Mercy!
Psalm 33:1-12; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Kurt Swihart Presenting
So let’s start here: a former dead girl, a bleeding woman, tax collectors & sinners: all sitting in the front pews this morning. They make a lot of racket, chattering with one another, a cacophony of voices tell the stories over and over and over again.
What do you do and what do you say? (Pause)
One religious leader told them to come back on another day, no healing allowed on the Sabbath. A few others were like ‘go to the back of the church, don’t make such a show of it and BE quiet!’ Some were quite upset with the senior religious leader who knelt in front of this guy and begged him to come raise his daughter from her deathbed. Some focused on this Jesus man himself - He’s unclean! He touched them, this gathering of misfits, certainly not like us. Doesn’t He know the rules? These religious boundaries are set in stone to keep us from defilement, a transgression of the law or at least the social covenants we live by. And here He is flaunting our customs, right in front of our faces! Heaven forbid!
There was this dinner party they all keep going on about, too. Jesus and His entourage are walking through Jerusalem talking theology. All of a sudden Jesus stops, looks at the toll booth and says, “Hey, what’s your name? Matthew? Come, follow Me.” And Matthew does, just like that. Can’t imagine what the Romans thought - his collaboration no longer funding their many tax accounts and lining his own pockets. The booth now empty, people don’t have to pay. Quick, find another one willing to sell their soul for a buck.
The gang decide its time for dinner and they sit down together, now tax collectors and sinners and women, who must be of the night, all gathered around the crowded table. There is real joy in the air, a sense of celebration, nee freedom. Patriarchy is dismantled for the moment at the dinner table, of all places. The religious elite, keeping an eye on this miracle worker, gather outside. What’s he up to now?
“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice; I’m here for the sinners not the self-proclaimed righteous…’ He echoes Hosea, a prophet 400 years before, well-known to the scholars of the Law. He looks right at them through the open window as He critiques their judgment. It is in this very moment, first, a teaching about mercy, then, an enactment of mercy, for the senior religious leader, bursts in, falls to his knees and begs Jesus for help. The dinner guests are quiet, watching carefully. So are the elite. Suddenly, Jesus gets up and heads out.
Just at that moment a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, suffering shame, labeled ‘unclean’, has enough moxie to reach out her hand and touch the fringe of His cloak. Wow! She feels it deep in her gut - the flow has finally stopped. Mercy!
Jesus looks at her with deep compassion on His face and declares: “Take heart, have courage, for your faith has made you well.” It is an extraordinary affirmation of this woman, who functions as a stand-in for all women everywhere, for all time. In this moment, the hierarchy falls away, shattered by the one who will first touch death Himself, in order to destroy it for us. His sacrifice absorbs death, His power redeems it.
As if this isn’t enough, He goes on to the deathbed, professional mourners gathered round already. He lays his hand on top of the hand of the girl, gently, whose father loves her so much, he humbled himself in front of tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes. “Rise up, dear one, rise up.” As He will on the third day and we will on the last.
The crowd, missing a chance to display their skills of mourning, mock Jesus, like, ‘really? You think you can bring someone back? Revive them? Ha. He’s a fool.’ Ushered out, its the dad, the daughter and Jesus. She gets up, falls into her daddy’s arms and he cries with thanksgiving and joy. What was lost is found, what was dead is risen. Mercy!
Now what?
Well, the word spreads, Jesus gets more and more attention, the religious leaders and the politicians get more anxious and thus the conversation of taking Him out begins. We don’t like the Roman Empire but we are also not sure of God’s empire, either!
Everywhere you look there is disruption. Social structures, gender roles, foreigners, every thing is up for grabs in the kingdom. The love and graciousness of God is so overwhelming we cannot hardly find the words to name it. And some of us have a really hard time believing that God is actually present right here right now. When Jesus says, “Lo I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth” we’re like sure, okay, no, it’s not real. We are just like the disciples, who’s constant attitude and behavior suggest belief and unbelief reside right next door to each other.
It is the full recognition of our place at the crowded table, that is, we are tax collectors and sinners, women of the night, Gentiles, outsiders, we too in need of mercy. No pretty good people here, rather, the misfits, every single one of us. Its not about self-confidence, its about rightful recognition that nothing we have, nothing we are, nothing we do, is created by us. Everything comes from God, even us, made from the dirt, given breath, redeemed through the cross, and brought before the mercy seat of Jesus. This is what the bleeding woman, the dad and the revived girl witness to - full reclamation of our humanity, saved from the outside in. Not our works, not our behaviors, not our service, not our attitudes, nothing - simply a generous and loving God, who goes all the way to touch death. What kind of God is this who would sacrifice Himself?
This is where our thinking and our language fails us! We cannot plumb the depths of this God, who operates in such a flat out crazy way to bring us into His light and love. We try metaphors, we try analogies, we try formulas, we try making rules of what you have to believe to get in. It doesn’t matter in the end. Our response? Like the dad, we fall to our knees in great humility. Mercy!