Mercy Instead Of Sacrifice

This morning I am going to touch on the subject of “hypocrisy.” It’s difficult to preach on this subject matter because none of us are without some form of hypocrisy in our life. Jesus told us not to point out the splinter in our brother’s eye until we have removed the log in our own eye (Matthew 7:3). He also told us that whoever is without sin let him cast the first stone (John 8:7), meaning that no one can point the finger at another, because each of us are guilty of sin.

It’s been said that “hypocrisy is like a pin. It is pointed in one direction, and yet headed in another.”(1) This observation is “to the point,” so to speak – and pun intended. It’s easy for us to acknowledge what we “should” do. This is when we are pointed in the right direction; to do what God is asking or calling us to do. The problem comes when we, like a pin, are headed in the opposite direction. I pray that the words of Jesus found in our passage of Scripture will move us beyond acknowledgement of what we need to do, and into action and obedience.

Matthew Provided an Example (v. 9)

9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

Right here, Matthew provided an example of the kind of fervor we should have for Jesus. We need to be so enamored with Jesus that we are willing to follow Him wherever He calls us, no matter what the cost to our own life. Just consider Matthew for a moment. He was a tax collector who had more income than most of his own countrymen; however, he was willing to give it all up for Jesus. Steven Curtis Chapman says that we need to be willing to “abandon it all for the sake of the call,” like Matthew did.

It’s important to note all that Matthew lost when he decided to follow Jesus, but we also need to recognize all that he gained. Commentator William Barclay says, “He lost a comfortable job, but he found a destiny. He lost a good income, but he found honor. He lost a comfortable security, but he found an adventure the like of which he had never dreamed. It may be that if we accept the challenge of Christ, we shall find ourselves poorer in material things. It may be that the worldly ambitions will have to go. But beyond doubt we will find a peace and a joy and a thrill in life that we never knew before. In Jesus Christ a man finds a wealth beyond anything that he may have to abandon for the sake of Christ.”(2)

I think many of us will agree that we need to be willing to forsake everything and follow Christ. We will even acknowledge that our life will be blessed if we do so; but how many of us are willing to do what Jesus asks? I believe the Lord wants us to consider if we truly practice what we preach and live what we believe. He asks us, “Do you truly follow Me, or do you only say that you will follow Me?”

Jesus Provided an Example (vv. 10-11)

10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Through Matthew’s abandonment of his former life as a tax collector, we are shown that we must be willing to forsake everything in order to follow Jesus if that’s what He asks. In these verses, Jesus Himself provided an example of what it means to do and follow the Father’s will. Jesus realized that He had some onlookers nearby who didn’t quite understand the call of sacrifice that He extended to those who wanted to follow Him. These onlookers, which were the Pharisees, needed to be shown what following Jesus and serving God the Father entails.

The New International Version says that “Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house” (v. 10). The Pharisees had been following Jesus around, watching Him very closely. They witnessed Jesus extend His call to Matthew, the tax collector, and here they saw Jesus eating with Matthew and his friends. The Pharisees were a pious group of people who prided themselves in the keeping of their religious traditions and rituals of religious purity, and they believed the keeping of these traditions worked out their salvation and favor before God. They also felt that anyone who did not act like them could not come into God’s presence.