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Jesus’ call to follow comes not with subdued pleading but as an irresistible command. He issues his summons to the most unlikely people. What hope this gives to all! Our response both to the command itself and to the breadth of people to whom Jesus makes it tells us a great deal—about ourselves!
9 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.
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This transcript has been automatically generated
Many years ago, some relatives of mine were out to dinner and there were around 12 people gathered at a fairly intimate event. And at some point towards the middle of the evening, a person sitting on the hostess’s right expressed his views on a particularly contentious issue. The table fell silent and everybody awaited the response. And after a pause, which apparently for those present felt like an eternity, she spoke, if that really is your view, You can leave my house immediately. He rose to his feet, his wife also, and they left the house.
And apparently the convivial social event never quite recovered after that moment. Well, now this lunchtime we have before us what is in one sense a similar sort of event. It involves the Lord Jesus and it involves the religious elite, the establishment of its day, And it involves his response to their complaint. And when he uttered the words of the last sentence of our reading, you would have been able to cut the atmosphere with a knife. I’ve given this talk the title, The Party That Rocked the Religious.
And we’re going to see first that Matthew, the host, is an insider. That’s the first surprise. Secondly, that the outsiders are insiders, and third, that the insiders are outsiders at this party. So Matthew is an insider. And we see here that the most unlikely, irreligious person in the room has been invited, accepted, and included by Jesus to be part of God’s people.
It is an enormous encouragement. And in order to grasp the significance of this, we need to get a feel for where we are in this part of Matthew’s account of the life of Jesus and a sense of who Matthew himself was. This is Matthew, the author of this account of Jesus that we’re talking about. Let’s take the issue of who Matthew was. You can see there in verse 9, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth.
He said to him, follow me. He rose and followed Jesus. So he’s a tax collector, he’s engaged in his business. And in the Roman Empire, the Romans, as the occupying force, put out to tender the opportunity to gather government tax. And and it went to the highest bidder.
The person who won the tender, the tax collector, made his buck by gathering tax whilst at the same time adding on as much as they were able to screw out of the local population in order to pay what was promised to the government and at the same time to line their pocket. And so there’s a significant number of reasons why the tax collector under the Roman Empire in Jerusalem were particularly despised. I mean, who knew? The tax collector was surprised— was despised, big shock. But there was collusion, there was extortion, there was oppression, there was greed.
In Israel, where the Romans were occupying as pagans, pagan, irreligious opponents of the people of God, the offence was compounded.
Godlessness? Oh, the tax collector was greedy and unscrupulous. Irreligion? The tax collector treated God and his people with contempt. Uncleanness?
The tax collector mixed with the defiled pagans. Disloyalty? The tax collector sided with the Romans over against God and his people. Now you get a sense of that, don’t you, in verse 11. When the Pharisees saw the many tax collectors and sinners coming to Jesus and reclining at table with him, they said, why does your tax collector eat— your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
The contempt drips off the tongue. So we need to grasp, the tax collector was not friendless. Matthew had buckets of friends. The tax collector was not necessarily a social outcast, nor downtrodden and down and out. He was wealthy, enormously so, if he had done well, influential for sure, powerful and feared, not friendless, utterly godless.
The tax collector was the last person in the world you or I might expect to be part of God’s people here on a Tuesday in church, or in the mosque, or the synagogue, or anywhere else like that. He was a rank outsider. And yet, verse 9, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth. He said to him, follow me. And Matthew rose and followed.
Jesus. Well, there’s Matthew and something of a picture of who Matthew is. I hope you’re getting a sense for who he is. But then there’s the place that this incident finds itself in Matthew’s account of the life and teaching of Jesus. Matthew organises his material with all the meticulous care of a professional bookkeeper.
Of all the Gospels, I find Matthew the most precise, and I like to think he brought his spreadsheet skills to his Gospel writing. This section of the Gospel begins at the first verse of chapter 8. He gives us 3 supernatural incidents: the leper is healed, the centurion’s servant is delivered, Peter’s mother-in-law is made well. Then he gives us a small block on following Jesus. But both the examples are negative examples.
The scribe, he promises too much too soon. Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus says, hang on a second, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, a son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Are you sure you have thought about this carefully?
And then a disciple is commanded, follow me. And he says, oh, first let me go and bury my father. And so, one promises too much too soon, another too little too late. And then we get 3 more supernatural incidents: the calming of the storm, the healing of the demoniac, the healing of the paralysed man. And then we get another piece on following.
