Exploring My Strange Bible - A Jesus-Centered Community - Gospel of Matthew Part 15

Episode Date: August 6, 2018

Today we look at a story in Matthew chapter 9. Each story makes a unique claim on Jesus’s identity, about his character, and the kind of communities that Jesus came to create. Jesus has brought together a diverse and complicated group of people around his Kingdom of God announcement. He’s labeled a rebel by the Jewish community, but today we are going to explore the method and mindset that is underneath Jesus’ mission of creating these really unique Kingdom of God communities.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, in this episode, we're going to continue exploring the gospel according to Matthew. We are considering today a story from Matthew chapter 9.

As with all these stories, Matthew isn't just collecting together interesting things that Jesus said or did on any given day. Each story is making a unique claim about Jesus' identity, about his character, or in this case, the story we are looking at in this episode, it is making a claim about the kind of communities that Jesus came to create in the kingdom of God. Jesus, as we are going to see, brought together an extremely diverse and complicated group of people around his kingdom of God announcement. This is a story where Jesus is actually being labeled by outsiders as a rebel, as somebody who's undermining the stability of Jewish society because he's gathering together tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes, and all kinds of other undesirables.

What we're going to do is actually consider the method and the mindset that is underneath Jesus's mission in creating these really unique kingdom of God communities, and we're going to consider the implications of the communities that he started for what we mean by the word church today. This was a really important teaching for me personally and kind of marked a new development and new depth in my own understanding of what the church is according to Jesus. So I hope this is helpful for you. I hope it stimulates lots of reflection and questions and motivates you to keep learning what it means to follow Jesus in our world today. So there you go, Matthew chapter 9 verses 9 through 17.

Let's dive in and world today. So there you go, Matthew chapter 9, verses 9 through 17. Let's dive in and learn together. In this story, here we go again, just another punch in the gut and mess with everything you thought you believed, you know, and that's what this story does. Today's Palm Sunday, so Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the donkey. There's all these crowds with him from Galilee, and they're excited, they're thrilled that Jesus is showing up in Jerusalem for Passover week. There are a number of people in the city of Jerusalem that are not thrilled. They are actually really scandalized by Jesus.

Who are these folks in Jerusalem? It's a pretty small crew, actually, but it's the religious leaders. And in that group are people who feature in our story here today, the Pharisees, who are kind of, they're both religious and political leaders among Jesus' culture, the people of Israel, but also the leaders of Jerusalem and over the temple. And they know about Jesus. They know about the movement that he started. And Palm Sunday begins a heated debate between Jesus and those leaders in Jerusalem that lead up to his arrest and crucifixion and so on. How did that all get started? Where did that conflict begin? And where

it began was way back in these earlier stories right here, where Jesus, he's on his mission, he's announcing the kingdom of God, the story of how God has come to us in Jesus, and he's taking back his world, so to speak, from what we've done to the place, and he's beginning a new family of people around Jesus. Jesus is forming a new family around himself, people who are responding to his grace, to his call to repent and to become new humans by following him. And they are scandalized. The leaders are scandalized by this. And so here's yet one more tension and conflict that Jesus has with the current leadership of his own people. that Jesus has with the current leadership of his own people.

And last week, it was about, if you were here with us, it was about Jesus forgiving this guy's sins, which was blasphemous to them, because only the God of Israel can forgive somebody's sins. So there it was about Jesus making these exalted claims about himself and what he had the authority to do and who he was. And today, if you're following, as Tom read the story, the conflict's different, isn't it? Today, it's not so much about a claim of who Jesus is,

it involves that, but it's more about the result. Jesus is going around starting a movement of people, and the religious leaders are really uncomfortable about who Jesus is including in his circle of followers. Did you see that right there? Who's Jesus hanging out with? So tax collectors and sinners from the point of view of these Pharisees. And for them, this is deeply scandalous,

that somebody who has so much momentum and reputation and leadership momentum would begin attracting these really questionable kinds of people. And so what they're offended at is not just who Jesus claims to be, but also they're offended at the kind of community that he's creating. Because he says it's the kingdom of God, but then it includes all the wrong people, right, from their point of view. then it includes all the wrong people, right, from their point of view. And so really what this story is about is about how the community that Jesus forms around himself doesn't fit their categories and how they think about what it means to be the people of God. Jesus is introducing a whole new way of thinking about who's in and who's out and what it means to be a part of his family. And it's deeply scandalous. And just sharing personally, this story has really

messed with me over the last number of years. And it has forced me to continue to just keep asking again, again, again, what are we doing right here? What's happening right now? What is this event? And what is this community? And not just what we're doing on Sundays, but like what we're doing all throughout the week, because people gather in homes all over the city, and people are meeting up, and you know, hundreds and thousands of little connections of cups of coffee, and sharing their lives together. What are we doing and what's happening? And this story, it seems to me, is about that. It's about challenging and redefining our perceptions of what it means to be a church community

