Sunday 06/11/23 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Eating With Tax Collectors And Sinners!”
Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 33:1-12
New Testament Scripture: Romans 4:13-25
Gospel Lesson: Matthew
9:9-13, 18-26
So, as we are being seated from
hearing our gospel of Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 reading for this morning, I would
ask us to pause for a moment. Let us look around this sanctuary, or if you are
at home, around wherever you are at. See the people around us. We might notice some
similarities, and we might also notice some differences in the people we see.
In fact, anytime we meet someone we often make comparisons and judgements, and
sometimes we don’t even realize that we are doing this. This is not always a
bad thing, but we all often do it whether we realize it or not.
If we meet or see someone covered in tattoos,
for example, do we see or judge them differently. Do we see or judge someone
differently based upon the clothes they wear, the car they drive, etc. Whether
we want to realize it and or admit it there are often judgements being made all
the time. For example, in some of the churches that I have pastored some people
were worried initially that I would get rid of traditional worship and force contemporary
worship upon them. Why would I do this? Well later, some of these people told
me, “Well, we figured since you were young, you would not like traditional
worship”. As it turns out, I love traditional worship, and I also like contemporary
worship too.
I say all of these things to have us
think about this on this Second Sunday of Pentecost. This thing to think about is
who is the best, the worst, and the in-between among us here? Do we rank each
other by education? By wealth? By looks? By house? By car? Etc.? To have a
church where all walks of life are welcome, Jesus calls us to continue to see all
of humanity the way he sees it. Don’t get me wrong Jesus was never beyond
calling out hypocrisy or evil, but he always treated everyone the same. I don’t
ever remember Jesus in the gospels treating King Herod Antipas or Pontius
Pilate different because of their wealth and power. I don’t ever recall Jesus preferring
one category of people over another. No, instead Jesus was and is for everyone.
Who is the best is Jesus’ eyes? The answer is, the person you are looking at in
the mirror.
Now this does mean that we should seek
to harm, to hurt, or to be sinful. Jesus has always challenged us all to turn
from darkness, sin, and harm. Yet, his love for all of humanity was and is
equal. I mean for example, Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot would betray him for
30-pieces of silver, and yet Jesus had him attend the Last Supper. What more,
Jesus gave Judas the first ever Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper, before
Judas betrayed him.
Some societies however, historically,
and even today have a clear-cut rank and file. There is “totem pole” if you
will, and where you land on this “totem pole” determines your worth, your
value, and your significance. This flies in the face of the reality that all
people are made in God’s image, and that we are all given an eternal soul by
God. I would say that some people can be loved, but might also be people that
can do great harm. Believing that Jesus loves us all is not a green light for
us to assume all people want to do good to us. Some have and will continue to
do great evil. It is certainly easy to say that we are “better” than such
people, and society would likely agree with this. Yet we all fall short of the
glory of God in Jesus Christ.
I remember when I was in high school, we had
clicks. He had the “jocks,” the academic nerds, and so on and so forth. There
was an unspoken rank and file in my high school, and there probably always will
be some form of this, as we are all flawed. Given this though, who should Jesus
Christ love more than someone else? Are there certain humans that Jesus should
love more, or does Jesus love us all equally?
I ask this, because Jesus Christ, our
risen Lord and Savior spent time with people in the world in which he lived that
many thought were inferior. Jesus spent time with people that much of the
society in which he lived would say, “don’t go near those people, they are
beneath us!” In fact, just by Jesus challenging this clear-cut class system,
Jesus was attacked. It was as if some were saying, “Are you with us, or are you
with those people?” Jesus of course would say, I am with you all.
The idea though that humanity will
become a perfect and flawless utopian society is a fallacy however, because all
of human nature is flawed, and we all have tendency to sin. We can make this
world much better, but it will not be perfected to the Lord Jesus Christ returns
in glory. Until we go to be Christ, or he comes to us, we should strive to
love, preach, and share his gospel will all people, equally.
We do however, whether we want to make
distinctions between people or not, have laws, prisons, etc. I would say these realities
place people in a different category of sorts, but they are still made in God’s
image. Resisting our feelings of superiority is exactly what Jesus was showing
up this morning in our gospel of Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 reading for this
morning.
We are reminded this morning in Psalm
33:4-5 that:
4 For the word of
the Lord is upright, and all his work
is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves
righteousness and justice; the earth is full
of the steadfast love of the Lord (Ps. 33:4-5, NRSV).
