Matthew 9 Sermon

From David Paton Williams

Why did people put Jesus to death?
Why did someone whose life was so full of love
provoke so much fear and hatred 
that others wanted him dead?
 
There are various answers to that, such the unique claims he made about who he was and also the threat he posed to the whole temple-based religious system.
 
But from early days in his ministry - as the gospels make clear - one of the biggest threats he posed was simply through his love.
 
We see that in our reading from Matthew.
Jesus eats with those who other people snubbed or rejected - tax collectors and sinners; 
he is touched by and brings healing to a woman with chronic bleeding,
and he takes a dead girl by the hand and restores her to life.
 
In each story the people involved discovered the reality and power of God's love for them. What a wonderful thing that must have been! But that love was also about refusing to collude with things in his society that excluded or dehumanised people and added to their pain.
 
And so he also provoked a negative, even hostile, response from the Pharisees. Eating with sinners, touching, or being touched by, an unclean person such as a woman during her period, or a dead body - in each of these, Jesus crossed a line and made himself "unclean" in the eyes of his society; 
a lawbreaker in the eyes of the Pharisees.
We could say that Jesus was comforting the disturbed but disturbing the comfortable.
 
By his active, line-crossing compassion, he was rejecting the whole religious system of keeping apart from sinful or unclean people, of staying safe in a supposedly pure, supposedly moral and godly environment.
 
And that was a direct challenge to people like the Pharisees, 
what they believed and how they lived - challenging them to go way beyond their own comfort zone. And it would sow the seeds of conflict that would eventually lead to the cross.
 
But it was also going to be a challenge for his own followers after the resurrection. As the early Jewish Christians took the gospel into predominantly Gentile lands - people and societies that were regarded as unclean - what were the implications of the gospel? 
 
Was it acceptable to have fellowship with people who had been thought of as unclean sinners?  Matters as basic as whether you could go into a gentile home or eat a meal with them, threatened to tear the early church apart almost before it had begun. 
 
In the Guardian, there's a column called "Dine across the Divide" where people with very different views have a meal together. Well the early church asked, could they "Dine across the religious divide"? Or indeed - was there really a divide at all? 
 
Some of the most important passages in the book of Acts and the letters of St Paul are about this issue. And it was only because, led by the Spirit, the early church answered that question 
with a "yes" that the gospel spread and we are here today
The whole history of our faith flows from the willingness of those first Christians to cross the line, to be in relationship with people others saw as unacceptable. 
It is a faith based on a Jesus who comforted the disturbed and so, inevitably, disturbed the comfortable.
 
A faith lived out by people who didn't play it safe but to put faith into practice - stepping out, trusting that God wanted them to lead them to new places, new people, new thoughts and words and actions.
 
But maybe that shouldn't surprise us, given that the whole Judaeo-Christian story begins with Abraham being called 
to leave all that he had known - his society, culture, religion,
and set off on a journey into the unknown.
 
If we read the rest of Abraham's story he doesn't come across as a bold risk-taker. So setting off into the unknown must have felt like going way beyond his comfort zone.
 
As Bilbo Baggins said to his young nephew, 
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. 
You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
 
Stepping out of our door, crossing the line, going out of our comfort zone. These things speak of a God who is not simply there to make us feel better (though that is certainly part of it, when we need it) not simply about finding a comfortable head space in a troubled world.
 
Rather, God calls us, challenges us, to live out the kind of love that, yes, will bless others, but that might also unwittingly disturb some people, or even provoke fear or hostility.
 
Another way of putting this might be to tweak the words of President Kennedy: "Don't simply ask what Jesus can do for you, ask what you can do for Jesus.'
 
Jesus does do wonderful things for us - bringing us into a deep relationship with God, from which flow forgiveness, healing, and growth, with the all the resources of his Spirit. 
 
But he does that not simply to "get us into heaven" but so that we are able to step out in faith, to go in his name, and to make a difference in the world.
 
And that difference might be as simple as starting up a conversation with a stranger; or going to someone who seems to be in need of help. It might be standing out from the crowd by refusing to collude in slagging off of other people or groups. 
It might be standing up for ourselves by being politely but firmly assertive. It might be letting people know we are a Christian.
It might be taking on a new role. Or doing that thing that you always meant to, but something - maybe fear - has held you back
 
Whatever it is, it is likely to be something where there is a little voice saying go on, and another voice saying, no don't bother. Stay where you are.
 
And lest we should think that this is a message only for someone younger than us, let me tell you about Sylvia.

She was a member of our church in Edinburgh, and at the age of 95 she offered to help with our children's group. 
When we sent in her form for a criminal records check they sent it back saying we had made a mistake about her date of birth.
 
As long as we live, God always calls us onwards and outwards. Whether to something small and everyday 
or bigger and more demanding.
 
To sum up: Jesus said "I will be with you always" 
- words that offer us deep comfort and reassurance in our times of need. 
 
But he also said: "After I am raised up I will go before you" - words that call us to step out in faith, to go beyond our comfort zone and to follow where he leads.