustaining treatment.
As you live in the now and the not
yet of the Christian life, you are the patient who is not yet fully
healed. You must continue to receive the
medicine so that you can be sustained in the faith as the forgiven child of God
– sustained in the faith until the day arrives when you no longer have to walk
by faith and instead are able to walk by sight.
And so like St. Matthew in our text
you join with other sinners at our Lord’s table. You come to the Sacrament of the Altar to
receive the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the
forgiveness of your sins. This is the
medicine of immortality – the treatment that preserves you as the forgiven
child of God who will receive a resurrection body and life that has no end.
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