Have you ever walked into a room and wondered,
am I supposed to be here? A few weeks ago, I
was out with a friend and we were out line dancing.
And one of the wonderful parts of the place we
went to is it's good for everyone, beginners
included. It doesn't matter if you've got the
dances down. They'll show you a lot of the dances
there. And even for the ones that are more advanced.
It doesn't matter. You can be out there, have
a good time, try your best, and hey, maybe you'll
figure it out. But I went on a different night
of the week, maybe a week or two later, and when
I was there, I realized it wasn't line -dancing
night. It was West Coast swing. Little different.
But I thought I'd jump in. They had a class at
the beginning of it, and I caught most of it.
And I'm like, I could do this. This is OK. And
so I finished the lesson, and I stood on the
side. And this lady comes up and says, hey, would
you like to dance? Sure. Let's go do it. That
sounds wonderful. And after about maybe 30 seconds,
and she looks, and she says, have you done this
before? No, ma 'am. This is my first time. And
she said, you should probably sit this out. So
I went to the room next door and sang karaoke
instead, which I am pretty gosh darn good at.
So, oh man, piano man, always a favorite. Have
you ever had moments like that though? Maybe
the first day on a new job, maybe a wedding where
you only knew the one person who had you as a
plus one. Maybe a fancy restaurant where everyone
seemed to understand the dress code except for
you. Or maybe, unfortunately, it could have been
church. You walk in and immediately start doing
these quiet little calculations in your mind.
Do I belong here? Am I going to say the wrong
thing? Is everyone going to realize that I'm
out of place? Most of us know that feeling. But
something subtle happens over time, is that instead
of saying, do I belong here, people eventually
start asking, do those people belong here? And
those are two very different questions, and that
difference sits at the heart of the Gospel today.
Matthew was sitting in a tax booth, and everybody
knew what that meant. Matthew was a tax collector.
But you see back then it wasn't just a regular
everyday job with you know 401k and vacation
for a few weeks each year This was being a part
of the Roman occupation of the Jewish promised
land Matthew was a part of the compromise He
was a part of associating with people on the
other side In the minds of his fellow Jews. He
had aligned himself with all the wrong people
Matthew, we don't actually know that he was a
corrupt man in any way, but for them, it didn't
matter because he was labeled dismissed. Viewed
as unclean in the moral imagination of his community,
Matthew knew exactly where he stood and the Pharisees,
well they did too. In fact, to be fair, everybody
did. But Jesus walks up and says two words to
them, follow me. And Matthew gets up and follows
him. This is a shocking scene because Jesus does
not start where other rabbis would have expected
to start. Making sure to correct Matthew and
lecturing him on all the ways that he's gotten
things wrong, he begins by calling him. Not because
Matthew doesn't need transformation. He does.
We all do. But restoration with God begins with
the relationship. The call for Matthew comes
first. The transformation is what follows, and
that matters. Because if people have to become
perfect for Christ to welcome them, then nobody
will ever be called. If people have to be perfect
before we welcome them, will anybody ever truly
come to know Christ? Jesus calls people and then
transforms them. And that changes what we're
supposed to expect. Because Jesus then, he ends
up going to Matthew's home and he's reclining
at table with the tax collectors and the sinners.
What kind of a label is that? What kind of sinners
are we talking about? And people like to make
guesses and assumptions, but to be honest, that's
not even what's important. What's important is
that the Pharisees don't care. They're not trying
to investigate all those people and if they're
really bad people and what sins they actually
committed. For whatever reasons, those people
are now labeled. They are the ones categorized
as unwelcome in the kingdom for them. See, in
their box, they're asking, they're saying, why
does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners? They're not actually asking the question,
have these people sinned? They're actually saying,
if Jesus were really holy, like he claims to
be, then why would he want to spend time with
the people like that? And that question, it echoes
for us today, because how often do we get confused
between respectability and righteousness. How
often do we get things confused with are you
a respectable member of society versus are you
right before God? Are you a person with a stable
job and a good house over your head? Do you have
a clean public record? Nothing on the internet
you ever need to worry about. You know, make
sure that there are no scandals, good church
attendance, and... Clearly, no traffic tickets
where you're driving from Abilene and you happen
to get stuck in a speed trap where they catch
you at 44 in a 30, and both of your parents happen
to be sitting right next to you. I'm sure no
one here has ever had that happen to them. But
you see, with all these things, we assume some
level of spiritual health. But then there might
be some other person with a messy past. visible
struggles that they can't or maybe won't hide,
a broken history and we assume, well that person
must be far from God. Look at what a mess they
are. But we sometimes do the same thing today
when we sort people into different tribes. Social
tribes, economic tribes, cultural tribes, political
tribes. You know who's in your tribe and you
know who's not. Someone says the right phrases
and we assume we know exactly who they are, someone
says the wrong phrases, well we know them too.