around the person of Jesus. And so before we kind of go back and work through the story a little more slowly, I want to give us a new framework, give us some questions for asking this story, and I think seeing the really powerful implications of what comes out of a story like this. First, let me show you a picture of a guy wearing a sweet tweed jacket. Paul Hebert. You've almost certainly never heard of him, and that's okay. There's no particular reason why you would. He passed away, as you can see, a number of years ago. Paul Hebert,

a super interesting guy. He grew up in India, in a pretty small town in northern India. His parents were missionaries there, and he was a part of a missionary community that was reaching out to the towns and villages in northern India. And as you can see, I mean, he was born there and grew up there his formative years. So this was in the 30s and the 40s. And Paul Hebert had a deep love and devotion to Jesus from his childhood. You can see it come out in his writings. But as he moved to the States to go to college and to go to school, and he was brilliant. He was a math and a physics geek, but then he got degrees in anthropology and he became a cultural anthropologist and he taught at lots of colleges. He was just one of those type of people, right? Brilliant and encyclopedic mind.

But as he reflected on his experience growing up, and as he reflected on the type of community that was created as he grew up in that missionary community, he began to become a little self-critical, quite self-critical, actually. Not about Jesus. He loved Jesus. But about the way that this missionary community went about presenting Jesus and forming a community. And essentially, he looked back on lots of different people that he knew who, you know, were not, you know, Americans living there, but people who, like, were from there, Indians.

you know, Americans living there, but people who like were from there, Indians, and people who, he knew that Jesus was interesting and attractive to them, but the idea of becoming a Christian was totally repulsive to them. And he talks about how it actually had very little to do with Jesus. It had to do with the community. And that for them, becoming a Christian from a primarily Hindu culture, and again, all their calendar and religious holidays are shaped according to honoring different gods and so on. And so, for Indians coming from that culture, to become a Christian meant not just to follow Jesus, but actually like ditching all of that cultural heritage. Not celebrating those holidays anymore, maybe even dressing differently, coming into the Christian community and like

dressing in ways or singing types of music that Westerners like imported, you know, that whole, you guys with me here? It's kind of this critique of the Western missionary movement that it was just importing Western version of Christianity as much as Jesus, right? And so he became kind of self-critical about this and he never ditched his faith. But what he started to do was to write about what are there different ways

of forming Christian communities around Jesus that have a different relationship to the culture around them. That instead of fully merging Jesus with a certain cultural expression of it, to really just make sure it's Jesus that people are being presented with. And he, okay, here's where, this is going to be abstract for like five minutes. Hang, work with me. I swear if you work with me, it'll pay off. You guys with me? Okay, work with me. All right. So he, he was a math geek and he used an analogy from math theory that I don't get at all. Oh man, I've tried, I've gone to Wikipedia and like I, I barely made it through algebra one. So I really have no, I have no idea. I know, I understand how he applied

the analogies. There are a few of you who will get what he talked about. But apparently in math theory, there are different ways of talking about the identity of a number or of an equation. That's the last time I'm going to say that word, equation. But he was asking the question of how do you know what something is? How do you define identity? So just think about, stop thinking about numbers, start thinking about you as a human being. How do you know who you are? Who are you? We all have very different ways of answering that question. Well, from what perspective or from what aspect of my identity? Well, from what perspective or from what aspect of my identity? And he talks about how there's two very different ways of answering the question, who am I?

What group do I belong to? And so one way that's derived from math theory is you define something by a bounded set, he called it, a bounded set. And a bounded set is a group of somethings that all have a very clear set of attributes or character traits that make them all the same in that way and that make them all belong to this category. So the easiest one, you know, you have a family reunion. Who gets invited to the family reunion? Right. Okay. That was easy, wasn't it? So what does that mean? Well, actually, that means a couple things. So it could mean that by blood, right, lineage, ancestry, you belong to that family, and you share the last name.

Or it could be that you are somebody who's married into that family, and that could go a number of different ways. There's actually a few different ways that people could end up in the family. But once you're in the circle, that's the defining trait, is through marriage or through bloodline, you have the attribute of belonging

to this group of people or whatever. And, you know, nothing against people who don't, right? Outside, they're just not in the family. Your neighbor's a great person. They're not getting invited to the family reunion, you know, nothing against people who don't, right, outside. They're just not in the family. Your neighbor's a great person. They're not getting invited to the family reunion, you know, and it's not, it just is. So this line is very clear who's in and who's not, who's in and who's out, and it's what he calls static character traits. It's just like you're just, you're married in blood, you're just in the family.

