While walking one day, a pastor noticed a place where many people of Middle-Eastern descent would meet. Later, this pastor found out that the FBI was secretly watching that meeting place because ISIS was using it to recruit people to become terrorists.
One day, while walking past that place, that same pastor met a man named Usman. The pastor said to him, “Follow me.” And strangely, Usman did just that. He got up and followed the pastor. Later that day, the pastor had dinner at Usman’s house.
Soon, word about that dinner spread, and the elders of the congregation complained to the District President. The District President then sent the circuit visitor to the church, who asked, “Why does your pastor keep company with terrorists?”
It’s hard to imagine how unforgivable some of what Jesus did was to His countrymen. Jesus asked a reviled man to follow Him, whose profession was tantamount to corruption and treason. That man was Levi, a tax collector and collaborator with the Romans. He would later become St. Matthew, a disciple and Apostle of Jesus.
Jesus didn’t call His disciples from the religious leaders of His day. When Jesus, the Son of God, became man, He did so to eat with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. He made them saints, showing that sainthood has nothing to do with our accomplishments. Jesus made men like Levi into saints, showing us that true holiness comes only by God’s grace.
Jesus only eats with sinners. That means if you want to eat with Jesus, you need to be a sinner. That’s because Jesus will only eat with those who know they don’t deserve an invitation. The Pharisees didn’t get that. They thought and acted as if a place at the Table was already theirs. That’s why they asked, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:11).
When Jesus responded to that question, He pointed the Pharisees back to the Old-Testament book of Hosea. Jesus was implying to them, “Don’t you realize that you’re sinners, as well?” For the rule and reign of God come in mercy and repentance, not in self-made righteousness. The Pharisees had forgotten that.
Jesus lived out that mercy when He called Matthew to be His disciple. After all, did Matthew have something innately within him that made him worthy to be a disciple of Jesus? No; Jesus called Matthew out of mercy. And that’s the God Matthew found. Despite being greedy and fixated on riches, in Jesus, Matthew found a forgiving God.
Jesus reminds us that God desires mercy, not sacrifice. But what does that quote from the Prophet Hosea mean? After all, God commanded His Old-Covenant people to offer sacrifices. And in the New Covenant, God wants us to be living sacrifices.
So, what does God desiring mercy, and not sacrifice, mean? It means this: Don’t give your offering and come to worship thinking that frees you from loving your neighbor. We love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). In the same way, we show mercy to others because God first showed mercy to us.
We follow Jesus because He shows us mercy. Our life then becomes a conduit of God’s mercy: First, we receive it; then, we give it. Listen to how St. Jude, the step-brother of Jesus, put it: “Remain in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which brings eternal life” (Jude 1:21). And the Apostle Paul tells us, “Because of God’s mercies, offer your bodies as living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1).
But we must not forget that mercy is wrapped up in repentance. When Jesus said that God desires mercy, not sacrifice, He was quoting from the book of Hosea. That book ended with God calling His people to repent. The Pharisees knew the book of Hosea, and so they also knew that Jesus was calling them to repent.
Where the Pharisees went awry was in how they viewed themselves. They saw themselves as too holy and righteous to let low-lifes and sinners tarnish them. What they needed to do was make themselves sinners–not by committing sins–but by realizing that they were sinners! As Jesus told them, “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).
Jesus didn’t call sinners to remain in their sin. Jesus elsewhere said, “Unless you repent, then you, too, will all perish” (Luke 13:3). And the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptizer, preached: “produce fruits that show your repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
So, I suppose, we need to know what repentance is, don’t we? Sometimes, we think that repentance is regret or feeling sorry over something. It’s more than that–it’s a change in someone’s thinking, which leads to change in how he lives his life.
So, repent! Let go of how you want to rule your life. For the joy of the Gospel is not in ruling the roost, but in God ruling over everything, for you. For when God is your God, that’s when you receive what He wants to give you, for what you bring to the table can’t cut it. So, repent and delight in the joy of God’s forgiveness.
God’s desire is to show mercy. But more than that, He has already shown mercy. That’s the good news in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew shows us a Jesus who went to battle death. Jesus let the devil assault Him; He let human authorities unjustly execute Him. But through it all, Jesus emerged victoriously. By His death, He trampled down death and atoned for our sin. Peace once more with God was made.
Every Sunday, we hear three Scripture readings. In the Old Testament, we hear the salvation that God’s promised Messiah would bring. In the Epistles, God’s Word teaches and corrects us. And in the Gospels, we hear what Jesus said and did. Why three readings? It’s because that’s one way how God comes to us in our day and time.
The book of Hebrews tells us: “In many portions and many ways, God spoke to His people of old by the prophets. But now, in these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). God doesn’t come to us in our feelings, our mental reasoning, or who we think He is or what we wish Him to be.
No; God comes to us where He has promised to come to us: through His Son, Jesus. And Jesus comes to us in Word and Sacrament, what He commanded His Church to do, through His Apostles, until He returns on the Last Day. That’s why the read Word, the preached Word, and the Lord’s Supper are front and center in our worship service.
So, what is God saying to you today? When you first heard today’s Gospel reading, Jesus was saying to you what He said to Levi, the tax collector, “Follow Me!” When the water and word of baptism came to you, Jesus was saying, “Follow Me!” After confessing your sins and receiving God’s forgiveness through the mouth of your pastor, Jesus was again saying to you, “Follow Me!” And when you leave today, after receiving the body and blood of Jesus, He will again be saying to you, “Follow Me!”
For Jesus knows where you are going. Some of you may be going back to workplaces filled with a culture and language that leaves God languishing in the dust. Some of you may be going to doctor’s appointments, where you will leave with a deepened sense of your mortality. Some of you may go out and have to deal with spiritual apathy, depression, or greed and envy. And some of you may be going home alone.
Each of us leaves the sanctuary of Christ’s body and blood to go into a dark and fallen world. Dark thoughts swirl in our minds and our fallen bodies continue to die. In this fallen world in which we find ourselves, affliction and temptation attack us on every side. And although as true as that is, into every bleak and loveless place you go, Jesus says the same words that He said to Levi, the tax collector, “Follow Me!”
When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” He is speaking grace-filled words. We don’t lead but follow. He does the calling. He chooses us. We don’t speak but listen. And when we follow Him, doing what He gives us to do, we know that Jesus has already done everything for us.
Do you remember what you learned in the Small Catechism?
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps her with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
God calls us by grace–and it’s all gift. And we live and follow Jesus by, and in, that same grace. He even provides what you need, so you can forgive, serve, resist temptation, endure suffering, and persevere in the one, true faith to the end. You don’t find that in yourself but only in Christ.
You don’t have to climb your way to heaven when Jesus says, “Follow Me.” For His call to you is His promise that you will not walk alone through the valley of the shadow of death. He will not abandon you in your temptation; neither will He abandon you in your suffering and death. Jesus will lead, guide, and deliver you safely to the end.
After all, the One who says, “Follow Me” has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. That’s why St. Matthew and all the other martyrs could follow Jesus, even into the horrible deaths that persecutors dealt them. They knew that they weren’t only following Jesus into death, but also into the eternal life that only He gives.
Only St. Matthew’s Gospel has these words of Jesus: “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28, 30). And so we follow Jesus where He bids us to go. That even includes His call to come to His altar and receive Jesus Himself. For only in Jesus do you find the rest that Jesus gives you. Amen.
