SUNDAY SERMON: Why does Jesus follow Matthew?

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin,

OT: Genesis 12.1-9

NT: Matthew 9.9-13

Our dog Rocket…has issues. He’s so twitchy that he quite literally cannot stand still, he bites or licks everything in range of his mouth, and he has the audacity to steal your spot in the bed and then growl at you when you try to move him. He’s completely feral.

However, he is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, and when you call him, he comes. And there’s a lot to be said for someone that loyal, isn’t there? 

That’s how it worked with most of Jesus’ disciples. He called, and they followed. Loyally and immediately. Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fishing when they first met Jesus. He ordered them to follow him, and they did immediately. They dropped what they were doing, and they followed him. 

It’s not like they didn’t have anything else to do; they were all working and going about their daily lives. But once he called them, they immediately followed him. 

That’s how we typically think about discipleship. Jesus calls, and we follow. Jesus takes us with him, pulls us out of the muck, and invites us into a whole new life with him. We expect, even yearn for, that bright flash of light directly from God where we are clearly called so we can joyfully go and follow. 

The Bible is filled with examples of this from Abram and Sarai to Jonah (though he was a little slower to follow) to Moses to Samuel. God calls, and they follow. 

But what happens in today’s reading with Matthew is different. Jesus calls Matthew to follow him, yet Jesus follows Matthew. Did you notice that little detail in today’s story? Jesus follows Matthew, the tax collector, to a dinner full of tax collectors.  

If they’d made a Top 10 list of sinners in that day, tax collectors probably would have been #1 on the list above murderers and thieves! According to Josephus, the 1st century historian, tax collectors were despised because they extorted money from their own neighbors. Recruited by the Roman government, they would call debts due and violently crack down on people who didn’t pay in order to make a cut themselves. 

And Matthew, who Jesus told to follow him, was one such tax collector. A sinner of the highest order. Jesus even went so far as to follow Matthew to the place he liked to hang out with the sinners he hung out with, and he took his disciples with him! 

The religious leaders were furious. How dare Jesus break bread with sinners of the highest order! 

Verse 12 says, “On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’” 

So it is with the church today. Our first instinct is to invite people to follow us into the church. We think of discipleship as something that happens in the church. But God might be calling the church to follow the people out into the world. Here’s an example. 

The Presbyterian Church of Waynesboro (PA) has a laundry ministry. With 52 members on the rolls, they call their ministry “Loads of Love.” How does it work? They take rolls of quarters to a laundromat, help folks do laundry, and hand out coloring sheets and markers to help folks pass the time more enjoyably. They go at the end of the month, since folks on assistance are generally running low on funds then, and spend a few hours there. It’s one small way a congregation has decided to follow Jesus out into the world, providing a little bit of dignity to folks who live in poverty. 

They are a Matthew 25 congregation, like we are at Clifton and Ronceverte, committed to taking discipleship out into the world. 

We also have opportunities to follow Jesus out into the world, whether it’s our snack pack programs for kids, our summer workcamps, our park ministry, our blessing box, or our free meals. If you have been thinking about ways you can follow Jesus, or be a more intentional disciple, give one of these a try! Or if none of them are quite right for you, we will support you in starting something new to follow Jesus out in the world. 

Because all of you follow Jesus out into the world each day already. I see the small and consistent ways you follow Jesus, and I couldn’t be prouder of you for it. 

Discipleship happens everywhere. Inside sanctuaries, beside washing machines, at the supper table, and on the way from the hardware store to the jobsite. 

For Jesus has come not for the healthy, but for the sick. Not for the righteous, but for sinners. We are all in those boats together. All following Jesus wherever he leads, out into the world. Amen.