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Jesus Calls Only Sinners
Based onMatthew 9:9-13
Preached on September 21, 2014
St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Pastor Nathan Fuehrer
When I was younger, I was enamored by the writings and life-philosophy of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau claimed he didn't need other people around, or society to be happy. He could be entirely self-sufficient and happy living on his own with minimal possessions, taking care of himself without having to put up with other people or rely on them for anything. So he gathered some few possessions and moved out into the woods and built a cabin by Walden Pond. He foraged for his own food, cut his own wood for fire, and wrote his thoughts to paper to help him to commune with nature, and with himself.
I thought that was so cool. To not need anybody, to shun society and live on your own. That is until someone pointed out to me how impossible it really was to live without society. Sure, Thoreau moved out into the woods to be "self-sufficient." He chopped his own wood, built his own fire and felt really good about not needing anybody’s help to keep warm. Or did he? Where did he get his axe from? In his solitude he enjoyed writing his own books and journals without needing to the distractions and trappings of society. Or did he? Where did he get the ink, and paper to write upon? He had some furniture to sit on, but he got it from someone who was cleaning out their attic. My heart was broken. Turns out Thoreau wasn't self-sufficient after all. Had society never existed to produce his axe, or his furniture or his pen and paper, he would not be able to go out into the woods and live as comfortably as he had. And to pretend otherwise made him not some wise sage, but a parasite, leeching off of societies leftovers without so much as a thank you.
Today we remember St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, and for good reason, I think. Nowadays it's easy to think that faith is a personal matter between God and the individual in private. False teachers teach that you can retreat to the sanctuary of the woods or my bedroom or your heart and commune with God there directly. I mean, “I could go to church, but otherChristians as just getting in the way of my faith.” Such people forget that their faith is not their own doing, for if it weren't for other Christians, like St. Matthew who wrote the first Gospel of Jesus Christ, they wouldn't have the resource of God's Word, upon which true faith is built. "Me and my bible, that's all I need for faith...to heck with the church that just gets in the way of my peace with God." The ironic thing is that this“bible”, that the “self-sufficient Christian” runs off with on their own is the property and product of the church.
St. Matthew was a part of the church, and what he wrote, he wrote to the church. Thoreau can go out into nature and chop his own wood and pat himself on the back for not needing anyone else to help him be happy, but think about it, but he got his axe from the very same society he shunned. So too the free-agentChristian can go into his bedroom and read his own bible and pat himself on the back for not needing the church to help him worship God, but think about it…where did he get his bible in the first place? Both Thoreau's axe and your bible were the product of someone else's labour, and neither of you are as independent as you think.
The premier Gospel and Book of the New Testament was the product of St. Matthew's labour, as an apostle and evangelist. And we remember him on this festival day as a human being apart from whom we would be lacking certain teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew's gospel was by far the most used and quoted Christian document for the first centuries of the Christian church. Among the four Gospels, Matthew's shows Christ as the new and greater Moses, who graciously fulfills the Law and the Prophets and establishes a new covenant of salvation in and with his own blood. Matthew's Gospel is also known for recording the visit of the Magi; the Sermon on the Mount, including the Beatitudes and the Lord's prayer. It is also known for the institution of Holy Baptism and the most explicit revelation of the Holy Trinity. It is not too much to say that, all other things being equal, you wouldn't be Baptized; you wouldn't know the Lord's prayer to say it, and you would have three less men in your Christmas crèche if it weren't for St. Matthew, Evangelist.
Our Gospel reading today tells of Jesus first calling St. Matthew to follow him. And this little excerpt we have today reveals something about Jesus our Lord. Up to this point in Matthew's gospel, Jesus had revealed much about himself, teaching what the kingdom of heaven is like, and that in fact, he is the one who gives and denies access to the kingdom.
And Jesus, as the keymaster and gatekeeper of heaven wanders around the earth with his disciples, and shows he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. He heals lepers, he rewards the faith of a centurion, a gentile, and he heals Peter's mother-in-law. Physicians today wear masks and plastic gloves so they don't contract their patient's ailments, but Jesus marched around this earth as the Lord of Life, who has the power to give life and take it away. Jesus has shown his power and his mercy in healing the sick, and hearing the cries of the outcasts.
Jesus has the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and he welcomes lepers, centurions, the sick and the poor. In today's lesson, Jesus shows that there is no one so lost that Jesus will not seek to find and save them. For today Jesus shows that he came to call sinners.