We hear the slogans, the talking points, the
moments in public life that reveal so much about
them. One of the jokes that came up was, After
the comedian Stephen Colbert his original show
had come to an end and he was famous on there
because he would talk with a persona that sounded
like one type of person but he was actually trying
to get at the complete opposite. What was ironic
though is that people could listen and watch
and think he agreed with them completely no matter
which way they were going. Because they were
listening for the phrases, for the words, they
weren't actually paying attention to the person.
The label replaced the listening. And that's
what we saw with the Pharisees. They heard tax
collector, and they think sinner. The conversation's
over before it even began, and that's the danger
that Jesus was exposing. Because once labels
are more important than people, we stop seeing
all the people that God is calling. Everyone.
Whatever might be this background, whatever they
might have gone through before, we start seeing,
here's a category for you. And then of course,
no wonder they start filling in the gaps. Because
somehow, we've put them in exactly what we expect
of them. But that distortion on our part, that's
actually sin. Jesus is responding and saying,
go and learn what this means. I desire mercy
and not sacrifice. He's quoting Hosea. That's
the one she was actually reading. But you know,
in Hosea's day, Israel was still very religious.
Sacrifices were being offered, festivals being
observed, worship services continuing on the
outside. It looked like everything was functioning
exactly as it should. Oh, the congregation's
full. Everybody's doing all the things we expect.
From the outside, they were happy. But God saw
something deeper. Their hearts were far from
Him. Devotion was shallow. Repentance was temporary.
Love of God was disconnected from faithfulness.
So God says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
Not because sacrifice is bad. God Himself commanded
sacrifices. Giving things up for God is not a
bad thing. The problem was they took the outward
signs of looking holy and confused it with the
inner reality of if they were truly turning to
God. they confused the religious activity for
the spiritual health. See, that's the piece here.
When we forget what it is to be merciful, we
are actually sinning against God. They thought
they had everything right, but God wanted their
hearts transformed, including the way they were
treating one another. Jesus says, that it is
the Kingdom of God that He proclaims. And is
that what our intention is? Do we want to promote
the Kingdom of God? But are we misunderstanding
the heart of God? Because the Kingdom of God
is not just saying, I know the sins that need
to be forgiven. It's also about restoring every
part of creation that has been broken. And in
order to do that, it means reconciling all people
to God. Calling sinners back into relationship
with the Creator. The Pharisees focused on their
boundaries, but they used them to exclude instead
of finding a way to restore. And that's why Jesus
is at that table. Not because sins don't matter,
but because the sinners do. Jesus was saying
those who are well have no need of a physician
but those who are sick. Physicians do not avoid
sick people. They move toward them. And that's
exactly what Jesus did throughout the Gospels.
He moved toward Matthew. He moved toward Zacchaeus,
a tax collector who did have some corruption.
He moved towards Samaritans, toward Gentiles,
toward a broken world. By the way, don't forget,
we are all Gentiles. And it is our place to know
how grateful we are that the Pharisees did not
have the last word on all of those laws. Because
the Kingdom of God is always meant to go outward,
to restore, to reconcile. But you see, the easiest
sins is to look at someone else's, not to notice
our own. Because that's when we start to be satisfied
that we can do everything on our own. It becomes
easy to ask familiar questions about who can
or cannot fail in God's eyes. Who is or is not
accepted? Who the real Christians are? But Matthew
presses deeper. Can someone be so convinced of
their own wisdom and clarity that they begin
standing in the way of other people finding Jesus?
