WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 One of the most common lies we tell ourselves and tell other people in our daily lives is one of the shortest phrases we utter. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:12.000 ! These are these words. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:14.000 I'm fine. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 And we say these words all the time. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:18.000 I'm fine. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.000 You're walking along and somebody asks you how you doing? 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:21.000 I'm fine. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:22.000 How are you? 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.000 I'm fine. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.000 We go into autopilot. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.000 Now that may have nothing to do with reality. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Right? 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 In reality we might be exhausted. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.000 We might be anxious. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:32.000 We might be ashamed. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.000 We might be terribly lonely. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.000 We might be bitter. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:37.000 Spiritually numb. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:39.000 Barely holding things together. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:40.000 But somebody says how you doing? 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.000 I'm fine. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:42.000 How are you? 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:43.000 I'm fine. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:44.000 We might say I'm fine. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:45.000 I'm busy. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:46.000 But I'm fine. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:47.000 Right? 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:54.000 Of course it doesn't make sense to share everything with everybody we pass on the street. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:55.000 Nobody has time for that. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 Frankly, it would be awkward. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:04.000 The problem though is not just that we are habitually saying to people I'm fine. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:10.000 The real danger is that I think it's easy for us to come to believe that on some level. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.000 We can come to believe actually I'm fine. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:14.000 I'm okay. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:15.000 Relative to other people, I'm fine. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000 When it comes to God, I'm fine. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And what we're going to see this morning is that God loves us too much to let us hide behind that word forever. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:26.000 God loves us too much. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:31.000 In this passage, Jesus says something pretty remarkable. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.000 He refers to himself as a physician. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:43.000 And what we're going to see this morning is that the gospel, contrary to popular belief, is not God's advice for healthy people. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.000 The gospel is God's medicine for the sick. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.000 It is medicine for the sick. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 So what I'm going to do is summarize the encounter that we read about in Matthew. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:00.000 And then we're going to look at more of what it means that Jesus is a physician and that the gospel is medicine for the sick. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:01.000 Let's pray. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:06.000 Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for your presence with us this morning. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:15.000 And we pray that by your grace, as we open your word, as we read your word, it would open and read and illuminate us. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:23.000 And that we would come to recognize you in these words, recognize our need for you, and that ultimately we would encounter you. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.000 And it's in the name of your son, Jesus, that we pray. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Amen. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:32.000 So Matthew chapter 9 begins with Jesus walking by. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 He sees a man named Matthew sitting in a tax booth. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:44.000 He's like a toll collector, collecting money, taxes on goods that are passing through Capernaum. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:52.000 And in the ancient Jewish world, a tax collector or a toll collector like this was often viewed as a traitor. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:58.000 Because this is a Jewish person who is working within the Roman system. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:06.000 This is a Jewish man who is collecting money from his own people on behalf of an occupying power. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.000 So he's working with the oppressors. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:16.000 And people like this were often associated with greed and corruption and compromise and betrayal. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:23.000 So this is not the kind of person that any normal reputable Jew would go up and associate with. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 They would be seen as unclean, if not abjectly evil. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:35.000 But Jesus approaches Matthew and he calls him to leave his tax booth and to follow him as his disciple. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.000 And Matthew says, yes. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:44.000 And then later we see Jesus at Matthew's house and Matthew's throwing a big party. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 And Matthew has invited all of his friends. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:52.000 And the local religious leaders see this happening and they are scandalized. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:03.000 Why would any self-respecting rabbi like Jesus be eating at the same table with sinners and tax collectors? 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.000 The very worst kind of people. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.000 Jesus catches wind of their mutterings and their murmurings. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.000 And here's what he says. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.000 But go and learn what this means. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.000 I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:32.000 And from this moment on, the entire course of Matthew's life changes. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.000 He leaves his life of collecting taxes and tolls behind. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.000 He becomes a disciple of Jesus. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.000 He follows him for the next several years. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:49.000 Eventually he becomes an apostle who is there when the Holy Spirit pours out on God's people at Pentecost. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 And Matthew is one of the people who helps launch the church. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.000 And he writes the very gospel that we are reading now. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:06.000 The Pharisees, however, the ones who are grumbling and looking at this party and complaining and are scandalized and offended. