Readings: Proverbs 3:13-18
2 Cor 4:1-6
Matt: 9: 9-13
Today we are celebrating the feast day of St Matthew. He was one of the twelve disciples of Christ, but one about whom we know very little. He was a tax collector,when he was called by Jesus. However, the new testament tells us very little else about him. The 2nd Century bishop Papias is quoted as saying Matthew composed the oracles in the Hebrew language, leading to the belief that he is the author of the gospel of Matthew. Although later scholarship has questioned this. Tradition suggests that he had a mission in Judea and to the east, possibly Ethiopia or Persia.
Tradition suggests that he died in Ethiopia, stabbed to death at the altar after telling the local king that he could not marry the girl that he wanted to because she was already a nun and consecrated to Christ. His body was moved to Salerno Cathedral in Italy in 954 and is still there.Today St Matthew is the patron saint of accountants,actors, bankers, bookkeepers, tax collectors and according to some sources, taxi drivers.
Today we heard the story of the calling of St Matthew in our gospel. Matthew was called whilst at his work as a tax collector. Now, no one really likes paying taxes even today. However in the first century tax collectors were seen as really bad.Taxes collected in Judea were sent straight to the oppressors in Rome, not spent on the local people and their needs. The tax collectors would often add extra money on top for themselves. In fact tax collectors were so bad that they were excommunicated from the synagogues, and rabbis taught they could not be witnesses in court,they were a societal disgrace and should be outcast by their families.
It makes you wonder what sort of person would become a tax collector in the first place. Presumably somebody who didn’t care about others and was only interested in lining their own pocket and making as much money as they can from other people.So why is Jesus calling someone like this to follow him and become a disciple,surely he could have found someone better?
Maybe Jesus could sense something in Matthew, something that wanted to change who he was, to be a better person. By calling Matthew to follow him Jesus is helping him to take his first steps onto that new path. However, the first thing Matthew does is have a meal with the other tax collectors and outcasts, and Jesus?He joins in. The Pharisees start to question the disciples, you follow this man who associates with these outcasts? Why is he doing this, it will damage his reputation,no one will want to be with him if he’s associating with these types! The disciples leave it to Jesus to answer, maybe they were a bit confused themselves.Jesus answers the Pharisees by saying “it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.” He then quotes from the prophet Hosea I require mercy not sacrifice.”
In choosing Matthew Jesus is sending a clear message. It’s not your social standing or your wealth that matters or how much you donate to the temple. It’s how you deal with the people that no one wants to deal with. We all have something of the image of God in us. In some people that might be easier to see than in others.
In some people that glint of God in them may be buried under years of trauma,of feeling hurt and unloved by others. Jesus could see into Matthew’s heart,could see the spark of divine goodness and hope hidden deep inside and call it out and into life, call Matthew into a new life.
Whilst we may feel we are not as bad as a first century tax collector, I am sure we all carry our own scars, left by people and events that have hurt us.We all also I suspect carry a burden of guilt, an awareness of when we have been the ones that may have inflicted hurt on others. We too are the sick that need a doctor,that Jesus comes to heal.
How can we access this healing? There is a line from the prophet Micah where God tells his people what to do, to do what is right, have mercy and walk humbly with your God. Yet we live in a world where all this can be rather hard.
Do what is right, but what is right? Competing theologies or moral and political philosophies will each give you a different answer. Discerning what is right can take a lot of thought, prayer and an ability to step back and see the bigger picture,not just what the latest social media star is posting.
For many of the worlds problems finding the right way to deal with them can be hard.Whatever decision is taken there may well be winners and losers, people who are left feeling hard done by. This is where we are to have mercy. By showing mercy to those who feel they are on the losing side, we can, perhaps, end up inviting them onto a new path to a better life as Jesus did with Matthew.
Walk humbly with your God. Walk with, spend time with God. Allow him to heal your hurts and forgive your sins. To walk humbly with God means to keep God at the centre of your life. To seek to glorify him, rather than ourselves.
If we do this then maybe we can become beacons of light to those in the world today who feel unwanted and excluded. We can say come and walk with my God and follow the path to healed and forgiven life. As for the Pharisees,the ones that say why are you associating with that person,show them mercy and maybe they will join us on our walk with God.
