BAM!
Matt. 9:9-17
Did you ever make a spur-of-the-moment decision, and it changed everything?
Photo by Basil Smith on Unsplash
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.” Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” - Matt. 9:9-17
Matthew writes about his encounter with Jesus from Jesus’ point of view. He is well into the story of Jesus when the encounter occurs, so he has been in Jesus’ head all along.
But the encounter itself seems spontaneous. Jesus was walking by and saw him sitting in his booth. Bam, he called him to follow.
Consider what comes next. Jesus sits at dinner with many tax collectors, not just Matthew. Why did he choose Matthew and not any of the others?
When Jesus answers the Pharisees’ questions, Matthew learns that he was chosen because of his lifestyle choices. He and the others at the table require God’s help.
Your lifestyle is less than adequate, Jesus is saying to them. You need to learn from me.
Do you think it dawned on them like a flash of lightning? Bam! You have led a sinful life. You are loved and need me.
I think we misinterpret what Jesus is doing when he welcomes those who are on the fringes of society. We focus on what Matthew writes in chapter 25, when Jesus talks about those who have done for others, as if having done these things for him.
But we should also look here, at the moment when Jesus explains why he welcomes the sinner and the stranger. He wants us to learn from him and be healed of our sins.
Woah!
Trigger alert!
Is Jesus telling the Pharisees that the lifestyle the people at the dinner have chosen is wrong and needs to change?
You can see why Christians today have difficulty with interpreting the words and actions of Jesus. If Jesus came to heal the sick of body and mind, the ones he chose to be with and have follow him are not the ones with ideal lifestyles, but the ones in need of change.
Oh, that isn’t going to sit well with anyone.
Is Jesus controversial? Hell yes!
Our job as followers of Jesus is to look inside ourselves to see what is in need of healing. We all have something. Does that mean we should persecute one another for each other’s sins? No.
It means the opposite.
We should not be like the righteous man who looks down on the poor man who comes to the Temple with his head bowed.
We all need to bow down before the Lord.
Like Saul, we need to let the light hit us and knock us off our horses. Bam.
More to come...