"I desire mercy"-Sermon for Proper 5, Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
All people…all wounds. If I were to write one, that would be the thesis or mission statement or the top line, if you will, of today’s Gospel Lesson from Matthew. All people…all wounds. Now, here’s how I come to this thesis statement of sorts. For in just these 14 verses, Jesus connects in a personal and transformative way with adults, children, men, women, rich, poor, the socially elite, and those on the utter margins…and all suffering in their own unique way.
So, let’s start with “all people” and take it from top. We begin with Matthew and his band of tax collectors. Now, tax collectors, in Jesus’ day, made their riches, often significant wealth, by collecting money above and beyond what was actually owed to the state, and, further, they collected those same taxes for the Imperial Government in Rome, who was broadly seen as an unwanted occupier and overlord in Israel. For both of these reasons, tax collectors, even those who did their job ethically and well, were squarely placed in the category of sinner, turncoat and cheat and, thus, despite their wealth, were often despised by the elite in Israel and, therefore, lived on the margins of polite society. So, among the list I opened with, Matthew and his colleagues would be in the adult, rich, male, and the “on the margins” categories.
Then there is the leader of the synagogue who kneels at Jesus’ feet and asks for Jesus to come quickly to his daughter who has died to raise her to new life. As a leader of the synagogue, this man likely lived a very comfortable first century life. Moreover, as a religious leader, he would surely be among those who exercised both power and influence. So, this man represents four of my categories…adult, rich, male, and socially elite.
Next, we have the woman who suffered from continuous bleeding from some 12 years who touches Jesus’ cloak, believing she would be healed if only she could just brush up against it. According to first century interpretations of Torah, a woman, while menstruating, would be considered religiously impure and would have to separate herself from her household, social gatherings, and the synagogue during that length of time. Thus, this woman would have been separated from all three for the past 12 years. Moreover, sickness in general, was regarded as God’s just punishment for sin in a person’s life. Thus, the isolation and ridicule this woman must have endured…for what was likely most of her adult life…must have been indescribable. I am sure she hoped that brushing up against Jesus’ cloak would, indeed, be sufficient for her healing, as I imagine she believed no man, even Jesus, would ever consider actually touching her. So, this woman clearly fits into three of my categories…she was an adult, female and certainly lived on the very margins of her community…perhaps not even on the margins but entirely outside the larger community and even her family.
And lastly there is the child…the daughter of the leader of the synagogue. She, being only but a child and more so a child who was a girl, would, even if well, be on one of the lowest rungs of society’s social ladder. Not that parents didn’t love their children in Jesus’ day…of course they did…but, in general, children were more possessions than people…more free labor than sacred responsibility. This is why in that well-known story of Jesus blessing the little children, the disciples were trying to keep the children away from Jesus…before, of course, he rebukes them and says…let the little children come to me…for it is too such as these that the kingdom of Heaven belongs. You see, Jesus embracing children and even elevating them as those to whom God’s kingdom belongs was so revelatory because he was flipping end over end the well-established social ladder. Yet, well beyond any injustice children experienced resulting from misguided social constructs, this girl no longer even has what life had given to her. For, as her own father reports, she is now dead. So, indeed, this girl represents three of my categories…a child, female and marginalized…but, really, I need two more categories…the living and the dead. And, this poor girl occupies the latter.
Now certainly, if we want to be sticklers here, these four people…and I am counting Matthew as the whole tax collector crew…these four people obviously don’t represent every single sort and condition of human…not every way we can possibly define the beautiful diversity that exists among the rainbow-colored people of God. But still…in the world that Jesus actually inhabited, among the people Jesus actually encountered in his day to day life…this was a wide ranging and diverse collection of people that he loved, cared for and healed. And, I believe, as I began in my thesis statement, the point is these people, who Jesus connects with over a very short period of time, represent…all people…all, and I mean, all of us. God loves…God desires to connect with…God wants to heal and make whole…all people…even you…even me.
You see, the great God-made diversity that exists in this world, what I like to call, borrowing from Desmond Tutu, the rainbow-colored people of God…is to be explored, celebrated and affirmed. Such diversity just makes the human race in its entirety more complex, rich, creative, and beautiful. Thus, only in our diversity, honored and lifted up, does humanity just begin resemble something of the unfathomable enormity of the God of love who made the universe, or multi-verse, and all it contains…all of which God calls good. Yet, we broken humans so often use God created uniqueness in just the opposite sort of way…to divide…to give some greater honor than others…to use human created social constructs, not God created constructs, to give power to a few over many…to give some people power to determine who is good and who is bad…who is out and who is in…who belongs to God and who doesn’t. Yet, Jesus’ great love…that brings healing…even new life…to these four very different people…whose only real connection is that they have all been loved and touched by Jesus…is intended to remind us that God’s love is greater…is more expansive…than human love. For, God loves and desires a life-giving, meaning making, healing relationship with each and all of us…without hesitation…without distinction.
And such love for each and all is, further, intended to bring us both hope and a challenge. The hope is discovered in knowing that God’s love is utterly unconditional and that God will never let us go. Thus, wherever we find ourselves in life, God will have us and hold us from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from before time and forever. I believe with every fiber of my being that such hope rooted in such a profound love can move any mountain. And, the challenge is as simple and as hard as this…as those created in God’s own image…we are called to love…all people…all people…without hesitation…without distinction…in just the same way.
Now, I am yet to mention the second part of my thesis statement on this passage…all wounds. Which are actually those mountains that I did just mentioned that God’s love in our life can move. And, I say all wounds for they are, indeed, different for all people. They are legion. And, it is important to note that no one goes through life without them. They are at times physical, like the woman in our reading, the result of accident, disease or illness. They are social, also like the woman, who has suffered isolations and rejection…tossed out of her family and community for something she cannot control. They are the grief that comes from losing a loved one like the synagogue leader who kneels before Jesus desperately pleading for help. Perhaps like a corrupt first century tax collector, our wounds are self-inflicted…that is the self-loathing and shame that comes when someone owns the fact that their gain came from taking advantage of another. And, then, like the girl, there is our most ancient foe, death itself…that seeks to strike the final wound…that seeks to take it all away. And, it is into all of this suffering, our suffering, that Jesus enters in…not asking for sacrifice…but offering mercy…inviting us to follow him…going with us, especially into dark and difficult places…reminding us to take heart…to be courageous…reminding us of the power that the faith alive in us has to conquer despair…taking our hand…as he did to that little girl…to lift us up out of the grave and into our forever life. God heals all wounds.
In this relatively brief passage, found in only about the first third of Matthew’s gospel, we see the end already written. We get a glimpse of Easter…love conquering sin, social disorder, disease, even, death. We see the blessed assurance that God loves all people…God heals all wounds. Amen.