What a Merciful Savior!

3rd Sunday after Pentecost, 7/3/11
Matthew 9:9-13


What a Merciful Savior!
I. Merciful in his saving call to us.
II. Merciful in his saving influence through us.


Almost without thinking we attach certain words to the concepts, places and events in our lives. For instance we attach words such as majestic and breath-taking to a panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains. This weekend especially we attach the word freedom to our US flag. Countless viewers of fireworks displays will attach the word awesome to what they see and hear. Those who stand at any of the 9-11 memorials attach the word solemn to their experience. We even attach words to people. At times those words are complementary; other times, not so much.

But let me ask you this. What word or words do you attach to your Savior Jesus? Loving comes to mind. So do all-powerful and all-knowing. For some of you the word humble comes to mind when you think about Jesus. For still others, words such as glorious and holy are attached to your Savior.

But how about merciful? That might not be your first choice of words to attach to Jesus, but it’s the one that’s on display in this morning’s text from Matthew 9. Jesus even emphasizes mercy in his statement to the Pharisees. He displays that mercy in his dealings with Matthew and he calls for us to be merciful in our dealings with others. What a merciful Savior! Let’s use that exclamation as our focus this morning and in doing so, see more clearly how merciful Jesus has been to us and how he calls for us to be merciful to others.

There are many facets to being a good leader and one of them is that the good leader surrounds himself with the best individuals he can. A good leader is only as good as the people next to him. If the people under the leader are inept, unqualified, or disloyal, eventually the leader himself will suffer. It’s critical that he chooses his followers wisely.

Part I.

This event in our text takes place at the time that Jesus was gathering his followers. We usually call them his disciples. If you were Jesus, what type of individuals would you have chosen to follow you? Imagine for a moment doing so without the knowledge that you have of the way Jesus made his choices and how it all turned out. Be honest. You probably wouldn’t have made the choices that Jesus did. You would have looked for the best educated, the most respected, the most qualified people you could find. You and I would look for such people in places such as Jerusalem where the temple was and where the center of the Jewish religion was. We’d look for people who were excellent Jewish theologians and stimulating speakers with engaging personalities. We’d look for the most likely candidates to influence others to the greatest extent possible.

But what does Jesus do? Listen to our text, “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.” The tax collector’s booth wasn’t the local spot to hang out. Matthew was sitting there because that’s who he was. He was a tax collector, presumably on the lucrative trade route that passed through the city of Capernaum, right near the Sea of Galilee. Matthew’s job was to tax the goods that passed through the area. He then turned over a set portion of that money to the Romans and kept what was left for himself. Tax collectors like Matthew made a good living.

But they were a pariah to their fellow Jews. First, by law they were allowed to charge as much as they pleased and they often collected vast sums. Second, they were taxing their fellow Jews and sending it to the hated Romans. No good Jewish person associated with a tax collector. In fact, tax collectors were immediately excommunicated from their local synagogue the moment their occupation was learned. That made Matthew an unlikely choice for a disciple of Jesus.

On the other hand, it’s likely that Matthew was a learned man, able to converse in the languages of the traders who passed through his area. I imagine he had a good business mind and was able to work with the financial and trading data available to him at that time.

But I also imagine that Matthew dealt daily with his guilt. In the Jewish way of thinking he had sold his soul to the Romans. He now worshipped the god called greed. He was keenly aware of who he was by race and that he was a member of God’s chosen people, but he had betrayed all that to be a tax collector.

And this is the man that Jesus calls to follow him and become one of his disciples?! Precisely! Because Jesus made that choice out of his mercy. His deepest desire was not to punish Matthew for his sins of greed and betrayal, but to save Matthew. That’s mercy. Jesus showed Matthew mercy in not punishing him as he deserved. And that mercy overflowed as Jesus calls him to be his disciple.

