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A few years ago I had the opportunity to portray Matthew in an Easter play at the church that I went to when I was living in Oregon. Ever since then he has been my favorite disciple. To me Matthew’s ministry is one of the most powerful examples of God’s unconditional forgiveness. Just about all of the disciples were misfits in one way or another, but Matthew was a tax-collector. Now today that would just mean that Matthew worked for the IRS, but back in those days tax-collectors were seen as traitors because they worked for the oppresive Roman regime, and most of them had become extremely rich by setting extremely high and exploitive tax rates. I mean you hear a lot of grumbling about the tax rates that people pay nowadays but that’s nothing compared to what it was like back then. One was lucky if they were left with enough to provide even the most bare essentials after their taxes had been collected. And the means that were used to collect these taxes were very forceful and aggressive to say the least. Sometimes the Roman army was used to exert force on those who owed taxes.
Despite the rejection that he no doubt received from the people, Matthew was materially a very wealthy man. In fact you’d have to think that a lot of the anger that was directed toward tax-collectors back then was rooted in envy. But despite all of the material wealth that Matthew experienced from this occupation there must have been a part of him that yearned for something more, something that all of the material wealth in the world couldn’t provide. Unfortunately nobody could see that yearning in Matthew. When people saw Matthew all that they saw was a tax-collector, all they felt was anger and resentment. But, of course, Jesus isn’t like everybody else. Jesus was able to look beyond the occupation that Matthew held and beyond the unscrupulous ways that Matthew might have chosen to get his job done. Jesus saw a man who’s heart was hurting. Jesus saw a man who desired the one thing that the power and wealth that he was able to attain through his job couldn’t get him. Jesus saw a man who wanted love and acceptance. And when Jesus said those two fateful words “follow me” and Matthew looked into the eyes of Jesus, Matthew knew that all the material wealth in the world couldn’t compare to the love, acceptance and forgiveness that he would receive from Jesus. So in response to this call Matthew simply got up and left everything behind, his career, his wealth, his power and prestige. In the words of the renowned Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman he “abandoned it all for the sake of the call.”
Just like Matthew received a call, we all receive a call also. Does that mean that we have to give up our careers and our money to follow Jesus? No, not necessarily and I would say in most cases probably not. Last week I spoke of the need to shed light on the cross in a world filled with darkness. I said that one of the ways that we can accomplish this is by removing stumbling blocks that the world places in front of us that keep us from seeing God’s glory. That is exactly what Matthew was doing when he gave up his job and walked away from the publican’s table. As soon as he was called by Jesus, Matthew knew that his biggest stumbling block was his job as a tax-collector. It had to be removed and it wasn’t until Jesus came along that he was able to remove it.
Then there’s an abrupt shift in the story. Then all of a sudden they are at Matthew’s house having dinner with tax-collectors and other sinners. Now this of course appalled the Pharisees. They couldn’t understand why anyone who would claim to be the messiah would spend any time at all with tax-collectors and sinners. In response to their wonderment, Jesus gives one of his most frequently quoted sayings “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy not sacrifice. For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly what He is saying here, he says “Go and learn what this means.” Consequently, it has been used in many different ways. For example, there is a very popular Christian rock band called P.O.D, which stand for Payable On Death. They have marketed themselves just as much in the secular market as they have in the Christian market, maybe even more. Their videos are played on MTV as well as Christian television stations, their songs are played on secular radio as well as Christian radio and when they tour over the summer, instead of playing at the various Christian music festivals, they have made it a habit to sign on to different secular tours, including two summers where they performed at the Ozzfest which is an annual summer music festival tour that is headed up by none other than Ozzy Ozbourne. POD has been heavily criticized for this. Some have said that, by marketing themselves to a secular audience they are merely going for the money. They respond to these critics by citing the portion of today’s text where Jesus says that “Those who are well have no need of a physician” and that He comes “to call not the righteous but sinners.”
They have nothing against the Christian music industry or Christian music festivals but they see their ministry as being more about sharing the love of Christ with non-believers, they want to be a light in the darkness, they want to help remove stumbling blocks from people’s lives.
Jesus did say that he comes “to call not the righteous but sinners.” He said that those who are well don’t need a physician. Does that mean that there are some people who aren’t sinners? Does that mean that there are some people who don’t need Jesus? Of course not. We all fall short of the glory of God. Matthew was a sinner, but so were the Pharisees. But what set Matthew apart from the Pharisees was that Matthew recognized that he was a sinner, he recognized his need for forgiveness. When Jesus said that He didn’t come to call the righteous, he didn’t mean that there were some people who could stand righteous before God on their own merits, but He knew that there were some people who thought they could stand before God on their own merits.