It doesn't require you to do anything, really. And he said, as he began to reflect on his growing up, he realized that this was a great description of the kind of Christian community that he grew up in. Many people's perception of a church community or their idea about what's going on is that maybe I was born into it, my parents were followers of Jesus, or from a very early age. And then how do you define who you are? And what most church, or many church communities do, and Hebert was reflecting on his own experience growing up,

is that this set of boundary lines was a really kind of clear list that everyone agreed on. So it was about having had some memorable personal encounter where you realized your own flaws and sin and failures and that you needed Jesus and that you said a certain kind of prayer that reflected that need for Jesus. And then after that event, there's kind of a lifestyle of habits or practices and that's connected to a certain kind of moral calling or behavior. There's prayer and reading your Bible and attending the gatherings and so on. And so those form very clear, identifiable attributes. Here's someone, here's how I know I'm in the community, here's how I know I'm out of the community. But he said, if you look at church history, it's never this simple.

It's never that simple. What church communities almost always do in any given culture is we add, we make the line thicker. We keep adding things to it. And what we tend to add are things that are very unique to that specific culture and place. And so for some communities, for example, in Europe or whatever, consuming alcohol, not about getting drunk, just enjoying a great glass of scotch or something like that, that doesn't determine whether you are in or out of the community. But in some American Christian communities, absolutely. Don't drink, smoke, or chew or hang with people who do, right? And that becomes just as important and just as central to identifying who you are.

How do I know that I'm a follower of Jesus? Well, I don't do that, right? And so, and he said, some of those things might be based in a teaching of Jesus. The problem is we tend to add things that aren't. Did Jesus ever talk about smoking? You know, like, what do you do about, but for some people, smoking is really how you, is one of those borderline issues. Are you with about smoking? You know, like what do you do about it? But for some people, smoking is really one of those borderline issues. Are you with me here? You guys know what I'm talking about. So he believed that this had great strength. It's clear.

You know what to do. You know who's in. You know who's out. You know who's in, you know who's out. Hebert believed, however, that this way of thinking about who am I as a Christian, I mean, essentially, his point was that it's actually, I think Jesus would be bummed. And if you read the stories about Jesus, it actually doesn't seem like this is how Jesus thought about what he was starting. It seems like Jesus intended something different. And as Jesus, as Hebert meditated on these stories about Jesus, he used

another analogy from math theory. And things don't find their identity from having a list of attributes that they've accomplished that mark them as being in or out. Instead, a centered set is where you have a very clear center. In this case, it's the person of Jesus, JC. And in a centered set, how do you know who you are? How do you know I'm a Christian? I'm a follower of Jesus. And in centered sets, it's not about a static list of I have accomplished these or my life exhibits these attributes. He says it's very simple. The question is not are you in or are you out? The question is about movement. Am I moving towards the center or am I moving away from the center? So think about another example, if like the family reunion is a good one here.

So how many of you play a musical instrument? Quite a number of us. How many of you would adopt the identity musician? Far fewer, far fewer. Now what's that about? That's interesting, isn't it? So how do you define who's a musician? Do you have to make money out of it? Do you have to play a certain amount of hours? Do you have to play reggae? Do you have to perform? What if you perform but never get paid? What if you were really good in your 20s and you're living off the fumes in your 50s? Like, wow, how do you define? And so in Hebert's mind,

being, I am a guitar player, what does that mean? That the community of guitar players really revolves around just two questions. Am I moving toward the center, which means I keep pursuing it, I keep growing and changing. I would never say that I've arrived,

or I may never play a concert in my life, but I love it, and I do it, and I keep moving at it. Or am I moving away from the center? I hardly ever play. I don't know. I used to. I was actually played in a band, you know, in my 20s, like everybody did, you know, and then not anymore. And you may be a band, you know, in my 20s, like everybody did, you know, and then not anymore. So, and you may be super talented guitar player, but you haven't picked it up in 10 years. And so in reality, like you're not pursuing it, you're totally moving away.

But you may have just picked one up, a guitar, and you're so into it and you're like, you're horrible. Nobody wants to listen to you play, but whatever, you're moving, you're moving towards the center. And in this kind of community, you find your identity. You have people who have all kinds of relationships to the center. And it's not static about have you arrived and do you have this list of attributes that's true about you. It's just a simple question. Are you moving towards the center? Are you moving away from the center? And that defines one's identity. And so applied to a church community,

you can have people who were born into it and who, they're just so raised in it as a culture, the behaviors and the way you live as a Christian and so on in that particular church setting, like it's not hard for them. It's just what you do. It's just how they grew up. But actually, in their hearts, like, they don't actually care about Jesus, and they're not moving towards him with intention and commitment.

But you could have somebody who is really far away, and they totally get invited, and they're like, forget Jesus. He's lame. But then you could also have somebody who gets invited or attracted to Jesus and they actually may not even be part of a church community and want to be, but they're on the way, right? They're on a journey. And there's something that maybe they don't even tell anybody

because they're kind of embarrassed about it, but they're stoked on Jesus. And when they hear about him, they love him and they want to move towards him and there's something that Jesus is doing inside of them. Is that a person a Christian? Do you see the complexity here? The strength of this is it's clear who's in and who's out. How do you know who's in and who's out here? Do you draw a line like around this? I did that at the last service and it was a mess, so I'm not going to do it again.

