I sat yesterday to write today’s sermon and as I did so, I was aware that yesterday was a festival day in the Church Year that celebrates the life and faith of St. Matthew, an Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I neglected to look to the calendar to see if today was any kind of festival and wouldn’t you know it, it is. Today is a commemoration of one of my favorite of God’s saints from the Old Testament, Jonah. I would have been pleased to preach through the lens of Jonah, but since I began yesterday, we will celebrate the life lived in faith by St. Matthew.
Matthew is listed in each of the Apostolic listings in Scripture as such, but he was also know by another name in Mark’s and Luke’s account of his calling to follow Christ. They refer to him as Levi, which I hope all of you recognize as a longstanding Hebrew name, since it was the name also of one of Jacob’s sons and therefore the name of the tribe which would perpetually serve in the temple. The Levites did not receive an inheritance of land, but theirs was an inheritance in God.
As with most of the Apostles, all we have for certainty is the account given to us in Scripture. Where Matthew went and to whom he preached after the ascension of Jesus are varied among the traditions passed on through the churches, but it is readily acknowledge that he went to Ethiopia in Asia, which would likely be north of Iraq into Turkey today, perhaps in the region inhabited by the Kurds. It is there that he was possibly martyred.
St. Matthew is a prime example of those to whom Jesus came to save; the sinners. St. Matthew was a tax collector or what Scripture at times calls a publican. He was seen by the Hebrew people as a traitor by collecting taxes for the Romans and exacting a price on top to earn his own wage. As far as the Jews were concerned, Matthew was a lost cause. But is to such lost causes that Jesus came. For the lost cause that sin brought about in you and in me. If Jesus could save Matthew, then why couldn’t He also save us? And that is just the point of celebrating such a day as this where we give thanks to God for the faithful life and death of a saint such as Matthew that could be called out of sin into a life of service to the Lord. If it could be so for a publican like Matthew, it can be so for you and me.
Matthew 9:9-13
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining 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.”
My wife and younger daughter are in Philadelphia as we speak. They left yesterday to make a doctors appointment this morning. It is the third appointment already this year and a series of appointments that we have kept since her birth. She was born with a club foot, which involves a deformity in her foot that caused her foot to be turned inward more than 90 degrees, such that when she first began standing, she stood on the top of her foot instead of the sole.
Our first appointment for this was within a week of her birth and the doctor began by casting her foot trying to stretch the tendons. After weekly visits and recastings for six months, the doctor decided that surgery was necessary and he offered a couple of references for second opinions. His demeanor was such at that point that we had little confidence in his abilities. But upon visiting one of his recommended doctors for a second opinion, we were convince that we finally had the doctor we needed.
This new doctor knew immediately what was necessary and how to proceed. He built in us as parents great confidence that we were now finally on the right track to ensure our daughter’s best health. So, now after three surgeries and yearly treks to Pennsylvania for progress checks, we still know that she is getting the best care that we can find.
For this care, we are willing to spend the 12 hours in the care each way for a one hour appointment. The cost is not too high for such mercy to be shown by us for our daughter. It might be a bit of a sacrifice, but how can that compare to expressing our love by doing what is necessary for the care of our daughter.
This story pales however when compared to our Gospel reading from St. Matthew. It is the great Physician, the doctor of our bodies and our souls that truly shows mercy and compassion. He doesn’t make us spend endless hours traveling about to find Him, he comes to us. You might say He still makes house calls as He comes to us in Word and Sacrament, still bestowing that life giving medicine in the forgiveness of sins. He is the One that has endured all the hardship and pain that the sick might receive the medicine necessary for their illness, the balm for their souls.
St. Matthew like all of Adam’s offspring was in need of a physician. He had a profession that stemmed from a broken and needy life. One that did not lend itself to mercy, for he had to extract overpayment of taxes or interest on such taxes so that he could make a living for himself. He had to do exactly what God forbade the Israelite to do. He had to make his way by taking advantage of his fellow man.
St. Matthew was a sinner. We might say even a notorious sinner by reputation of his profession. Yet Matthew knew very well who he was and what he was. But his life was forever changed when the man of Galilee passed by and called him into service of the Gospel. When the Physician of his soul had mercy upon him, St. Matthew was never again the same.
Mercy is a divine quality. It is a quality that belongs to God and throughout the Gospels, Jesus is the one that displays such mercy as he heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, unstops the ears of the deaf, looses the tongues of the dumb, restores the leper, making him again clean. But much more than even these, Jesus cleanses and restores the soul of the sinners such as Matthew, and you, and me.
God’s mercy is evident in that greatest of works done by Jesus as he took upon Himself the sins of the whole world; that means our sins! God’s mercy is displayed in the Gospel that St. Matthew would spend the rest of his life proclaiming. God’s mercy for you is in the cross of Jesus Christ, for it is there that the burden and sickness of sin has been lifted from you. It is there that healing is made possible for the sinner, the publican, the son or daughter of mankind.
Jesus once said in the synagogue that the people would quote Him this proverb, “Physician, heal yourself.” I suppose such a statement is plausible, for what good is a physician of eternal things if He cannot heal Himself. So to show that He is the great Physician that has had mercy on us, He was raised from the dead, bringing forth an eternal healing that sin and devil cannot undo. He has brought about healing that has overcome even death.
Such a merciful healing is yours without cost in the name of Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of your sins.
Amen.
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