The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
But when he heard this, he 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, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.
Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.
When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district. (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26)
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I once nearly took a job as general manager of a telemarketing company. I didn’t think at the time that telemarketing was such a nuisance. I would imagine that nowadays, people in that line of business might not want to tell anyone what they do. But, if you allow for the fact that your life is getting interrupted –often inconveniently – there is nothing really wrong with telemarketing. Someone is merely finding a way to get information to you so you can make a decision about buying their product or service.
Over and over again!
A nother job that used to have a negative connotation was that of insurance salesman. You didn’t want to become friends with an insurance representative because it was said that sooner or later they would hit on you for insurance.
I should say that I know three insurance salesmen and not one has hit on me for insurance. And what’s wrong with them wanting to help out a friend, anyway?
But what about occupations that are really down there in terms of status? Drug pusher comes to mind. Illegal gun salesman could qualify I suppose. Pimp – now there is a job that has no status at all.
You wouldn’t want your son or daughter to say they were thinking of going into any of those jobs would you?
Those occupations – they are not really jobs – involve doing things that exploit other human beings. They are occupations that require a person to be ruthless, heartless, conscience-less. They require someone who is dead to the normal emotions and feelings that you and I have.
They require someone whose life has become forfeit to all the wrong things. Someone who doesn’t care any more. Someone who has been lost to God.
In the time when Jesus walked the earth, tax collectors were seen like that. They had sold their souls to the Roman occupying force, existed on what they could extort from people above and beyond what was actually owed in taxes, and were outcasts from society. As far as society was concerned, they were dead, and, religious people thought – dead to God too.
There were other people who were considered dead to society, and to God, not because they had done anything wrong, but because something had happened to them beyond their control. Lepers for example were non- persons. They wandered around like lost souls. They owned nothing, had been driven from their homes and villages, and were to all intents and purposes dead to their families and to society.
The woman mentioned in today’s Gospel, the woman who touched the hem of the garment Jesus wore, had bled for twelve years. Since menstrual blood was considered unclean, a menstruating woman was therefore unclean, and as someone who had been unclean for twelve years she was denied her place in that society. She wouldn’t be able to attend the temple. People wouldn’t want to be seen with her. She was, to some extent a dead woman.
Tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, those who were ritually unclean, these were the people the Pharisees called sinners. These were those who were cast out from society. And if you don’t belong, you might as well be dead.
And being rejected by society is not something that only happened in Jesus’s time.
Some years ago there was a British movie, based on fact, called I’m Alright Jack which told the story of a factory worker who refused to obey his union when a strike was called. He worked through the strike, enduring all sorts of insults and taunts, and threats, and when the strike was over his workmates punished him by a process called, sending to Coventry.
That meant that was far as everyone else in the factory was concerned, he didn’t exist. No-one would talk to him, associate with him, assist him, or even acknowledge that he was there. To the other factory employees, he was, to all intents and purposes, a dead man.
Jesus came to bring new life to people who were shut out, ignored, isolated – dead.
And this comes about for those who have faith in him. Who believe that he can do it. People who realise their need to be transformed.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear of someone who has been sent to prison for something horrendous, and then a few years later claiming to be born-again Christians, and asking to be allowed out on parole, I am always suspicious.
It sounds too easy.
And there may well be phonies among them, but the fact is, Jesus does save, and Jesus does heal – even the most hardened criminals.
There has to be real faith, though. People who have settled into a routine existence, doing whatever it is they do – legal or not – as wicked as it may be, and as sinful as it may be, will need a lot of faith to take on a new life, away from the familiar things, familiar associates, familiar ways – as self destructive as those ways may be.
A person addicted to drugs needs a lot of faith to face the future without drugs.
A person used to having power over others needs a lot of faith to face life as a helpless follower of Christ.
Just as a person who has it all – someone from the right side of the tracks – will also need a lot of faith – to turn their back on the things they have relied upon and to rely instead on Jesus.
You don’t think of people who have everything as being in need do you?
I read about a big pop star, who when he wasn’t performing, had no life at all. He was almost a non-entity. He only came alive when he was on stage.
What happens to that person when no one wants to see him perform any more? If he is only alive when performing, then when he’s not, he might as well be dead.
In 1929 they say, when the market crashed, men who had lost their fortunes jumped out of skyscraper windows.
For them, no money meant no life.
But what they needed was for someone to give them real life.
There’s a story about a man who was driving his car down a country road one April and suddenly an animal ran out in front of his car. He braked but couldn’t help hitting it.
He got out and saw a rabbit lying there. It was obviously dead. Then he noticed a large basket full of eggs, and he realized he had run over the Easter Bunny. He really began to panic now.
But just then another car stopped and a woman got out. “What’s happened?” she asked, and he told her. “I think I killed the Easter Bunny. What do I do?”
“Don’t worry,” she told him, and took a canister out of her purse. She took off the cap and sprayed the rabbit.
Suddenly, the rabbit’s eyes opened. It jumped up, picked up the basket and hopped away, all the time waving, waving its paws. as it hopped down the road.
“Wow,” the man went, “Let me see that.”
The woman passed the canister to him. He looked at the label, and read,
“ Acme hair Spray. Gives new life to dead hair and permanent wave.”
Well it’s not quite like that when Jesus brings new life.
It’s a process, isn’t it?
It comes about when we realise that there is more to life than the things we have been using to distract ourselves.
And having faith enough to ask for it.
Paul had it. Matthew the tax collector had it. The woman who had suffered for twelve years had it. The official who wanted Jesus to restore his daughter had it.
There was something they saw in this man Jesus that pointed them to God, and new life. There was something in this man that said, “Come home. Don’t be afraid. You are loved. Come to me.”
And they did.
I think that most of us here have answered that call. Most of us here have heard the voice of Jesus, and committed our lives to him.
And it is not easy, is it? It means new life, yes, but it also means a different life.
Deciding to put Jesus before drugs, drink, a low life, seems to us to be an easy decision, but putting him before a good life, before a loving family, before a great job, a great reputation, and so on – has to be really hard, doesn’t it?
But with all that we have, if we don’t have him, then we don’t really have life.
Because as we all know, those things – great job, great reputation, great friends, even great family – have been known to fail at that crucial moment when they are needed.
But he never fails.
Believing that ……… knowing that….. having faith in that …….. is exactly what we must have, to know Him intimately.
And to be able to serve Him in ways that are just as important today as they ever were.
For this world will never be safe or at peace until Jesus reigns again.
Amen.
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My heartfelt thanks for all those who have expressed condolences, by word of mouth, or by mail or by attending Susan’s Memorial service. I have been moved by the many kind comments about Susan and how well liked she was, and how she will be missed.
Thank you all..
Trev