Today’s Gospel is a big, rich, deep, multi-faceted, multi-layered story. If this story were a meal, it would be a multi-course feast with appetizers, a salad, entrée, dessert, a cheese plate, and beverages with each course. There is a lot going on in this Gospel.
I think if we take one step back from this story it gets a little easier. We realize there are four stories, not just one. Each of the stories is rich enough that each could have its own Sunday, each with its own sermon. The calling of Matthew is one story, the story of Jesus eating with the “wrong” kind of people is another. There is the story of the healing of a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, and then the story of the raising of a young girl from the dead. Four different stories.
But, if you take one more step back and let your vision blur, we will see that these four stories are really two stories. The first story of the calling of Matthew and then the story of Jesus eating with the tax collectors and the sinners is connected by the tax collector bit. The word sinner is a catch-all. He was eating with the tax collectors and the others who were screwing up.
Why are the tax collectors so reviled? It is not just a simple I-don’t-like-the-IRS type of thing. These tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman empire. These were local folks who had decided to help Rome in extracting resources and helping keep the people down. The tax collectors were collaborating with the oppression of the people, and were disliked for that very reason.
On top of that, the way that Rome worked with the tax collectors is that they made their income by getting a little extra. So Rome says collect 5%, and your salary will be whatever else you can get out of the people. Take an extra 1% for yourself, not a big deal. Rome doesn’t care if you only take 1%, Rome doesn’t care if you take 5% more. So you can see how this can cause some temptation for the tax collector. We find that some of them were very wealthy. They didn’t need to take as much from the people, and the people felt they were being cheated. They were certainly being cheated by Rome, who is extracting their resources, and they were being cheated by their fellow Jew who was taking even more from them. The tax collectors were really disliked, and the people wanted them pushed aside, punished for the wrongs that they were doing.
And Jesus says, that is not the way of God. First of all, who needs a doctor? Is it the healthy person? It is the sick person who really needs the doctor. Jesus is not saying these tax collectors are doing the wrong thing, he is not saying that collaborating with the Roman Empire is a positive, that extorting people for extra money is the thing to do. He is saying that we need to help heal these people, not push them away, but bring them closer in. It is only through relationship that we can do that work of being shown a better way.
The second thing Jesus asks is, what does God mean when he says I desire not sacrifice, but mercy? Jesus is quoting the first reading from Hosea that we heard today: I desire not sacrifice but mercy. Jesus is trying to show them that the way of God, in a world in which bad things happen, people screw up, people do the wrong thing by mistake or intentionally. But when they do, the way of God is not simply to punish. We do not have a God of retribution. We have a God of restitution. We have a God whose vision is a world reconciled, pulled back together. The rupture between the tax collectors and other sinners and the people is a tragedy. It is not the way of God. He wants us to come back together. And God does not want to create a new group of outcasts by shunning and punishing those folks who are being critical of what Jesus is doing. He wants everyone at the table.
That is the first story. The other stories in this Gospel reading are stories of healing. We know these two stories are really one because one of the healings is embedded within the other. This is like a play within a play. In literary classes, we are taught that the play within the play tells us something important about the other play.
The woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, twelve years of great suffering, gets healed. But notice that she doesn’t get healed because of anything Jesus does. It is the power of God working through Jesus that heals her, but it is not Jesus doing anything. Jesus tells her it is her faith that made her well. Her faith that believed she needed only a slight touch, just a thread of that power to heal her great suffering. If she could just touch the hem of his cloak, that will be sufficient. That is a depth of faith, isn’t it, just to need a little kindness and mercy? Jesus said that faith is enough to transform her, to give her her life back.
The other story is about the faith of this father who has heard about Jesus and the way he heals, but really has no idea Jesus can raise someone from the dead. That is an audacious thing to go from healing someone with demons or a vision problem or a problem walking. But to undo death is a huge leap. We have not seen Jesus raise anyone from the dead. This is before Lazarus, before Jesus’s own Resurrection. There is no reason for the father of the girl to think she can be risen from the dead. And yet, this father had that faith, this trust that God is working through Jesus to such a degree that he can undo this horrific tragedy in his life. So he comes to Jesus, Jesus goes, Jesus heals in a way that does not just improve her life, but gives her new life. This is a profound story of healing.
So we have two stories. A story about God’s vision for a world in which everyone is at the table, a world of restitution and reconciliation, not punishment and retribution. And a story of people’s lives being transformed so they can flourish and thrive in this world, including bringing new life to that which is dead.
I ask that you indulge me, take one more step back and let your vision blur a little more. And when you do that, I think you will see this is all one story. One story about the grace, mercy, and love of God. I think we have a microcosm of the entire Gospel. We have Jesus coming—the Incarnation—God coming to the world in the position of Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming to people, pulling them together, sharing the vision of a Kingdom, the Reign of God, the vision that God has for this world so that people can be restored and healed and have new life through Resurrection. Is that not the entire Gospel message in one story? It is a story about the Good News of the power of God’s grace, mercy, and love found in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
AMEN.
