MPC
24th March 2019.March 24 - Matthew 9:9-13 - "I Haven't Come for the Religious"
MPC
24th March 2019.
Phil Campbell
If you're here today and you're not a person who normally finds yourself in church, I want to say, "Welcome".
I want to say at the outset too, and this is for all of us; if you're a person who builds your picture of Jesus and Christianity from what you see in the media, it's been a challenging few weeks.
If you did want to do that this week. And let's face it, that's what most people these days do; if you're building your view of Jesus on what you get from the news, then you might have heard senator Fraser Anning actually quoting the words of Jesus. And... getting egg on his face in the process.
Did you hear what he said? It's been reported all over the world.
After making what sounded like some incredibly poorly timed remarks about the Christchurch attack. He closed with some words of Jesus.
He said, As we read in Matthew 26:52, 'all they that take the sword, shall perish by the sword.'
Which in his mind in some way justified. Or explained. The actions of the killer.
Now it may be that you heard those words. And thought good on him. It may be that you heard those words. And thought, yes. Jesus is justifying that kind of violence.
Much more likely, if you're a typical member of the Australian community, if you're an ordinary Aussie like the one million who signed an online petition against Fraser Anning, you'll maybe be thinking, see, there's the problem in a nutshell.
Christians. The words of Jesus. Behind all the violence and hate that's the essence of everything that's so wrong with the world.
And yet if you take just a moment to have a look at the original words of Jesus in Matthews gospel in context, if you look at the the source of the quote. As one of his disciples pulls a sword to try to fight off the guards who have come to arrest him... it's clear that Jesus is saying exactly the opposite.
Jesus says, "Put your sword away. All they that who take the sword shall will perish by the sword."
Which in its sentiment couldn't be more different from the point being made by Fraser Anning.
Again, if you're getting your view of Jesus and Christianity from the media. And I'm not for a minute blaming the media for this. But if you get your view of Jesus from what's happening in the news, then maybe you think Jesus is on about scenes like this one...
With rows of brocaded bishops processing in ornate cathedrals. Where their main interest is in the choir boys.
Or if not that, where their main interest is in covering up the wrongs of the other guys. So as to protect their institutional power and prestige.
So they can keep on processing in their brocaded robes. And ornate cathedrals.
After the conviction of Cardinal Pell a few weeks back the Marxist activist Roz Ward was quoted in The Australian.
Roz Ward developed the safe schools program that the Catholic church criticised for sexualising children; and lots of us shared that concern; but Roz Ward asked, "How can this institution that accused my program of sexualising children now fall over themselves to defend a convicted paedophile?"
She said, "the church labelled us 'child abusers' for trying to change school culture for the benefit of LGBTI kids; when at the same time the church," she says, was a "proven perpetrator of abuse" that covered up a "massive paedophile ring ... for decades".
How do you even start to make sense of that? When she's so obviously right? And these perpetrators of religion are so obviously wrong?
So again can I say to you this morning, if you're here in church as our guest today, or if you're listening online because someone's sent you a link; the one thing that I'm asking you to do this morning is to come back with me for a moment to the words of the real Jesus. And see where he stands on this stuff. And hear him for yourself. And see if there's something we've maybe been missing?
Because we're convinced that Jesus was full of good things. That right from the start people have been ignoring. Especially, and this might seem odd to you, especially have been ignoring in the name of religion.
I want you to revisit our bible passage we just read; it's printed in the bulletin handout. And just ask yourself: in the context of today, where you'd see the real Jesus, in the picture behind me.
If you're looking at it in a bible, you'll see it follows on immediately after Jesus has just told a quadriplegic guy that his sins were forgiven. And that he could walk again. And it's happened. In a way that's left everyone astonished.
And so now he moves on. On foot. Out along the main road. And he sees a man named Matthew, who's one of those guys when you see them at work you maybe don't even notice. A public servant. In a booth by the side of the road. A Toll Collector.
Except in this case, in the time of Jesus in first century Palestine, you do notice guys like Matthew. Because guys like Matthew make you so angry.
Because as a tax collector, he's working for the occupying Roman government; and he's working on commission. Under license. And though Matthew's one of your countrymen, he's clearly sold out to the Romans for the money. And he's making piles of it. At your expense. His gold watch and his fancy car don't make him impressive. They just make you hate him more.
