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Um, when is the last time you went to the doctor? I would ask you to turn and tell the person next to you, but I think that's a violation of HIPAA, so I won't do that. But um, you know, for some of us, uh it's been far too long since we last went to the doctor. I know that I need to schedule my uh quote unquote annual physical, which is not as annual as it should be. But for others of us, I'm guessing maybe it feels like doctors are the only people that we ever see. Um I've spent a fair amount of time this past month, especially visiting members of our church that are that are hospitalized, that are sick, that are um, you know, in rehab centers and things like that, enduring all these different diseases and health challenges and recovering from surgery and dealing with unexpected injuries and things like that. Some of us feel like maybe we don't really need a doctor. Well, some of us know very well that we require their help very, very much. Uh this summer at Trinity, as I said at the beginning of the service, we're going to be um using our assigned lectionary readings from our church. And every Sunday, our gospel reading is going to be from the Gospel of Matthew. And each week our messages are going to focus on those readings from that first gospel. And in today's gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 9, we heard about a doctor. Some of those who encountered him felt like they didn't really need his help. Others knew that they did. So I'd like to talk about him today. But first, we heard about a tax collector. And this tax collector just so happens to be the man who wrote the gospel of Matthew, the gospel that bears his name. Our gospel reading today was an autobiographical discipleship origin story of sorts, as Matthew recounted for us the circumstances surrounding his calling. He outlined for us how he was called and welcomed and healed. And it all began when Jesus found him, when Matthew sought him not, and said to him two words, follow me. I think Matthew is one of the unlikeliest of Jesus' disciples to be called by our Savior. This is kind of well known, right? As a tax collector, Matthew is just all kinds of wrong. He had become party to the onerous taxation system that the people of God were under, under Herod Antipas in Galilee, and under the larger umbrella of the Roman Empire's authoritarian rule over his people. He was most likely considered by his Jews, fellow Jews, to be a traitor to his people, someone who had consorted with the enemy, who had colluded with their oppressors. Matthew is one of many people who sought to use the Romans' control of the known world to his own advantage, to enrich himself as his fellow countrymen suffered. He probably would have been seen as a special class of sinner, someone who blatantly disregarded God's law and God's people, and who, as a result, had put himself really outside of the community entirely. But don't let that fool you into thinking that the Romans were big fans of Matthew or his fellow tax collectors either. Though the Romans certainly appreciated the need for low-level booth jockeys like Matthew, they looked down on them quite a bit and saw them more as a necessary evil than anything else. And this man, isolated by his own choices, alone in his tax booth, one from whom Jew and Gentile alike probably hid their faces, Jesus sees. Jesus sees Matthew. And he understands. He knows immediately who he is, all that he's done, what his life is like. Jesus eyes him in in the very middle of his greed. And this man, universally labeled a sinner by society, Jesus invites into love. Jesus walks up to him and says, Follow me. On the face of it, not an incredibly compelling invitation, perhaps. If someone walked up to you and simply said, Follow me, I hope that you'd at least have some hesitation, that you would engage in a little bit of investigation before simply complying with their demands. Well, if Matthew would have done so right off the bat, and if he would have been privy to his future and what this calling really meant, he would have learned what he later shares with us in his gospel, something that we'll be seeing throughout this summer, that this calling of Jesus entails suffering and a cross. And Matthew would have seen also that he would fail in this calling over and over again, like all of us followers of Jesus do. But for whatever reason, Matthew responds almost instantaneously. And he rose up and followed him. I think the fact that Matthew rose up and followed Jesus is actually one of the more underrated miracles in the Gospels. This is not something for which Matthew deserves any credit at all. It is the work of Jesus. Discipleship begins when Jesus calls. Matthew had been in a low and lowly place, and Jesus in his mercy chose to call him and to lift him up. And in this way, Matthew is a picture of all of us. We have not been called to discipleship because of any worth or merit of our own. Jesus saw us when we were still sinners, called us when we were still sinners, died for us when we were still sinners. He lifted us up, he brought us into his family, into his kingdom. He invited us into love. Matthew tells us that Jesus reclined at table in the house, and many tax collectors and sinners came, perhaps connected to Jesus through their connections to Matthew, perhaps emboldened to come into the presence of this rabbi because they saw that Matthew had been invited to do so. But no matter what, this was a huge deal. Dr. Jeff Gibbs, who was our guest preacher just a few weeks ago, writes in his commentary on Matthew: Meals functioned as important ceremonies that reinforced the stability of society and the interrelationships that existed between the members of a given group. Now, today we might not think all that much of grabbing a bite to eat with someone, but in Jesus' context, it signaled a significant association between the people at the table. For Jesus to dine with tax collectors and sinners threatened to upend the social stability that Dr. Gibbs is talking about here. And so it's little wonder that the Pharisees, when they see this, are incredulous and deeply offended. And they ask his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why would he so closely, so intimately associate with those who so flagrantly and publicly flout God's law? And we kind of know that the Pharisees are supposed to be the bad guys, right? But this is actually a really good question. It's a good question they're asking. Why would he? Other rabbis wouldn't do this. It was unthinkable. Not only why would he, but how could he? Why did Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why would he welcome such people? Was it to approve of their