WHO? ME? A DISCIPLE?

Readings: Psalm 23, Exodus 32:1-14, Philippians 4:1-9.Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 9th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

“Who? Me? A person of faith? The sort of person who could be a disciple of Jesus? You must be joking! A person of faith. I don’t think so.”But…..

Our readings this morning gave us three examples of people who did not consider themselves full of faith or virtue. Jesus had room for each of them in His scheme of things. Three very different people in very different circumstances. If Jesus called them to be followers…. Why not you?

Case Study 1: Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector. A task that was considered unworthy for any decent person. It wasn’t that collecting taxes was a bad thing.. but the fact that these were taxes paid to an occupying force… and the fact that there were tax collectors who cheated those paying their taxes by way of taking extortionate commissions for their services.

Was Matthew one of these? We don’t know. Scripture seems to say that it was bad enough in the religious peoples eyes that he was a tax collector. They are deeply offended when Jesus goes to Matthews house, and eats there. After all everybody knew it was a place crawling with sinners and other tax collectors, and well, everybody knew what low life sort of people they were!

That’s not the way Jesus saw things. He says, that actually, it was sinners He was looking for, not the religious folk. The religious folk presumably had everything figured out, so what help could He be to them? “Those who are well” He explains, “Have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”

Jesus saw something in Matthew that the religious folk never saw. Faith. A heart that was ready to follow anything that was real and authentic. The capability for a faith that didn’t care what anybody thought about it. Matthew wasn’t trying to win any popularity contests. You didn’t do his job if you worried what people thought of you!

One suspects that Matthew saw right through the religious peoples thin veneer of righteousness and was not impressed. For sure he had encountered their hostility and rejection in some way or other. Jesus, however, was not like them. Matthew recognized something authentic and startlingly different about Jesus. Something that made it possible for the likes of him.. a tax-collector.. to say “Yes, I will follow You!’

Case Study Two : An unclean woman
Matthew made a choice to live outside the rules of polite and correct society. But the woman had done nothing to transgress any moral boundaries. She was unwell with some kind of blood related disease that rendered her unclean according to the Bible.


Leviticus 15:25-33 (selected passages) “Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days….. she is unclean….. everything she sits on is unclean…anybody she touches is unclean. You shall keep the sons of Israel separated from such uncleaness, lest they die in their uncleaness by defiling my tabernacle that is among them.”

“This is the word of the Lord” explained the Pharisees. The woman was unclean and that was that. God had spoken and only a sinner would question the eternal, unchanging, everlasting Word of God. Either that or, well, go ahead defile and yourself and die in your sins.

She does the unthinkable. Pushes through the crowd and touches Jesus. According to the law that meant Jesus was unclean now as well as her! The dirty woman touches the holy man. Surely He would have something to say about that! He knew the Scriptures! But what happens? “Jesus turned, and seeing her He said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.”

Did you hear that? He called her his daughter! Imagine claiming a woman like that was His daughter? And if that wasn’t bad enough instantly the woman becomes well. Which is great for the woman, but as always the critics of Jesus would suggest that the end never justified the means. That she was irrelevant. It still went against the Word of God and therefore must be wrong.

Case Study 3: The Official whose daughter Died
This one is different again. Matthew was by choice, an outsider. The woman, by the twists of fate, had become unclean. This guy, the synagogue official, had a lot going for him. People didn’t get to his position in the synagogue without the approval of influential folk like the critics of Jesus. This man is in with the in-crowd.

His daughter just died. Like any Father would be, he is cut to the core by her loss. What could he do? The doctors had failed him. His religion had failed him. His prayers for his daughter’s recovery had been unproductive. All his position and power and prestige couldn’t do a thing.

Jesus could. Somehow he knew that. And right then, the awareness that Jesus could change things, made everything else he stood for completely secondary. He was past caring what others thought. In his heart was one thought, that he had to get Jesus to be with his daughter. Now!

Rather like Noah, in the midst of people who failed to hear God, he was hearing God loud and clear and God’s Word to him right then was ‘Trust in Jesus”. And like Noah, those who witnessed his actions thought it was a huge joke. “The situations hopeless, you confused idiot… she’s dead. All is lost. Let it go!”

What happens? Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and the girl gets up. “Not dead” explained Jesus, “Only sleeping”. How do you explain all of that? Not just the daughters recovery, but the fact that this leader in the synagogue, a leader amongst the very people who were against Jesus, is turned around, by God, to seek out the One he has previously condemned, seek Him out, not as a last hope, but with genuine faith that Jesus could make a difference!

Three very different people. In each case it would not be unreasonable to suggest that they could rightly say, “Who? Me? A Disciple?” Jesus saw in each of these, things that everybody else was blind to. In Matthew he saw leadership potential. In an unclean woman He saw a daughter needing a Father’s touch to make her whole. In a Father who had lost his daughter he saw an opportunity for the exercise of great faith in the midst of hostility.

We could spend a long time exploring the different aspects of these three faith examples. Instead I just want to pick out one thing about each character.

Firstly, Matthew. Matthew reminds me that it’s not my place to judge people, but to seek to ignite the spark of God that is in their hearts. O.K, so their lifestyle or their beliefs or their morals may not be everything that some of us feel is right. But if we wait for them to clean up their act to our standards, we’ll wait for ever. And who says our standards are so great in the first place? At best we are simply sinners redeemed by Grace. We’ve got nothing to boast about except the Grace of God.

Secondly, the healing of the unclean woman reminds me that, whatever life may do to us or we may do to ourselves and each other, we share a common humanity that goes deeper than religious rules or expectations. The Pharisees saw ‘the unclean woman’ as an impersonal object capable of defiling their holy lives. Jesus called her ‘daughter’. We need to look at others through the eyes of Jesus rather than the narrow perspective of our limited vision!

Thirdly, the synagogue rulers “Conversion to Christ” (for that truly is what happened to him!) calls me to embrace a vision in which not only those who are outside the faith can be motivated to discipleship, but also those who have lost faith can find their passion re-ignited. Maybe Jesus can say to them “No, your faith hasn’t died, it’s only sleeping” Under the touch of God’s Spirit faith truly can live again!”

There really is a whole lot more in these passages. I leave you with this one thought. That whenever you feel like saying, “Who? Me? A Disciple?” remember that God has a place for You.

Whatever you have been, whatever you are right now, wherever you feel life has taken you recently, God’s love for you has not let up. God’s not mad with You. Christ is calling you to come as you are and welcome His companionship.

So you have doubts? So you’ve made mistakes? Well, welcome to the club! You worry that what God asks is more than you are capable of giving? Guess what? You’re not the only one! So life has been unfair? You know... that’s life for a whole lot of people!

So quit with the excuses and open your heart to the Jesus who loved you so much that He died on a Cross for you, open your heart to the God whose awesome love can embrace anybody, open your life to the influence of the Holy Spirit, breathing into your days a clear fresh breeze of the peace and healing and refreshing of God.

Who? Me? A disciple?

Yes.
You.
A disciple!

Believe it.

Rev Adrian Pratt