Matthew 9:9-13
St. Matthew

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    In a way, it’s really a bit strange that when we hear the word “Pharisee,” we automatically think of something negative and bad.  For in their day, the Pharisees would have been regarded as good people, the ones who were in worship every week, who were trying to apply the Scriptures to everyday life.  And it’s equally strange that when we hear the phrase “tax collectors and sinners” we tend to think of that more positively.  For those sinners would have included prostitutes; and a tax collector would be like a CEO who profited by working with foreign countries at the expense of American workers.  Would you rather have Pharisees or tax collectors and sinners come and sit in the pew with you and your family?

    A Jewish tax collector–such as the one we now know as St. Matthew–he had paid a large sum of money for the right to collect taxes for the Romans from his countrymen.  Matthew, in a very real sense, was a traitor; he had joined the side of the foreigners who were ruling Israel and was a part of their oppression.  The Romans expected to receive a certain amount of money from Matthew on a regular basis.  The difference between that amount and what Matthew actually assessed was his margin of profit, his income.  Therefore, there was a strong incentive for Matthew to assess high and tax his countrymen for all they were worth, especially since he was already hated by them anyway for doing this job.

    St. Matthew Himself records honestly for us what sort of life he led before Christ called him away from it all with the Gospel.  However, Matthew leaves out, unlike Mark and Luke, the fact that his Hebrew name was Levi.  And we can understand why Matthew might choose to neglect that little detail.  Levi was the name of the tribe from which all of Israel’s priests came.  A Levite received no portion or possession of land like the members of the other eleven tribes.  Rather, a Levite was to rely on the Lord as his portion and upon the gifts of his fellow Israelites, who were to honor the Lord by supporting the Levite priests.  Well, our man Matthew-Levi here had decided not to wait upon the Lord but rather to go out and get hold of his own lucrative portion by becoming a tax collector for the Romans.  “Matthew” means “gift of God,” but this Matthew-Levi was no gift to his people.  In the same way that a prostitute sold her body, a tax collector sold his soul for money.

    And so it is somewhat understandable when the Pharisees speak to Jesus’ disciples and ask with righteous indignation, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  You can imagine what a group of Matthew’s friends gathered for a party might have looked like.  However, to this question the Great Healer of sin-sick souls replies that it is not those who are well–or who think they are well–that have need of a physician.  It is rather those who are sick and diseased and who know it.  If you don’t believe you’re sick, you’re not likely to be seeking out a doctor.  It’s generally only when your health fails that you do so.  So it was with these Pharisees.  Though they had sinful, ill, self-serving hearts like everyone else, they thought that they had no sin-sickness, that they were spiritually healthy.  And so they saw no need for Jesus and were repulsed by the company He was keeping.  But many of the tax collectors and other sinners had come to know very well that things were all wrong with them.  They knew they needed help.  And when the Great Physician came to them, many received His healing medicine.  Moved by His mercy and love, they repented, they turned away from their sin–which is key–and they believed in Christ’s words of life, rejoicing in the fellowship of eating with Him in His presence.  Like a skilled and caring doctor ministering to the sick in a third world country, Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost.  And Matthew was one of those whom Jesus sought out and recovered and redeemed.

    Jesus continues by telling the Pharisees to go and learn what the Scripture means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”  Jesus is referring there to a passage from the Old Testament prophet Hosea.  Hosea had been instructed by the Lord to go and marry a prostitute, a woman named Gomer.  That action was meant to be a living parable of God’s steadfast and faithful love to His people–Israel which continually went whoring after false gods.  God was saying to His people, “I desire to show you My mercy and loving-kindness far more than to receive your half-hearted and inconsistent sacrifices.”  God wanted them to know Him as Savior and live in His mercy; not that that they should pridefully try to work out their own salvation.

