Matthew 9:9–13

9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Dinner with Jesus: At Matthew’s House

I read recently of a family that was attending a certain church, they’d been going there a while. One Sunday the husband sat on the center isle, his 6 year old next to him, the 4 year old in the middle, the two year old next to her mother all in a row. They got through the first part of the service all right, but then the daughter next to her dad leaned toward him with a, “Pssssst.” Being the spiritual head of his house, he ignored it and tried to focus on the message. Pretty soon she was tugging on his sleeve, so he bent toward her, she whispered, “Daddy?” she asked, “Why is that man yelling at us?”

He thought about it a minute then leaned back toward her and whispered, “I don’t know.” And he decided maybe they should look at their worshipping options.

Around Jesus there are always questions. By what authority does he work wonders? What is the source of his power? Why is he doing things this way, and not that way?

Some questions were asked sincerely in order to learn, “why?” or “what is that?” But what we read happening here with the disciples and the religious leaders is not a “please tell me” kind of question…what is happening here is “questioning.” The leaders were casting doubt on Jesus whole method of ministry…and not to him directly they addressed their questioning to the disciples. Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners? …and (I suppose) implied in their question is why doesn’t he eat with leaders like us?

It’s a fair question. If Jesus came to change the religious climate of the earth, why wasn’t he working with religious leaders?

Jesus takes the opportunity of this question to explain how he saw his role and purpose in the world. It’s the ill that need a doctor…and since he was in the soul doctoring business, tax collectors and sinners were his clientele. Now when the religious leaders called the people Jesus was hanging out with “sinners” they meant people whose moral problems were obvious to all.

I suppose some of those Jesus might try to get close to today might include those struggling with addiction, or folks who claim other gods. Maybe he’d spend time with those who were God fearing, but not religious in the usual sense. And he might not meet with pastors, priests, bishops or denomination leaders. If you want to get something done among the hurting people, you may as well go straight to them. That’s exactly what Jesus did. He took his teaching, his miracles, and his disciples to the streets. And there he taught those who would listen, he ate with tax collectors, he encountered sinners in their natural habitat.

I’m not sure when it happened to us Methodists, but at some point we changed from being out-goers to being invite-inners… We quit going where the people are, and started hoping they’d find us where we are. To do that, we become something that resembles religious hermits. You know hermits, they stay in, they don’t go out much, and when they do go out, they do so with a minimum of contact with others.

Methodism started with a rather unwilling street preacher named John Wesley. He didn’t really want to be a street preacher, but the churches would no longer let him preach in their buildings. And so in his journal he wrote, “I submitted to be more vile.” “I submitted to be more vile,” he said, because he decided to preach on the streets.

In other words, for the sake of this great love of God toward him—and for the sake of sharing it with others—John Wesley decided to do something that he once thought he would never do. But somehow, that didn’t matter any more. The embarrassment didn’t matter, the uneasiness didn’t matter, the raised eyebrows didn’t matter. Only one thing mattered, and what mattered was love. God’s love for people is so worth sharing that everything else pales next to it.

Now folks, I don’t think very many of us today would say that we want to become “more vile” for God. That really isn’t the kind of language we use these days. But what if we said instead that we resolve to allow God to stretch us beyond what makes us comfortable? What if we said that we resolve to allow God to pull us and challenge us into being a new kind of people? What if we said that we resolve to do things that make us feel uncomfortable if they allow others the same opportunities to fall in love with God that we have had? After all, none of us would be here today—this building wouldn’t be here—if someone somewhere along the way had not resolved to put up with a little inconvenience and a little discomfort and a little newness so that generations to come like you and me could fall in love with God too.

Do any of you know how Methodism first came to Missouri? I learned a little about that at annual conference last week. There were some Methodists over Illinois…this was back before Missouri was part of the US territories…before the Louisiana Purchase. Missouri was still part of the property of the French, and the official religion here was Catholic. At that time, it was against the law to bring other faiths into what would later become Missouri. But some Illinois Methodists rowed across the Mississippi to hold bible studies on this side. If they had been caught, they would have been in trouble. But they came and started studies, and churches.

Have any of you seen the Mississippi river? I grew up in Nebraska, the home of the Platte river…a river with a subtitle; “a mile wide and an inch deep.” You could cross the Platte any time you were willing to roll up your pant legs to mid calf or so. That’s not a river that’s a stream. The Mississippi is a river! How many of you have ever been down on the actual bank of the Mississippi and looked across there. It’s big, it’s wide, it’s deep and it’s dangerous. Now imagine it with no bridges, and no Evenrude to clamp on the back of your boat.

What would possess Illinois Methodist people to cross that water to have a Bible study with the folks in Missouri? They were risking life and limb, but they did it week in and week out. And so when the Louisiana Purchase was made, the Methodist church was already here in Missouri. Early Methodists were reaching out. They were out-goers.

Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” And in spiritual matters, it’s those at the margins of life who are most in need, and often most receptive to the positive difference Christ can make. Jesus mode of operation was to go to them, rather than hoping they’d come to him.

The second part of Jesus answer was a challenge to the Pharisees. He said, “But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' It’s a quote from the Old Testament prophet Hosea. Speaking for God he says, “what can I do with you, …your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. (That’s how their love for God seemed to the almighty, it was like a vapor) And the Lord says through the prophet, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” Then a little later in the chapter “…as marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests.” God was not very complimentary of their devotion, their practice or their leaders.

God prefers to be honored: acknowledged. God wants to be known. And he prefers being known over ritual obedience. So what Jesus was saying to the Jewish leaders was this. I’m out here with these folks…these tax collectors and sinners…because they acknowledge God. They want to know God.

I’ve often found this honesty with people at the margins…they know their own spiritual temperature better than many leaders. Jesus worked with folks on the margins because that’s where life change was happening. That’s where the ill were made well, the lost were found, the blind found sight.

Jesus was at dinner when the question came up. Why don’t you hang out with religious people, and why do you purposely spend time with those who are not religious at all. As you come to dine with Jesus today, I want to turn that question toward you. When was the last time you had a conversation about spiritual things with a person that is not an obvious part of a church? When did you join Jesus in focusing your attention one someone who is not yet a believer? You see we can get so busy doing things with churched folks, that pretty soon we may not know very many people who do not profess faith…we loose touch with the people Jesus spent most of his time with.

Jesus ate with those who needed him…(in this story) tax collectors and sinners…and he still is with those who need him today. Jesus heart is aimed outward…his love is given to be shared. And so as we come for communion today, we come as the kind of people Jesus liked to eat with…we’re not particularly important or popular according to the world. We come with needs, some obvious some held within our hearts…but needs that Jesus as our physician has ways to help. We come not depending on our own goodness, but counting on his grace.

As you come today…. Instructions about communion, etc.

BENEDICTION:

May the grace of Christ, which daily renews us,

and the love of God, which enables us to love all,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which unites us in one body,

make us eager to obey the will of God until we meet again, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.