In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In today’s short Gospel reading, we hear the story of the calling of St. Matthew. Matthew was a publican, a tax collector, a Jew who collaborated with the occupying Romans, a group of people who were known not only as collaborationists, but who were notorious for “skimming off the top” – defrauding those from whom they collected taxes. He was, in short, a great sinner.
“Jesus… saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.”
This is the beginning of the story of Saint Matthew, Holy Matthew, Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. The story begins with obedience. There’s nothing noteworthy about this character – accept perhaps that his sins are particularly notorious and public. He was shunned and condescended-to by the religious authorities, and he was probably only interested in making a buck, and it didn’t bother him that he was breaking the rules of the self-appointed religious authorities.
But then along comes Jesus. The Gospel simply says that Jesus saw Matthew, and said to him “Follow me,” and Matthew got up and followed him.
Jesus says to every heart, “Follow me.” And every life that’s changed for the better, in an ultimate sense, begins with a decision to follow Jesus.
Notice the very next thing that happens: Matthew throws a party, and many of his friends, who are also “tax collectors and sinners”, come and find Jesus because Matthew has introduced them to him -- because the ORIENTATION of Matthew’s life has changed: now all of his activity is Jesus-centric, and that makes all the difference. He has been enabled to look out beyond the narrow constraints of his former egoism. Now he sees the world with reference to Jesus, and he brings others to share this liberative encounter with the Messiah.
And then the ever-wiley Pharisees arrive, with their pharisaical indignation: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And the answer is quite simple, almost tautological: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And so the Lord reveals the exact difference between the publicans and sinners on the one hand, and the Pharisees on the other: the Lord desires penitence, a heart aware of its sinfulness and desirous of nothing but mercy. But we are apt to miss the central element of the Lord’s rebuke of the Pharisees in this passage: and that is its Christological claim, the self-reference of Jesus, and his self assertion as the Physician. That is the remarkable thing, and at bottom the problem with the Pharisees is their attitude toward JESUS: their failure to see TRUTH in his face, and with it the power to bind up and to heal, to forgive sins, to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
We are apt to think that the problem with the Pharisees is that they have passed judgment on the others, that they have reduced the personhood of Matthew and his friends to mere “tax collectors and sinners”. We are apt to find offense in this pejorativity, as it were. But the failure, the sin of the Pharisees, is that unlike Matthew and his sinner friends, the Pharisees DON’T SEE IN JESUS SOMEONE WORTH FOLLOWING.
It isn’t that Matthew and his friends aren’t sinners. They ARE… and they know it. But they have a conviction of their need for redemption, and so they hurry after Jesus, knowing that he can heal and forgive them. Knowing that he is all about mercy. That is what God seeks in each of us: not a heart hardened against the divine mercy, but malleable, an open heart, a heart willing to be pierced by forgiveness. But this first means we must acknowledge that we need to be forgiven.
St. John put it succinctly in his first epistle: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1.8-10).
But it begins with penance, as we see in the example of St. Matthew, in the acknowledgement that we are no better than tax-collectors and sinners. And then it continues with a with a DECISION, a WILLINGNESS to follow Jesus, and to reorient our lives with reference to him.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In today’s short Gospel reading, we hear the story of the calling of St. Matthew. Matthew was a publican, a tax collector, a Jew who collaborated with the occupying Romans, a group of people who were known not only as collaborationists, but who were notorious for “skimming off the top” – defrauding those from whom they collected taxes. He was, in short, a great sinner.
“Jesus… saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.”
This is the beginning of the story of Saint Matthew, Holy Matthew, Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. The story begins with obedience. There’s nothing noteworthy about this character – accept perhaps that his sins are particularly notorious and public. He was shunned and condescended-to by the religious authorities, and he was probably only interested in making a buck, and it didn’t bother him that he was breaking the rules of the self-appointed religious authorities.
But then along comes Jesus. The Gospel simply says that Jesus saw Matthew, and said to him “Follow me,” and Matthew got up and followed him.
Jesus says to every heart, “Follow me.” And every life that’s changed for the better, in an ultimate sense, begins with a decision to follow Jesus.
Notice the very next thing that happens: Matthew throws a party, and many of his friends, who are also “tax collectors and sinners”, come and find Jesus because Matthew has introduced them to him -- because the ORIENTATION of Matthew’s life has changed: now all of his activity is Jesus-centric, and that makes all the difference. He has been enabled to look out beyond the narrow constraints of his former egoism. Now he sees the world with reference to Jesus, and he brings others to share this liberative encounter with the Messiah.
And then the ever-wiley Pharisees arrive, with their pharisaical indignation: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And the answer is quite simple, almost tautological: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And so the Lord reveals the exact difference between the publicans and sinners on the one hand, and the Pharisees on the other: the Lord desires penitence, a heart aware of its sinfulness and desirous of nothing but mercy. But we are apt to miss the central element of the Lord’s rebuke of the Pharisees in this passage: and that is its Christological claim, the self-reference of Jesus, and his self assertion as the Physician. That is the remarkable thing, and at bottom the problem with the Pharisees is their attitude toward JESUS: their failure to see TRUTH in his face, and with it the power to bind up and to heal, to forgive sins, to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
We are apt to think that the problem with the Pharisees is that they have passed judgment on the others, that they have reduced the personhood of Matthew and his friends to mere “tax collectors and sinners”. We are apt to find offense in this pejorativity, as it were. But the failure, the sin of the Pharisees, is that unlike Matthew and his sinner friends, the Pharisees DON’T SEE IN JESUS SOMEONE WORTH FOLLOWING.
It isn’t that Matthew and his friends aren’t sinners. They ARE… and they know it. But they have a conviction of their need for redemption, and so they hurry after Jesus, knowing that he can heal and forgive them. Knowing that he is all about mercy. That is what God seeks in each of us: not a heart hardened against the divine mercy, but malleable, an open heart, a heart willing to be pierced by forgiveness. But this first means we must acknowledge that we need to be forgiven.
St. John put it succinctly in his first epistle: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1.8-10).
But it begins with penance, as we see in the example of St. Matthew, in the acknowledgement that we are no better than tax-collectors and sinners. And then it continues with a with a DECISION, a WILLINGNESS to follow Jesus, and to reorient our lives with reference to him.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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