Ezekiel 2:8-3:11; Ephesians 4:7-16; St Matthew 9:9-13
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
He has no lines in his own book. The author, humanly speaking, of the first Gospel, says nothing. St John at least refers to himself, but does it sort of creatively, as “the beloved disciple;” “the one whom Jesus loved.” Literarily you’re supposed to find yourself there. You, the reader, are to understand that you are “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” And so be read into the text.
But St Matthew doesn’t even do that! He tells his own story, to be sure. You heard it this morning. Being called from the tax booth. But he does it in such a way that he directs all attention away from himself and onto Jesus. He’s the main character in this evangel, not Matthew. This is His book. The bible of the genesis of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. That’s how he starts. Matthew 1:1. This apostle and evangelist, begins the first book of the New Testament, recalling everything from the Old in two words, Biblos geneseos, the Bible of the Genesis, of who? Of Jesus Christ.
So when this Jesus, whom Matthew puts before you today, says Go and learn we’d best do what He tells us. He sends the Pharisees, and us, to school again. Relearn the basics. Relearn the A-B-Cs of God. You are never too old to study the catechism. To back to the beginning. To be a child. And the first thing that Jesus lays down is what pleases God above all else. Mercy. Not sacrifice.
“But just hang on a minute,” you and the Pharisees protest. “Sacrifices weren’t our idea. They were Yours.” Aren’t entire Old Testament books - Leviticus say - devoted to God given and explaining the what and how of the sacrificial system to His people? He has some pretty strict rules about where and how to offer these sacrifices. Doesn’t the Psalm today even highlight the keeping of these sacrifices? Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statues and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep Your Law and observe it with my whole heart. Your rules are good. I long for Your precepts (Ps 119:33-40).
Listen again, Go and learn what this means. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” A direct quote from Hosea. The prophet who condemned Israel for thinking that God wanted mere obedience to ritual law more than the practice of mercy. But He doesn’t say that sacrifice was worthless. He said what pleases God, above all, is mercy.
We are always wanting to let our love for God come unglued from love for the neighbor. We wish that we could have a relationship with God independent of our relationships with other people. George Jones’ refrain is the ballad of the Old Adam. “Me and Jesus, we’ve got our own thing going. Me and Jesus we got it all worked out.” Well, sorry, but there is no just “me and Jesus.” Getting Him means getting all His brothers and sisters, too. The whole family. Your neighbors. Remember, the One who said, “Love Me with everything you’ve got,” is the same One who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
So, no, He won’t accept from our hands a “sacrifice.” That is, anything we do for Him or give to Him. If our hearts are not merciful toward others. Merciful toward all the people He has placed around us. Its not that He doesn’t want the sacrifice. Its that the sacrifice that pleases Him is a sacrifice offered by a heart filled with mercy. One bursting with kindness toward others. We may all be different parts of the body, as St Paul’s writes to the Ephesians, but the commonality between us all is not only the Head, which is Christ Jesus, but the heart, established blameless in holiness (1 Thess 3:13), consumed with mercy, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
That’s the problem the Pharisees have with Jesus. He’s eating with the tax collectors. He sitting down and whiling away the hours together with all the wrong sorts. Even having a good time, laughing with them over food and drink, all the while telling them about His Father and an unconditional love. “Sacrilege!” They cry! “That’s just not done. You don’t defile and demean yourself by associating with the likes of them. Jesus, what are you doing?”
And here comes the answer: “I am the Doctor attending to the sick. I don’t worry about catching something from them. My only concern is to heal them.”
The Pharisees think: “But you might catch something from them. You might. You might catch their uncleanness. You might die.”
The answer: “Hmm. So I might. So I shall. Their disease will kill Me. Yours too. I’ll catch “sin sickness” from you all. But that won’t stop Me from being merciful. Mercy doesn’t calculate the outcome in regard to self. Mercy only asks what the other needs. And then mercy acts. Mercy is being there for others, whether or not being there is a danger to yourself. Much less an inconvenience. I have come among you in mercy. I came to heal. I came to save. So, yes, you’ll find Me right here in the hospital. Right where the sick are. They are my clients. The broken, the bruised, the battered ones. Those who’ve been hurt and torn up by sin. My heart is filled with pity for them. I have come to do something about their sorry state. I’ve come to befriend them. I’ve come to heal them. I’ve come to save them and set them free.”
And He looks at His detractors long and hard. He says, “I only came for the sick and the sinners. Will you admit to being one? Will you own up to needing the healing I come to bring? Aren’t you tired of the sorrow of sin yet? Will you check into My hospital? Go and learn: mercy, not sacrifice. Come, let Me heal you too.”
And the day came when the sin-sickness seized holy of the heavenly Doctor. The day came, a dark day full of rage and fury, when He was stretched out and fixed to a Tree. And there is all your uncleanness. All your sorrow. All your rebellion and sin in His Body. All the sin-sickness of the entire human race is coursing through His veins. And that sin that leads to death killed Him. His contact with us. His breathing our poisoned air and touching our foul uncleanness fall took Him down. Our Physician died.