Jesus passed on from there. He saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth. He said to him, follow me. And Matthew rose and followed Jesus. So here is Matthew, Matthew of all people, Matthew the tax collector, Matthew sitting in his place of filthy business, doing his filthy business, Matthew with his laptop open and his spreadsheet up and his calendar booked for the day, head full of interest rate rises and the next Zoom call with an eye on the test score at the same time.
And yet, he’s a model disciple. Where the scribe had failed and where the wannabe disciple, I’ll follow you, Lord, had failed, Matthew, the tax collector at his booth, is an insider. Follow me. He rose and followed.
I find the fact that it is a command quite interesting. I don’t know what you think about this. Follow me. It’s a straight command. It’s not, you know, if you don’t mind terribly, or when you think it suits, or by the way, if you’ve got 40 minutes to spare, if it’s not too inconvenient.
Follow me. So Jesus doesn’t beg with a kind of limp pleading. Follow me. It comes as a command. The summons from Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, comes to us today as a command.
He calmed the storm. He drove out demons. He healed the paralytic. He is the Son of God. He is God the Son.
He summons sinners to salvation and he picks out one individual and as if he is the only person in the world that God is speaking to and that Jesus is speaking to and he says to this individual, follow me. And Matthew rises. To follow. The end of the verse is fascinating. If you look at the end of verse 9 there, Matthew rose and followed Jesus.
Now is that what you would expect to happen? Oh, he closed all his accounts over a period of several months and then followed Jesus. Or he took the appropriate period of gardening leave and then followed Jesus. He finished the business of the day, he had quite a few meetings, he rose. And he followed.
This makes Matthew’s response a model response.
Remember Peter and Andrew back in chapter 4, follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed. Remember James and John, just a few minutes later, he saw 2 brothers in the boat with their father and he called them, same word, he summoned them. Immediately they left their nets and followed. And so Jesus’ authority is absolute.
He commands not only the wind and the waves, the demon and disease. His power, why, it’s irresistibly magnetic that he could just come and speak and say to a person, follow me, and they could yield their all to him as King of Kings. Does this mean that every one of us in this building today who is called to follow Jesus should walk from our desks, bring your own black bag to work, don’t worry about HR, bring your own and leave the office? Well, possibly. He may wish us to do that.
My life is now at His disposal. That has to be an option. Does this mean that if the Lord Jesus calls me to follow, He now becomes my first priority? Over and above even the business of the day, ahead of each morning meeting, before the next client, first over all? Certainly.
The surprise is that Matthew, of all people, is an insider. The most unlikely, the least qualified, The last we might have expected, the rank no-hoper. Now I find that enormously encouraging. I hope you do.
What Matthew then does in verse 10 is one of the most normal things for any new disciple to do. Wherever we find a person called by Jesus to follow him, we will find them acting the way Matthew does in verse 10.
Later in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says, if you believe in your hearts and confess with your lips, you will be saved. There is no such thing as a silent disciple of Jesus. Every follower of Jesus becomes a speaker for Jesus. It’s part of what it means to follow him. Remember, he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Mark in his account and Luke in his account of the life of Jesus tells us the party took place actually in Matthew’s house. Matthew is somewhat self-effacing. Do you see it there in verse 10? And Jesus reclined at table in the house. And behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And I guess you might say that what Matthew does is a kind of drinks with discussion, or dinner with a dialogue, or meal with a message. He gets all his friends in to hear and meet Jesus. Of course he does. So does every true believer. I remember the first thing I did, before I even knew my left hand from my right as a Christian, I’d been summoned to follow Jesus, I I had obeyed the call, the first thing I did was start to tell my friends.
Who wouldn’t?
But as Matthew the tax collector determines to introduce his friends to Jesus, this provides the second shock. And you can see it there in verse 11. So verse 10, he reclined at table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Now, we’ve already noted that Matthew was not friendless. It’s most important we realise that. Godless, yes. Friendless, no. His house now is rammed with wrong’uns, the religious rogues and spiritual losers.
I was thinking to myself, you know, if the financial regulators had raided that house that day and confiscated all the laptops, devices, tablets, and so forth, they’d have enough evidence for their prosecutors to spend the next decade in successful court cases. They were the irreligious. They were don’t-give-a-dammers, the-devil-may-care-ers. If there isn’t a loophole, we’ll smash a way through-ers.