But it's messy. In terms of its social reality, this is messy. Hebert believed that this way of thinking about things is more true to the kind of community Jesus was trying to create. Why did he think that? Because of stories like this one. You guys with me?

Let's go back to the story and just ask the question. If you were to play out the implications of what Jesus is doing in this story, which one of these visions is more consistent with what Jesus is doing? Let's just dive right back in. Matthew chapter 9, verse 9. So Jesus, he went on from there. He had just healed and forgiven the sins of the paralyzed man that was what we explored last week

so he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth follow me he told him and so Matthew got up and followed him any questions? It's just so matter of fact, right? So what, so that's cool. This is not the first time this has happened.

But though it is unique, Jesus on only one other occasion intentionally moves towards somebody, like moves into their world and addresses them and tells them to follow him. That was the fisherman all the way back at the beginning in chapter 2. Other than that, Jesus hasn't done anything like this before. So this raises questions of like, who is this guy? Why would Jesus intentionally move towards and bring this guy into the community of disciples. That's one thing. This is, by the way, the Matthew connected to the authorship and the composition of the book of Matthew.

The Gospel according to Matthew that's sitting in your lap right now. It also raises the question of like what was going on inside of Matthew? Like clearly there's some, as we're going to see, here's somebody who's like way on the margins of considered who's a part of, would ever be a part of Jesus' community. We're going to see from the Pharisees' point of view, he's on the bad list. Like he's way out here. And so even though he's far away, there's something that we're not told that was stirring and going on in him. He had surely been hearing stories and reports about Jesus.

Everybody had. And Jesus was so compelling to him. The moment he has a personal connection to Jesus, it just overwhelms him and he's just, I'm all in, you know? And it doesn't say he leaped over the table, you know? But you kind of imagine something like that. So who is this guy? And what was going on inside of him? And this is awesome. Holy cow, you guys, this something like that. So who is this guy, and what was going on inside of him? And this is awesome. Holy cow, you guys, this is so awesome. So what does Matthew do for a living? He's sitting at a tax collector booth because he is a tax collector.

So what does that mean? And some of you might have some familiarity, at least to know this is not a compliment to call somebody this in Jesus' day. So he's a tax collector, which means he represents, as he sits in that little booth, he's a Jewish man sitting in a tax collector's booth, and that itself is a little picture painting from most Jewish people's point of view of everything that's wrong with their world right then. So, because what Matthew represents is he represents the presence of a military occupation

of an empire whose capital city is way, way, way, way far away distant, but yet they have full military strategic control over the land that Jewish people view as their ancestral land, right? In the land of Israel. And so you have the Romans, and how are they viewed among most religious, devout Jews? Well, they build good roads. Have you ever seen The Life of Ryan, Monty Python, the debate?

Well, they gave us roads, you know, and clean water, and they get into this whole debate or whatever because they benefited in some ways. But how did they benefit? They benefited because the Roman tax system was grinding Israelites into poverty. And what's why Jesus' parables are filled with people's stories about debts and land and so on is because this was the day-to-day reality. The taxation system was such a heavy burden, it was grinding these people into poverty. So here's what the Romans did. This really, it's why the empire lasted so long. They knew that they could keep subject peoples pacified

if instead of constantly importing people with different skin colors, speak a different language to come rule directly, what if you just buy off Jewish people and you make them puppet rulers in their own lands and it's like, you know, hey, it's our

own people, you know, but really they're just puppets. And so they're king, Herod, puppet of the Romans. They have Roman soldiers everywhere, but they hire Jewish mercenary armies. And then they hire people like Matthew. Matthew. So, you know, there's not, I've tried to think of other ways to describe. He's mafia. That's what he is. Let's just say it the way they would, he's mafia. He's a first century mafia because he's sold out to the powers that be where might makes right. And instead of trying to resist and keep the traditions of his

people and insulate themselves against Greek and Roman influence, he just sold the farm basically, right? And here's what he gets to do. He works for the Romans. So like there's some fishermen coming up the road and they caught 500 fish or whatever. And so he gets to lay down a big tax on that. Here's what Caesar Augustus is going to take from that. Oh, and there's also a service charge for my services, right? It's like the ATM thing, 350, that you get when you use the, what's that about?

It's the service charge. That's what it is. It's the tax collectors. Anyway, so that's what he gets to do. And here was the thing is that the tax collectors, like they regulated how much profit they skim off the top. Is it 5%, is it 7% or whatever? It was a deeply corrupt system.