Look, I know we've got some people in our church community who work for the Australian Tax Office, and I don't know how that goes down at parties. I was at a party once with a guy who was an undertaker. That kind of kills the conversation too. But back in Palestine, it's more than that.
Matthew's not going to get invited to any high society dinner parties. Money or not.
Matthew's not going to make it into the social pages. Matthew's not going to have any followers on Twitter; his only Facebook friend is his mum. In fact, she's on the verge of unfriending him too.
And look, all I can say is if you're a local politician or you're a religious leader and you want to build a reputation... Matthew is not the sort of guy you'd want to be seen dead with.
But here's Jesus. And he says to Matthew in his tax collectors booth, follow me.
And Matthew, you can see it in the sentence that's referenced as verse number 9; Matthew straight away gets up. And follows him.
Which at this point in the story is as near as you'll get to a definition of what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus says follow. And you hear the authority in his voice and you take him so seriously that you get up and follow. Straight away. As Matthew does.
And the next thing you find is not a church service with pointy hats and vestments, but a dinner party.
Not with a crowd of the proper people you're busting to be seen with, but the opposite.
I was wrong when I said before Matthew had no Facebook friends. He's got plenty. It's just that they're the wrong kind of people. Other tax collectors. Just as unpopular as he is. The kind of people generically back then who were labelled as sinners.
Because they didn't quite measure up to standard. And they didn't quite fit. And you wouldn't be seen dead with because they're from the wrong school or the wrong side of town or they've got the wrong kind of job or they've got the wrong kind of parents.
And the pharisees. Here they are in verse 11. Who are just the opposite. The Pharisees. Who are very religious in every way. They just can't believe what they're seeing.
The righteousness of the Pharisees consists of keeping all kinds of rules. About what you can eat. What you should wear. How you should pray. How you should wash your hands.
The Pharisees are rigorous. They'll give ten percent of everything. Including the herbs growing in the little pots on the window sill.
And the Pharisees love telling everyone else what to do.
Which is why they're not impressed when Jesus is hanging out with the kind of people who don't toe the line.
Who don't ceremonially wash properly. Who don't pray properly. Who can't or don't or won't measure up.
So look at their words in verse 11. When the Pharisees see who he's eating with, they ask his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
I mean, doesn't he know? Doesn't he know who he's mixing with?
And the answer is, of course he knows. And look, this is coming up to one of the best things Jesus ever said.
When he hears what they're saying, he says to them, don't you realise? It's not the healthy who need a doctor. But the sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. We'll come back to that in a minute. But here it comes. Number 3 in the list of the nine best things Jesus ever said.
"For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." I haven't come to be a cheer squad for the impressive. I'm the ambulance. For the damaged. I'm the Emergency Room for the injured.
Look again. It's not the healthy who need a doctor. But the sick. Call me doctor Jesus.
It's not the righteous I've come for. And you've gotta read that with inverted commas. Because he's talking about how they look at themselves. But sinners. The kind of people who know they don't measure up. The kind of people who know there's something wrong. The kind of people who'll line up outside my sin clinic for hours in the cold. Because they know they need help.
The kind of people I'm here eating dinner with. That's who I'm here for. And certainly not you guys. Who are self satisfied. And religious. And overwhelmingly self righteous and proud.
Now you might be asking yourself why does that... rate as one of the nine best things Jesus ever said?
Do you reckon it is?
See, I reckon it is. Because I'm not in any way particularly religious or righteous or impressive. And if you know me, I'm not especially polite, proper or presentable.
Jesus loves ordinary. Jesus loves people who come to him hungry for a real righteousness that comes from the heart. And let him provide it. The kind of people who are sick of pretending. Sick of the sham. Sick of going through the motions. Tired of Pharisee games.
Not the self proclaimed self satisfied righteous in their own eyes who are looking down on everyone else.
Which means, see, if you're looking into Jesus and you're not sure you're religious enough, there might even be room for you.
In fact, if you've got a humble assessment of yourself; if you know you need help; you're starting at exactly the right place.
I've gotta say, if you're thinking about this stuff, it's worth reading all the way through Matthews gospel, and follow the thread through as Jesus ramps things up against the Pharisees. I'm can't say what he'd say to paedophile priests these days; but if you go to Matthew chapter 23, you get a hint of it. Because by chapter 23 he's in full flight. Against the Pharisees. Whose version of righteousness, he says, is absolutely warped.