And there, beloved, you see the mercy of God. Mercy and not just sacrifice. It truly was mercy and so it was the acceptable sacrifice. A sacrifice that the Father received and rejoiced in because it was given entirely and wholly from a heart of mercy. The Divine Physician made the ultimate sacrifice out of mercy.
And so the Father raised Him up! Early that first Easter Day death was undone. Its power over the human race broken once and for all. Broken by the merciful sacrifice of God’s only Son. The debt completely paid by His priceless, precious Blood.
And He did it for the likes of St Matthew, a traitor to his own people. A sell-out to his Levitical birthright. He took that man, called him from raking in the money to giving away the full and free forgiveness of sins to all people. The Church is indebted to St Matthew, humanly speaking, for his Gospel. His is the only one in which we hear of the struggles of Joseph, admonished in a dream to take Mary his wife. From his pen we have the full account of the Beatitudes. From his pen we have the full version of the Our Father we are used to praying in the Divine Service, in the Daily Offices, at home. Only in St Matthew’s Gospel do we have the Trinitarian Name used in Holy Baptism.
Matthew, whose name means “Gift of YHWH,” truly is a gift of Christ Jesus to His Church, as you heard from St Paul. When He ascended on high He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.
Thus does St Matthew continue to bestow his gifts, by the inspiration of the Spirit. Thus does he continue to present to you the Doctor from heaven, Jesus Christ, who comes to give mercy. He still spreads the Table. He still invites the most disreputable sorts, sinners who need His mercy, to sit down with Him and eat and drink. He still touches us - the same Body and Blood that touched and healed Matthew and others long ago. It’s only a foretaste. Only a tasting room for heaven, where the healing is final and the sorrows forgotten and the feast never ending.
Follow Me! Jesus said to Matthew. And he got up and left everything to follow Him. To sit down at Table with Jesus. Follow Me! He still cries. There’s room at His Table. A place for you. Follow Me! You invite with lips given to sing His glory, tongues His mercy to proclaim. Welcome the outcasts and undesirables. The sinners just like you. Don’t be afraid of their sin. Welcome them home. Jesus has dealt with sin like theirs. He’s dealt with you. His forgiveness is for them even as its for you. Follow Me! He says, “Into a life of mercy and so a life of acceptable sacrifice. Follow Me and I’ll lead you all the way Home.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
He has no lines in his own book. The author, humanly speaking, of the first Gospel, says nothing. St John at least refers to himself, but does it sort of creatively, as “the beloved disciple;” “the one whom Jesus loved.” Literarily you’re supposed to find yourself there. You, the reader, are to understand that you are “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” And so be read into the text.
But St Matthew doesn’t even do that! He tells his own story, to be sure. You heard it this morning. Being called from the tax booth. But he does it in such a way that he directs all attention away from himself and onto Jesus. He’s the main character in this evangel, not Matthew. This is His book. The bible of the genesis of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. That’s how he starts. Matthew 1:1. This apostle and evangelist, begins the first book of the New Testament, recalling everything from the Old in two words, Biblos geneseos, the Bible of the Genesis, of who? Of Jesus Christ.
So when this Jesus, whom Matthew puts before you today, says Go and learn we’d best do what He tells us. He sends the Pharisees, and us, to school again. Relearn the basics. Relearn the A-B-Cs of God. You are never too old to study the catechism. To back to the beginning. To be a child. And the first thing that Jesus lays down is what pleases God above all else. Mercy. Not sacrifice.
“But just hang on a minute,” you and the Pharisees protest. “Sacrifices weren’t our idea. They were Yours.” Aren’t entire Old Testament books - Leviticus say - devoted to God given and explaining the what and how of the sacrificial system to His people? He has some pretty strict rules about where and how to offer these sacrifices. Doesn’t the Psalm today even highlight the keeping of these sacrifices? Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statues and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep Your Law and observe it with my whole heart. Your rules are good. I long for Your precepts (Ps 119:33-40).
Listen again, Go and learn what this means. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” A direct quote from Hosea. The prophet who condemned Israel for thinking that God wanted mere obedience to ritual law more than the practice of mercy. But He doesn’t say that sacrifice was worthless. He said what pleases God, above all, is mercy.
