[Sermon preached on 17 June 2018, 4th Sunday after Pentecost / 3rd year, ELCF Lectionary]
Have you ever wanted to go back in time? To go back to a point in time in your life just before something bad happened to you—something that you could have avoided? And you think:
“If I had only thought twice before doing that!”
“If I had only kept my mouth shut!”
“If I had only grasped that opportunity as long as it was there!”
“If I had only exercised some more self-control!”
The other week I met an asylum seeker whose application had been turned down. During his first interview at Immigration he had presented some facts in a way that was not 100% truthful. At that time the whole truth felt too embarrassing to tell the authorities. It was a cultural thing, no evil intentions. Only too late did he realize that he should stick to the truth however awkward it may feel. But because of that white lie he had screwed up his possibilities to get asylum in Finland. And now he was going to be sent back to Iraq where his enemies were already waiting for him.
Can you imagine how much he would like to turn back the clock and have that first interview once again and give the right answers?
Last winter, a man got into a car accident. It was dark and the weather was bad. But he was in a hurry, so he felt he could afford to ignore the speed limit and read a few messages from his smartphone on the side. But just as a big truck was approaching, his tires lost their grip on the road. The car went into a spin and crashed into the truck. The man survived. But in the backseat were his two young kids. They died immediately.
Can you imagine how that man—that father—wakes up in the middle of the night, living through those same moments in his nightmares, and wishing and praying that he could go back in time, and drive that stretch of road again, slowly and carefully? He would do anything imaginable to save the lives of his kids. But it is not possible.
I think of my own life. In the course of almost sixty years, I have done many things, said many things, and made many choices that I have regretted afterwards. Or I think of opportunities that I have missed or left unused—opportunities that will never come back again. And I sometimes think:
“Oh, if I could only go back to that moment in my life and choose differently. I wish I would have used that opportunity when it was offered to me. How much better my life could have been.”
I can play in my mind with the idea of doing everything all over again. But, of course, it is futile because it can never be more than a mental exercise. It is not going to happen. There is no way I can change or undo the past. In real life, there are no “RESET” buttons, no “UNDO” functions. What has happened, has happened. And we better learn to accept our past and our present—however unhappy it makes us, and however we may hate it.
Now Matthew, the tax collector, deeply hated his past and his present. He was very unhappy. He had made some pretty poor choices in life. That is actually quite surprising. Because Matthew was a smart and educated man. He was talented in many ways. He knew the Holy Scriptures. He had all it takes for a success story.
And yet, he made some pretty poor choices. The good thing is that they brought him wealth and influence. He had become a very rich man. But his choices had a long and dark shadow. He had chosen to side with the enemies of his people: with those in power that oppressed his people. And why had he done that? For money and influence.
But he had to pay a very high price. The Jewish community, that he had been born into, had come to hate him. They had rejected and excommunicated him. He was not allowed to enter the synagogue. He was an outcast. Worse than that, for his fellow-Jews he was dead. Even his family did not want to have anything to do with him. By choosing to become a tax collector he had cut off all his ties and burnt all the bridges behind him. So he had no other choice than to join the company of other outcasts: fellow tax collectors, prostitutes, and other people who were labeled “sinners” by the Jewish community.
It seems to me that Matthew must often have harbored that same thought:
“If only I could go back in time and choose differently. If only I could erase part of my past. How much better, how much more joyful and fulfilling my life could be now.”
But there was no way back. Life is a one-way street. We can only go forward. But for Matthew going forward was painful. In many ways, he felt himself at the end of a dead-end street. There was nothing to look forward to. His life would always be what it was now. And his relationship with his family and with his people would never be restored again.
That is… If it had not been for Jesus. But when Jesus came, everything changed.
When Jesus got to the customs office outside Capernaum, there were crowds of people. Capernaum was situated at a major trade route going all the way from Egypt in the south-west to Damascus in the north-east. So there were traders with their merchandise and their animals, there were the occasional travelers, and of course many tax collectors cashing in on all of them.
And out of all those people Jesus singled out Matthew—a man who looked happy and successful, but whose life actually was completely shattered by guilt. And Jesus showed him that there are no dead ends on the path of life. He showed him a way out of his deadlock—a new beginning. With only two words Jesus changed his life once and for all. And those two words are: “Follow me!”
In the midst of the busy crowds, Jesus sees Matthew. But not just his outer appearance. He sees what’s inside, like an X-ray machine. He sees the brokenness and guilt of the man who, in an attempt to make the most of his life, lost it. He looks at Matthew in quite a different way than the other people around. He doesn’t look at the greed that made Matthew turn against his own people in order to become rich. He doesn’t look at the indifference and disrespect for God and for his fellow Jews that made him forsake and betray both.
When Jesus looks at Matthew, he sees a man who has lost his life because he sold his soul to the devil. He sees a man who has lost his family and his people because of his greed. He sees a man who is broken because of his own selfishness, and who is in need of healing. He sees a man who is consumed by guilt and in need of forgiveness. He sees a man who is rejected by all and is in need of acceptance, a stretched-out hand, a smile or a hug.
Secondly, Jesus forgives. The interesting thing, though, is that he never says it out loud.
Just before this story, Matthew tells us about Jesus healing a paralytic—a man who cannot walk. When his friends bring him to Jesus, they expect him to heal their friend and make him walk again. But what does Jesus say?
“Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus does not suggest that the man is crippled because of some sin he committed. What he does suggest is that for all of us, sick or healthy, our most important condition is not physical but spiritual. And Jesus saw it as his primary mission to proclaim forgiveness to those who were guilt-ridden, and to pay for their sins and wrongdoings by his death on the cross.
