Second Sunday after Pentecost - Sermon Text
The Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5A)
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you were to write an autobiography, what stories would you tell on yourself? Would you tell everything? Would you want to present yourself in the most flattering light possible? Or would you balance the amazing with the mundane and occasional embarrassing? I ask these questions because St. Matthew, the Apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit includes an autobiographical section in his story of Jesus. The five verses that are today’s gospel reading reveal how Matthew sees himself. What he chooses to reveal to us tells us something about what he sees in Jesus.
Matthew is a tax collector. In the gospels, when a tax collector is referenced the word “sinner” is shortly to follow. There are reasons for this. Matthew is sitting at the tax booth in Capernaum, the city in the region known as Galilee. Capernaum is on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is a port city that links regional and international trade with trade routes from Damascus and the East to the road that leads to Egypt. It being on the Sea of Galilee means that Capernaum is also a major source for fish for the region. Then and there, as is now and here, just about anything that could be taxed was taxed.
The Roman government did not tax Israel directly. The way it worked is like this: Romans of the Equestrian rank formed stock companies and bid for a region, usually on a five-year basis. The Romans awarded the contract to the stock company who then farmed out a portion of their region to commissioners. The famous Zaccheus who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus, was probably a commissioner. Commissioners then hired local Jews to tax Jews. Matthew would be one of the local tax collectors. Once Rome received the money it required, the middlemen made a profit on the remainder. Tax prices could be inflated at will and were. The whole process was a form of legalized extortion. The abuse was so bad that Jews who collected taxes were often put out of the local synagogues and were treated as social reprobates by their neighbors.
Matthew identifies himself as a working tax collector. He does not directly reveal if he takes advantage of his neighbors or not, but he does tell us that he has sufficient funds to throw a luxurious party.
The story that Matthew tells of himself also appears in Mark 2:13-17 and Luke 5:27-32. Luke is considerably more descriptive than Matthew about Matthew’s wealth. Luke says, “And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.” For clarification, Levi is Matthew’s Jewish name. Matthew is his Galilean name. My point here is this, how can a man spontaneously throw a large feast in a large house that requires a large number of servants and other resources to entertain and provide food and drink for a huge number of guests who are used to a higher standard of living and feasting? How does he have this kind of monetary resources? The answer is that he is legally extorting people. He is legally inflating taxes. He robs the hard working who lack the power and connections to retaliate so that he can live a life of luxury. Matthew is guilty of indulging in the temptation of taking more than is required to pay the bills. He is working for the enemy and profiting from it by robbing his neighbors and countrymen.
Why is Matthew so quick to leave access to even more riches? He has, what the world would call, “a good job.” He is providing abundantly for himself and his family. Why does he immediately leave his booth and then follow Jesus?
We do not know for certain but we have clues. As Matthew’s story is laid out in his gospel, as well as in Mark and Luke’s gospels, Matthew is the last of the disciples to receive Jesus’ call to follow him. I join others in speculating that Matthew has heard Jesus preach, has heard about or witnessed his miracles, and is aware of people, such as the Centurion in Capernum, who asked Jesus to heal his servant who was paralyzed. This is the centurion whose faith in Jesus is such that when Jesus offers to go to the paralyzed man, the centurion simply tells Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, to another ‘come,’ and he comes.”
As a tax collector Matthew would need personal protection as well as the enforcement of the law through Roman soldiers to compel people to pay their taxes through money or through liquidation of their assets, including businesses and homes. He would most likely be familiar with this centurion. Capernaum is busy but it’s not that big. He would have heard what Jesus did for him.
While we do not know for certain what put Matthew in a frame of mind to immediately leave his post and follow Jesus, we do know that Matthew has diagnosed the spiritual ailment that he and his fellow tax collectors suffered from. He was sick. Sin sick. He could not fix himself. He needed help. He sensed that Jesus was the only one that could heal him. Why else would Matthew include Jesus’ scold to the Pharisee’s loud pronouncement of judgment? After seeing the sumptuous feast, the Pharisees said to Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
If Matthew heard Jesus preach or learned of his miracles or heard people witnessing to what they saw, the Word was present, and the Holy Spirit worked through the Word to accuse him of his sin, and plant the seeds of faith, to seek the Savior, the physician of our souls, and to believe in Him.
The Holy Spirit laid the groundwork in Matthew’s conscience. When Jesus looked upon Matthew and said, “Follow me.” He knew he could not stay in that life. He was sick with his sins. On his own powers, he could not say “no” to the temptations of more money, more power, more notoriety, more connections with the movers and shakers. More, more, more. When does it stop? According to Satan, it never does. According to Jesus, it stops at the cross. Matthew needs the righteousness of Christ Jesus. He needs the forgiveness of Jesus. He needs the peace that his nascent faith senses can only be found in Jesus. He leaves his life to follow Jesus. In Jesus, his faith finds grace and mercy.
Matthew sought the same healing that we seek. We are aware of our sins. They are ever before us. While we do learn to control the outward expressions of them, the internal rot that pushes them up and out, does not go away. We need Christ’s forgiveness. We need the assurance of his presence. We need his help. Jesus dies on the cross for you. He dies so that you can follow Him into paradise.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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