We are always wanting to let our love for God come unglued from love for the neighbor. We wish that we could have a relationship with God independent of our relationships with other people. George Jones’ refrain is the ballad of the Old Adam. “Me and Jesus, we’ve got our own thing going. Me and Jesus we got it all worked out.” Well, sorry, but there is no just “me and Jesus.” Getting Him means getting all His brothers and sisters, too. The whole family. Your neighbors. Remember, the One who said, “Love Me with everything you’ve got,” is the same One who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
So, no, He won’t accept from our hands a “sacrifice.” That is, anything we do for Him or give to Him. If our hearts are not merciful toward others. Merciful toward all the people He has placed around us. Its not that He doesn’t want the sacrifice. Its that the sacrifice that pleases Him is a sacrifice offered by a heart filled with mercy. One bursting with kindness toward others. We may all be different parts of the body, as St Paul’s writes to the Ephesians, but the commonality between us all is not only the Head, which is Christ Jesus, but the heart, established blameless in holiness (1 Thess 3:13), consumed with mercy, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
That’s the problem the Pharisees have with Jesus. He’s eating with the tax collectors. He sitting down and whiling away the hours together with all the wrong sorts. Even having a good time, laughing with them over food and drink, all the while telling them about His Father and an unconditional love. “Sacrilege!” They cry! “That’s just not done. You don’t defile and demean yourself by associating with the likes of them. Jesus, what are you doing?”
And here comes the answer: “I am the Doctor attending to the sick. I don’t worry about catching something from them. My only concern is to heal them.”
The Pharisees think: “But you might catch something from them. You might. You might catch their uncleanness. You might die.”
The answer: “Hmm. So I might. So I shall. Their disease will kill Me. Yours too. I’ll catch “sin sickness” from you all. But that won’t stop Me from being merciful. Mercy doesn’t calculate the outcome in regard to self. Mercy only asks what the other needs. And then mercy acts. Mercy is being there for others, whether or not being there is a danger to yourself. Much less an inconvenience. I have come among you in mercy. I came to heal. I came to save. So, yes, you’ll find Me right here in the hospital. Right where the sick are. They are my clients. The broken, the bruised, the battered ones. Those who’ve been hurt and torn up by sin. My heart is filled with pity for them. I have come to do something about their sorry state. I’ve come to befriend them. I’ve come to heal them. I’ve come to save them and set them free.”
And He looks at His detractors long and hard. He says, “I only came for the sick and the sinners. Will you admit to being one? Will you own up to needing the healing I come to bring? Aren’t you tired of the sorrow of sin yet? Will you check into My hospital? Go and learn: mercy, not sacrifice. Come, let Me heal you too.”
And the day came when the sin-sickness seized holy of the heavenly Doctor. The day came, a dark day full of rage and fury, when He was stretched out and fixed to a Tree. And there is all your uncleanness. All your sorrow. All your rebellion and sin in His Body. All the sin-sickness of the entire human race is coursing through His veins. And that sin that leads to death killed Him. His contact with us. His breathing our poisoned air and touching our foul uncleanness fall took Him down. Our Physician died.
And there, beloved, you see the mercy of God. Mercy and not just sacrifice. It truly was mercy and so it was the acceptable sacrifice. A sacrifice that the Father received and rejoiced in because it was given entirely and wholly from a heart of mercy. The Divine Physician made the ultimate sacrifice out of mercy.
And so the Father raised Him up! Early that first Easter Day death was undone. Its power over the human race broken once and for all. Broken by the merciful sacrifice of God’s only Son. The debt completely paid by His priceless, precious Blood.
And He did it for the likes of St Matthew, a traitor to his own people. A sell-out to his Levitical birthright. He took that man, called him from raking in the money to giving away the full and free forgiveness of sins to all people. The Church is indebted to St Matthew, humanly speaking, for his Gospel. His is the only one in which we hear of the struggles of Joseph, admonished in a dream to take Mary his wife. From his pen we have the full account of the Beatitudes. From his pen we have the full version of the Our Father we are used to praying in the Divine Service, in the Daily Offices, at home. Only in St Matthew’s Gospel do we have the Trinitarian Name used in Holy Baptism.
Matthew, whose name means “Gift of YHWH,” truly is a gift of Christ Jesus to His Church, as you heard from St Paul. When He ascended on high He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.
Thus does St Matthew continue to bestow his gifts, by the inspiration of the Spirit. Thus does he continue to present to you the Doctor from heaven, Jesus Christ, who comes to give mercy. He still spreads the Table. He still invites the most disreputable sorts, sinners who need His mercy, to sit down with Him and eat and drink. He still touches us - the same Body and Blood that touched and healed Matthew and others long ago. It’s only a foretaste. Only a tasting room for heaven, where the healing is final and the sorrows forgotten and the feast never ending.
Follow Me! Jesus said to Matthew. And he got up and left everything to follow Him. To sit down at Table with Jesus. Follow Me! He still cries. There’s room at His Table. A place for you. Follow Me! You invite with lips given to sing His glory, tongues His mercy to proclaim. Welcome the outcasts and undesirables. The sinners just like you. Don’t be afraid of their sin. Welcome them home. Jesus has dealt with sin like theirs. He’s dealt with you. His forgiveness is for them even as its for you. Follow Me! He says, “Into a life of mercy and so a life of acceptable sacrifice. Follow Me and I’ll lead you all the way Home.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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