And once again, in order to get a handle on this, we need to know just only, not only who the sinners and tax collectors were, but also who the Pharisees are. And it’s most important we grasp that the Pharisees are not the bad guys. So I worked in a church once, we held a summer holiday club for kids. And the holiday club we ran was a sort of, you know, off-the-shelf thing. And people had to dress up and all the rest of it.
And the Pharisees all were dressed with black capes and kind of masks like this. And every time a Pharisee came on stage, the kids had either to hiss or to shout out. It was proper kind of boo, hiss, he’s behind you kind of stuff. But that doesn’t paint out the Pharisees right. They were the religious and moral gatekeepers of the culture.
They were the corporate governance guys. Well, maybe you think they’re the boo-hiss guys if you’re a rogue, but I mean, there we are. That’s what they were. They were the corporate governance, the diversity and inclusion, D&I people. They were safe, safe, safe space securers, you might say.
They were the good guys.
The tax collectors and sinners were the boys and girls featuring most prominently in the Partygate videos. The tax collectors and sinners were the directors of the CBI had up for inappropriate behaviour. The tax collectors and sinners were the Jeffrey Epsteins and the Harvey Weinsteins and the Prince Andrews, the most garrulous, ostentatious, party-going, full-throttle living broker we know. The outspoken atheists, the offensive irreligious, the prominent member of the LGBTQI+, the person we least expect to see in St Helen’s on a Tuesday lunchtime.
Now we need to exercise a small amount of care here because we are not told how they actually responded to Jesus mixing with them, and repentance and faith is key to a response to Jesus. But Jesus’ illustration is brilliant, isn’t it, there in sentence 11. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Sorry, sentence 12. When Jesus heard it, Jesus said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
So, I don’t know when you last visited the doctor’s surgery, Have you ever noticed how many sick people there are there? I mean, it’s quite risky going to the doctor. When I go to the doctor, I’m looking around, they’re all so sick. I don’t think quite so sort of uncaringly as that, but I’m thinking, I’m going to catch something here. I cycle through Guy’s Hospital every day to get in here to work.
I’m always struck how many ill people there are around. Would it not be somewhat strange were that not to be the case. You’re in the doctor’s surgery. You do the inconceivable thing and turn to your neighbour and say, oh, what are you in for? And they say, nothing really, never felt better, peak of health, fit as a fiddle, just thought I’d pop in and say hello to the doc.
Not that they could have got an appointment anyway. Imagine tomorrow morning you come into the office, the men in surgical scrubs all arrive, but the hospital is full. They’re in your office. Oh yeah, yeah, we know, we know, but we thought we’d spend a day visiting the, well, visiting the well for a change. Well, no, Jesus says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
And here is the shock number 2 in the party that rocks the religious, that Jesus spends his time with the rank outsiders. The rank outsiders, well, they kind of become at least in some sense, the insiders.
Maybe that’s a little strong. We don’t know actually how they respond. Are they Matthew’s or aren’t they? But at least this is where Jesus is spending his time. He’s seeking out the outsider.
And we need to say that Jesus was intimate in terms of his time spent with them. You notice that reclining at table? I mean, to recline at table, it’s not just a client lunch. It’s more than just a business meeting or an off-site social. To recline at table, to eat in a person’s house, was to express the closest possible friendship and fellowship.
It’s like taking somebody with you on a family holiday, tax collectors and sinners, or having someone to your daughter’s wedding. Tax collectors and sinners rank outsiders. Such is his concern for the outsider that he’s prepared to treat them as insiders, to draw near to them, to seek them out. Well, this has huge implications.
Who is the most unlikely person we might imagine for Jesus Christ to take an interest in? Who is the most unlikely person we might imagine to come and join us here on a Tuesday or to share the good news of Jesus with? The most objectionable, the most greedy, the most morally questionable, the most disgraced.
I’m sorry Tony Thomas isn’t here with us today, but he runs the City Pastors. And the City Pastors, they’re out on the streets on a Thursday, Friday night, helping everybody who has got into what can only be described as a shocking state, for one reason or another, you’ll know all about it, on a Thursday or Friday night. Drawing up alongside them, can we help? Sharing the truth of Jesus Christ. That’s where Jesus would be.
