2nd Sunday Time After Pentecost

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

 18While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. 23When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26And the report of this spread through all of that district.

Transcript

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Hey there, it's Pastor John, and welcome to the Lutheran Church of Our Savior podcast in Fountain Rouge, Louisiana. We are so glad you're here. Whether you're driving, cooking, walking the dog, or just need a little soul boost, you're in the right place. If you want to learn more, connect with us, or say hello, shoot us an email at office at LCOSbr.org. Now, take a breath, lean in, and let's dive into a word of grace together. Amen. Go and learn what this means. Those words stand at the very center of today's gospel. They are not merely a response to the Pharisees, they are an assignment. They are the words of a teacher sending students back to the lesson. If we listen carefully, we discover that this is not simply a sermon about mercy. It is a sermon about learning mercy. And if there is one gospel writer who wants us to think about learning, it's Matthew. Of the four Gospel writers, Matthew is perhaps the most interested in presenting Jesus as a teacher. Mark moves quickly from one event to another. Luke tells stories, John invites us into deep theological reflection. But Matthew teaches. Again and again Matthew gathers Jesus' words into large blocks of instruction. The Sermon on the Mount, the parables of the kingdom, the mission discourse, the teachings about life in the community of faith. Matthew presents Jesus as a rabbi, a teacher, a new Moses standing before God's people and revealing the way of God's kingdom. It is no accident that at the very end of Matthew's gospel, the risen Christ commands the disciples to make disciples of all nations. The Greek word there is Methetis. It means learner, student, apprentice. Before Christians were known for what they believed, they were known for whom they followed. That distinction would have made perfect sense to a first century audience. In our world, education often means gathering information. We think of classrooms filled with desks, notebooks, and lectures, but in the first century, learning looked very different. Most education happened in homes, in synagogues, and in daily life. Students learned by listening, memorizing, observing, and imitating. A disciple followed a rabbi not simply to hear what the rabbi knew, but to become the kind of person the rabbi was. There is an ancient Jewish saying that captures this beautifully. The question was, who are you becoming? That helps us understand why Jesus' words are so surprising. He says them to people who already know the scriptures. The Pharisees know Hosea. They know the commandments, they know the traditions, they know the prayers, yet Jesus says, Go and learn what this means. Apparently, it is possible to know Scripture and still have something left to learn. Apparently, it is possible to know the text and miss the point. Apparently, it is possible to know about God and still fail to recognize God standing in front of us. What makes this scene even more interesting is the way Matthew arranges it. The Pharisees ask a single question. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Matthew answers that question not with an argument, but with a series of stories. Jesus calls Matthew, Jesus eats with sinners, Jesus heals a woman who has suffered for twelve years, and Jesus raises a young girl from death. One story after another. Matthew paints a portrait of Jesus. This is who he is. He calls outsiders, eats with them, heals them, restores them. Every story becomes another lesson in mercy. And perhaps no one understood that lesson better than Matthew himself. We hear that Matthew was a tax collector, but familiarity can dull the shock of those words. Tax collectors were not simply disliked, they were viewed as collaborators with Rome. They represented the occupying power. They often profited from the suffering of their neighbors. If there had been a list of people most likely to become disciples, Matthew would not have appeared on that list. Yet Jesus walks directly to Matthew's tax booth and says, Follow me. Notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say change your life and then follow me. He does not say get your act together and then follow me. He simply says, follow me. Matthew rises and follows. It is one of the shortest call stories in the Bible, but perhaps one of the most profound. Mercy arrives before Matthew has earned it. Grace reaches him before he has cleaned himself up. Jesus sees something in Matthew that others cannot see. I sometimes wonder whether Matthew ever got over the shock of that moment. Perhaps he never did. Perhaps that's why his gospel pays such close attention to people on the margins. Perhaps that is why he remembers this story at all. Imagine being Matthew, sitting at that table while the Pharisees question Jesus. Imagine hearing religious leaders talk about you as though you were not even there. Imagine being discussed as a problem rather than embraced as a person. Yet Jesus refuses to leave the table. Jesus refuses to abandon him. Jesus stays. And then he quotes Hosea Kihesed Khafatsi Volo Zafah, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The Hebrew word there is Hesed, and it is one of the most beautiful words in the Old Testament. No single English word quite captures it. It means steadfast love, loyal kindness, covenant faithfulness, mercy that refuses to quit, love that keeps showing up, love that stays when everyone else leaves. It is the kind of love God shows God's people over and over again. When Jesus quotes Hosea, he is essentially saying, Go and learn what Hesed means. Go and learn what God's stubborn love looks like. Go and learn what mercy looks like when it sits down at a table with tax collectors. Go and learn what mercy looks like when it stops for a woman who has suffered for twelve years. Go and learn what mercy looks like when it takes a dead girl's hand and says, get up. The Pharisees know the words. What they do not understand is that the words are sitting right in front of them. Matthew is doing something remarkable here. He's not merely telling us what mercy means, he is showing us what mercy looks like. Mercy looks like Jesus sitting beside people others avoid. Mercy looks like Jesus touching the untouchable. Mercy looks like Jesus stopping for a woman who has exhausted every option. Mercy looks like Jesus taking a dead girl's hand and calling her back to life. Matthew's answer to the question, what does Hesed mean, is ultimately not a definition. It is Jesus. That may be one of the most important things Matthew wants us to learn. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. People have always carried strange ideas about God. Some imagine God as distant. Others imagine God as perpetually disappointed. Still others imagine God is waiting for us to fail. Matthew says, watch Jesus. Watch where he goes. Watch whom he notices. Watch who receives his attention. Watch whose homes he enters and whose tables he blesses. That is what God looks like. The challenge, of course, is that it remains possible to know the lesson without learning it. Churches can still fall into the trap of discussing people rather than knowing them. We can talk about generations, demographics, newcomers, poverty, politics, and neighbors without ever sitting down at the table with them. We can become experts in the lesson plan while failing the lesson itself. We can know the words of Hosea and still struggle to practice Hesed. That is why Jesus never says, go and master what this means. He says, go and learn. Learning takes time. Learning requires humility. Learning means admitting that there is always more to discover. The disciple is not someone who has arrived. The disciple is someone who continues to follow. The disciple remains teachable. The disciple keeps walking behind the rabbi, allowing the dust from their sandals to settle upon them. And perhaps that is the most comforting part of today's gospel. Jesus is not asking us to have perfected mercy. He is inviting us to keep learning from it. Every hospital visit becomes a lesson. Every difficult conversation becomes a lesson. Every act of forgiveness becomes a lesson. Every opportunity to welcome someone, to listen deeply, to share generously or to show compassion becomes another day in the classroom of Christ. The good news is that Jesus remains a patient teacher. He continues calling unlikely disciples. He continues sitting at unexpected tables. He continues healing, restoring, and welcoming. He continues gathering students around himself, and he continues giving the same assignment he gave two thousand years ago. Go and learn what this means. I desire Hesed and not sacrifice. And thanks be to God, the one teaching the lesson is Hesed itself. Amen.