“Zero to Hero”

A couple of things Matthew doesn’t tell you in his Gospel this morning that might be of interest: when Jesus called Matthew to follow Him, Matthew didn’t just follow half way or as a part-time hobby. St. Luke reports that Matthew left all, rose up, and followed Him. In other words, he gave away the business, his big house and large staff, his wine cellar with all the rare vintages, his ready cash, his hedge fund, brokerage accounts, and his offshore accounts in the Caymans, his Blackberry with the movers’ and shakers’ private numbers all programmed in on speed dial, the Benz, the Bentley, the whole shebang. He left it all behind, all of it, and followed Jesus. Matthew himself doesn’t tell you that. I think he’s afraid it might make it seem like some huge sacrifice when Matthew saw it as a gift of Jesus’, actually…

Matthew also doesn’t tell you that the fancy house where they had the big party with all the tax collectors, sinners, and Pharisees in attendance was his house. Never was a rich guy happier to lose it all than this Matthew guy was that day partying with Jesus. It’s a goodbye party Matthew throws for all his old friends. It’s goodbye to wealth, power, privilege and “hello” to a new life of being a gypsy tramping after Jesus with a backpack and a pair of sandals and not much else… and need we say that most people who lose all the nice toys like Matthew had aren’t nearly so happy about it? Matthew thought it wasn’t necessary to say it, but I think it’s worth a mention. Something very unusual was going on that day at Matthew’s office and later at the house…

Another thing Matthew doesn’t mention is how hypocritical it was of the Pharisees and Scribes to be complaining about the guest list while they are chugging down Matthew’s best wine and feasting on veal, crab legs, and lobster, with a little filet mignon chaser. When the Pharisees complain and go “There are sinners here and tax collectors! How ever can Jesus stand to eat with such people?” neither Matthew, Jesus, nor anyone else shoots back: “Well you seem to stand it okay! You weren’t complaining when you were invited and saw the spread. And the door is right there if it really bugs you…” No, they were too reserved to point out the hypocrisy there. Jesus instead just says “Well, you know the doctor hangs out with the sick, not the healthy, friends…” But more on that in a minute.

Why were the Pharisees so bugged about tax collectors? What made them such sinners? Well, Israel was an occupied country in the 1^st century A.D. Had been for a long time. Rome ruled Israel through a puppet government that reported directly to Caesar. And the Romans collected their taxes in a clever way. They didn’t send soldiers to get the money or publish forms with a set tax rate. They hired locals, native talent to collect the tax. They’d keep the real rate secret and whatever you could collect beyond that was yours to keep. Matthew and the other tax collectors didn’t break any Roman laws. It was sleazy but legal as so many lucrative things usually are, then as now. They were taking the share the Romans let them take. That they got rich was Rome’s way of saying that playing the game was better than trying to buck the system.

The Pharisees called that the height of sin because it was collaborating with what they claimed was an enemy government. But again, the Pharisees were happy to have the Romans prop up their synagogues and power base and let them make money off the Roman supported Judaic temple-synagogue complex. So more than a little hypocrisy is going on here, besides the obvious that they had no problem hanging out with rich tax collectors like Matthew. I think it was just the poor ones they objected to…

And finally Matthew doesn’t tell you his other name—Levi. A name that bespeaks a proud past. The tribe of Moses. An honorable heritage for those who followed history.

But all of this, Matthew doesn’t tell you, though I find it interesting. Because it throws into even sharper relief the question that the Pharisees ask: “Why do you hang with sinners?” Which masked their real, though unspoken question: “Why would You call a shyster like Matthew to be Your Apostle? I mean, he’s rich and all, and smart, but he’s slick, shady, and hardly upstanding. He’s a Roman collaborator for goodness sake, hardly a real friend of Israel! And look at his friends! They are worse than he is! Crooks, low-lifes, and streetwalkers. The dregs! How can you possibly accomplish anything good if you call people like Matthew not only friends but Apostles!”?

That was the real question. And it’s one that needs an answer. I think you’d be a bit offended too if you lived back then and saw these Apostles in person. Today we’ve done a fair bit of spin control on the Apostles. We’ve made them all saints, given them feast days, nice bios, great press. We make them out to be these holy roller, holier than thou guys who just went around doing good to everybody and spreading sweetness and light everywhere by their glowing examples and good deeds.

But the reality looked different to their contemporaries. That Jesus might be the real deal even the Pharisees had to admit. They couldn’t ever catch Him in anything like a whiff of wrongdoing. The worst they had on Him? He broke the Sabbath law by healing crippled people on the Sabbath Day! Horrors! Doing miraculous good deeds in church? Hardly a capital offense huh?

But Jesus’ friends were a different story. He hung out with the worst people. Blue collar fisherman with no class or education. Political revolutionaries. And the white collar rich guys He hangs with are guys like Matthew, whose loot is reputed to be ill-gotten and tainted, who was supposed to be crooked to the core. You know what Mom said about choosing your friends and those choices reflecting on your real values? Judged by the company He keeps, Jesus all of a sudden doesn’t look so good.

But when pressed on this, Jesus just says “Hey, the doctor hangs with the sick not the healthy. Go and learn what this bible verse means—I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous but sinners, to repentance.”

We’re impressed when good and talented people become great role models. Jesus impresses by turning absolute zeros into total heroes. When his contemporaries looked at Matthew, they saw a white-collar criminal, an insider trader with a future in a federal prison. Jesus saw something different. He saw a saint, an apostle. He saw the Evangelist, author of the First Gospel. He saw a hero of the Faith.

And that’s how we see Matthew today too. Because that’s how Jesus saw him first, and that vision of Christ becomes reality by His saying which makes it so. Which is our point: Jesus is the Lord because He alone turns zeros to heroes. That’s what Matthew celebrated with the Lord that day. Jesus works this miracle by the ministry of His gospel word and sacraments that God-given faith alone receives.

And just imagine what He can do with you! Actually no, don’t imagine it. Believe it! Start with Matthew as a zero. Confess your sins, re-think your life, take the lowest place of sinner with him. Because there, Jesus will find you, call you, make you His own. By Gospel word and sacraments, through the faith His Spirit gifts thereby, Jesus turns you from zero to hero. From sinner to saint. Just like that. Just like Matthew. And leaving everything else behind, you charge ahead with St. Matthew into the Kingdom of Christ, where real life is just beginning, and the peace that surpasses understanding guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Rev. Kevin Martin