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.000 The Pharisees remain unchanged. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.000 They remain disconnected from God. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.000 And they remain unhealed. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:22.000 So what does this teach us about the healing that Jesus brings? 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 And here's what we're going to see. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 In order to experience the kind of healing that Jesus offers, 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:33.000 the first thing we have to do is to stop pretending. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.000 To stop pretending that everything is fine. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.000 Jesus tells the Pharisees to go and reflect on the meaning of this verse. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 He's kind of like saying, you need to go and read your Bible again. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:52.000 And in order to understand what Jesus is saying, we should also go and reflect on the words that he points us to. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.000 And so he's pointing them to a verse in Hosea. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.000 He says, you need to go reread Hosea 6. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.000 In verse 1 of Hosea 6, God's people say this. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.000 They say, come, let us return to the Lord. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.000 Now, those are beautiful words. 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:10.000 And in Hosea, they sound like the right thing to say. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.000 They sound very spiritual. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:13.000 Come, let us return to the Lord. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.000 They sound like people who are finally ready to return to God. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:22.000 But look how God answers in a little bit later in chapter 6. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:23.000 God says this. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:27.000 And you can imagine, I mean, so many people who are parents have said this. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.000 What can I do with you? 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.000 What am I supposed to do with you? 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:37.000 He says, your love, you say that you want to return to me, but your love is like the morning mist. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.000 Like the early dew that disappears. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:41.000 Right? 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Beautiful words. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:43.000 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:47.000 Morning dew looks beautiful when you see it and the sun is sparkling on it. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.000 It looks like a bunch of diamonds on the grass. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.000 But then like that, it's gone. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:52.000 It evaporates. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:57.000 So the problem in Hosea is the problem of superficial religion. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:06.000 It's people who appear very pious and spiritual and devoted on the outside, but they have no real love for God in their hearts. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:19.000 And so a little bit later when God says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, he means I desire genuine love and devotion, not empty religious rituals. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:20.000 Keep your fancy words. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.000 Keep your long, fancy prayers. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.000 Keep all of your external acts of devotion. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:26.000 I don't need that. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:30.000 He says in another place in Psalm chapter 50, he says, I don't need your sacrifices. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.000 He's like, it's not like I'm hungry. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 He's like, I own all the cattle on a thousand hills. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:36.000 I don't need your sacrifices. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.000 What I want is your heart. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.000 It's the same thing here in Hosea. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.000 And you know, it's worth us reflecting. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:50.000 It's so easy, especially for people like me, wearing a collar up here, up front. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:57.000 It's so easy for people like us to hide behind religion, to hide behind external religion. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:02.000 It's so easy for us to fill up our lives with religious activity. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:08.000 You know, you can be very involved in a church and still be very far from the heart of God. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:13.000 And the key really, friends, the key is mercy. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.000 The key is whether or not we have experienced mercy. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:27.000 Without fail, the people who most deeply love God, the people whose love is not like the morning mist, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:36.000 but the people whose love is deep and genuine and lasting, are also the people who have most powerfully experienced God's mercy. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:37.000 Without fail. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:49.000 People who have experienced God's willingness to forgive us and love us in ways that we didn't earn, that we don't deserve, that we can't repay. 00:08:49.000 --> 00:09:05.000 And friends, churches everywhere are filled with people who sing songs about mercy, who pray prayers about mercy, who preach sermons about mercy, but who don't actually believe they need mercy themselves. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.000 Maybe other people need mercy, but not me. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.000 I'm fine. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.000 For the most part, I'm fine. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:20.000 On average, compared to most people out there, I'm doing pretty well. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:26.000 Maybe I'm in the upper quartile of people, comparatively speaking, right? 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:32.000 And this is the problem with the Pharisees and the reason that they remain far from God. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.000 This is where gospel healing begins. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.000 With the honest admission, we are not fine. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:40.000 We are not well. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.000 You know, in the addiction recovery world, fine is an acronym. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:49.000 It stands for freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.000 So when people say I'm fine, they say, oh, I get what you're saying, right? 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:04.000 Now, I would say, when we say that the first step of healing in Christ is to admit that we need it, is to admit that we're not fine. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:12.000 I would say, actually, that most people today that I know would actually not very strongly identify with the Pharisees and their morality. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.000 Most people would probably say, I'll readily admit that I'm not okay. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.000 I'll readily admit that I'm not well. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Because we live in a very therapeutic culture. