Category: Band

Here in Sicily, if you are grilling with charcoal, the most common type of charcoal that is used is wood that has been burnt into charcoal that has just been broken up into small pieces. Unfortunately, this often also creates, beyond the larger chunks, a bunch of additional little pieces that, when you put it into the grill, prevents the flow of the air through the charcoal once you have lit the charcoal with fire. Therefore, instead of the air flowing through the fire, as you might think if you were to have larger chunks such as with charcoal briquettes, the air is stopped and the fire must be continually stoked by blowing or fanning additional air into the flame burning within the charcoal.

The result is that you typically have the person who is starting the fire in the grill standing over the charcoal, fanning it with a paper plate or some other instrument, hoping to keep the fire going enough to heat the charcoal to a white hot fire, enough to grill the meat that they have sitting nearby.

I was reminded of this picture in my mind as I read Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:6-7

Paul had called Timothy to come and travel with him on his second missionary journey through Lystra, but now, as he is writing Timothy this letter, he finds himself in prison. He will soon be executed and he is writing back to Timothy, who is serving in Ephesus, to encourage him to keep going. Paul wants Timothy to be bold, to preach the Gospel, to not be ashamed, and to carry on what he had originally learned from Paul.

Paul had laid his hands upon Timothy to impart to him both the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as the gift to continue as an evangelist so that others might hear. So now, Paul wants Timothy to continue to live deeply in the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ, living so that others might hear.

Paul calls Timothy to suffer. He calls Timothy to live the life of Christ, to live for Christ. This is Paul’s desire for Timothy, that he would continue to fan the flame of Christ that was put within him so that it would burn bright, burn hot, and he would be full of passion for the Gospel.

For each of us, there are times that we must do the same. We must fan the flame that was placed within us through prayer and through reading the Word of God.

And also we must go and do. We must intentionally do what the Word says. That which we have read, that which we have heard through the Word and in prayer, we must go and do.

By combining these things, by praying and listening to the Word, and then by doing, we see God powerfully work both within us and through us. We see the reality of the Word of God come alive. That which is smoldering under the surface comes alive as a flame and burns within us.

Often, to see that which is smoldering within us burst into flame, we must go beyond our fear. We are frequently timid. We often shy away.

But we must look beyond our fear to the one who has called us, and the one who walks with us. Jesus himself says that he will go with us. He is the one who has the power. He is the one to whom we must listen. And by doing so, both in the quiet moments as well as in the moments that we must overcome our fear and be bold, we also can fan into flame the gift that God has given to us, just as Paul called Timothy to do.

Who is the faithful servant?

Or as Jesus asked the question: Who is the faithful and wise servant?

The faithful servant is the one who is doing what the master has told him to do while he is gone.

In the parable, Jesus says that this servant is watching over the others, feeding them, and making sure that they are receiving their food at the proper time.

What is he not doing?

He is not simply believing that the master exists.

He is not simply waiting for the master to return.

No, he understood what the master said to do and he is carrying out the master’s instructions.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:45-51

The servant that is, instead, wicked realizes that the master has been away a long time. He becomes lazy. He begins to beat up on the other servants. He begins to spend with people who are not from the house, doing what those other people are doing instead of what he is supposed to be doing as a servant in the master’s house.

We need to pay very close attention to these parables because we in the church may be in danger of this exact situation. This parable should be a warning to each of us who believe. Are we serving the master in the way that he has called us to serve him? Or are we doing what we prefer to do, having substituted our master’s plan for our own?

Have we adopted the ways of the world, enjoying the pleasures of this world instead of serving our master?

Just before telling this parable, Jesus’s disciples had asked Jesus what the sign of his coming would be. Jesus explains to them how the end will work and how the Son of Man – he himself – would come, how he would return to earth.

So Jesus is punctuating this discussion by telling this parable about the master and the servants. He is explaining that he is the master and he will be returning. He expects that his disciples – the servants in this parable – will be at work. He wants them to be doing what he has told them to do.

They shouldn’t just be waiting. They shouldn’t be lazy. They shouldn’t be adopting the ways of the world. They – actually, WE – should be at work for the Lord, remaining faithful to him. Otherwise, destruction will come because we have been unwise and unfaithful.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law had made a human hierarchy out of their little society. They were a group of people that studied the Law diligently to be able to enter the group that would become the teachers of Israel. They would make their name based on their position within this group. They would derive their place in society based on what they had done in their career as a teacher of the law.

And this would cause them, ironically, to do things that would even go against God’s heart and desires. They would even go against God’s commands.

They would not extend justice nor mercy to the people, despite the fact that they would diligently, even religiously, measure out a tenth of their spices as an offering to the Lord.

They would not help other people to come to the Lord, come to know him, but instead would give the people heavy burdens, setting up hurdle after hurdle before they could possibly know God.

Those that they taught, they taught to do as they did, which caused the people that they “saved” to go even further away from the Lord and his heart, not to mention the essentials of his commands, than they were.

The Pharisees did this, and much more, while walking around with an air of importance about them. They considered themselves to be very important, and they liked it that other people considered them to be important as well:

Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

Matthew 23:5-7

But Jesus points out that this is clearly not the attitude that they should have. They shouldn’t be taking the position or place within the society. The place of honor should never have been their desire. Instead they should prefer and want the place of the servant:

But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Matthew 23:8-12

If they were to be the servant, they would be humbled before the Lord.

If they were to be the servant, they would not be seeking honor from people, but they would only be seeking honor from the Lord.

If they were all brothers, they would consider themselves equal, the same amongst themselves and amongst all of those that they are serving.

