His Calling, Your Calling?  Matthew 9.9-13

I remember how my mother used to relate stories from her youth, waxing nostalgic as she did so—often with a far-away look in her eyes, as she talked about St. Jo, Mizzur-uh (Missouri), about growing up with ten children, and a mama who always had a song on her tongue, usually an old hymn.

Somehow I picture Matthew recalling his first contact with Jesus, in a similar fashion ~ and perhaps rubbing his gray beard as he marveled about it all:

‘Ah, I remember the day so clearly.  I was working in my tax office, the wind was blowing outside, and the water was choppy as it often was on the Sea of Galilee, which was nearby. But this was a day unlike any other before or after; this was the day Jesus passed by, and it changed the course of my life.  Oh, I had heard about the rabbi—the things he taught, so different from the other teachers. Stories were all over the place about the people he touched, the people he healed—so many of them, those who were outcasts—lepers even!  Jesus was undaunted by the rules the religious people tried to keep, tried to force on others, including him.

Actually they were all up in arms about Jesus, which gave us something in common (Jesus and me) because the Pharisees and their like didn’t care too much for me either, my being a tax collector and all.  I suffered their scorn often, even though it was Herod that imposed the heavy taxes on Capernaum, (I added a little surcharge you know; a guy’s gotta make a shekel, right?)

Now even though Jesus’ popularity as a rabbi was growing, he did not teach at a particular school or the temple, where his disciples could regularly find him.  Jesus went to the people, loved them, and challenged them as he taught about love and a kingdom that would have no end.  Maybe what was most compelling about Jesus was his compassion, and he seemed to be a magnet, drawing people to himself, just like all those people who filled the house to overflowing the afternoon those men brought the cripple to Jesus for healing.  Aye, people followed him, and they could not seem to get enough of him. 

So on the day Jesus called me out, when he asked me to follow him—I knew what he was thinking—he was not asking me out for lunch, he was not asking me to follow him for an afternoon, he was inviting me for a lifetime to follow in his footsteps.  Me, the tax collector!  But I knew Jesus was saying, ‘Hey Matthew, I want you to be my disciple, my student as well; I want you to come after me, and I am going to teach you and train you up, and prepare you for a mission that is far bigger than you can imagine.  

Straight away, I knew he was saying that tax collecting would have to be a thing of the past, but when he looked me in the eye, and beckoned, ‘Follow Me’, that was all that mattered.  In an instant, I counted the cost, and knew that I would follow Jesus anywhere. That moment changed my life forever.  My existence ceased to be entirely focused on money and amassing it, I had a new calling – a purpose that was bigger than myself. 

[Yes, it was a moment that changed Matthew’s life forever; Jesus had a habit of doing that then, and he has a habit of doing it now—do you realize that??  Moments with Jesus change us.  Here’s the thing … when Jesus calls someone, anyone, that person’s life is never the same.]

So from Matthew’s gospel: As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”^{1, 2}

 So Jesus passes by, and he calls you… ‘Follow me’, what will you say?  There has never been another like him.  Not in Jesus’ day, not today.  Could it be that when Jesus called Matthew, he was also calling you—saying, ‘Follow Me’?

To that I say, ‘But of course!’  Matthew’s call is that same to us today, ‘Follow Me!’  So, what is your response?

Christine

^{1 – Matthew 9.9-13}

^{2 – The quote, Hosea 6.6}