Matthew you see, before he was an apostle and evangelist of the Lord, was a tax collector. No big deal today working for the CRA right? But in those days, tax collectors were notorious sinners. They collected taxes without any accountability. You file your taxes every year, and there is an elaborate formula to make sure that you pay only what you owe. There was no such formula then. The tax collector would say "you owe this much" and you would have to pay it. And this made it very easy and tempting for a tax collector to collect more than was owed and pocket the rest. Human hearts are sinful, and when we are presented with free access to forbidden fruit we tend to seize it. And tax collectors did “collect more than was owed” so often, that their job became synonymous with "sinner."
Matthew was a tax collector. And here’s the thing. It wasn’t like he used to be a tax collectorbefore Jesus called him. He was collecting taxes the very moment Jesus called him. Matthew was sitting at his tax booth when Jesus comes and says "follow me."
Friends, Jesus came to call sinners. And he doesn't have some sort of probationary period for them to prove their commitment before he says come and follow me. The moment Jesus call was heard by Matthew and believed by Matthew, Matthew was worthy to follow Jesus and share a meal with him. There is no stratification or degrees of holiness. There is no sense of Jesus keeping sinners at arm’s-length until they prove themselves holy enough to be in his presence. Jesus calls Matthew while sitting in his tax booth to follow him. That's like Jesus calling a Nazi out of a concentration camp. That’s like Jesus calling a Prostitute out of a brothel. That’s like Jesus calling you out of the world.
Are you a sinner? Think carefully before you answer…because Jesus calls only sinners. That’s the point here today. It’s not that Jesus calls sinners also, he calls sinners only. He doesn’t call the Thoreau's who would call themselves out of the world. He calls the sinners who cannot save themselves. He calls those who are trapped and know it; those who are not self-sufficient but recognize that they are in bondage to this world and cannot free themselves. Thoreau can try to deliver himself from the world by retreating into the woods, but he still returned to get his books published and read. Matthew was delivered out of the world by Jesus Christ whose “call” is to have faith and to follow where he leads.
Jesus calls sinners, and there is no standard of righteousness outside of himself. For he sets the standard andhe fills it. He says “Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect, and then he lives that perfect life for you.” You give him your sin, he gives you his perfection which you have simply by believing his words. And by believing his words, you like St. Matthew and all the other tax collectors and sinners of the world are worthy to sit at his table.
And so we do have a Communion Policy here at Immanuel Lutheran Church. It doesn’t require you to prove how sorry you are for your sins before you can come forth to sup with your savior. It doesn’t require you to tithe or to be intentional in your discipleship. It doesn’t have a sliding scale of repentance that says your worthiness is inversely proportional to the size of your sin in the rearview mirror. If you sinned ten hours ago or ten seconds ago, Christ says come. I died on a tree that produced the fruit of my flesh for you to eat and my blood for you to drink. Believe this and receive this.
And yet we do have a Communion Policy, but it is not based on what you do, but what you profess to believe. It’s a policy that says, if you do not believe Jesus’ plain words, “This is my body” “This is my blood”, then you are not worthy. Because you are not taking Jesus at his word. It’s not that you’re too sinful, it’s that you are not believing what he says, and as the OT lesson puts it, you are “refusing to hear what the Lord has spoken”.
But a simple faith that believes what Jesus says, receives what Jesus is. And so it was that when Matthew, the tax collector was commanded by Jesus to follow him he didn’t say, “Are you sure Jesus? You can’t mean it.” “Are you sure you want me to follow you, I’m not sure I can do it. I think you’re mistaken Jesus. Before I make that commitment I need to prepare myself, do some spiritual exercises, maybe go live in the woods for a while, like Thoreau, and get away from other sinners who only drag me down.”
No, the simple faith of Matthew reasons like this, Jesus is God in the flesh, and if he tells me to follow him, he probably knows what he’s saying and doing, so here I go.” Jesus gives a simple command, and Matthew responds with a simple belief in his words.
That’s faith before God, hearing and believing his words. That’s what will allow you to stand before Him on the last day and give simple answers when requires you to answer for what you have done in this life. So receive Jesus’ true body and blood with a simple faith in the words of the one who prepares a table for you, who sups with tax collectors and calls, not the righteous, but sinnerslikeyou to forgiveness and life in Him.