Striving to be more like Jesus, and striving to be made
more in the image of Christ is to see all people as people made in God’s image.
Or to put it another way, our faith in Christ should continue to humble us and
to make us more into servants of all people. This, again is not a license to be
naïve and to be taken advantage of. Rather it is the idea that we are made in
God’s image, and we can choose to draw closer to Christ to move further away
from him.
In looking at our reading from the Apostle Paul’s letter to
the church in Rome, or the Romans, the Apostle Paul tells us that the righteousness
of faith is what leads and guides us. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Old Testament
Law of Moses, brings wrath, as no one can really be sinless. How can everyone
follow God’s law perfectly, and all the time. In fact, the Apostle says picking
up in Romans 4:16:
16 For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist (Rom. 4:16-17, NRSV).
Faith in God through Jesus Christ breaks the chains of sin
and offers us a daily path to pick up our cross and follow Christ. Faith in Christ saves us, faith guides us, and faith is
offered to all people. No one is any better or worse than any other. We all
need forgiveness, we all need grace, and we all need faith. Everyday I follow
Christ, pursue Christ, and seek to be more like Christ.
In looking at our reading for this morning from the gospel
of Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, we see Jesus modeling that he is for all people. There
is no better or worse. We are all offered Christ, and we are all equal at the
foot of the cross. In looking at Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 for this morning, it says,
once again, picking up in Matthew 9:9:
9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man
called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him,
“Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10 And as he sat at
dinner
in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting
with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his
disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he
heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those
who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy,
not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt. 9:9-13, NRSV).
So
very clearly in the Matthew 9:9-13 we have the holy and righteous people and the
forsaken and sinful people. There truly is a wall that divides the religious
leaders and others, with tax collectors and sinners. This also assumes that the
religious leaders and the other people of high regard aren’t sinners to. I don’t
know about you, but as a religious leader I have a hard time with arrogant and
self-righteous religious leaders. For if we think we are superior or better
than others, then we have lost the gospel of Jesus Christ. For Jesus came to
serve and not be served. As a pastor I am not better, but I pray that Christ
every day makes me better than I am right now.
Don’t
get me wrong though, some people sin much more that other people do. I, for
example, maybe, possibly, might be holier than the average person walking
around, but it’s not a competition. In the time that Jesus lived, some were in
and some were out. It would seem that it was a sort of rank of file from the
least sinful, to the most sinful, and yet we are all fallen. Jesus calls the Apostle
Matthew to follow him this morning, who was seen a sinful tax collector. Jesus
is eating with sinners and Matthew. What makes these “sinners” sinners, we are
not told. Jesus says when challenged by the Pharisees about why he is eating
with tax collectors and sinners, is that he came to save the sick, broken, and
sinful. Jesus came for the lepers, the woman at the well, the least, the lost,
the forsaken, along with everyone else. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is the
ingathering of all of humanity. If we repent and come to him, we are all in him,
and he is in us. Jesus is for everyone. He is for you, for me, and all people.
I
suppose we could determine for example, that the average Pharisee might have sinned
less most, but if God demands perfection, then we all fall short. Every pastor,
priest, bishop, banker, sports player, teacher, etc., all fall short. Jesus
came for all of us. Imagine a church we all people pursue Christ, love each
other, learn, are equipped, and doing ministry so that all the world may know
him.
The
Christian band, Casting Crowns has a song “Sing until the whole world hears”.
Not sing just for the jock, or just for the popular. Not sing just for the
religious leaders and the famous, but for the whole world. Jesus came for
everyone.
In
true Jesus fashion, right around this time in our gospel of Matthew reading for
this morning, after be questioned by the Pharisees about fasting in Mathew 9:14-17,
some came to Jesus for healing. In picking up on Matthew 9:18 for this morning,
it says once again:
18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread through all of that district (Mt. 9:18-26, NRSV).
Jesus
heals, Jesus raises the dead. He brings hope to hopeless, and healing to the
rejected. Jesus is a savior for everyone, and he loves everyone.
The
vision that God has given me for this church and for this community is a church
that includes all manor of people in this community. Imagine a growing and thriving
church we are all pursuing Christ together? We have differences, and yet we are
united in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the most sinful or the least sinful?
Who knows, but the last time I checked forgiven
and transformed is good news for everybody! Whether we are seeking the “perfect”,
or whether we are “Eating With Tax Collectors and Sinners,” Jesus loves us, died
for us, and pursues us. May we live and love more like Jesus today and always. Amen.
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