LOUNGING WITH THE COMPROMISED
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
Analysis by Kevin Anderson
9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” 18While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. 23When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26And the report of this spread through all of that district.
From Wikimedia Commons
“Jesus is the friend of sinners, the One who lounges with us, reaching out and touching us, raising us.”
PROGNOSIS: Compromised under the Law
Step One: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Compromised
In this gospel, Jesus encounters many different people: Matthew, many tax collectors and sinners, his disciples, Pharisees, a “leader” (whom Mark and Luke name as Jairus) and his daughter who has died, a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years, and a crowd.
All of these whom he encounters are suffering from something. There are some who recognize the suffering. There are some who are labeled with it. There are some who have suffered in grief and death. And there are also some who do not think they suffer because they trust in their own proper works. But one and all are compromised – as are we all in this world. Jesus, who comes to heal, also shares in this suffering experience of being compromised with them, as even the Pharisees name it: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (v. 11)
Step Two: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – Who Are the Compromised to Us?
Still, we may like to think that none are so compromised. Is that not, after all, what we evidence in the verbiage and signs that are hung, printed, or announced in many congregations today: “All Are Welcome”?
To be sure, it is a hope that all would be welcome in our places of worship. But under the surface, it often functions as a nice idea, a gesture – and for many, even a forced response. The relationship between “welcoming” and “tolerating” can be a dance.
The divisive energy we live in is real: things are tense. Divisions are always present, however, and there are seasons and times in history – including our own – when they are more and less present. There are times when differences are set aside. The pull of the culture can stoke these fires of difference, and we are not immune from that suffering.
While some my experience this sense of welcome when they dare darken our doors, what may be heard in our worship, prayers, even from the pulpit can communicate a different reality. The idea of “unconditional welcome” to all can quickly fade as shades of condition, hints at belonging tied to proper behavior or ideology echo loudly in an at least somewhat quiet room.
As a pastor, I get it. We hope that all sinners would be welcomed into our communities as Jesus welcomes them, but there are boundaries that must be in place for the sake of community: the Law still has its place in curbing the Old Creature – and rightfully so.
The trap can lie in us as the Pharisee in us comes forth. We are very good are naming the righteous and unrighteous – the compromised and uncompromised – in our presence.
Step Three: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – Justification by the Law
While the gospel reading may surely be telling us to find IRS agents and lawyers to have lunch with, the problem isn’t simply that the tax collectors and sinners collect taxes and have some sin…
The unspoken problems are that they take advantage of God’s chosen people for their own gain, it’s that they have betrayed their own for the sake of the oppressive empire. Their actions are outside faithful Torah-observant life, making them religiously unreliable. The “impurity” of the woman can spread amongst the people and enter the holy place of God.
“Those people” threaten God’s presence, they may evoke God’s judgment, and Israel may be handed over to curse, exile, or destruction.
While we may think less of losing God’s presence, evoking God’s judgment, or being handed over to curse, exile, or destruction, the point still remains: who are the “compromised” that are threatening what we fear, love, and trust?
Perhaps the deeper thought comes to mind: there’s no way God loves the compromised.
It is here that the depths of our hearts may arise, the Old Creature has it’s fullness, and we may look rather proudly at how we are not like “them.” We have said, done, and believed the right things, we have maintained our end of the Law and they haven’t, and we are certainly justified by this… aren’t we?
In all of our looking at others, we push down – deep down (maybe even forget) our own failure in keeping God’s Law and the consequences of such a reality (wrath as Paul reminds us in our reading from Romans 4). We must die.
Then there is Jesus, lounging with them, the compromised, and so we question: “Why does this teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
PROGNOSIS: Christ Gives What Cannot Be Earned or Produced
Step Four: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – Justification by Faith Alone
As the Law does it’s work on us – we see that we are hopeless in fulfilling it – we see that we are compromised, and we hear this most wonderful news: Jesus is the friend of sinners, the One who lounges with us, reaching out and touching us, raising us.
The shared meal and engagement Jesus has with us “compromised” is more than just fellowship and light-hearted conversation, it is a giving of mercy, of grace. The promise given in his body and spoken through the Word are, by a great miracle, received by faith.
Even more, in Christ’s action for us he has taken all that was rightfully ours under the Law and given us everything that is rightfully his. The ones who take advantage, who have betrayed their own, who have lived outside faithful living, who are religiously unreliable, the unclean and impure, the dead – the “compromised” – are given what they could never earn or produce on their own: blessedness, innocence, righteousness.
Step Five: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – Joining the Unending Hymn
We hear this most wonderful news – spoken, preached – to us, and faith clings to that promise. We see, know, trust that this true – that we are forgiven, made righteous, taken by the hand and raised to life. That we are seated at the feast of rich food and wine, our cups overflowing. That our hunger has ended and our thirst is quenched. Our shame covered with garments of salvation, mourning turned to dancing, ashes exchanged for beauty, tears wiped away as death itself has been swallowed up – and, by God’s grace, we trust it, all of it given to us freely. Christ has made the compromised righteous, and what pours out of us is the same that happens for “Mary Magdalene and Peter and all the witnesses of the resurrection, with earth and sea and all their creatures, and with angels and archangels, and cherubim and seraphim” – praise! An unending hymn of “Holy, holy, holy Lord….”
Step Six: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – “Follow Me”
It is telling that the first act after Jesus’ declaration to Matthew to “follow me” lands them at the table – at a banquet, lounging – with tax collectors and sinners.
Where the Law has told us to “stay away from sinners” the gospel has moved us to join the party with them. It is here, with faith clinging to promise, that the “why” question has changed. We find ourselves no longer asking, “Why does this teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners” but we look at the other – the compromised – and ask, “Why don’t you join us at the banquet?” as the fruits of the gospel abound.