Listen to some of his words. He says,
4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their head-pieces wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called 'Teacher' by others.
And then he launches into a sequence of seven woes against them.
Listen to this one. That you'll see on the screen.
25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Or this one.
23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
See; there's an elephant in the room. There's a camel in the closet.
If you think you can tidy up the small stuff; dress up the externals. And think that covers up the heart.
Which is what Jesus was getting at back in our original passage. When he says I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Which is a quote from the Old Testament prophet Micah. Which
means God had been making the same point over and over for hundreds
of years. And people still didn't get it.
They had their ritual sacrifices. You'd bring a sheep. You'd kill it. You'd sprinkle its blood. You'd go through the ritual. You'd say the right words. And guess what. God's not impressed in the slightest. If there's no justice and mercy from the heart to go with it.
Which is what the Pharisees were missing.
Tender hearts. Not rigid rituals.
Compassion. Not ceremony.
A passion for doing what's just and right and true. And not just empty ritual.
Jesus says, I haven't come for the religious. But for sinners. Who know they've got a problem.
I haven't come for the self righteous. But the sick at heart. Doctor Jesus.
You know they say you've gotta realise whenever you point the finger at someone else, you're pointing four fingers. Back at yourself.
And you've heard me this morning criticising the way a right wing politician misquotes Jesus; and you've heard me maybe criticising child abusing priests.
Please don't hear me saying for a moment. That if you're politically inclined to the left. You're off the hook. Or that if you're Presbyterian. That you don't need to hear what Jesus is saying. And you can somehow afford to look down on anyone else.
Because you can't. I can't.
Maybe you've been coming to this church every Sunday for the last fifty years except that one week you broke your leg. And you think somehow God's impressed with that. To the point where he doesn't care about what's really going on in your heart. Trouble is, he's not that easily fooled.
Maybe you're not religious at all. But you're socially responsible. You're an eco-warrior, you're recycling everything, you're vote for the Greens, you've minimised your carbon footprint, heck, you even pay that little bit extra when you book your plane tickets online to plant an extra tree.
And they're all good things. Trouble is though. You end up just as self righteous about that stuff as the Pharisees were about their religion.
And you're thinking I haven't got a problem. The problem is everyone else.
Maybe that's just as likely to stop you seeing that you need doctor Jesus as well. Because if you stop long enough to look at your heart. If you do an internal audit. Maybe you'll see there's a hardness there. A lack of mercy and compassion. That reveals shows up something deeper about who you really are.
Maybe it shows in the area of your relationships.
I read an interesting article the other day. What Married at First Sight - the TV show - teaches us about being Aussie. And it said this. Maybe so many people love watching it. Because it shows us what we are. The article says, and it's by two senior lecturers at the University of Queensland... it says,
The show shoehorns a lifetime of matrimonial issues into a few dozen episodes. Over the course of the season, viewers witness the daily ups-and-downs of marriage ..
[the] couples fight, they cheat and - spoiler alert - most "divorce" within a matter of weeks.
Even when it's all arranged by experts. We're hard to live with, aren't we?
I'm not saying that's you. I'm saying that's humanity. Maybe your heart issues show up in other ways. So self righteous. So out of control. So many of the most professionally impressive people I've met; at heart, so damaged. And yet putting on a show. Just like the Pharisees. And the great news is, Jesus is saying, you don't need to put on a show. I'm here to help.
One more quote from Doctor Jesus. And then we're done. It's from his famous sermon on the mount.
It's more good news. If you're sick: I'm the doctor. Or in this case, if you're hungry and thirsty. I've got the food. Look at his words.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they will be filled.
No use if you're full of your own rightness already. But hear what he's saying.
I haven't come to call the righteous. The righteous already. The self righteous and religious.
But sinners. It's one of the best things he ever said. If you're in any way hungry and thirsty for a righteousness that runs all the way to the heart. Better still, that comes out of the heart.
Out of who we really are. If you're hungry for that he's actually calling you.
It's gonna take some heart surgery to get to that point. But that's exactly what doctor Jesus has come for.
And when you're humble enough to know you need it - then it's an offer equally open whether you've been at church every week of you're life or if this is your first time today. If you want to know more about it, speak to Doug or Dan or me afterwards. We'd love to chat.