INJ

Matthew 9:9-13 | “Sinners Only”
The Feast of St Matthew | 21 September 2014

Dear Saints,

Matthew would have been fantastic at making lists. These are the ships arriving, departing, here is their cargo, and here is the amount I collected. Here are the people passing by, what they were carrying, and what I collected. Here are the men I employ, the soldiers doing the work, their wages. Here is the tax money I’ve sent to Herod, and here is the money I’ve kept for myself.

These lists, and the tyranny and greed that they represent were why Matthew and all the other tax collectors were hated by the people. A Jew despised by the Jews, working for the hated Romans, and collecting their taxes. He stood at the custom house, collecting a portion of all the profit coming off the ships, the goods going on to the ships, the luggage of the people passing by.

There was apparently an old Rabbinic saying about the difficulty of tax-collectors coming to repentance, and they even had distinguished between two types of tax collector, the guys that walk around collecting the taxes, and those that sit at the custom houses. And while both would have difficulty in repentance, it was the second type, the kind of tax collector that Matthew was, that the Rabbis especially hated. (see Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Time of Jesus the Messiah, I.513-514 and the surrounding discussion.) That’s Matthew, and he knew it.

How all of this sin and greed and fellowship with sinners would have settled in Matthew’s conscience we don’t know, but I suspect that if you sat Matthew down and asked him to make another list, a list of the people he thought Jesus would have as His disciples, that he would have been the last person on the list.

How would that list my Matthew go? First would be John the Baptist, he was well known as a prophet. Then Annas, the High Priest in Jerusalem, he was a holy person, right? Then I imagine Matthew would put some of the Pharisees that he knew of on the list, and I’m just guessing, but I imagine that the more the Pharisee hated Matthew the higher he would go on the list of potential disciples of Jesus. (After all, is not hatred for sinners a sure sign of holiness? The Pharisees gave that impression. And sinners with a troubled conscience think it.) Then, if you made Matthew keep writing, with a chuckle he would write down James and John, the fishermen. And Peter! (Ha! Wouldn’t that be a hoot, fishermen as disciples?) And then you would have to really push Matthew to keep writing, because now on to the list go all the people he knows, and he knows that Jesus would never call any of them; that this Jesus, if He claimed to be a holy man, wouldn’t even talk with them or be associated with  them. Here Matthew would list his servants, the soldiers that worked for him, his bosses in the Roman government, and his friends, the fellow tax collectors, these great sinners.

And last on this list of potential letters, written with the hesitation of shame, would be Matthew himself, the greatest sinner he knows.

Now, if Matthew was sad about this, or laughed about it, or was proud, we don’t know. But there was Matthew, last on the list, the farthest, in his own estimation, from the kingdom of God.

And, I imagine if you asked the Pharisees to make this list (they would probably pull the list out of their pocket, they loved this kind of list), it would look right about the same, only take John and Annias off the top, and put their own name there. Who knows if they knew James and John and Peter. But there would be Matthew, on the bottom of the list, below the line marked “sinner.”

But this is not the list that Jesus has.

Jesus walks up to this sinner, this tax collector, this abuser of men, a mini-tyrant, and an outcast, this Matthew; He walks right up to his face and says, “Follow Me.”

You see the surprise on Matthew’s face in the picture on the bulletin cover. I always imagine Matthew dropping his money bag, dropping his ledger, to go and follow Jesus. And imagine the surprise of the Pharisees, the scandal, the sputtering, their indignant anger.

Jesus has taken their holiness list and turned it upside down.

And now this list is the guest list for the feast at Matthew’s house, full of tax collectors and sinners, eating with Jesus, and the Pharisees are still sputtering, until they at last protest, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

There must have been silence in the house at this moment, when this protest is brought by the Pharisees, throwing into question everything that was happening, the conversation between the disciples and the sinners, the conversation between Matthew and Jesus, the food and the drink and the table and the joy ad the peace of that great moment. There is silence, and all the attention is on Jesus, especially the attention of Matthew. How could it be that the Messiah is here in my house, that He has called me? It must have been a mistake, will He change his mind?

And now listen to what Jesus says. “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.”

Jesus came for sinners.

How these words of our Gospel reading must have echoed with joy and peace in the ears of St Matthew from the moment he heard them, for thirty years until Matthew wrote then down, and every day of his life until his martyrdom.

And every day since these words echo in the Lord’s church. Jesus came for sinners. Only sinners. If you are not a sinner you do not need Jesus. If you do not know your sin, then you do not know that you need Jesus. If you are your own savior, busy pleasing god with your own works and your own holiness, then Jesus is not for you.

But if you are a sinner, then that is a different story. If you are on the bottom of the holiness list, then you are on His list. Sinners, rejoice! Jesus comes for you. He dies for you. He is raised for you.

He is not ashamed of your sin, He knows it all; He knows your sin more than even you do, and still He stands here in front of you and says, “I love you. I forgive you. I am yours and you are mine.”

You, dear sinners, are on His life, written in His book of life. You are His delight.

And this is our great comfort and peace, now and forever. Amen.  

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO