Today’s Reading: Matthew 9:9-13
Daily Lectionary: Nehemiah 5:1-16; 6:1-9, 15-16; 1 Timothy 4:1-16
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew 9:11-12)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Jesus not only ate with sinners and tax collectors, He called one of those tax collectors to be an apostle! That was Matthew. The Pharisees just couldn’t see how the Lord could have anything to do with people who are so sinful. How about you? Are there people you would never associate with because you figure they are too weird, unpopular, or sinful? What about that little part of you that tells you that you must be better than THOSE sorts of people?
To such sinners and Pharisees as us, the apostle Matthew preaches Christ. He reminds us of Jesus’ words that He didn’t come to save healthy people but sick people, not righteous people but sinners. If you’re righteous, if you’re better than others, odds are you don’t need a Savior. Good luck on your own!
But to those who are sinners, who know they judge others, who don’t love God more than anything else, who don’t love others more than themselves—to such sinners Jesus came to be nailed to the cross. Jesus calls a man whose job was to legally rob people of their income to instead be a preacher and tell people that Christ has paid the debt of sin that they owed. The Lord collected, but He collected from Christ, His only begotten Son, who was crucified to pay the price of our sins.
Now Matthew, who was formerly the guy who said, “Pay what you owe!” is now the apostle who says “What you owe has been paid!” And so it is from your pastor, a sinner who has been called by Christ to preach the Good News to you: Your sins are forgiven. You are baptized. Christ’s Body and Blood are given for you.
We celebrate Matthew because he is an example of a sinner whom the Lord saved, because he was the evangelist who wrote down this Good News of what Jesus did for you, and because he is an apostle who proclaimed that Good News to the world. It’s the same Good News that tells you that Jesus has come for you and healed you from your sin. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Praise, Lord, for him whose Gospel Your human life declared, Who, worldly gain forsaking, Your path of suff’ring shared. From all unrighteous mammon, O raise our eyes anew That we In our vocation May rise and follow You. (By All Your Saints in Warfare, LSB 518:25)
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