Homily for Sept. 21st, 2015: Matt. 9:9-13.
“As Jesus
passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.” Matthew was
a tax collector. He was not the kind of tax collector we know today, a civil
servant. In the Palestine of Jesus’ day the Roman government of occupation
entrusted the collection of taxes to tax farmers, as they are sometimes called,
who bid for the right to collect taxes. In doing so, they enriched themselves
by extorting more than the government required. They were hated, therefore, for
two reasons: for preying on people financially; and for serving the despised
Roman rulers of the land.
Jesus speaks
just two words to Matthew: “Follow me.” Without hesitation, Matthew gets up and
follows Jesus. Other disciples of Jesus have already done the same, when, at
Jesus’ command, they abandoned the tools of their trade as fishermen, their
boats and nets, to follow Jesus. What motivated this immediate obedience? I
think that if we could have questioned any of them, Matthew included, they
would have replied: “There was something about this man, Jesus, which made it
impossible to say no.”
As a parting
gesture Matthew invites his friends to dinner at his house, with Jesus as the
honored guest. As we would expect, many of those friends were Matthew’s fellow
tax collectors. Others were simply “sinners,” as the gospel reading calls them:
Jews, like Matthew, who did not bother to keep all of God’s law.
Observing these disreputable guests,
the Pharisees, proud of their exact observance of God’s law, ask Jesus’ other
disciples how their Master can associate with such ruffians. Jesus supplies the
answer himself: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. …
I did not come to call the righteous [by which Jesus means ‘people like you
Pharisees’]. ‘I came to call sinners.’
What is the message for us? If we
want Jesus’ loving care, we need first to recognize and confess our need. And
the first thing we need from Jesus is forgiveness.
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