And by doing that, sinning against what Jesus
was doing. You see, the irony though, is that
everyone needed a physician. I mean, could you
imagine how many times that a physician might
be telling someone you have an illness and they
say, I don't feel it. I don't see it, so therefore
it couldn't possibly be real. And how often it
is that we are doing that with God and our own
sin. See, oftentimes we take pride in who we
are before God, and we get that confused with
wisdom, experience, faithfulness. We think that
we've got it figured out when in reality, God
is reminding us the only one who is good. is
the one from God. But you see, He ends up taking
us to show there is a person that should have
made this point clear to everybody. See, if Christ's
mission is restoration, then what exactly are
we trying to restore? Are we trying to restore
the Kingdom of God? Or are we trying to restore
what we prefer to be the Kingdom of God? Because
those are not always the same thing. We begin
to take our expectations, our instincts, our
customs, and we make them the same as the Kingdom
of God. But what if we went backward in history?
Would all of our assumptions still hold? If we
went back in history before there were any parties
to join, would we still believe that only righteous
people belong to our group? when there was a
time when our group never even existed in the
first place? Of course we would. But what if
we went back before our nation even existed?
Would we still believe there are faithful people
in a world that didn't have our way of looking
at things? Absolutely. What if we went back before
our culture existed? Before our language existed?
What if we went back before all the assumptions
that we think are obvious and natural? would
God still call people His own? Absolutely. And
the same thing happened with Abraham. For all
the much that the Jewish people had looked up
to Abraham as their forefather, Abraham was there
before Israel was ever a nation, there before
there was ever a temple, before there were ever
priests, before dietary laws, before the Sabbath,
before circumcision, before the law. So was Abraham
still righteous before he could even follow all
of their expectations? Absolutely. Because he
had faith in God. So why did Abraham belong to
God? Not because he had it all figured out. He
was definitely not flawless by any means. His
story had so much uncertainty. So many things
delayed. Have you ever had those times when you
weren't sure and you wondered if God's plan for
you was a little delayed? That's the thing about
this as much as his reasoning might have said
Maybe my nephew will be my descendant. Maybe
my servant will be my descendant. Maybe the son
of my servant will be my descendant God wanted
him to turn to him and trust because that was
when God truly fulfilled Isaac in him. See, that's
the thing about righteousness. Righteousness
is never about making sure that we've gotten
it all figured out, we've got it all clarified,
and we've followed every single law that other
people might expect of us. So why can't it be
the same for us today? Why can't faith come first?
Before we look at our cultural belonging, or
our moral achievements, our alignment with someone
else's politics, or the way we try to perform
among all the other religious people. Why can't
we remember that it's always because of grace
and mercy? Because we are all guests in the kingdom
of God. Just like some clumsy person hoping he
would be allowed on a dance floor that he wasn't
sure he was welcome to. we have all been welcomed
as guests into a kingdom where the host wants
us all in there. So how can we possibly be standing
at the door trying to figure out who we want
to let in when we had to be welcomed first? There's
nothing wrong with the law. There's nothing wrong
with doing what is good and what is right, even
the things that make sense for our own context.
But that is not where we see our relationship
with God and that is not where we start in bringing
that to anyone else either The Pharisees saw
someone on the outside But Christ knew everyone
had been on the outside from the very beginning
The gospel does not leave any room for posturing
all have sinned and fallen short of the glory
of God and That mercy is meant for us all So
even for the times whenever we pause and we think,
maybe if I shame this person, if I ridicule them,
if I dismiss them, would they finally get right
with God? And that is never where we begin. Why?
Because we always begin with faith. And that's
where righteousness is. It's in Christ Jesus.
Because let's be honest, there are labels that
we tell ourselves sometime as well. The things
that we wish we could get rid of so we could
feel right in God's eyes. But the forgiveness,
the grace, and the calling of God is ours no
matter what label we continue to give ourselves
in our own minds. So when Jesus says, follow
me, he's not speaking to the qualified. He's
speaking to the sinners. And thanks be to God,
that's all of us. because we're finally willing
to admit what He's already seen. Because the
table, it was set for Abraham, for Matthew, for
the Pharisees, for you, and for me. So may we
come not as those who have it all figured out,
but as those who are being called by faith alone
to follow Him. Thanks be to God.