All-in faith

Text: Matthew 9:9–13, 18–25

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As we enter into the next 26 weeks of the green season, we start our long journey in Matthew’s gospel. It seems very appropriate that we start at the beginning (from Matthew’s perspective, that is).

The story of Matthew’s call and the dinner that followed only makes up the first half of our gospel reading today. The second half involves a couple of miracle stories which are seemingly disconnected. Surprise—they are.

All three of Jesus’ interactions—calling Matthew, healing the woman, raising the dead girl—involve very similar things. All three involve social outcasts—people that no Jewish man should be speaking to in public. All three involve Jesus not only calling, but also following. All three involve Jesus’ powerful touch, whether physical or spiritual.

Jesus calls us to follow and shows us how. 

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. (Mt. 9:9)

So far in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has only called four other disciples: Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Jesus called Peter and Andrew while they had nets in the sea, while they were at work. Likewise, James and John were mending their nets, at work. All four of these fishermen left their work behind when they followed Jesus. James and John even left their father in that moment as well. 

In much the same way, Matthew is at work when Jesus calls him. Fishing isn’t exactly a prestigious job, but collecting taxes for Rome is far worse. What would today’s equivalent be?

During my time at ALC, students would often lead our daily chapel services. We would commemorate saints’ days as a part of our chapel program. September 21 came around—St Matthew’s day—and a student from a couple of years above me famously labelled Matthew “the patron saint of parking inspectors.”

For all five of these men—Peter, Andrew, James, and John—following Jesus meant putting their work down. Jesus doesn’t just call people who have spare time or who are looking for something to do. He calls people who are already busy with their day-to-day. Jesus doesn’t accept the excuse of not having enough time. He doesn’t ask Matthew to consider the invitation or offer to come back tomorrow. Jesus expects an answer—yes or no—on the spot. Matthew responds.

The very next verse begins with, “And as Jesus reclined at table in the house…” Jesus has just called a man to leave his job and follow Him. The first thing Jesus does is follow Matthew to his place for tea. When the synagogue leader came and pleaded that Jesus come and lay His hand on his daughter, Jesus got up from the table and followed him to his house.

In following Matthew and the synagogue leader, Jesus arrived at situations that became opportunities for ministry and witness. In the second case, there was even a bonus healing of that woman along the way.

Jesus was a rabbi. He belonged with the highly educated and religious elite. He shouldn’t have been in these parts of town or spoken to these people.

What does all this tell us? Jesus shows us that being Christian people in the world means we follow in two directions. First, we follow Jesus when He leads us to gather with His people in prayer, praise, and receiving the forgiveness of sins. Second, we follow the people we know into their lives.

We know all about the first one. We know following Jesus means reading and hearing the Word, receiving the Sacrament, being forgiven our sin. We’re generally pretty good at that one.

The second part is less natural, less predictable, and more intimidating. Think about the situations Jesus followed these people into: dinner with a bunch of outcasts, a bleeding woman desperate for healing, and the deathbed of a young girl with professional mourners at the door. None of those situations sound particularly appealing, fun, or safe. Yet, we just heard about the incredible things that Jesus taught and did. Sometimes, the best ministry happens in the worst places. That’s what it means to follow. That’s what it means to be a disciple.

Jesus comes to the sick, the minorities, and the outcasts.

The Pharisees questioned why Jesus was having dinner with the outcasts. In response, Jesus 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, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mt. 9:12,13)

Jesus effectively tells the Pharisees to go back to school. He quotes a word from Hosea 6:6, which says, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea condemned Israel for concluding that God desired obedience to the ritual laws more than the practice of mercy.

The Pharisees are making the same mistake—and they’re supposed to be the experts. It just shows that being an expert does not make you right. They know the Scriptures, the laws, and the principles, but they don’t know God. We should be careful that we don’t fall into the same way of thinking.

Coming to church does not make you any more Christian than sitting on a chair makes you a cushion. What does make you a Christian is Jesus’ call on your life and His claim on your life in your baptism. It is that God, who saved you even as a helpless infant, that still knows you and loves you. It is that God, by the Spirit, who lives in you and through you.

