Second Sunday after Pentecost

Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5A)

June 11, 2023

Text: Matt. 9:9-13

            The disciples are stunned.  The pious Jews are scandalized.  Jesus walks right up to the tax booth, to that disgusting traitor, that greedy swindler, Matthew (Levi, as he is known to us in the other Gospels [Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27]), and invites him to be a disciple.  “Follow me” (Matt. 9:9; ESV), Jesus says, and Matthew does.  He rises… leaves everything there on the table, all the money, the ill-gotten gains, the revenues for Rome… and follows Jesus.

            What stunned everybody… scandalized them, in fact… is not simply that Jesus chose this man, of all men, a despised tax collector.  It’s that He didn’t even lecture him about his immoral lifestyle, and the necessity of loyalty to God’s holy people over against their pagan oppressors.  He didn’t demand Matthew show some evidence of moral reform, amendment of life, make himself worthy of this gift… pull a Zacchaeus and give half his goods to the poor, and restore four-fold whatever he’s defrauded anyone (Cf. Luke 19:1-10).  Come to think of it, Jesus didn’t demand this of Zacchaeus, either.  It all happened subsequent to Jesus coming in to stay, to abide, at his house (v. 5).  The Lord has this annoying habit of simply calling by the Gospel those burdened by their sins, without tearing into them like they deserve.  And He immediately includes them in His fellowship, His communion.  Oh, He can preach the Law to secure sinners like a thunderbolt from heaven.  Secure sinners are sinners who think they are righteous.  Pharisees.  Pietists.  “Good Christian folk.”  But sinners like Matthew, who make no such claims for themselves… who know they are not righteous… who figure they may as well get what they can from this life, because ultimately, they are lost… to them Jesus comes and says, “Oh yeah?  Actually, you’re right where you need to be for me to come and do my saving work.  You are dead in your trespasses and sins.  And I can only raise you to life if you are dead.   Those who believe they are alive will have nothing to do with resurrection.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.  Matthew… Follow me!”

            And then, wouldn’t you know it?  Jesus goes to Matthew’s house as a guest, and reclines at table to eat with him.  And not just with Matthew, but with all of Matthew’s friends: “many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples” (Matt. 9:10).  Now, the disciples may have been scratching their heads about the situation, and perhaps some of them were even a little resentful at Jesus dragging them along to this notorious dinner party, even including Matthew, now, among their number.  But then, they’re used to this kind of behavior on the part of their Master.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, as you can well imagine, are scandalized.  “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (v. 11).  “Doesn’t He know these people are unclean?  Doesn’t He know their reputation?  Doesn’t He know we judge Him by the company He keeps?”  And, table fellowship?  Pious Jews never sit down to a meal with anyone who doesn’t measure up to their moral criteria.

            It is pretty scandalous, isn’t it?  “Jesus sinners doth receive” (LSB 609).  It is true that Jesus meets sinners where they are, apart from any meritorious preparation or worthiness in them.  He doesn’t wait for them to become good Christians before He calls them.  As if they even could!  Think about it, who could become a good Christian apart from Jesus?  But this not only scandalizes Pharisees, it also, all too often, scandalizes us.  “What is she doing here?  How can he call himself a Christian?  You let that guy serve on that board?  Really?  And how can Pastor commune her?  He must not know what I know about what she does, and what kind of person she is.”

            Then again, the judgment isn’t always so blatant.  In fact, most of the time it is much more subtle.  I’m holy.  Everyone else is a little less holy.  Or in some cases, a lot less holy.  I’m right.  I’m pious in just the right way.  I conduct my life rightly.  Yes, I have my sins.  And I repent of those rightly, too.  Everyone else should do as I do.  Now, you don’t say these things explicitly to yourself, do you?  At least not out loud.  But if you’re being honest… brutally honest… if you examine yourself objectively and candidly… that is how you feel, isn’t it?  Of course, it is.  Of course, you feel that way.  I do.  We all do.  If you think you don’t, look again.  It’s why you have negative thoughts about other people.  Don’t deny it, beloved.  And for God’s sake don’t justify it.  Repent.  I repent.  It’s sinful.  Let’s knock it off.  We need Jesus’ forgiveness, and one another’s.  Thank God, Jesus sinners doth receive.  That means He receives even us judgmental Pharisees.  Now let’s receive one another as forgiven sinners in Jesus, our Lord. 

