Devotional THought of the Day”

Matthew 9:9-13 (MSG) ⁹  Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” Matthew stood up and followed him. ¹⁰  Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. ¹¹  When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?” ¹²  Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? ¹³  Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”  

229         Teacher: may you be eager to make your pupils understand quickly what has cost you hours of study to see clearly. (1)

I’ve written about this Bible passage recently – maybe a month ago.  But I was rereading it this morning – and I thought about the context.

The calling of an apostle.

The choice of God of who would write the gospel!  The future bishop of Alexandria, Eqypt, from whom all of North Africa would hear the gospel.

And if you hear it carefully … as the pharisees critique Jesus because of who He hands out with.. you will realize this incredible truth.

Matthew was one of the broken.  He was one of the crooks and riff-raff, the undesirable because of how broken he was.  Broken by the work he ended up doing,   I have wondered before if all the quotes of the propehts in Matthew weren’t just about the need to prove Jesus was the Christ, but perhaps even more, that Matthew knew the need to be re-assured that these promises, that this Christ, came for Him.

To restate it this way – if we work with Christ, if we have a relationship with Him, if we follow Him- – that means – we have been broken.  Broken by our own sin, by our own narcicism, by the sins committed against us, that we struggle to forgive and we sturggle to heal from.

And this is a lesson that we learn the hard way, those of us who have grown up in the church, those of us who have studied for ministry and are trained to be theologians aren’t taught this lesson in Bible Colleges and Seminaries.  We don’t make sure people have learned it  beore sticking them in Sunday School classrooms, or elect them as leaders of the church, or help them

I love what Josemaria Esriva says – we need to teach our people this – that lesson that has been so brutal for us to learn, that we are often dqueamish about about even remembering, never mind discussing.  It’s uncomfortable to dare to do this, to be that transparent, to relive those pains, to remember being that… broken.

Being a Christian is about following Christ, as He comes to us in our brokenness – as He is healing us, He takes us to others whom He is going to heal.

We can teach them about His work in their lives – only because we know.

But that means – we have to dare to be broken…

So we can teach them what has taken us so long to learn…..

and we find it even more incredible…..

God’s come to us. to all of us…

Words in Red Gospel of Matthew (6) (Photo credit: Lex Photographic)

(1)   Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1157-1158). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.

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