Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
April 15th is not the only date that we might think of paying taxes. For example, those of us who pay estimated taxes quarterly have second‑quarter payments due June 15th, one week from tomorrow, and others may have to pay back taxes with penalties and interest at other times. We may not like the U‑S Internal Revenue Service, the Texas Comptroller’s Office, or other national, state, and local taxing agencies, but we should remember that the Lord Jesus Himself commanded, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (for example, Matthew 22:21), and, in case that command was not clear enough, His apostle Paul commanded that we should pay such things as “taxes to whom taxes are owed” and “revenue to whom revenue is owed” (Romans 13:7). And, those commands even came at a time when some tax collectors might have made the worst that we think of I‑R‑S and other modern agents seem like saints in comparison! Yet, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus called sinners such as a tax collector named Matthew and ate with them. Of the Gospel Reading’s structure, we might say that Jesus witnessed to God’s salvation first in deed and then in word (Luther, ad loc Matthew 9:9, AE 67:65), or, we might say that Jesus’s action led to the Pharisees objection and then to His own pronouncement upon them (Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 9:9-13, p.96). As we consider today’s Gospel Reading this morning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we realize that “God’s mercy leads to our sacrifice”.
As the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew uniquely reports in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus rebuked the Jewish leaders in part using a sentence that God originally spoke through the prophet Hosea: “I desire mercy”—or “steadfast love”—“and not sacrifice.” We heard that sentence in its immediate context in today’s Old Testament Reading (Hosea 5:15‑6:6), as God, through Hosea, called His people to repentance, promising to forgive them when they repented, but rebuking them for their going through the motions of worship without faith and the good works that should flow from faith. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus tells the Pharisees to “go and learn” what that sentence means, seemingly because the Pharisees, too, would not repent and went through the motions of worship without faith and the good works that should flow from faith, including their showing mercy to other sinners.
If we had to say something positive about the Pharisees, we might commend them for their hating sin (confer Luther, ad loc Matthew 9:9, AE 67:65-66), though apparently they only hated the sin of other people, and perhaps primarily as those other people transgressed the Pharisees’ own interpretation of God’s law. Whatever the tax collectors, including Matthew, and the other “sinners” were guilty of, the Pharisees were just as guilty by nature, and so are we all just as guilty by nature. We all are sinful by nature, and so we all actually sin in thoughts, words, and deeds, and so we all deserve both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. Jesus says that He “came not to call the righteous”, but that statement should not make us think that there actually are any righteous people, for Holy Scripture tells us that no one living is righteous before God, not one (Psalm 143:2; Romans 3:10). We all are so dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5), that we cannot choose to believe in Jesus but He must choose us. And, Jesus truly calls all of us sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32; confer Luke 19:10; 1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus earnestly desires that we all come to Him; His will is that we all hear His call and not stop our ears and despise His call (Formula of Concord, Epitome, XI:8).
Certainly, our loving God Himself wants to show mercy, and God shows mercy by making a sacrifice for our sin (confer Luther, ad loc Matthew 9:9, AE 67:67-68). As one should expect a physician to be among the sick, so one should expect a Savior from sin to be among sinners (Nocent, 4:78). The Son of God in human flesh, Jesus said that He came to call sinners, and His “coming” included His incarnation. His “coming” included both His perfectly thinking, saying, and doing all that God’s Commandments require and His perfectly not thinking, saying, and doing all that God’s Commandments forbid. His “coming” included His suffering, crucifixion, and death for all people, including us. And, His “coming” included His being raised up on the third day; Jewish rabbis reportedly understood Hosea’s prophecy of today’s Old Testament Reading in part to be about such a resurrection (Fickenscher, Looking Forward, p.164). When we are sorry for our sin and trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, then God does forgive us, and we have His peace and joy. Not our good works but faith that God gives us results in our justification, as with Abraham, described in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 4:13‑25).
Instead of hypocritically judging the tax collectors and “sinners”, the Pharisees arguably should have been calling them to repentance and working to forgive them, as Jesus did Himself and then later sent Matthew and the other apostles and eventually sends their successors, pastors today, to do (confer Luther, ad loc Matthew 9:9, AE 67:65). Matthew’s Gospel account is part of God’s Word that is read and preached to groups such as this group. And, God’s Gospel is applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are the Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sin. In the verses just before today’s Gospel Reading, the people glorified God Who had given the authority to forgive sins to men (Matthew 9:1-8). In today’s Gospel Reading we see an example of the kind of table fellowship that Jesus has with forgiven sinners. And, we remember the command to mark those who depart from true teaching and practice and to not re‑cline with them but de‑cline fellowship from them (for example, Romans 16:17).
Matthew was going about his daily tasks before Jesus called him to faith and apostleship and Matthew rose, left everything, and followed Jesus (confer Luke 5:28). Not everyone is called as Matthew and the other apostles were called or even as pastors today are called. But, God’s having mercy by sacrificing Jesus for us does change us, and we have mercy on others and sacrifice for them. For example, we show mercy by obeying those in authority over us (including paying our taxes), we show mercy by helping and supporting our neighbors in every bodily need, we show mercy by living sexually pure and decent lives, by helping our neighbors improve and protect their possessions and income, by defending and speaking well of our neighbors, by helping our neighbors keep their inheritance and house, and by urging our neighbors’ family, employees, and animals to stay and do their duty. We continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the author of Hebrews says, the fruit of lips that confess His Name (Hebrews 13:15), and we make a sacrifice of thanksgiving by giving of what God has entrusted to our use for the work of God’s Kingdom in this and every place. With the psalmist, we sing that our being afflicted is good (Psalm 119:65-72; antiphon: v.65). And, when we fail in any of these ways, as we will fail, with daily contrition and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins.
Considering today’s Gospel Reading this morning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we have realized that “God’s mercy leads to our sacrifice”. As we prayed in the Collect of the Day, the Almighty and most merciful God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to seek and to save the lost, and He graciously opens our ears and our hearts to hear His call and to follow Him by faith that we may feast with Him forever in His Kingdom.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