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.000 And it's sort of part of our culture to be very conversant about the ways that we're not okay. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:34.000 We probably actually have more ways of talking about our problems than any previous generation. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.000 We have an incredible vocabulary for describing it. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:48.000 So people casually throw around terms like trauma and gaslighting and personality disorders and toxic relationships and holding space. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:54.000 Right? These are words that used to be confined to the therapist's office. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.000 And now they are part of pop culture. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:00.000 You hear them in the most casual conversations on the Metro. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:01.000 Right? 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:08.000 The issue is that the majority of people say, it's fine for us to have all of this language. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:16.000 The problem is that the majority of people tend to use words like this to describe the things that have been done to them. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:22.000 You often hear somebody say, oh, this person was so gaslighting me. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:27.000 I have yet to hear somebody say, I feel really bad for gaslighting that person the other day. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.000 I've never yet heard somebody say that. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:31.000 Right? 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 So the majority of people are describing themselves as victims. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:40.000 And it's very common in our culture to sort of blame if your life is not on track. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.000 If things are going wrong in your life. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.000 To sort of blame that on other people and circumstances. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 The only reason that I did this. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.000 And the only reason my life is like this is because of this person or these circumstances. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.000 And so it's very common to hear people blame that. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.000 Oh, it was my toxic parents and upbringing. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.000 And it was my narcissistic ex. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.000 It was so clearly. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:02.000 Yeah. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:03.000 It's obviously a narcissist. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:08.000 Or they, or they blame oppressive social norms or religion or society. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Now, listen, I want to make this point. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.000 It's kind of a nuanced point I'm trying to make here. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:14.000 So hang with me. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.000 I am not minimizing the fact that bad things happen. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.000 So please don't go tell people that's what I'm saying. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Many people really have been mistreated. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.000 Many people have been abused. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:33.000 Many people have been betrayed, have been neglected, have been harmed, have had really painful, hard childhoods. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.000 Right? 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:35.000 And so I want you to hear me say this. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Scripture takes that very seriously. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.000 The church needs to take that very seriously. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:42.000 There are a lot of people who are walking wounded. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.000 Right? 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:44.000 They've really been hurt. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.000 Here's the danger. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:48.000 And here's kind of the nuanced point I want to make. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:51.000 There is a real need for healing and there's real damage that's been done. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:13:03.000 The danger is when my woundedness becomes an identity that exempts me from repentance. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.000 I want to say that again. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:17.000 The danger is when I allow my woundedness, real ways that I've been hurt, to become my identity and define me in a way that then exempts me from the need to repent. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:23.000 And this can become, in my opinion, a strange mirror of the Pharisees. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:28.000 Because the Pharisees say, well, I don't need to repent because of my righteousness. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:40.000 But somebody who has allowed themselves to be defined by their pain or the ways that they have been wronged might say, I don't need to repent because of my woundedness. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:41.000 Right? 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.000 But it's the same thing. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:47.000 The Pharisees tend to divide the world into good people and bad people. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:52.000 But victims tend to divide the world into victims and perpetrators. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.000 Scripture says the only division that matters is this. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:02.000 There are those who know they need God's mercy and those who don't. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:11.000 The fact is we all ignore God and live in the world that he created as though he doesn't exist. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:16.000 And whether or not wrong has been committed against you doesn't change that fact. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:17.000 Right? 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:20.000 There are two truths that equal, that coexist. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.000 Harm has been done to you, but you have also lived in a way that has harmed your relationship with God. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Both are true. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.000 And so we all need mercy. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:41.000 And so what we need to see here in this text is that Jesus came not to call those who try to justify themselves, whether by morality or by injury. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:46.000 He came to call sinners, people who know they need mercy. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.000 So gospel healing begins here. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.000 Stop pretending. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:56.000 Whether we're hiding behind our morality, where we're hiding behind our injury or something else. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:10.000 The first step, you know, this is why every addiction recovery program there is that is worth its salt, begins with step one, which is admitting that you're powerless against the things that have come to control and enslave you. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.000 And that you need something outside of yourself in order to get free. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.000 It begins there. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:24.000 The next thing that we need in order to experience this kind of healing is to be willing to come to Jesus. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:31.000 Now that's a little misleading because if you see what happens in this passage, Jesus is actually the one who comes to us. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:34.000 And I want to recognize what's really happening here. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.000 Jesus approaches Matthew while he's sitting in his tax booth. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:42.000 He says, yeah, okay. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.000 As I said, he's serving as a toll collector, collecting tolls on trade goods. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:51.000 But this toll booth represents far more than that. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:52.000 Okay. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.000 Matthew is not just sitting in a toll booth. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:59.000 Matthew is sitting in the very symbol of his shame. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.000 And the reason that he's an outcast in his society. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.000 This booth is symbolic. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.000 It represents so much more. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 This booth represents his false security. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:16.000 It represents his financial success at the expense of others. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:19.000 It represents his moral compromise. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.000 It represents broken relationships. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:26.000 It represents his alienation from God and the people of God. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:30.000 So this booth is powerfully symbolic. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:35.000 And Jesus walks right up to him in that place, right? 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.000 The place of his shame. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:41.000 I just want you to reflect on that. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:45.000 Because this booth could mean so many things, right? 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:50.000 We all probably have some version of this tax booth in our lives, right? 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.000 Imagine Jesus walking right up to us. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:01.000 While we're sitting there on our laptop in the dark, looking at pornography at one o'clock in the morning. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:05.000 And Jesus walks right up to you. 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.000 And you snap the laptop shut. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:09.000 But it's too late. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:12.000 Because he knows what's going on. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.000 Imagine Jesus walking up right as you are throwing up after drinking too much yet again. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:21.000 After you promised it would never happen again. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:28.000 Imagine Jesus walking up right as you are texting hurtful words to somebody that you're angry at. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:33.000 And right as you hit send, you're right, Jesus walks up on you. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:43.000 Imagine Jesus walking up right as you are scrolling through someone else's life and feeling envy and self-pity that your life isn't like their life. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:50.000 Or imagine Jesus walking up right in the midst of a conversation where you are blatantly lying in order to protect your self-image. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:59.000 Imagine Jesus walking up right in the midst of you rehearsing an old resentment and fantasizing about getting revenge. 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:06.000 Imagine Jesus walking up right as you're going to be a person who's going to be a person who's going to be a person who's going to be a person. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:11.000 Imagine Jesus walking up right as you snap and yell at your kids. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:14.000 Imagine Jesus entering into that space. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:22.000 See, Jesus is the kind of being, the kind of person who comes into the actual places where we are sick. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:27.000 He doesn't stand off at a distance and say, well, I'm going to wait for you to clean yourself up. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.000 Get yourself together. 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:34.000 And then, and then, and we'll meet over here. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:38.000 He's the kind of person who enters into that place of deepest shame. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:42.000 Not the cleaned up places or the respectable places. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:46.000 He enters into the places that we would be utterly horrified if anybody saw. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:47.000 Right? 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:56.000 The place where shame is saying to us, if anybody knew that this was happening right now, if anybody knew that you were thinking this or doing this, they would run far, far away from you. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:59.000 Those are the places that Jesus gravitates toward. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:02.000 But here's the thing. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:06.000 Jesus doesn't come to excuse the sin. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Oh, it's not a big deal. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.000 Nor does he come to condemn it. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.000 Say, I can't believe you're doing that again after you said you wouldn't. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:15.000 Right? 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:21.000 He enters into those spaces so that he can invite us to come to him. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.000 So that he can call us to himself. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 So that he can pour his mercy into those wounds in our lives. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.000 And so that he can offer to heal us. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.000 And I want you to understand, Matthew is not the only example of this. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.000 There are so many people. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:41.000 And I know some of you, I know your stories. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:43.000 This is exactly your story. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:44.000 Right? 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:45.000 This is my story. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:50.000 There are countless saints who have encountered Jesus right in the middle of their sin and shame. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:55.000 I think of the Apostle Paul encountering Jesus on the way to persecute Christians. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.000 And Jesus is there on the road blocking his path. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:00.000 Right? 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:02.000 I think of John Newton. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:05.000 Who met Jesus on his slave ship. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.000 Right? 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.000 As a slaver. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.000 I think of the modern author, Anne Lamott. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:22.000 In her book, Traveling Mercies, she describes a time in her life following an abortion where it was a period of heavy drinking and drug use and physical collapse. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.000 And she is starting to hemorrhage. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.000 And she's filled with anger at God and anger at the world. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:35.000 And in the middle of it all, she begins to sense Jesus drawing near. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.000 And Jesus pursues her relentlessly. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:54.000 And whatever else she is dealing with, how much she tries to get away from it, she senses Christ pursuing her until she finds herself giving in, collapsing, and ultimately coming to faith in him. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:56.000 Changes the course of her life. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:58.000 See, this is how Jesus works. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.000 He comes to the very place of sickness and shame. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:05.000 And there he says, follow me. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:10.000 Come out of that tax booth. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:15.000 So gospel healing begins when we stop pretending that we are fine. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.000 And then the next step is for us to come to Jesus. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:26.000 But hopefully it's clear we never have far to go when we decide to do that because chances are Jesus is already pursuing us. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:29.000 He's already here at this very minute. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:39.000 And then last but not least, Jesus invites us to stop pretending to come to him and also to heal together. 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:41.000 To heal together. 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:48.000 The image at the end of this passage of all of these sinners and tax collectors gathered around the dinner table with Jesus. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.000 What a beautiful preview of the church. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:55.000 It's such a beautiful preview of the church. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:03.000 Not a room full of impressive people who are congratulating ourselves on our spiritual health and accomplishments. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:08.000 But rabble, you know, a table full of sick people. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:12.000 A table surrounded by outcasts, right? 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.000 Who have found the physician. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:17.000 And they're there because they know they need him. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:23.000 And notice, Jesus doesn't call Matthew merely into this private religious experience. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.000 Now it's going to be you and me, Matthew. 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:26.000 Us together. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:27.000 And we're going to, and you're going to change. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.000 And it's going to be, you're going to pray to me every morning. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:30.000 And we're going to do this. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.000 He calls Matthew into a community of disciples. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:40.000 From this point forward, Matthew is always connected to and part of a community of disciples. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:42.000 And he does the same with us. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:51.000 To be a Christian is to belong to the people Jesus is healing. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:23:00.000 There is no category in the New Testament for an isolated Christian living apart from the body of Christ. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:09.000 Given how frequently Jesus and Paul, Paul uses the image of a body to describe Christians in the church. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:15.000 An isolated Christian living apart from a church community would be like an amputated limb. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Right? 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:18.000 It's dying. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:19.000 It's decaying. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:20.000 It has no chance. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000 It's disconnected from the body. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.000 And we need to really reflect on this. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:26.000 I mean, why does this matter so much? 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:31.000 Well, I mean, I would say this actually comes back to how we think about sin and our condition. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:35.000 A lot of us grew up in the Western Protestant tradition. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:40.000 And in that tradition, sin is often talked about as primarily rule breaking. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 You know, it's a legal problem requiring pardon. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:45.000 You need to be justified. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:50.000 Or it's a debt that needs to be paid on your behalf. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:53.000 And again, nuanced point here. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:55.000 I'm not saying those are wrong. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:58.000 They're in the Bible, but they're insufficient. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:05.000 Because if we think about sin only in terms of a courtroom, a legal courtroom or debt. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:06.000 Right? 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:07.000 What does that mean? 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:09.000 What does it mean to get saved? 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:12.000 Well, getting saved is just about getting off the hook. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.000 It's about having that debt paid by Jesus. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:27.000 And that I think can, and I've seen this, that can produce a kind of spirituality that says, well, now that the debt has been paid, now that I've been forgiven, it's all good. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:28.000 Right? 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.000 That's all there is to it. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:30.000 Right? 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:31.000 I mean, Jesus paid the debt. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:32.000 He paid it all. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:39.000 And if that's the case, if Jesus has kind of picked up the tab for my sin, why would I need to go to church? 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:43.000 It makes church this kind of optional thing where I'm off the hook. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:44.000 I'm good with God. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:45.000 I can pray. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:46.000 I can read my Bible. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.000 I can listen to the sermons online. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:48.000 Why would I need to go to church? 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.000 It's kind of an optional add on. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:55.000 But in the Bible, sin is not just rule breaking. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:58.000 It is also like a sickness of the soul. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:02.000 Sin is something that disorders our desires. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.000 It corrupts our love. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.000 It enslaves our will. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:09.000 It darkens our mind and our thinking. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.000 It alienates us from God. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:17.000 And once we begin to understand sin in this way, I think it kind of changes how we see everything else. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:21.000 It makes sense of why Jesus would refer to himself as a physician. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:22.000 Right? 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:30.000 Because if Jesus is the great physician who makes healing possible, then salvation isn't just getting off the hook and being forgiven. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:35.000 Salvation is actually about being healed and restored through communion with God. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:38.000 And what does that make the church? 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.000 Well, the church is like the hospital. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:43.000 The church is rehab. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:44.000 Right? 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:47.000 So all of the things that we do together. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.000 Worship we're doing this morning. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:50.000 The sacraments in particular. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:53.000 The Eucharist that we receive here at this table. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Repentance. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:56.000 Confession. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.000 The seasons where we fast together. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:01.000 Our times of prayer. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:05.000 All of these are forms of spiritual medicine. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:08.000 They rehabilitate us. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:13.000 They bring healing to our mind, to our soul, to our body. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:14.000 Right? 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.000 So the church is a community of healing. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:23.000 And I would strongly encourage us as we imagine our future together as Church of the Advent, 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:27.000 that we imagine our community as a community of healing. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:34.000 What would it mean for us to be a community of healing here for ourselves and for others in D.C.? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:43.000 We're not here just as a service provider, just to entertain people, just to offer thoughts for you to reflect on later in your week or a bit of inspiration. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:47.000 But this is a hospital. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:56.000 That means we have to become the kind of church where people don't have to pretend to be further along than they are. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:02.000 Some people come to church full of faith and some come barely believing or not believing at all. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.000 Some come rejoicing and some come ashamed. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:11.000 Some come to church with long ingrained habits of sin that they are still fighting. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:16.000 Some come wounded by things that they never chose that happened to them. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:19.000 Some come having made a terrible mess of their lives. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:25.000 But the church is not a museum for the spiritually impressive. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.000 It's a hospital for sinners who need to be healed by Jesus. 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:39.000 So we need to resist the temptation to treat church like a place where we perform and we put our best face forward. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:47.000 And we need to treat it like a place where we are coming expecting to encounter Christ and to be healed by him. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:52.000 And that means we need to come together even when we feel weak. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:57.000 It means you need to come and receive the Eucharist and be hungry. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:58.000 Right? 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:03.000 Believing and knowing that God actually brings healing into our lives through that. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:08.000 We need to come and practice confession honestly. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:16.000 We need to see the disciplines like fasting not as optional but as a part of the rigorous rehabilitation of our souls. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:22.000 You need to be willing to cry out for help and ask for prayer before it's too late, before things fall apart. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:31.000 And you need to be willing to let other people into your life, into your crisis before that secret becomes unmanageable. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:33.000 So you need to be a part of a small group. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:38.000 You need to be have developed spiritual friendships outside of Sunday to sustain you. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:43.000 All of these are part of what it means to be a hospital. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:48.000 And we need to recognize that true healing takes time. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.000 It takes a long time. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:53.000 So we need to be extraordinarily patient with one another. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:59.000 And allow ourselves to create the space where different people can be at different stages of that journey. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:00.000 And it's okay. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:02.000 As we sang, we all belong. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:03.000 Right? 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:06.000 So when the next time somebody asks, how are you? 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:12.000 Maybe you should say, I'm fine. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:13.000 Right? 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:14.000 But maybe not. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.000 Maybe the honest answer is not, I'm fine. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:22.000 Maybe a more honest answer would be, well, I know I need mercy. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:29.000 And the good news is that Jesus doesn't turn away from people who need mercy. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:30.000 That's why he's here. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.000 His healing is available to all people who stop pretending. 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.000 Who are willing to come to him, who want to heal and heal together. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:43.000 Because as we said at the beginning, the gospel is not advice for healthy people. 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:45.000 It's medicine for the sick. 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:46.000 And Christ is the great position. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:47.000 Let's pray. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:48.000 Lord, may it be so. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:49.000 I know I need your healing. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:50.000 I know I need your mercy. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:51.000 And that's true of everyone here. 00:29:51.000 --> 00:30:14.000 And Lord, we pray that as we sing together, as we confess our faith together, as we pray, as we gather around your table, like these people that we see at Matthew's house, as we gather for this feast, that we pray for this feast. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:16.000 At your table. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:25.000 Lord, we pray that we would receive in that feast your very presence, your life, your love, and your mercy. 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.000 We pray this in your name, that you might be glorified through us. 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:30.000 Amen.