That's my point. He's rich and he's corrupt. Nobody likes, do the Romans like this guy? No, he just, what do we know about this guy? Money talks for him. Like, that chooses where his values go. His money talks. And how do Jewish people view somebody like Matthew? So here, let me just, let's get very concrete. Let me show you a picture. Oh, sorry, let's go to the next one real quick here. Let me show you a picture. Let's go to the next one real quick here. Let me show you a picture of the kind of currency Matthew is using. We're really geeking out here this morning,

but this is really fascinating. So these are coins being used in the land of Israel in the first century. They actually post-date Jesus by a little bit, but they make the point. They make the point. On the left is the facing coin, and that's there you go, Caesar Vespasian, the imperial lord of the world, right? And then on the right side, you see a picture that says the victory of Augustus. Augustus is another way of referring to Caesar. And who's the guy on the top there? That's a Roman soldier. And who does he have his boot on? A Jewish man. So just stop. Just stop. These are the coins that Matthew demands from you that you pay your taxes with. These are the coins that Matthew gives you your change

and says, have a nice day. Right? I mean, do you see how heated this is? And this is not just about religion and spirituality, what Jesus is doing. There are real social realities and political social implications to what Jesus is doing.

When he walks up to a tax collector's booth, and he addresses Matthew, he just says, follow me. And Matthew, it doesn't say he leaps over the table. Something's going on inside of him, where he's a part of this system, and he's participating in the extortion of his own kinsmen, his own Jewish people. And there's something going on inside of him that he may be as far to the edge, right,

of a devout religious Jew as possible, but there's something going on inside of him that Jesus moves right towards him, tells him, follow me, and he just immediately, he's moving towards Jesus. And he actually becomes a part of the closest circle of people around Jesus. So let's back up and let me, if you just flip your page to the beginning of chapter 10 or just read it right here on the screen.

So this even gets even more interesting. Holy cow. So here, Jesus had a huge, huge circle of disciples, but he chose 12 specifically as a symbol of the renewed, restored Israel that his kingdom of God movement was beginning. And we're given a list of their names right here at the beginning of chapter 10. And you might think, oh great, a list of names. No, dude, this is where the action is right here. So here are the names of the 12 apostles. They

became the core leaders of the Jesus movement after his death and resurrection. So first, you got Simon, who's called Peter, his brother Andrew. You have James, the son of Zebedee, his brother John. Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, who this story's about. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus. Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. There's 12 people named here. Three get additional information about their background

or things that they did. Do you see that there? Just three. And so I've highlighted them in yellow. And actually, all three of those are relevant to this whole deal right here. So, Matthew's a tax collector. Good guy or bad guy? He's a bad guy, right? In terms of from everybody else's point of view. But there's something so radical happens in him when he hears the call of Jesus, and when Jesus initiates inviting him to become a part,

he just totally surrenders himself. Also, in the circle of Jesus' closest followers, look at the guy on the bottom line. There's Simon the Zealot. Do you see that? Now, zealot, that's not a word that we really use. Or maybe if we do use it, we, I think, use it in a way similarly that they did, which means a religious fanatic. But in their day, it wasn't just a religious fanatic. It was a religious fanatic with a sword who's ready to spill Roman blood. So a part of being devout to the Torah and to the traditions of the people of Israel and to the food laws and Sabbath is the dedication to the freedom and liberation of the covenant people of God from foreign oppression. And so there formed a movement that was totally steaming in Jesus's day. And just a few decades

after Jesus's death and resurrection, it formed into a full-on guerrilla war. There was a movement. They were Robin Hood. Just think Robin Hood. And you got it. Minus the tights, probably. But just think Robin Hood. And they called themselves the Zealots because they had zeal,

just like the ancient priest Phineas from the Book of Numbers. Remember that story? He had zeal and used violence as a way of defending the boundary lines against God's people. It's an interesting story. And so here you have Simon, who Matthew's former life is mafia, right? Working with the Romans. Simon's former life, before Jesus called him and he followed Jesus, his life beforehand is about killing Romans and people who associate themselves with Romans and people who are pawns in the hands of the Romans.

Now, just stop and ask yourself the question, who is going to have a really hard time getting along in Jesus' circle? Are you with me here? Do you think this was unintentional that Jesus invited both of these people to be a part of his closest circle? Nothing Jesus did was unintentional. It was all symbolic and intentional.

Everything he did had meaning and significance. So what's he doing? According to devout, committed Jews, committed to the freedom of their people and devotion to the Torah and the God of Israel, of those two guys there, who's on the inside? Simon. Who's on the outside? So what is Jesus doing? He's picking specifically two people who, according to their way of organizing identity,

their way of discerning who is in and who is out of Jesus' covenant family, Jesus deliberately picks two people who couldn't be more opposite ends of the spectrum, and he calls them both to follow him. Do you see that? Do you see what Jesus is doing? He's so awesome, right? He's so awesome, right? He's so awesome. What he's saying, he's redefining what it means to be a part of the family of God.

It doesn't have to do with traits that you're born with. It doesn't have to do with your list of religious accomplishments. It actually doesn't even have to do with how horrible of a person you've been in the past. All that matters is the fact that right now in this moment, Jesus offers you the invitation to follow him and to become a part of his family, not because of anything that you've done, but just because he's that kind of person, because he just exudes grace and welcome and invitation. And this is connected to his mission to announce the forgiveness of sins and to defeat evil. And all the stories are kind of starting to come together. But here's another facet of who Jesus is. He's inviting.