sins? Well, no, Jesus never did that. Was it to make people angry, to stir them up? While that might have been a byproduct at times of what Jesus does and says, it doesn't ever seem to be his motivation. I think the reason, actually, that Jesus dines with tax collectors and sinners can be summed up in one word. It's a Hebrew word. Many of you have come to know it well in this past year after our series this winter. It's a word where I've encouraged you to place your hands on the back of your neck to protect against your neighbor's saliva. Care to say it with me again? It's been a little while. Chesed, very good. I am proud of you. Feels good to say that again, doesn't it? Chesed is the word that Yahweh uses in our Old Testament reading from Hosea today to describe what he's looking for from his people. It's usually translated as steadfast love, like it was in the ESV in our Old Testament reading. It can also be translated, as you might remember, as mercy, as it is in Matthew 9, when Jesus quotes Hosea directly as an answer to the Pharisees' indignant inquiry. Jesus is showing mercy to the tax collectors and the sinners. He is deigning to dine with these outsiders, those who were shunned, those who had been rejected and written off by everybody else. Yahweh desires chesed, not sacrifice, from his people. And so chesed is exactly what he shows them. Of course, the cross on which he will soon be crucified is the ultimate example of both. Jesus reclines at table between tax collectors and sinners for the same reason that he will be crucified between criminals and thieves to show mercy. The cross of Jesus is the fullest expression of mercy and sacrifice. All for you. And your welcome into his kingdom is much like that of those dregs of Jewish society that day. Just as they were invited into the presence of Jesus with no trial period, no probation, you have been welcomed into the presence of Jesus, into his kingdom with no strings attached. You remember that day? Some of us do. Some of us maybe we're too small to remember, but there was water. It was attached to God's word. God claimed you in baptism. He washed you clean of sin with that same sort of instantaneous grace that the tax collectors and sinners experienced that day. That same magnificent brand of divine chesed. You know, one of Isaiah's prophecies comes to mind for me as we consider this. With his wounds, we are healed. Because healing is just what Jesus is doing in Matthew chapter 9. The chapter begins with the well-known story of those friends who bring a paralytic to Jesus and they lower him down through the roof and all of that, and they they're asking Jesus to heal him. And do you remember what Jesus does? What he says first? He says to the paralytic, Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven. Maybe not quite what they were looking for. Certainly not something the Pharisees could stomach, but but Jesus heals this man's physical condition as a sign to them that he has authority on earth to forgive sins. And what's he doing in our reading today that comes right after that? He is forgiving sins. Once again, Jesus intimately connects healing with forgiveness. In addition to quoting Hosea's call to Hesed, Jesus says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. That it's a sickness. And those who are sick need a doctor, a healer. Why does Jesus dine with tax collectors and sinners? Because as the great physician, he is making a house call. He's coming to the aid of those who are in dire need of healing. And visiting with one of our Shut-In members this past week, she was sharing with me about her leg and it's been giving her trouble, and she's been going through physical therapy. And she coined a word, as far as I know, when she said that this leg was one that her physical therapists are therapizing, which I thought was a cool word. And I got to share with her that one of the Greek words for heal is actually therapeutic. It's where the word comes from. This is what Jesus is doing at the table that day. He is therapizing tax collectors and sinners. He's healing. He is there to address a life and death spiritual condition. And we know what it's like to suffer the miseries of that life and death spiritual condition. Sin hurts. Our sin hurts. The sins of others hurt us. This world beats us up and beats us down. It can be so easy to become overwhelmed and disheartened by it all. We've been reading through the book of Job right now in our Bible in the year readings. Many of you are still with us in doing that. And in chapter 13, we read a few days ago, Job calls his friends something that you don't want to be called. As for you, you whitewash with lies. Then he says, Worthless physicians are you all, miserable comforters, he says elsewhere. Mark and Luke tell us the story of this woman who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. But when God answers Job out of the whirlwind, Job's anguish is silenced by his presence. And when this woman touches the hem of Jesus' robe, she is instantly healed. We have been healed by this physician as well. Jesus is the only doctor who never renders a misdiagnosis, and he is worth every penny. But the thing is, his services are free. No co-pays, no surprise bills, no arguments with health insurance. Praise God. Just healing, free of charge. Because Jesus himself foots the bill when his feet are pierced and nailed to a cross for you. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners. And that is a very good thing because sinners is all there are. It was all we were until the physician came, until his wounds inflicted upon him by our sin brought us healing. This healing is his gift to you, and it's free. Your sins are forgiven. He has made you well, he has made you a sinner righteous. And today Jesus calls you and welcomes you into table fellowship with him, where he will heal you once again with his mercy. In just a little bit, we're going to have the privilege of coming forward and receiving the bread and the wine which he gives us, which are also his body and his blood, for the forgiveness of our sins. Today, once more, Jesus shares a meal with tax collectors and sinners. You and me. His healing is here, bought with his blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We were sick. Now we're healthy. We were sinners. And now we are righteous. All in Jesus and only in Jesus. So let's receive everything he has to give us with gratitude and humility. Let's seek to extend his hospitality and grace and chesed to everyone we possibly can. And like Matthew, by the Holy Spirit's power and not our own. Let's daily rise up to follow Jesus in his name. Amen. May the peace of God which transcends our understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.