In today’s second lesson Paul writes “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” Matthew knew that the only way to the salvation that he so desired was through Jesus. That is why it was so easy for him to walk away from his job. In the nineteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel we read about a man who wasn’t able to give everything up the way Matthew was. He approaches Jesus and asks him what he must do to get eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments. The man says he has done that and asks Jesus what else he must do. Jesus tells him that if he wants to be perfect he should go sell his possessions and give to the poor and come follow Him. The man then walks away sad because he was unable to do what Jesus asked him to.
This man had the benefit of having Jesus right there in the flesh telling him what he had to do to get eternal life. Jesus was basically telling him that when he gave up on his own path and followed Jesus, then he would have eternal life. Unlike Matthew, this man was unable to let go of his stumbling block. He was unable to admit to himself that he needed Jesus to be righteous. Story: From 1987 to 1990, the ministry of television evangelists (popularly referred to in the press and the televangelists) in the USA was brought into disrepute by the revelation of a string of frauds, mismanagement of funds and infidelities.
The first scandal to break – and probably the most infamous - was that of Jim and Tammy Baaker’s PTL ministry – PTL - standing for Praise The Lord -followed by the fall of Jimmy Swaggart. The press quickly renamed the PTL ministry as “Pass the Loot” ministry. In 1986 PTL’s income was $129 million and included Heritage USA - a 2300-acre religious theme park, a hotel and a shopping mall in North Carolina and its own TV station on 1200 channels.
Jim Baaker had an affair with the church secretary Jessica Hahn in 1980 and resigned in 1987, when it came to light that he had paid her about $265,000 in blackmail money over the affair. After his resignation, Baaker asked Jerry Falwell to take over PTL. When Falwell began examining the accounts, he discovered that the Baakers had been taking large amounts of money from the ministry fund, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries for Baaker and his wife, insurance, property and other fees.
The US Inland Revenue Service investigated the accounts and they discovered that the couple had diverted $4.8 million for personal use.
Part of that sum came from fraudent $1,000 partnerships, which secured each partner three days per year of free lodging at the hotel in Heritage USA.
However Baaker took the money for so many partners that it was a promise that he was unable to keep. Indeed the fraud was on such a scale that it was estimated that about 1500 people a month were being defrauded of their free time-share
Jim Baaker was indicted for fraud in 1988 and sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000.
When the scandal broke, Baaker’s Christian friends quickly deserted him. He became an outcast in the Christian world. And when he was sentenced, his wife Tammy Faye left him and then divorced him.
Six months into his sentence, Baaker was surprised one afternoon when the prison governor called him into his office. Baaker had a visitor: Billy Graham.
When Graham came in, Baaker asked him why he had come to visit – because he knew that any association with Baaker would tarnish Graham’s reputation.
Graham replied that Baaker was his friend in good and in bad times – and now when things were bad, he would stand by his side. And Billy Graham was true to his word. Baaker’s sentence was eventually reduced, on appeal, to ten years and when he came out of prison on parole, he had nowhere to stay. So the Grahams invited him to stay with them. On the Sunday following Baaker’s release, Ruth Graham took him to church with her. Disregarding what people would think about her, she stood up in church and introduced Jim Baaker to the congregation as her friend Jim Baaker.
The Grahams showed a real Christ-like love to Jim Baaker very much on par with love Jesus showed to tax collectors like Matthew who he called into his inner circle of friends in this morning’s Gospel reading - Mt. 9:9-13.
Graham took a huge risk by visiting Baaker in prison. It would have been real easy for Graham to just ignore the situation or even join in the codemnation of Baaker that was going on in the Christian world. At the time, Graham’s reputation in Christian circles did suffer. He knew that it would suffer. Some would have probably even labeled him as a traitor. And there was probably a part of him that wanted to condemn Baaker, probably a part of him that was very angry at Baaker. But that didn’t stop him. My guess is that he probably saw those kinds of thoughts and that kind of self-righteousness as a stumbling block, a stumbling block that needed to be removed to allow the love of God to reach out to his friend in need. That’s exactly what he did.
The path of those who thought of themselves as righteous was to jump on the condemnation bandwagon. But the path of those who knew themselves to be sinners was love, acceptance and forgiveness. It’s the path that the Christian rock band P.O.D follows on their summer tours, it’s the path that Billy Graham followed when he went to visit his friend Jim Baaker in prison, it’s the path Matthew followed when Jesus called him and it’s the path that we as Christians are called to follow.
Amen