And look at the third guy, Judas. How close to Jesus is Judas once he's in that circle? I mean, he's like as close as you could get. And we find out, though nobody even knew, Jesus is Judas once he's in that circle. I mean, he's like as close as you could get. And we find out, though nobody even knew, what direction is Judas really headed. He's booking it away from Jesus. He was right close with him.

I mean, he was with him the last night, right? He was one of the closest, from the outside, here's somebody closer to Jesus than anybody else. But actually, he's further away from Jesus than anybody you could imagine. Jesus is making a very powerful statement here about what it means to belong to his family. And it's scandalous. If this is clean and nice, right, its liability is that it kind of tends toward legalism and we add on things that aren't really a part of the core identity. But it's, I mean, it's clear. At least it's nice and neat.

You know, you know who's in and you know who's out. This has a crystal clear center. Are you moving towards Jesus or are you moving away from Jesus? But the result of a centered set is social messiness. Social messiness, which is exactly what happens. Let's keep going. Look at what happens. Verse 10.

So while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, so that's interesting, Jesus is not only not bothered by the fact that Matthew used to be this kind of person from their point of view, but now that Matthew has responded to his call, he fully associates and identifies, let's just go to your house. Which in our day, even to offer somebody to come into your house or go to someone else's house for dinner, that's a statement, right? That you are willing to associate and identify with each other. In Jesus' culture, it's even more so. Who you eat with is a statement of who you identify

and associate yourself with. So he goes into, this is great, you guys. Look, he goes to have this dinner party at Matthew's house, and then who also comes? Who comes? All of Matthew's friends. Do you see that right there? Tax collectors and sinners, and they're all coming and eating with him and with the disciples. How uncomfortable is Simon the Zealot at this dinner party? You know what I'm saying? He's just like, oh, more of them. Like, what do you do? So stop and think about the dynamics of that dinner party. Really stop and think about it. So you have Matthew, who he's come to a place, he's moving towards Jesus.

And he's come to a place where like, I can't justify participating in that vocation anymore. There's too many compromises that conflict with me responding to Jesus' grace and allowing him to change and transform my life. I can't be in that work environment and do this. So he's got to opt out. He leaves. But he still has all these relationships

and all these friends with people who are still in that profession. And who knows? Who knows where they're at? Maybe some of them are just like, cool, dinner party with Jesus. I haven't seen him up close, you know, so they want to come, and then there's other people who are like, Matthew, are just like, dude, he's amazing, I want to get around him more, you have all these different kinds of people,

and from the outside looking in, what does this look like? It looks like Jesus having a dinner party with the mafia and the slime. Are you with me here? This looks really, really unprofessional on Jesus' part. But apparently Jesus, he sees himself as redefining what it even means to be a part of his family. And so Jesus is not threatened by being around people who they know what Jesus teaches. They know that he wouldn't agree with decisions that they're making. But at the same time, they want to be around him.

Just stop and think. Stop. These are people who know that Jesus disagrees about choices that they're making, but they still want to be around Jesus. When does that happen? Really, when does that happen?

There's something about Jesus, the grace, the integrity, the generosity, but also the truthfulness that people are compelled to be around him, even if they're tax collectors and sinners. They know what his teachings are, but they compelled to be around him, even if they're tax collectors and sinners. And they know what his teachings are, but they want to be around him. And for the Pharisees, they come undone.

Because Jesus, he's like a social deviant. He's undermining their sense of social order by doing this. So look at their response, verse 11. When the Pharisees see this, they ask his disciples. Isn't that interesting? They like, don't go to Jesus. They ask the disciples, what is your teacher doing eating with these tax collectors and sinners? And on hearing this, Jesus is like, you're talking to them, you're talking to me, this kind of thing, right? So he says, listen, it's not healthy people who need a doctor, it's people who are sick. Go and learn

what this means. And he quotes from the prophet Hosea, chapter 6. The God of Israel says, look, I'm looking for people who are shaped by mercy, not just people who know how to perform religious rituals, but people whose hearts are about love and mercy for others. And then Jesus says, I haven't come to call the righteous, but I've come to call sinners. So what Jesus is doing something with these pairs. What he's saying is there are people who, because of the way that the Pharisees have constructed a religious community, there's people who they think of themselves as the righteous, they perform the religious rituals of the people of Israel, but in reality, they

don't know the God of Israel. Because how do you know if someone really knows the heartbeat of the God of Israel? How do they treat people who are really, really different from them and who they disagree with? The Pharisees create a social environment where those people are very clearly informed that they're on the outside, that they're not welcome unless they first change. Unless they first change.

