T W J D
Matthew 9:9-13
Just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, today’s title is a play on
the acronym for What Would Jesus Do – WWJD?
It’s
Just
what did Jesus do? First, he called a
tax collector to be his disciple, someone who was a traitor to his people.
Matthew sold out to the Romans by accepting a job as a tax collector. That in itself made him lower than pond scum
in the eyes of most folks. But that’s
only part of the story. Matthew used his
position to extort money from his fellow Judeans. He was a crook, a thief who hid behind his
title and position, protecting himself from any kind of legal retribution.
Whatever,
Jesus said follow me, and follow Jesus he did.
He even invited Jesus and the other disciples to dinner at his
house. That’s when the fun began! Listen to how Eugene Peterson paraphrases it:
“… a lot of disreputable characters came
and joined them. When the Pharisees saw
him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’
followers. ‘What kind of example is this
from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?’
Jesus, overhearing, shot back, ‘Who needs a doctor:
the healthy or the sick? Go figure out
what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite
outsiders, not coddle insiders’.”
I’m after mercy, not religion.
Thus Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6.
Jesus, the very incarnation of God’s love and mercy, went to sinners or
let them come to him. The Pharisees
didn’t understand this. Why would Jesus
want to hang out with the wrong kind of people?
By the wrong kind of people, they meant anyone whose biblical
interpretation, theology, worship practices, prayer lives, and rituals weren’t
exactly like their own.
Jesus
– the living, breathing mercy of God – dealt with sinners by helping them,
being sympathetic toward them, showing them personal care and concern, and
ultimately offering them the gift of God’s own forgiveness. The Pharisees, on the other hand, offered
sinners criticism and condemnation. Their
rigid orthodoxy wouldn’t allow them to fellowship with those they considered
sinners. They couldn’t do anything that
involved the risk of touching a sinner because that would render them ritually
unclean.
Jesus
touched and was touched by the sinful and unclean. He healed on the Sabbath and refused to
condemn a woman caught in the act of adultery.
In a parable he lifted up one of those sinful Samaritans as someone who
truly did love his neighbor as himself.
And who was his neighbor? A
bruised, broken, bloody, and thus ritually unclean stranger. Someone to whom no Pharisee would ever come
near!
Jesus
was kind and merciful. The Pharisees
were cold and rigid. While Jesus never
condoned immorality, he also never tolerated self-righteousness. Mercy always took precedence over orthodoxy,
or as Hosea puts it: “For I [the Lord]
desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt
offerings.”
Jesus
reiterated what God had said, “Don’t give
me meaningless rituals. Instead show my ‘hessed,’
my steadfast loving-kindness, to those
around you. If you really know me,
you’ll uphold not just one rigidly strict interpretation of the letter of the
law, but you’ll live out its underlying spirit.
People are more important than rules.
All people, not just the ones just like you. After all, in Abraham I, the Lord, created a
nation that was to be a blessing to the entire world.”
Sometimes, when we deal with texts like today’s, we run the risk of
overly sanitizing them. We conjure up
pictures of sinners that are far too pretty and nice. Jesus mingled with the true untouchables of
his day: lepers with open, oozing sores, bleeding women, thieves, ruffians,
low-lifes and whores.
He dealt with people who were the first century equivalent of our
society’s junkies, hookers, porn stars, and drunks. Not nice people. Often unclean and unattractive people. Folks we sometimes label as pond scum or
gutter trash. People we avoid like the
plague. These were the people Jesus came
to seek and save, people for whom he died on a cross.
Lest we forget, he also came to seek and save the Pharisees of every
age, those who one of my long-ago elders referred to as sanctimonious
idiots. The hard-hearted. The socially superior. The legalistic keepers of all the rules. Those whom I often describe as folks who
major in minors.
While
we’re at it we need to add to that list the following: Hard-working, law
abiding citizens like you and me. People
who equate good citizenship, civility, and middle class values with faithfully
following Jesus. People just like us who
look at certain other people and think to themselves, “Thank goodness I’m not one of them.”
The truth is that we’re all one of them,
that we’re all sinners. None of us is
righteous, no not even one. All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We’re all afflicted with a sin-sickness that only God can heal. We’re all in need of the mercy freely offered
to us in Jesus Christ. We are none of us
in a position to be self-righteous or judgmental toward anyone else – ever!
According Romans 8, the only one in a position to condemn is Christ
Jesus, the One who died on a cross for us, rose again from the dead, and even
now sits at the right hand of God the Father, interceding on our behalf. Only Jesus can condemn. Jesus.
Not me. Not you. Not any person on earth.
If we are Christians – if we are sincere in wanting to follow Jesus in
the way of the cross – we need to be willing to go where Jesus went and do what
Jesus did. I’m not saying that we should
all start hanging out in nudie bars, brothels, or crack dens. Unlike Jesus, we are not impervious to temptation. We do need to be willing to minister to folks
who live and work in such places. We
need to be willing to show mercy and kindness to those whom the world often
uses, abuses, and leaves by the wayside.
More than that, we must be willing to invite them to our church, and
then welcome them when they come. No one
should ever be made to feel unwelcome in God’s house. Or experience rejection. Or feel condemned. No one.
Not the most notorious sinner.
Not the addict. Not the
drunk. Not those who are blatantly
promiscuous or scandalous.
And especially not those among our fellowship who have strayed away,
run away, or crashed and burned as a result of their disobedience. We all have skeletons in our closets: every
family, every church. More than a few of
us have prodigal children. Most of us
know someone who is either too ashamed or too afraid of condemnation to come to
church. They too need mercy: God’s and
ours. Yes, some may need to confess sins
and repent of them. But then, so do you
and I. Theirs may be more blatant, but
ours are no less deadly.
As we sing our final hymn this morning, let’s pay attention to the
imagery. Some poor soul is drowning in
the angry sea of his own sinfulness.
Jesus rescues him. This guy is
lifted out of the water by the love of God made real in Christ Jesus. He experiences merciful redemption. Jesus does not abandon him to the waves. He doesn’t stand on the shore
self-righteously thinking how much better he is than the guy who's
drowning. He doesn’t row out to him and
give him a lecture. He definitely
doesn’t angrily push him under. He lifts
him up. God’s love incarnate lifts that
poor sinner up.
There are a lot of people drowning in sin. Some we know. Some we might even live with. Some who are strangers to us. All need mercy instead of condemnation. All need to experience the love that those
who are faithful to Christ are called to display toward others. None need to be confronted by a cold,
heartless, prim, and proper religiosity that heaps upon them one more dose of
condemnation. All need a heaping helping
of that mercy we have experienced in Christ.
That’s what Jesus would do. That’s
what Jesus has done. Amen.