Matthew 9:9-13

St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Sept. 21, 2008

I Desire Mercy, not Sacrifice

In † Jesus name.  Amen.

The Pharisees despised sinners and tax collectors.  In fact you could almost say that these laymen hated other laymen.  They hated Matthew.  But Matthew didn’t seem to care.  He had everything he could have wanted.  Matthew knew power.  He had a position collecting taxes on behalf of Caesar.  Yet Matthew encountered a power unlike anything He could have imagined.  It was not the power of brute force, or of the sword, or of the mighty denarius. These Matthew had encountered before in his life.  Jesus came with a different power:  the life giving power of His Word.  The Word that creates, He calls, He justifies, He unifies.  He keeps His promises.  He does what He says.

With Matthew sitting at his tax booth Jesus called to him, Follow me.  Following after the Lord is no easy thing.  Everything must be left behind.  (Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back).  (Do not have a place to lay your head).  Carry no purse or silver or copper.  Let the dead bury their own.  Have no father, mother, sister, brother before Him, have only Jesus.  When Jesus calls it is a call to death.  It is as if Jesus says, Get up, come after me, and carry your rocks to be stoned with, the rope to be hung with.  It is better to turn aside from this fake life that will only lead to damnation.  It is better to die with Jesus to be stoned, crucified, burned, or beheaded.  For whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Matt. 10:38).  Matthew found in Jesus a Father who would welcome back a long lost son.

Yet the Pharisees were not pleased.  They wanted fairness.  Why should these tax collectors and sinners be able to recline at table with the Lord?  They brought the condemnation of the people on themselves.  You should get what you deserve.  If you were a tax collector and skimmed off the top then you should be looked down upon and despised.  If you were an adulterer you deserved to be stoned to death.  You deserve the wrath of God just like Achan and his family did when Achan stole some of God’s possessions from the fallen city of Jericho when God instructed them not to.  You deserve to for God’s anger to be placed upon you.  (Achan, by the way, was stoned with stones and burned with fire before a great heap of stones was placed on top).

Matthew was a sinner.  He made mammon his god.  He was more concerned about his pocketbook and the bottom line than he was about our Lord.  He deserved the punishment that should have been coming to him.  He deserved to be killed, to be destroyed like Achan was.  And so we all should be also.  We all deserve the punishment that our sins bring upon us.  But Jesus desires mercy, and not sacrifice.  He desired to sacrifice Himself upon the cross and to be free to shower His mercy upon us rather than letting us suffer for our own sins.  He would rather endure the pain of sin, to suffer violence and rejection, to be forsaken by His Father, than to have us suffer the demands of our sins.  Christ desires mercy and not sacrifice.  He desired to give Himself up for us in order that we could live eternally with Him rather than suffer the consequences of our sins.

Its not possible for our sinful minds to wrap themselves around the fact that someone would sacrifice them self for us.  We act like the Pharisees.  Fair is only fair.  God desires mercy, not sacrifice.  But we desire punitive damages, vengeance, fairness, giving what the other person deserves whether it is for real or imagined slights.  Ever since the fall there have been double standards.  Some way or another we always find ourselves feeling better and looking at ourselves as better than others.  As the Pharisees stood and watched Jesus recline with tax collectors and sinners we snidely comment with the Pharisees who are these people that Jesus would eat with them?  They don’t deserve that honor.  We feel that we deserve better. 

That is why the Gospel is such a scandal to the unbelieving heart.  God is no respecter of persons.  He bestows His gifts as He sees fit, not as we would see it.  Christ laid down His life for those for the guilt of abortionists, murderers as well as those who run red lights.  God does not compare or judge.  Sin is sin in His eyes.  All of us are guilty.  All are liars.  All need rescue from sin.  So the One who knew no sin became sin to defeat sin for us to make us righteous.  Christ died to destroyed death.  He rose to bring us life.  Even to this day Christ, the living Savior welcomes the worst of the world, the most depraved and scandalous.  He does not shy away from even the guiltiest, bad, miserable, and disgusting men.  The Son of God died for the guilty without any strings attached. 

He did it even knowing that many would reject Him.  That the Pharisees would complain and moan that these tax collectors and sinners weren’t worth eating with.  Jesus still died upon the cross even though He knew none of us could ever repay Him for His great sacrifice.  That it is a totally unfair deal.  There are no strings attached.  No backdoor deals to get more forgiveness than another.  He died for us knowing that no amount of silver or gold could repay the debt that He bore for you on the cross.  That’s what the world and the Pharisee’s couldn’t get, what must I do in return or what must I do in the first place?  Believe.  Know that His death on the cross was died for you.  That His death is for the forgiveness of your sins.  Take heart children of God and know that even if the world rejects Him His death is still sufficient for you.

That is the Good News of God’s love for man in Christ Jesus.  That He would die for even one sinner.  He would not stop until every last person has been reconciled to the Father, the total cost paid in full, because He desires mercy and not sacrifice.  It is who Jesus is.

Repent.  Be dead to self.  Live to Christ.  Follow after Him.  Ignore the Pharisees.  Ignore those who say you don’t deserve it.  Make no comparisons between one sinner and another.  You are loved.  Your are forgiven.  You are made whole.  You are baptized into Christ.  There Jesus declared you His own child.  God’s will has been done for you.  His desire for mercy has been satisfied in His Son.  Jesus has defeated the enemy and silenced all those that accuse you.  He has won your soul. 

Come, He has laid out His body and blood for you.  The Feast is prepared.  He invites you to come and eat His body and drink His blood, that you would have strength for the day and courage for the next.  Come, have fellowship with sinners who have been made saints in the blood of the Lamb.  Join with the angels and archangels, the apostles, prophets, and martyrs.  God is our Father.  These are your brothers and sisters.  Jesus is your Savior, you King, your Messiah.  Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard and protect your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.