Jesus creates an environment where he makes himself the center and movement towards himself or away from himself. And this is where the drawing breaks down. It's because Jesus himself is not static. He moves to Matthew, right? He comes to Matthew first. Because see, the Pharisees could say,

listen, we're about mercy. Come on, our arms are open. Anytime Matthew would want to repent and like leave his job and come, become Torah observant and start following the laws and begin praying for the redemption of Jerusalem, we would welcome him with open arms. And Jesus is saying, what you're making at the center is our willpower. That's what you're making the center. See, in this kind of community, it's about your ability to meet the criteria so that you can be in, or your inability to meet the criteria so you're out. But in both cases, it's your willpower to be a good person that's at the center.

so you're out. But in both cases, it's your willpower to be a good person that's at the center. In this way of thinking about identity, it's about what Jesus has done, regardless of your ability or inability. He moved into your neighborhood, he walked up to you sitting at the tax collector's booth, and he said, follow me. And Matthew is responding to an invitation that he would never be offered by the Pharisees. And they're being naive because they're like, listen, we could, anytime Matthew wants to repent. But of course, it's not just about like him becoming Torah observant again. It's about a whole, it's about him adopting a foreign culture. The hurdles are so huge and there's probably a lot of really good things that Matthew would benefit from if he would change his life, but it makes his willpower the center of the equation. Here,

it makes Jesus and his invitation the center of the story. You guys with me here? I'm starting to preach, right? But do you guys get, this is so intense. Like this, this has the ability to completely reshape our sense of what it even means to be a community of Jesus' followers. And it doesn't end there. It gets even more radical. He starts talking about weddings and shirts and wine. Okay, let's talk about that. Verse 14. So then John's disciples, they hear that he's having these dinner parties right with tax collectors and they come and they ask him like well what's this listen Jesus how is it that we and the Pharisees we we fast we don't eat on a regular regular basis but you and your disciples you're like living it up you're having having all these celebrations. Well, all the wrong people.

What are you doing? So who are John's disciples? John who? So John the Baptist. And so he featured earlier in the story. He's crazy. I mean, Jesus and John are on good terms, but he's intense, right? Do you remember?

He's like homeless out in the desert by the Jordan River. He wears really uncomfortable clothing, and he's a scavenger, right? He's a dumpster diver in Portland terms, right? He lives off of grasshoppers and wild honeys that he finds, you know? I mean, that's how he lives. And he's calling the people of Israel to recognize how horribly wrong they've misunderstood who the God of Israel is. They need to repent. And he calls them out. This really, I mean, you got to hike 25 miles into the desert to even come be near this guy, right? And their disciples come to Jesus and it's like,

Jesus, come on, you're a religious leader. You're announcing the kingdom of God. It's like, why aren't you more serious? You know, you kind of come off as being kind of lax, you know, and you're having these dinner parties. Like, what are you doing? We're about prayer, right, and religious devotion. What's the deal here? And in many ways, it's just a different version of the same conversation.

How do you know if you're truly devout? Well, clearly, you will be marked by denial of pleasures, and you will withdraw from everything that's comfortable and good, and the world's in a tragic place. And Jesus doesn't deny that. He says that there are times when that is appropriate. But he says this is not one of those times. Look at how he responds.

Always indirect with Jesus. You're like, how is that an answer to the question? Why aren't you guys fasting? Well, how can the guests of the bridegroom mourn when the groom is right there with them? Listen, the time will come. The groom's going to be taken away.

Then fasting will be appropriate. What's he saying? He's saying there's something altogether new happening here. And the proper response to what Jesus is doing as he creates this new family of God's people is not grief or mourning. It's celebration. And the use of a wedding image is intentional. Everything's intentional with Jesus. So what happens at a wedding? It's two people making a covenant to each other, and out of that covenant commitment, a family is created. New life is created out of that covenant.

What is Jesus doing as he calls a Matthew and a Simon and a Judas? He's creating a new family of God's covenant people. And he says it's time to celebrate because people like Matthew are finding that they too are invited to be a part of God's family. People who would have been excluded on the Pharisees' account now find themselves invited personally by Jesus. And there's all these people who are coming into contact and they're moving towards the center and their lives are totally getting transformed and turned upside down. It's time for a dinner party, for goodness sakes. I mean, like, if you show up at a wedding and you're, like, at the reception, you're like, no, no, thank you. You know, I'm just going to fast and pray in the corner.

That's not, you know what I'm saying? Like that's not only inappropriate, it's just rude. It's silly. It just shows you don't know how to pay attention to the social environment that you're in, right? So he's saying this is the time to celebrate. These meals with all, you think this is like somehow Jesus compromising from the Pharisees' point of view. And he's like, dude, you have no idea what's going on in the hearts of these people. You've shunned them.

How would you know what's going on in their story? But these dinners, I'm telling you, people are finding life and repentance and grace. It's time to have a party. Then he goes on and he talks about clothes and wine. So let's conclude with that. So he goes on and he says, listen, you've got a shirt. I'll paraphrase. You've got a really great shirt.

