Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | June 11, 2023

Matthew 9:9-13 & 18-26

One of the plain truths of ministry is that you can’t please all the people all of the time. As a church we try to make everyone feel welcome, even those who take issue with the minister. Some folks don’t like something the minister says, or something about the minister, and they leave the church, maybe never to return. One tries not to take it personally.

I can think of only two people that I have actually banned from church. Think about how a person has to really go out of their way in order for John Mann to say, “You’re not welcome here.” It’s not a fun thing to do.

One of those two was a woman who would show up to church and argue with people. She used explicitly racist language. I told her that’s where I draw the line. If she was going to talk like that, she was no longer welcome. That was last we saw of her.

The other person was at a church were the Presbytery appointed me as session moderator. They had a female supply minister and a guy would show up and then try to argue with her about her theology. He was an imposing figure and would get in her face and she did not feel safe. The session was wondering what to do.

I said that if the minister feels threatened, then he is banned. I drafted a letter to that effect and said that if he shows up again, tell him that if he doesn’t leave, they will call the sheriff. That took care of that.

I don’t know how Jesus would have handled those situations. He pressed the limits when it came to whom to welcome. It was bad enough that he hung about with the unwashed rabble, but that’s where he came from. For him to recruit a tax collector as one of his followers was just too much. Some doors were shut for good reason.

We like to think everyone is welcome. The doors are open for anyone to pass through. An open door is a matter of perspective. What might seem wide open from one view can seem locked and bolted from another.

Jesus had a habit of knocking the door off its hinges. As a religious teacher part of his task was to gather students, or disciples. One might think that a teacher would gather to himself like-minded pupils, students who held similar values to the teacher. When Jesus selected his followers, he chose people who weren’t the least bit religious, or even interested in religion. Some of them hadn’t darkened the door of a synagogue in years, and a few would be quite unwelcome if they did show up.

He broke barriers when a woman who was ill touched him as he passed by. He didn’t condemn her for making him unclean by association. He commended her for her courage and faith. He broke barriers when he took the hand of a girl who died. Holy men, clean and righteous would never touch a dead body. Jesus said, “She’s not dead, she’s only sleeping.” We expect that kind of compassion from him and we’re even happy to go along with it when the occasion calls for it.

One day Jesus saw a tax collector named Matthew sitting in his collection booth and he invited him to become his disciple. We’re used to stories like that. That’s the kind of thing Jesus did. But if we imagine how radical it was to have a tax collector among one’s close associates, we can understand how revolutionary Jesus was in his ministry.

For generations the Jewish people had been oppressed. The Romans were among the worst oppressors. An empire requires large sums of money to operate. The Romans extracted this money from the people they conquered. In effect, the Jews in Palestine paid for the Roman occupation. There were different kinds of taxes. Produce and commercial goods were taxed. Roads were operated by tolls. There was a head tax of one day’s wage per year on every person. Because of taxes, the kingdom of Judea had the highest cost of living in the entire Roman Empire.

From the king down to the toll booth worker, everyone had to have their slice of the pie. Tax collectors were not government employees; they were independent contractors. They would bid on a district and agree to pay a certain amount, and they could keep the rest. They had to gouge carefully, but successfully. If the people resisted, the Roman legions stood nearby.

The tax collector was seen as the lowest form of life. He was a collaborator, a vulture feeding off the misfortune of his fellow Jews. Tax collectors were traitors to God and country. Someday if the Romans ever faltered, tax collectors would be among the first to have their throats cut.

Jesus invited one of them to be among his disciples. An odd choice for a religious man. To the Pharisees and pious folk, it showed he lacked judgment. How could he ever expect to gain a following among the people when he made choices like that? What did Jesus see in Matthew the tax collector?

We might complain about taxes. For the most part, the IRS is a faceless entity. Imagine though, that the IRS had a system whereby taxes were collected by an independent agent who lived in the community. If people didn’t pay, their assets could be seized, they could be thrown in jail, and any family members would be sent to the work farm.

And there’s the agent, wearing a solid gold watch and diamond pinkie ring. He drives around in a Bentley. How welcome would this guy be in any church on a Sunday morning? What if someone suggested that he serve as an elder on the session?

This is the guy named Matthew to whom Jesus said, “Follow me.” How could he? Maybe what Jesus saw was a person who was about as lost as lost could be. A desperate soul who would give in to greed to the point of betraying one’s own people. There was no redemption from such a betrayal. Matthew had to look over his shoulder wherever he went. His neighbors scorned him. People shunned him. He was not welcome in the synagogue. He knew what it was like to be an outcast and no amount of money could ever buy his way back.

Jesus, a religious man, did not condemn him. Unlike everyone else, Jesus spoke to Matthew as if he were still a human being; more than that, as if he were a child of God. Jesus offered him a renewed sense of his own self-worth. All the wealth he gained seemed worthless by comparison. He had attained everything he ever wanted, all that money could buy, and he realized how useless it all was. Perhaps he heard Jesus say, “What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your own soul.”

When Jesus said, “Come, follow me,” Matthew knew that by comparison to what he might gain, he wasn’t leaving much behind. Word began to spread that he was leaving the tax trade. He decided to go out in style, so he threw a party so that his old friends could meet his new friend.

It was a major gathering. Tax collectors crawled out from under every rock in the region in order to be there. And there was Jesus and his followers, eating and drinking along with the rest. Sitting at the same table, using the same utensils, dipping into the same bowls.

Some of the Pharisees asked him, “Why do you associate with these low-life scums?”

Jesus answered, “People who are well don’t need a physician. People who are sick do. My ministry is not with the righteous, but with sinners.” If anyone was sick it was the tax collector.

The conflict illustrated by this story is a classic clash between old ways and new ways. The Pharisees sought to maintain respect for religious order. They were the keepers of religious tradition and ritual. They maintained the identity of the people. Jesus offered a new approach by redefining the terms. He said that the kingdom of God is for all people, not just the righteous few. It was not a conflict that would be settled peacefully.

The story of Jesus raises questions for us; questions that may not have easy answers. We tend to admit that we are all sinners saved by grace. But community by its very nature has boundaries. There are those on the inside and those on the outside.

But the question remains, who are we willing to welcome into our community of faith? And not just let in the door, but to receive as a full member and participant. Someone as vile to us as a tax collector was to 1st century Jews? Think of who, if anyone, that might be for you. Then imagine Jesus coming along and asking that person, “Follow me. Be my disciple. Be one of the chosen with whom I will build my kingdom.”

Jesus never said, “The door is always open, enter if you will.” He said, “I’m knocking at the door. If you open up, I’ll come in.” It’s usually at the point where we have drawn our boundaries that Jesus comes along and says, “Those look like barriers to me. That package is too neat and tidy.”

Jesus is still looking for followers. He is looking for the people he referred to as the light of the world to take that light and shine it as a beacon of hope to people who are in need of good news. He is calling for a church with open doors. Amen.