It’s apparent that Matthew had previously come into contact with Jesus himself or at least with Jesus’ saving message of forgiveness—forgiveness for all no matter what the sin and no matter who the sinner. And there’s where Matthew found the answer to his guilt and peace for his soul.

What a merciful Savior—merciful in his saving call.

How do you view your relationship with Jesus—primarily as your commitment to him or as his mercy to you? If you delete his mercy from the equation of your life with him, you quickly lose sight of what that relationship is all about. It’s not about what you think Jesus should still do for you because of your commitment to him—make your life easier, help you reach your goals, enable you to make ends meet. It’s about your rescue, your release from hell, your eternal salvation. It’s all about what Jesus did for you when he showered his mercy on you, calling you to discipleship. In spite of the fact that we think we have a lot to offer Jesus, none of that matters when it comes to your salvation. That salvation started and ends with his mercy to you. Thank God that he has brought you to faith in him as your merciful Savior and in mercy made you a member of his eternal, saving kingdom! In his mercy may he ever keep us in it as he calls to us in mercy!

Part II.

We began by noting words that we attach to things and people. When other people think about you, what word or words would they attach? Humble? Kind? Honest? Resourceful? Dependable? Those would all be complimentary attachments, but since we’re talking about it today, would they attach the word merciful to you?

Merciful wouldn’t describe the Pharisees who confronted Jesus’ disciples with these words, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” The Pharisees had no use for those Jews who wouldn’t strive to live the outwardly pious lives that they did. Such people were beneath them and certainly weren’t candidates for their concern or their mercy.

But merciful certainly describes Matthew. He doesn’t mention the details of this dinner at his house, but we can certainly surmise what they were. Having been called by the Lord for the gracious privilege of being one his 12 disciples, Matthew invited Jesus and the other disciples to his home for what may have been a rather lavish feast, given Matthew’s economic status. But Matthew didn’t limit his guest list just to those men. He opened it up to his fellow tax collectors and other social outcasts. Obviously Matthew wasn’t hosting this dinner in order to get something for himself. He hosted it to give something far more than good food to his guests. He wanted to share with them the mercy that Jesus had shown to him.

And that’s exactly what our merciful Savior wanted. He wanted to meet with Matthew’s friends in order to share his mercy with them. But please don’t take these words to mean that Jesus accepted the lifestyle of these people. By his words spoken before this dinner event or during, Jesus made it perfectly clear that he condemns sin, not condones it. Recall how he once told a sinful women, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (Jn. 8:11). He accepts no excuses or rationale for sinning.

But he’s also merciful. He wanted everyone at that dinner that day to know that he offers sinners forgiveness. He came to take the punishment of their sins upon himself. That’s mercy in its highest and greatest form! God takes on himself the punishment that his creatures deserve! Astounding mercy! What a merciful Savior! He’s merciful in his saving influence through us.

I don’t think Matthew forgot where he came from and what the mercy of Jesus meant to him. In this gospel that he wrote we barely hear his name again. For Matthew it’s not about him. It’s about his merciful Savior. And Matthew lived from this day on to the end of his life to share that mercy with others.

Do you realize how difficult it is to retain that attitude towards others? The driver who cuts you off or steals your parking spot, the fellow worker who throws you under the bus once again, the manager who sticks it to you with the schedule, the noisy neighbor, those disrespectful kids down the block, the masses of people in our own country and others who malign Christian values and teachings, our own elected government officials. It’s easy to assign these people places outside of our mercy because, from a human standpoint, they don’t deserve it. But that’s what mercy is all about. It’s not about merit in any way. If it were, it wouldn’t be mercy. That’s the kind of mercy our Savior shows us every day as he doesn’t give us the literal hell we deserve. He assures us of our full and free forgiveness. That’s a forgiveness he wants to share with every sinner and he uses us to do just that. May love for Christ and his mercy empower you to manifold acts of mercy to your fellow sinners and, in doing so, draw them to the saving mercy of Christ. What a merciful Savior! Share him with others! Amen.