Proper 5
Preparation
Please begin by reading Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided the text for you at the end of this reflection.
Reflection--God's Strange Choices
There are three different stories in the Gospel selection for today, with the second sandwiched within the third. Each could be a rich subject for meditation. Considering space limitations, this reflection will concentrate on the first—a short passage recounting the call of one of Jesus’ disciples, Matthew.
In Bible stories like this one we often find Jesus keeping company with the oddest people. First century people of Israel would have seen Matthew as an unlikely choice for Jesus to pick as one of his closest followers, because Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collecting was a hated profession. One commentator notes that tax collectors were social outcasts in Israel, because they collaborated with the Roman government, a hated occupying power, and had a reputation for lining their own pockets by overcharging. But Jesus was not blinded by stereotypes or prejudices or public opinion. He saw through to Matthew's heart and his potential.
Jesus still keeps company with the oddest people. Have you noticed that? Praise God!! Isn’t it nice to know that Jesus does not look at us with the eyes of the social or religious establishment, but with the eyes of infinite love that see the true worth and dignity of all people. God constantly calls the self-satisfied of the world to reexamine their notions of who is "in" and who is "out." It drove the religiously proper and pious crazy 2,000 years ago, and it still does. God clearly does not judge by common standards!
Not only does God choose those rejected by the world, but God often uses them to bless the very world who rejected them. Perhaps that is the hardest call of all. When God calls us, God still desires that we reflect toward others the very mercy that we have received from God. We are called, like Matthew, to live out our lives among the “tax collectors and sinners” and even the very self righteous ones who may have abused us and to see them all as God sees them.
I once attended a memorial service where it was said that the person who had died had described God’s call to us as being “to love as though we had never been hurt.” It was a profound pronouncement of the love at the very heart of God. May we too live lives that will enable us to be that kind of instrument of God’s reign.
revclay
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Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “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.”
* * *
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
[NRSV]