And you get a tear, a hole in it. And you're like, dang it. You know, this is my favorite color, something, I don't know. I'm just making this up, but work with me. And you're like, well, I've got this wool sweater that's the same color. I bet if I sewed on the patch, like nobody would notice or whatever, and it's right here, and then you forget, and you put it in the dryer, and like, what does the wool patch do? It shrinks, and it's going to tug at the threads, and it's going to make the hole even worse Are you guys with me? That's what he's talking about. You have two things that you're trying to fit together. They're just different

and incompatible with one another. What does that have to do with anything, right? He's talking about this. Pharisees, you have a way of envisioning how you form a community of God's people. you have a way of envisioning how you form a community of God's people. How do I know that I am on good terms with God? How do I know that I have received God's grace? They have their way of defining it. Jesus is redefining that around himself. And what he's saying is you can't, don't try and understand what I'm doing in light of your way of thinking. You just got to keep them separate, right? Doing something new and different altogether. And so it's the same for the wineskins. Wineskins were made out of leather.

And when wine is turning from grape juice into wine, it ferments. And so that's going to produce gas. It's like a balloon. If you have a small balloon, I did this with my sons the other day. It scared them to death, actually. So I had this little balloon, and I was like, oh, surely it can get bigger. Oh, it can get bigger. And then it popped, and August cried because it startled him, and so on. So anyway, it's like that. It's the gas. If you have a new wineskin, it's pliable. It can stretch and expand. But if you've got a 30-year-old wineskin that's brittle and it's hard, the gas is

going to make it explode, and then boom, you lose the wineskin and the wine. That's a bum deal. So just go with new wineskins, you know? That's his point. Do you guys see his point? He makes you work for it. But do you see his point? There's something new here. And your identity as a part of the community of Jesus does not make your ability or inability to be a good person, that's not the center of the deal. The center of the deal is just very, it's not, it's also not morally wishy-washy. Just because Jesus is in a room with people that he disagrees with the choices that they're making. He doesn't mean he endorses their decisions, but what it does mean is that he loves them, and he wants them to be in proximity to the invitation so that one day something's going to go on inside of them so that they'll actually start moving towards him instead of away from him.

And he's saying that's the deal. That's the kingdom of God. And it creates a lot of messiness, social messiness, but it's crystal clarity when it comes to what is this community about. This community is about celebrating the fact that despite our flaws and our failures, Jesus doesn't remain distant from us. He moves right towards the sick, towards the sinners, and those who know that they need to be shown forgiveness and mercy. And Jesus wants to form those people into a community that celebrates life, and that celebrates forgiveness, and that celebrates the fact that you're not trapped by your old identity, whether it's being religious or irreligious, it's totally redefined in a new community of Jesus' people, where Jesus is the center and the story of his grace is the center.

Come on. Now, what are you supposed to do about this? And that's a real question. Like, what are you supposed to do about this? And I think there's, just let me close by kind of putting some questions for how to respond in this time that we have here one response is very personal you can be you can be born into a church community you can be as close to the center from everybody's point of view like like a Judas, but in reality, you don't know Jesus, and you're not moving towards him with any kind of intention or

passion or commitment. And you don't, you're not even making any movement to try and let your life be conformed to his teaching and letting his presence empower you to become a new and different kind of person. teaching and letting his presence empower you to become a new and different kind of person. So there's lots of us who are a part of Door of Hope, and we're totally here, and we find ourselves in this kind of position. And if you're honest with yourself, you realize, I'm not moving towards Jesus. I'm moving away. But what does it even mean to move towards Jesus? It means to stop thinking about yourself, right? And just start thinking about Jesus and allow these stories to remind you of his beauty and of his grace and of

his wisdom and his integrity and of his offer to show you grace and make you new. And so some of us, like, you're in situations with your families. You're in difficult conflicts within family. situations with your families, you're in difficult conflicts within family, you have decisions in terms of job or work or a project that you're working on, you have issues with your housemates or whatever, and you have a choice. In the next seven days, are you going to move towards Jesus in how you respond in those situations and the kinds of choices that you make in a way that's consistent with the response to his invitation, or are you moving away from Jesus? It's just very simple. But there's also this corporate reality, like how do we do this as a community?

And it's very complicated, because what it means is we'll have a Simon and a Matthew, you know, and we'll have people who disagree about all kinds of things. And what matters in a community that's a centered set is not uniformity, that we're all the same. But what it does matter is that we are unified in this, in that a Matthew and a Simon, they may differ about politics and their view of Rome or whatever, but are they becoming more generous? Are they becoming more loving to people that they don't like, right? Are they becoming more merciful? Are

they becoming more humble? Are they becoming more in love with Jesus? And you will find that all of a sudden these differences begin to pale in comparison to the unity that they have in pursuing Jesus. What does that look like for us? What does it look like for you in your community groups if you're in one? What does this mean for us? And that's not a question I can answer. That's a question of what Jesus' spirit is up to in our midst. Amen?

But this is what Jesus is up to, it seems to me. And so let me close in a word of prayer, and let's just respond to all of this. There is so much more to learn. Matthew has given us a feast for reflection and for imitation as we seek to follow Jesus together. So grace and peace to you.