A WORD FOR TODAY, September 22, 2022
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, September 22, 2022
“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven. Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.” Matthew 18:15-20, WEB
Yesterday was the festival day for St. Matthew.
We do not know much about Matthew before he was called to follow Jesus, but the likelihood is that he wasn’t a good and righteous guy.
Matthew was an unusual character in the gathering of disciples. Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen. Though we do not know the vocations of most of the disciples before they met Jesus, three others may have been fishermen, having grown up near Peter and possibly acquaintances. Some were probably craftsmen. Simon was a religious zealot and Judas was probably a revolutionary. These eleven were most likely hardworking men, enemies to the Romans and desirous of national freedom and deliverance from the oppression under which they lived.
Matthew was different. According to the scriptures, Matthew was a tax collector. As a tax collector, Matthew was a local man who was a representative of the Roman government. He paid for the privilege, having bid for the job against other publicans. In bidding, Matthew would have said he could raise a certain amount of taxes and when he won the bid would have paid it out of his own pocket. It was then his job to recoup his investment. He would pocket any amount he received over the amount he paid to Rome. This made the job of tax collector ripe for abuse. Tax collectors needed to earn a living but so often took advantage of their power by cheating the people by charging them more than their due. We don’t know if Matthew was a crooked tax collector, but he was still taking the hard-earned money of his own people to give to their oppressors.
Jesus called a hodge-podge of men as His disciples, but Matthew is perhaps one of the most unusual choices. Tax collectors were outcasts, sinners in the eyes of the Jews. The fishermen among them were called to follow Jesus out of a life of hard work. They were probably very fit, tanned from hours in the sunlight, rough in action and language. Matthew had a desk job. He was probably fat from lack of exercise and rich foods. Soft and pale from little time outside, Matthew was not the image of what we might have expected from the disciples. He was an enemy, or at the very least in cahoots with the enemy. Despite his Jewish heritage and his willingness to leave everything at Jesus’ word, he was probably not openly welcomed into this new community. Can you imagine Judas, who greedily held the corporate purse, embracing Matthew, who had may have encountered each of the disciples at some point in his career? Who among the Jews would even listen to him?
God called Matthew to speak to the very people who would not listen: his own. The intent of his work was to show his people the fulfillment of God’s promises as found in the person of Jesus Christ. He quoted the Old Testament scriptures more than any other New Testament writer. His genealogy of Jesus Christ shows how Jesus descended from Abraham, an important fact for the Jewish readers. He used Jewish terminology and did not explain Jewish customs, assuming the readers would know and understand what he was talking about. Even so, Matthew did not limit the Gospel message to the Jews, showing that Jesus came for the world by telling the story of the wise men from the East. He was determined to prove that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Matthew understood what it meant to be saved by God’s grace. He was the least likely disciple and the one who gave up the most. He wouldn’t have done it on his own accord. He was changed by the One who loved him, had mercy on him, and called him into this new life of faith. I can almost imagine Matthew sitting on the floor next to Mary soaking in the words of Christ and praying, “Teach me, O God.” He wanted to know what it meant to be a disciple and he wanted to share the Gospel with his people.
In today’s passage from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us how to deal with the errors of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Matthew wrote that if they are unrepentant, we should treat them as sinners or tax collectors? But think about this: how would Matthew, the tax collector, wish to be treated? Would he want to be treated without grace, rejected as an enemy? Or was he thinking about how Jesus treated him: with mercy, welcoming him into the community, and even calling him into ministry? We learn about forgiveness and acceptance from Matthew. He teaches us not to turn them away, but to start over by speaking the Gospel so that they will hear and believe and be transformed newly by God’s grace.
We remember Matthew because he was one of the disciples and the writer of the first Gospel. He was a man who humbled himself before God and lived his new life for the sake of his people. He risked much, lost everything, and yet gained the kingdom of heaven by faith. Through his story we see the grace of God so clearly; we see that salvation is given to all who hear His word and believe. Through his Gospel, we see how much he loved his people and how he longed for them to believe that Jesus truly was the One for whom they had waited so long. Through his story we see that it is worthwhile to speak when God tells us to speak, even when we do not think anyone is listening, for God can touch even the most untouchable people.
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