Sermon
June 11, 2023
A-Pentecost 3 Proper 5
Matthew 9:9-13
Lord, Have Mercy
I remember a Christmas Eve day some years ago. The Christmas season had been such a rush and I still had a lot to do; and, frankly, I had developed a bad attitude. I was trying my best , and things just weren’t getting done. I came to the office here at Bethlehem in the afternoon to prepare for the Christmas Eve service. I didn’t have much time left.
Then Somebody calls. He wants to know if the church gives out food, which we did at the time. Well, I hate to admit it, but I was not very friendly. I finally reluctantly said, okay, come on over, but be here by a certain time, because I have to leave.
After a little while, a woman comes in . She wants food and some money for gas. She didn’t knock on the door or anything, she just came right on in and sat on a chair in my office and started to tell me her story.
About halfway through her story I was starting to get the message. I realized I had a terrible attitude on Christmas eve day, no less, shortly to celebrate God’s peace on earth and goodwill to all in the birth of baby Jesus.
Well, I tried my best to help the lady and then the man who came a few minutes later. I had the feeling that if I didn’t change my attitude, God would have kept sending me needy people the rest of the afternoon.
Our Gospel lesson tells the story of how Jesus dealt with a tax collector named Matthew. Jesus came to him at his tax collector booth and called Matthew to follow him to be his disciple. There was Matthew at his tax booth in Romans and getting rich on the side by skimming off some of the tax take for himself.
In the society of Jesus’ day, the tax collectors were considered the scum of the earth, right there along with the prostitutes and other low-life’s. Why would Jesus call tax collectors ? Indeed, Why would he?
The text goes on: while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
The Pharisees where offended by Jesus associating with Matthew and people of his kind. They protest and shake their heads. They are confirmed in their scorn and disdain of Jesus. Why would he do that? He must be one of them. He must be a friend of sinners.
We need to try to understand where the Pharisees were coming from. They thought that in order to get the hated Roman occupiers out of Israel the people of Israel had to become a holier people. They thought Israel had to be ceremonially pure before God would allow Israel to become independent.
So the Pharisees saw themselves as setting a good example by voluntarily observing the purity code that the Old Testament only required of priests. The Pharisees worked hard to maintain their lives and their households in a state of ritual purity. That included restricting who they would eat withy. Obviously, having table fellowship with known sinners was out of the question. You would become polluted instead of “holy”.
So the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples, “ Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.’”
Jesus came directly to Matthew’s tax collector’s booth. No chance for Matthew to distance himself from his business, no chance to make himself respectable. Jesus took him quite literally out of his corruption. Then Jesus goes and deliberately has a meal with Matthew and other “known sinners” .
In that society especially, to have a meal with someone signified a close bond of association with that person.
Jesus is becoming know as a friend of sinners. What does that say about the nature of Jesus as Savior? What does that say about God’s mercy? Does it not say that God is merciful to all disobedient and the rebelliou7s? Does it not say that the will of God is to have every person come to heaven and not go to hell? Does it not say that God’s love is seeking people even before they repent?
Does it not say that God has mercy on you and me no matter what we have done or failed to do?
We know that Jesus went even further with this thing of being a “friend of sinners” . We know that he willingly allowed God to put all people’s sin upon him: that awful burden of human wretchedness, all the filth of their sin was placed on Jesus’ pure soul as he hung there on that cross. There he suffered the guilt and punishment of all sin of all time for all people.
We can’t even imagine such misery, the horrors of damnation: separation from God! God made him to be sin for us that we might be free from sin. (2 Corinthians 5 ) Jesus became a friend of sinners, even one with sin itself, in order to save us. What does that say about God’s love?
There’s a true story about a man by the name of Joe. Joe was driving down a city street in his big red truck when he saw a group of what he called “ lazy bums “ standing on the sidewalk. These homeless men were waiting outside a shelter for dinner to be served. Joe yelled out the window, “Get a job!” Then he drove back to the nice big house he was building and forgot all about them.
A few months later, a bad mechanic ruined Joe’s fancy truck. Joe needed the truck for his work, and without it he soon lost his job and then his home. Things went downhill until he found himself living on the street and standing in line each evening outside that same city shelter. He wanted nothing more than to get another chance and return to work.
One evening a man drove by in a big fancy truck and saw Joe standing with those “lazy bums” outside the shelter. The guy yelled out the window of his truck, “ Get a job!” Joe said , “I felt awful, but I guess I had it coming.
In his prosperous days , Joe distanced himself form the homeless by building an invisible boundary. Human nature too often encourages us to think in terms of “ We” and “Them” . We may seek security in the belief that we are better than others, that we measure up while others are lacking. It is tempting to condemn those who are unemployed, those who have been in prison, those who engage in behavior we despise.
We can be self-righteous in out judgments, until we realize that under different circumstances, we might have ended up that same way. One of the hardest revelations is to realize the despicable things that we ourselves are capable of doing! I’m including myself here!
In out Gospel Christ models a way of relating to society’s outcasts. Christ sits at table with them who are called sinners. Christ’s action is a living illustration of those who call upon the Lord. Christ came precisely to offer forgiveness to sinners to the tax collectors and the prostitutes, and that low-life’s and to us.
We are all sinful. We all need to depend on God’s mercy to be saved. Jesus said, I have not called the righteous ( or those who think they are righteous) but sinners (or those who know they are sinners). This is wonderful news for you and for me. Under the full assurance of God’s complete love for us, we can turn over our sin and guilt to God. We can, in turn , seek to offer that same loving acceptance of others.
On a television show there was an interview with a 20-year-old cocaine addict. She made money for her habit by selling herself to men. She seemed hardened, saying it was to late for her. But the interview went on and when she was asked what her 4-year-old thought of her, tears came to her eyes and she turned away from the camera. It was obvious there was a real flesh-and -blood human soul crying out for help.
It would be easy to condemn her, as I find myself doing when it comes to drug pushers and child abusers, but the question for Christians remains, not “how can I condemn?” but “how can I help; how can I show mercy?”
“ How can we show mercy? It is seldom an easy question to answer. It is hard to know what best to do in many situations. But Christ gave us an example. Let his words be out guide as we seek to live out the call of Christ in our lives, to have mercy, to show mercy, and to be merciful.
“it is not healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Amen.