MERCY CALLING SINNERS, HEALING THE SICK, RAISING THE DEAD | The Second Sunday after Pentecost | Matthew 9:9–13, 18–26  | Paul Bieber |

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Revised Standard Version

⁹ As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he

said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. ¹⁰ And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸ While he was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹ And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. ²⁰ And behold, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment; ²¹ for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well.” ²² Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. ²³ And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd making a tumult, ²⁴ he said, “Depart; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. ²⁵ But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. ²⁶ And the report of this went through all that district.

Also:
Hosea 5:15—6:6
Psalm 50:7-15
Romans 4:13-25

MERCY CALLING SINNERS, HEALING THE SICK, RAISING THE DEAD

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

This Sunday marks our return to the “ordinary” time of the Church’s Year of Grace; that is, the numbered (ordinal) Sundays after Pentecost. We hear Gospels that set forth the words and deeds of Jesus’ public ministry so that we might find in them the meaning of our daily lives. We find ourselves in Jesus’ story. As the things Jesus does and says reveal who he is, they also show us ourselves.

Today’s gospel sets forth three events of Jesus’ ministry: the call of Matthew, the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage, and the raising of a ruler’s daughter from the dead (Mark and Luke tell his name: Jairus). Also, following the call of Matthew, as Jesus sits at table with tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees ask his disciples (not him!) why he does this.

It’s fair to say that on one point Jesus and the Pharisees share a common concern. The question that both Jesus and the Pharisees were concerned to answer was this: how to find and maintain holiness in this broken world. For the Pharisees, holiness is obedience to God’s Law; to maintain holiness, one must separate oneself from the impurity of the world. For Jesus, we can only begin to find holiness when we recognize that we are not holy, not pure, not well.

Jesus says that he associates with sinners because he has come as the physician who can heal their sin-sickness. And he quotes the prophet Hosea, the last verse of our First Reading, to the effect that mercy constitutes the holiness that sets apart those called from the world to follow Jesus.

Matthew was called to follow. He was probably at the tax booth for collecting duties at the border between the Tetrarchies of Philip and Herod Antipas, on the road that crossed the border near Capernaum. No reason is given why Matthew followed Jesus. He certainly was not called to discipleship because he was worthy or holy or righteous. Tax collectors in Roman provinces were told how much tax they had to turn over to the Romans; whatever they could extort beyond that amount was their compensation.

Matthew’s discipleship begins with Jesus’ gracious and commanding call to follow, which brings forth an immediate response. This is what happens when the kingdom draws near in Jesus. Some respond in faith, following Jesus into new life; others reject the call, remaining dead in sin. Why does Jesus call Matthew the tax collector to be his disciple? Chrysostom says that he who is acquainted with our inmost hearts and knows the secrets of our minds knows when each one of us is ready to respond fully.

Matthew heard, rose, and followed. Other tax collectors and sinners also appear to have responded. Sitting at table with them, Jesus tells the Pharisees that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Hilary clarifies, noting that Jesus had come for all. He said that he did not come for the righteous, because no one is righteous by reason of the Law. Here is the bright line between Jesus and the Pharisees. The kingdom that draws near in Jesus is given to those who find themselves outside the Law, who have no righteousness of their own, over against a pharisaical righteousness based on obedience to the Law’s religious practices.

As Paul writes in our Second Reading, it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace, the grace of the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist. This call to follow and this table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners are Jesus’ expression of God’s creating and vivifying mercy (Greek, eleos) or steadfast love (Hebrew, hesed).

While Jesus was speaking to those at table, he was called away by the ruler Jairus, who has faith that Jesus’ touch can give life to Jairus’ daughter. And on the way he encounters a woman with faith that her touch of even the fringe of Jesus’ garment can heal her of chronic disease. Jesus said that those who are sick need a physician. But he meant more than physical illness. Sickness is a symbol for sin, a symptom of the condition of humanity apart from Christ.

Ordinarily, we humans don’t see our condition like that. The wisdom of the world urges confidence in yourself, your own rightness, even your own truth. I am righteous in my own eyes. In my own eyes, I’m whole and healthy and in control. This worldly wisdom simply cannot show us that we have missed the mark of a genuinely good life so badly that we are as good as dead. This world cannot admit that we exist only because God called us into existence and gave us life. Failing to see that, we are dead in our materialistic secularism, unable to create meaning for ourselves with all our efforts at self-satisfaction. And our religion? Like those to whom Hosea prophesied, our love for God is as evanescent as a morning cloud.

If we believe Paul that it all depends on faith, our question is, “Do we have faith; that is, trust—in the merciful God revealed in Jesus?” Do we have faith like Matthew? Like the ruler Jairus? Like the woman with a hemorrhage? That is, faith to rise and follow? To believe that on the third day he will raise us up? Faith to reach out and touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment, trusting in his power to heal, to bring wholeness and salvation? For just as sickness is a metaphor for all our brokenness, so healing is a metaphor for salvation: Jesus’ words to the woman could be translated, “Your faith has saved you.” Way back at Matthew 1:21 we were told that Jesus is called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He brings life and wholeness and salvation.

We are called to follow in faith, faith in the One who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, faith to ask for Jesus’ touch to raise the dead, a faith that looks like Abraham’s “hoping against hope,” in the face of the inconstancy of those around us who are like the people to whom Hosea’s prophecy is addressed; of the triangulating Pharisees always nearby, of the tumultuous and laughing crowd.

But we are not called to bring forth this faith somehow from within us. We begin by recognizing that we are sick, broken, as good as dead. Paradoxically, this is the beginning of discipleship, of holiness, righteousness, salvation, of being raised to new life out of the sleep of death. Jesus has come to call people just like us. He has come to call us. Jesus loves sinners and so calls us to repentance, out of the old life into a new, healed, saved, eternal life. Jesus’ call is pure mercy to sinners, offering the healing of our sin-sickness.

Jesus the physician goes to heal at the request of one who comes to him in desperation, hoping against hope for his daughter, and as he goes heals one who reaches out to him in desperation, hoping against hope that touching even the fringe of his garment will heal. Healing the woman with a hemorrhage and raising Jairus’ daughter are powerful signs of the kingdom drawing near in Jesus, as it still does here today. Jesus’ mighty acts enact his powerful words: the call to follow; mercy, not sacrifice; your faith has saved you; death is but a sleep; Jesus brought life out of the sleep of death, even as the Father raised Jesus by the power of the Spirit.

Come, let us return to the Lord; it is he who has torn, and he will heal us. He will raise us up that we may live before him. Let us press on to know the Lord in his steadfast love, his mercy. He needs no ritual sacrifice from us; rather, the actual sacrifice of taking up our cross and following the One who calls us in mercy, to mercy. Faith, and the receiving and giving of mercy, are matters of interior disposition more than external observance of religious practices.

We call upon our God in a spirit of self-giving, not self-righteousness. Only those who know their need for what he offers are able to welcome him. Jesus calls sinners to be disciples, heals the sin-sick, and raises the dead. He takes us by the hand, as it were, and raises us to the righteousness of God that comes by way of a living faith, Abraham’s faith in the promise-making and promise-keeping God. Despite all outward appearance, faith trusts God’s mercy, being fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised. And, trusting God’s mercy, we are able to show mercy to others who are also sick, broken, dead in the sleep of meaningless life. The story of rising out of this sleep of death to follow and be healed is our story to tell and to live.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber, STS
E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net
Retired Lutheran Pastor
San Diego, California, USA