            But there is another danger, a trap we sinners fall into when we hear that Jesus meets sinners where they are, calls them to Himself, receives them, and eats with them.  Now, it is absolutely true that Jesus does this for sinners.  But then we take that as though Jesus leaves sinners in their sins.  That He never calls them to repentance.  That He never tells them go and sin no more (John 8:11).  We can run with this in any number of wrong directions.  Today it is popular to just affirm everybody in whatever they do, whatever they believe, and however they want to live, in the name of welcoming them to the Church.  Well, you can welcome them all the way to hell, beloved.  The Church is called to speak clearly all that the Lord has given us to speak.  To call sin, sin.  To warn against the things that lead to death and condemnation.  I’m guessing you’re all more or less on board with me so far.  “Yes, Pastor, the Church should speak clearly about those things, in general.  Just don’t get too personal.  Don’t pick on the issues that affect me directly.  That challenge my politics, or my comfortable life.  And don’t call any of my family members to repentance or amendment of life.  That’s none of your business, Pastor.  What do you mean, you’re not going to commune my kids who live together outside of marriage, or work for Planned Parenthood, or have denied the faith in which they were raised?  And whatever you do, don’t call me to repentance or amendment of life.  Stop preaching about my sins.  Jesus receives sinners, and I’m a sinner, and proud of it.  I like to sin, and He likes to forgive.  It’s a great system.  Leave it alone.” 

            No…  No.  Repent.  That’s not you anymore.  Not now that you are in Christ.  You think Matthew continued to defraud the tax payers, his brother Jews, after Jesus called him?  No, remember, he rose from that life of death, to follow Jesus through death to life.  That is what it means that Jesus receives sinners.  He calls them out of sin to new life, not in their own righteousness, but in Him. 

And so us.  What is remarkable is how we can, at the exact same moment, as pious Pharisees, stand in judgement over others, and then give ourselves a pass because, after all, Jesus receives sinners.  You know what that says about us?  We’re sick.  We’re not well, we’re sick!  We need a physician.  We need THE Physician!  We need Jesus to walk right up to us in our sickness and sin and call us to be His own.  We need Him to cut out any and all cancerous self-righteousness in us, and all the rotting, sinful filth in us.  And then, when we’re right where we need to be, dead in our trespasses and sins, we need Him to raise us from death with His healing and life-giving Gospel.  We need Him to call us to life: “Follow me.”  Which is just what He does for us in Holy Baptism.  And what He does for us daily in Confession and Absolution, repentance and faith, the preaching of Law and Gospel.  He doesn’t wait for us to get ourselves right before He does it.  He does it to make us right, by His own declaration.  To walk, not in our own rightness, but His rightness.  His righteousness.  His justification.  He doesn’t wait for us to become good Christians before He calls us.  He calls us to be Christians, which is to say, in Christ, with His goodness.  Not to return to our sins.  That is like a dog returning to its vomit, Peter says (2 Peter 2:22).  But to walk in His way.  No longer in the life of death, but through death into life.  Sins forgiven.  Serving Him now.  That is what it means to follow Him.

It's stunning.  It’s scandalous.  And Jesus does it for you and me.  Why?  Because in love, the Father sent Him to do it.  And in love, He did it willingly.  He’s already done our sins to death in His death on the cross.  Now He is risen to give us His resurrection life.  It is on that basis, and not on the basis of our own morality or worthiness, that He calls us: “Follow me.”  And then, He still has this habit… He reclines at Table with us, and eats with us.  Table fellowship with Jesus.  Communion with Jesus.  Note, this Table is only for sinners.  Sinners who know that they are sinners, who follow Jesus out of sin and death and into life.  Which is to say, you.  Don’t be scandalized.  Jesus called Matthew.  Jesus calls you.  And He calls all of these, your brothers and sisters, into the one Holy Communion of His body.  Mercy.  Grace.  Thanks be to God.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.