The paralytic and his friends had to be reminded of this “great priority” of Jesus of saving souls rather than healing bodies. But Matthew does not need that reminder. He is healthy and rich. But spiritually he is sick and bankrupt. When Jesus calls him to follow him, those words say everything that Matthew needs to hear. Those words contain the message of forgiveness and acceptance. They are words of love, and words of life.
Thirdly, Jesus heals. He compares himself to a medical doctor. He takes Matthew on a journey of healing. Their life together will be therapy for Matthew that will help him overcome the trauma of a past that he cannot undo and the brokenness of a life that has gone so desperately wrong.
Matthew will receive social healing in the community of Jesus’ disciples. He may have lost his family for good, but Jesus adopts him into a new family—the family of those who love and follow Jesus. And some of that joy of fellowship he experiences the moment when Jesus joins the crowds of outcasts for a great banquet as the guest of honor.
Matthew may not be ready for a Christian testimony yet, but he surely knows how to connect people with Jesus. If he can get a new chance, then so can the other tax collectors, prostitutes and all those whom society has thrown out because they are not good enough.
When Jesus looks at Matthew, he does not only see a bad guy who has first ruined his own life and then spends the rest of it ruining the lives of others. Jesus sees an enormous potential, a great opportunity. He sees a man who is made in the image of his Creator and who has been endowed with precious gifts and talents. And so, Jesus sees, forgives, heals… and then recycles. Jesus recycles the broken Matthew. He transforms Matthew from trash to treasure.
I once visited the Recycling Center in Kalasatama. They sell lots of stuff that have become a burden to one person but can be a treasure to someone else. If needed, they first fix it and clean it before offering it for sale again.
But in the same building there is also a little shop that sells very special products. They are made of stuff that is beyond repair, of clothes and textiles that are worn out and have holes in them, of equipment that cannot be fixed anymore. What enters their workshop is trash—nothing more than worthless trash.
But in the workshop, there are some very creative people. They look at what is coming in, and they tease their little grey cells wondering how they could use the materials and turn them into something that is unique and useful. And when you enter their little boutique and look at what they have on display, you will be astonished. First of all, you may find it difficult to recognize the original product that was used as raw material. Secondly, you will be amazed by the creativity and the sense of style of the people who transformed old trash into new treasures. And maybe thirdly, you will be shocked by the prices. That stuff is actually quite expensive—much more expensive than the standard stuff that is made in factories and large workshops from new, first-rate raw materials.
That is exactly what Jesus did with Matthew. He looked at the man, his character and his talents. He saw potential. So he called him to follow, healed his brokenness, and transformed him from worthless trash to precious treasure. Jesus did not change his past or his present. He did not push the magic UNDO button. But he did change Matthew’s future. From tax collector to evangelist. This Matthew is the same person who wrote the Gospel from which we read the story. What a change!
It is so easy to think that I am of no use to God. I am not the right kind of person. I don’t have the talents, the skills or the gifts. Too many things have happened in my life—things that are a constant burden to me and that cannot be undone anymore: Messed up relationships, a criminal record, simply wasting the years that I should have used productively, getting involved with the wrong people, ending up in the wrong places.
But do you realize that Jesus is looking specifically for people like that? Whatever your past, whatever the situation you find yourself in right now, however much you have messed up your life and those of others… you are precious in God’s sight. Jesus came to find the lost, to heal the sick, to give life to those who are dead in their sins.
Years ago I had a colleague, who had been in prison for many years. His name was Klinu.
Klinu had killed people, he had robbed people, he had been dealing drugs. Even while he was in jail, he ran a drug dealers’ network. If you wanted someone out of the way, Klinu would organize it from inside the prison walls. Let’s face it: he was an evil man, and he didn’t care.
But then, one day, he found Jesus—or better: Jesus found him. Jesus said “Follow me!” And Klinu followed.
When I met Klinu, he was an evangelist, just like Matthew. He reached out to thousands of people with the story of how Jesus changed his life, how Jesus put the pieces together again, and how Jesus gave him a purpose to live for. He reached out to many hundreds of criminals in prison in Russia and Finland. His broken past was an inspiration for others. Many gave their lives to Christ, because they realized: “If Jesus can use a person like him, he can use me.”
Jesus can use you and me, whatever we have made of our lives. Not in spite of our past, but because of our past and our experiences.
Jesus is our healer. He comes to take care of those who are in need of healing. And let’s be honest: we all are in need of his healing power—even right now. Even if we have been Christians all our lives and have lived decent Christian lives, we still need healing. We need to come to Jesus.
And what does Jesus say when we come to him? “Follow me!” It is in the close fellowship with Jesus and with other broken people that we find life, healing, and purpose. So let’s not stare at the past behind us with regret and remorse. Jesus said that the person who keeps on looking back is not worthy of following him. Let’s look ahead to a future with Jesus.
There is another lesson in this story still, the other side of the medal, if you like. I am sure there are lots of Christians who feel that they don’t need the healing power of Jesus in their lives any longer. I have met so many Christians who show off with their healthy and successful faith that they make the broken feel even more inadequate. And what is more, I have seen such “healthy” and pious Christians look down on those who come to Jesus or to the church with their screwed-up past, their brokenness and their lack of faith.
But Jesus says that it is precisely these who need him, and for whom he has come. The church is the community of people who have experienced healing from their past and their weaknesses by Jesus. It is the body of Christ, chosen and called to continue the presence and ministry of Jesus here and now—also his healing ministry. Therefore, I want to challenge you today—after reading the story of Matthew the tax collector—to learn to look at others with the eyes of Jesus, eyes of love and compassion; to look beneath the surface to what is there inside of their minds and hearts. I want to challenge you to show them acceptance and mercy. As the community of Jesus, let us provide a community of healing, where God can use us to help others be healed and restored. Amen.