A friend of mine’s father-in-law, whenever there was a public disgrace in the newspapers of an individual, would write to that individual and often would get to go and spend time with them. And on one occasion, turned up here with the publicly disgraced minister with whom he was sharing the good news of Jesus. That’s where Jesus would be.
Our prisons worker is here. Into the prisons every Sunday, midweek, sharing the good news with prisoners. That’s where Jesus would be. Those who work in the Tamar Project with trafficked girls who city workers are abusing. Well, that’s where Jesus would be.
Where would we expect to find Jesus today? The New Moon on a Thursday evening in Leadenhall Market? The Lamb on a Wednesday evening or a Wednesday lunchtime?
Striking, isn’t it, how little Matthew actually says about himself in this incident and how much he wants us to grasp Jesus and his mission, that Jesus is radically concerned for the lost. And this concept of the kind of holy huddle of the religious is profoundly unchristian.
It always disturbs me when we have weddings here and there are lots of unbelieving friends with us and relatives of the people being married and lots of the Christian family, when one sees the church family all standing talking to each other when there are just all the friends who know nothing of the Lord Jesus. Well, now the third shock, that the insiders are outsiders. This is where the real offence comes. This is where Jesus is asked to get up and leave, if you like. And in order to get this clear, we need to grasp 2 things.
First of all, the impact of the phrase, go and learn. And secondly, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. What does that mean? Go and learn, it’s to say, you know, haven’t you got it? You need remedial.
Please watch my lips. How many times do I have to tell you? Didn’t you do Key Stage 1? So the newly qualified associate, they might receive a curt email from the partner, go and learn what this means, young thing. Or the young underwriter might be corrected by an old sweat in the market.
Or the junior analyst in the investment house might be summoned by the portfolio managing director, go and learn what this means. But Jesus isn’t speaking to the newly qualified here or the young junior. He is speaking to the Pharisees. And they’ve been in the business for decades. They’re the guardians of the religious life of Israel.
Weren’t you paying attention in Saturday school? Please, go and learn.
But then the quotation, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, is a reference to the character of God, that he is merciful, that he is kind to sinners, that He longs for those who have turned their back on Him to return, that He is prepared to remove our sin from us as far as the east is away from the west. He is prepared to do that, that He is slow to anger, that He is abounding in mercy. And here are these finger-wagging Pharisees in their holy huddle, not prepared to countenance Jesus with the sinners. What a rebuke! In fact, it’s more than a rebuke.
In its original context in Hosea, this verse is the most serious warning because it’s given to a group of people who think they’re in God’s good books, insiders, and Jesus tells them for all their sacrifice, their religious behaviour is a waste of space if they are not merciful to the unbeliever.
Well, I want to conclude very briefly. These surprises actually shouldn’t really surprise us because for the last 2 or 3 weeks we have been learning that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins. He has opened a window where forgiveness is possible. So if he has opened a window where forgiveness is possible, Who is he likely to be summoning to himself? Sinners for forgiveness.
Where are we likely to find him? Where the rank irreligious are. That’s where he’s going to be seeking to call them to himself. What a relief!
My reading this morning, the crucible is for silver, the furnace for gold, The Lord tests the heart. I spent some time thinking about my heart. It’s not a pretty exercise. My own soul, thoughts, motives, intentions, and misplaced desires. What a relief that Jesus came to summon sinners.
What a relief.
Jesus. And then, He calls. Have you heard the call? It’s not a, oh please, if you don’t mind. He calls, he summons, he commands, follow me.
Talk to somebody about what that might mean for you if you’ve never got up and followed. He eats. Do we? I mean, do we share this loving passion? It’s the mark of godliness.
That we spend time with the unbeliever. It’s our passion. That’s why Jesus came, a window where salvation is possible. And if we’ve become holy huddle Christians, then we need to start to spend some time recalibrating. He rebukes.
For all their religious observance, they have distanced themselves from the outsider, They won’t go into the world. They’ve built barriers, not bridges. They’re not getting alongside unbelievers. They despise the no-hopers. They look down on sinners.
They’d rather stick to their own religious club than get their hands dirty in the world.
Profound ungodliness. Let me lead us in prayer.
How we praise you, our Father in heaven, for the Lord Jesus Christ and his extraordinary grace and mercy, that he should spend time with people like us and that he should comfort people like us and offer forgiveness to people like us and have concern for people like us. And we ask that you would write this characteristic of you, the living God, into our hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