    This beautiful Gospel of God’s undeserved grace toward His people was the living message of Hosea to Gomer.  She was unable to free herself from her sin and her prostitution, but out of sheer mercy God gave Hosea to rescue her.  Hosea literally bought her out of that life.  Matthew, too, was entirely unable to free himself from his sin; he was all caught up in his money-grubbing covetousness.  But out of sheer mercy, Jesus came to him, forgave him, and set him free from that old way of living, calling Matthew to follow him on the path of true life.

    And the same thing is true for you, too.  For you also are in bondage and cannot set yourselves free from your lost condition.  As we heard Hosea say last week, our faithfulness to the Lord is like the dew that burns away early; it’s there and then it’s gone.  One minute things look good, and the next we’re straying away from God to adulterate ourselves with other pleasures and priorities.  But our Lord Jesus does not turn away from you or forget you.  Rather, He calls you out of that and calls you back to Himself.  He has literally bought you out of your enslavement to sin and death and the devil.  This He has done not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  That is the price your heavenly Groom willingly paid to purchase your freedom and to have you back with Himself.  Matthew may have sold his soul, but Jesus bought it back–and He bought yours, too.

    Just as Jesus came to Matthew, He came to you personally and individually in Baptism.  He called you one on one to be His disciple, washing away your sins by water and the Word and setting you on the path of life in Him.  Just as Matthew arose and followed Jesus, so also through Jesus’ Gospel call your soul has been raised from the death of sin.  Just as Matthew left his former life behind him forever, you have been given to live a new life.  Let the old ways pass away; you are a new creation.  Baptized into Christ, you disciples are given to follow Him through death into the resurrection of the body on the Last Day.  

    In fact Jesus’ mandate to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching is recorded for us in Matthew’s Gospel.  Matthew himself is one of the eleven apostles who was first given this charge.  This, too, is a sign of God’s great grace, that when the Lord calls certain men to be apostles and evangelists and pastors, He even puts into His service messed up and prideful sinners like Matthew and Paul and Peter and me.  Matthew was converted by grace from one who takes to one who gives.  Once a thief by trade, now it was his calling to freely dispense the mercy of God to the undeserving.  This is the calling of every pastor today, to go about just like Christ, dishing out to repentant sinners the overflowing forgiveness of God in baptism, preaching, absolution, and the holy supper.

    Matthew once extracted taxes for Rome from the Jews; but now we have in Matthew’s Gospel the Gospel written specifically for the Jews, that they might receive their long-promised Messiah.  That’s why Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than any other Gospel.  This man who had sold his soul for money was redeemed by Christ and made into a physician of souls for others. The words St. Paul wrote about himself, then, could certainly also be applied to Matthew, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.”

    When we see the calling of Matthew by our Lord Jesus, we see the truth of those words for us.  If God can save someone like Matthew–and even make him an apostle and writer of the first Gospel–then certainly He can also save people like you and me and use us for His kingdom.

    You also are given to rise and follow Christ in the vocations and callings that God has placed you into.  You may not be called to preach, but you are called to confess your faith in Jesus and to be ready to give a reason to others for the hope that you have within you.  That may mean leaving some things behind; it may cause a certain degree of difficulty or suffering for you.  We have seen in recent days with the murder of Charlie Kirk how some people simply hate the Word of God and anyone who openly professes faith in Christ.  But to follow Christ is to bear the cross and to walk with Him through death to the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

    One last thing: St. Matthew is not only an apostle and evangelist, but also a martyr.  According to tradition, Matthew was killed on the orders of the king of Ethiopia while celebrating Holy Communion.  The king had lusted after his own niece and wanted to marry her.  Matthew rebuked him for this and called him to repentance.  In his anger, the king sent one of his soldiers who thrust Matthew through during the liturgy.  Matthew had recorded these words of Jesus in his Gospel, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”  

    Let us, then, lose our lives for Jesus’ sake and give up trusting in our own righteousness.  He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.  To repent is to die.  But to die with Christ is to live.  For Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  And as He did with Matthew, and these tax collectors and sinners, Jesus came into the world to share a meal with you, His own body and blood given and shed for you for the entire forgiveness of all of your sin.  

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. Stephen Wiest)