When Jesus says that He only came for the sick people, He’s really saying that He came for all people. When it comes to the terminal illness of sin, we all need a doctor.

We Christians are the sick people who have noticed the symptoms and come to be healed.

We Christians are the minorities who are rejected by others because we’re different, and we have come to know the loving acceptance of our Heavenly Father.

We Christians are the outcasts who no one else gives any chance, but we know that we’ve been blessed with every spiritual gift.

Jesus’ disciples were no one special. Neither are we. If there were any criteria for being a disciple of Jesus, it’s to be one of these three things: sick, minority, or outcast. Maybe you’re lucky enough to be all three. These are the people that Jesus came to save. These are the people that follow Him.

Jesus’ touch has power to heal, forgive sin, and resurrect.

These three interactions show us the power of Jesus’ touch, physical or spiritual. Firstly: the physical. The bleeding woman showed incredible faith in Jesus’ power to heal her. Matthew records the words she said to herself before she dove for Jesus’ cloak: “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” (Mt. 9:21)

She was absolutely convinced that would happen. Why would she believe that? Was it blind hope? Was it her last chance? Most likely. She had been suffering this condition for twelve years, which would have meant complete separation from the community for twelve years.

Those of you who have had COVID know what it feels like to be forcefully isolated from the community. The physical suffering can be bad enough, but it has also been important to keep away from others to stop the illness spreading. That has had an impact on people, particularly our children. Some of us have had to isolate from others for weeks on end and we’re now seeing the sociological and psychological impacts on our community more broadly.

This woman has been cut off from the community for twelve years. Yet, when she hears that Jesus is in town, she braves the crowds (which is a big enough deal in itself) and then she even pushes through to get to Him. That’s an “all-in” kind of faith.

She had nothing else. She had no other way to get better. If it didn’t work, she would have been publicly shamed, permanently isolated, and probably labelled as insane. Jesus says, “Take heart, daughter. [Take heart, son.] Your [all-in, high-risk] faith has made you well.”

The synagogue leader shows that same faith. He interrupts Jesus’ dinner with the tax collectors to plead Him to come. Listen to what the man says: “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Come and lay your hand on her. This man has already lost his daughter—she is dead. But when Jesus is around, there is still hope.

Again, if Jesus’ touch did nothing, those mourners would have ridiculed and laughed at Jesus all the more, along with the rest of the community. The synagogue leader probably would have lost his job and been labelled as insane with the bleeding woman.

Again, this is all-in, high-risk faith. But neither the bleeding woman nor the synagogue leader think about the risk—all they think about is the power of Jesus and the certainty that He can and will save. In both of these cases, Jesus’ physical touch (with His hand or even just His garment) has power. But Jesus says that something else gives His touch power: “Your faith has made you well.” Namely, your faith in the person that can deliver.

We heard of Abraham’s faith today as well. Abraham had a perfectly good life in his homeland of Ur. He had a family, property, livestock, even servants. He had everything to lose. Yet, he knew the God that was calling him—the God that created heaven and earth. It didn’t matter that God didn’t disclose the actual destination. What did matter was the call and the purpose for it: “Go… to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation… so that you will be a blessing.” (Ge. 12:1–3)

St. Paul later reflects on Abraham’s all-in, high-risk faith:

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Ro. 4:20–25)

By your Baptism, you inherit the same all-in, high-risk faith of Abraham, Matthew, Simon and Andrew, James and John, the bleeding woman, the synagogue leader, the rest of the apostles, the early church fathers, Martin Luther and the other reformers, the settlers who established St. Martin’s Lutheran Church way back in 1862, your parents and grandparents…

Faith in Jesus is not something we need to go and find. Faith in Jesus is something we already have as an inheritance. It is this faith that was granted to us in Baptism and is sustained in us by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus has touched each of us with His grace. When met with an all-in faith which He sustains, Jesus’ touch transforms us, heals us, forgives us, and will one day raise us from death.

May Christ come to you again today and touch you with His grace, so that our faith in Him is strengthened and we may have His peace.

And may that peace, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.