So Jesus turns to his disciples, as well as the people who were in the crowd and explains that they should not be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They are to lead the people in a new way. They are to lead them in a way that will humbly serve others. They are to humbly teach the people. They are to be the lowest and desire that position, because the Lord will, at some point, lift them up. They will, one day in the future, be exalted.

This should be a constant reminder for any person who is leading others in the faith. We are to be servants who lead as a servant. We are to be servants who teach as a servant. We have one to whom we should look to receive approval: The Lord, and him only. We should not seek honor from those around us. That honor is temporary. But we should seek honor from the Lord, which is eternal.

It is not enough to follow the commands.

It is not enough to be a religious person.

That is what the rich, young ruler found out. He had been trying to be a good person. He had tried to do what he had been taught as a young Jew, following Judaism and that which he had been led to understand.

But following his religion wasn’t enough.

Even following the commands of God wasn’t enough.

No, only following Jesus would be enough. And even in that, he must follow Jesus is the way that Jesus said, not in the way that the man thought that he should.

This man had come to Jesus and asked him what he needed to do to obtain eternal life. He had mastered and obtained what he needed in this life, but now he wanted that life to continue…eternally.

What else is left? What else must I do?

Jesus actually tells him: Keep the commandments.

But that wasn’t enough for the man. In another telling of this story outside of Matthew, it says that the man wanted to justify himself. The man wanted to lift himself up. He wanted to glorify himself. He was proud because of his riches.

The man might have gotten away with that with another teacher. It is possible that another teacher would have responded:

Ah, you have kept all of the commandments? Great! Keep doing that and you will be fine.

Oh, and I see you are a rich man! Wonderful! You are obviously blessed by God. Keep doing all of this as well, living in the blessing of God.

But not Jesus. No, being rich will not give you any standing or any position before him. Even keeping the commandments won’t make you perfect before God. No, only one thing will do that:

Go sell everything you have and follow me.

Everything that you have worked for. Everything that you thought was what you should do. Everything that you have understood as your life, get rid of all of that and follow me.

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Matthew 19:21

The man couldn’t do it. He couldn’t – no, instead, he wouldn’t – do it. He liked the riches that he had, but Jesus wouldn’t let him keep any of it. He couldn’t even sell his possessions and put the money in the bank or in some investments to save for later. He had to lose it all. He had to give it away. This, and only this, was the price to come and follow Jesus.

Think about it. He could have been the 13th disciple. It could have changed the story that we tell today. He could have been the last one that we talk about even today who decided to give up everything and come to follow Jesus.

But he wouldn’t do it. He preferred his riches. He preferred his life exactly the way it was. He preferred what he would have for a few years now instead of what he would have with Jesus into eternity. He was trying to understand how to have eternal life, but he wanted to bring his current life along with him as well.

That’s not enough, Jesus explained.

If you want eternal life, leave it behind and follow me.

Wow, what a message that is, not only for this man, but also for us today. How many of us cling to our lives. How many of us think that we are living in the way that God has called us to live, when in fact we are hanging on to our old way of life, when in fact we haven’t left the old life behind so that we can have a new life truly following Jesus.

Could we find ourselves one day before Jesus and him saying: “Sorry, it wasn’t enough.”? Could we end up finding out that Jesus intended for us to follow him and instead we preferred to place value on the things that we wanted?

Is Jesus calling you to leave behind something in your life and follow him?

This is a question that each of us should be asking ourselves. Not just once, but each day. And in repentance, we must leave that old life and follow him. If it is sin, leave it behind. If it is something that you value higher than Christ, leave it behind and follow him. Only in this way will we, unlike the rich, young ruler, find eternal life.

Jesus had just praised Peter because he had given the right answer. Jesus had asked his disciples who the people say that he is, and they had responded. But then he turned the same question on the disciples:

Who do you say I am?

“You are the Messah, the Son of the living God,” Peter said.

Jesus explained it was his Father in heaven that had revealed that answer to him and God had blessed him such that he would know and understand.

And so Jesus determined that, now that they knew who he was, the time was right to begin to explain to the disciples what would happen to him. He explained that he would go to Jerusalem. He would be beaten. He would suffer, would be killed, and on the third day rise again.

But Peter couldn’t hear it:

What are you saying, Jesus? Don’t talk like that!

Jesus going to Jerusalem to die wasn’t Peter’s plan. Peter’s plan was that Jesus would go to Jerusalem, overthrow the Romans, establish his throne, and reign forever. That was the plan of the Messiah, wasn’t it?

And yet Jesus called that plan, Peter’s plan, merely a human concern:

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Matthew 16:23

Peter was interested in seeing Jesus come to power. And he especially had interest in seeing that happen at this point because Jesus had just renamed him to be Peter and to be the one upon whom Jesus would build his church.

But now you’re saying you’re going to die?

We have a plan here, Jesus, he probably thought…

You, whom we just said is the Messiah, going to suffer and die is definitely NOT part of the plan!

But Jesus explained that these are merely human concerns. Jesus was concerned, instead, with the plan of the Father. He was interested in the coming and conquering kingdom of God. Not just the kingdom of Israel. Not just this little territory in the Middle East. No, Jesus is the coming king that will conquer the entire world, and this is the Father’s plan to conquer over the kingdom of darkness. This is his plan to rule over the earth. His son must go to die.

We must be careful to listen to Jesus. We must hear his plan, not substituting our own plans for his.

Jesus is, even today, working to carry out his plan. He has purchased, with his blood, people from every tribe, tongue, and nation and he has called us into service to make disciples of him. Not building our kingdom or kingdoms, but working to build his. May we carefully listen to Jesus, trusting him that his plan is right, and doing what he has called us to do.

Jesus had been confronted yet again by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Jewish law. They came to them because, evidently, the disciples had not washed their hands prior to eating. Of course, washing their hands before eating was not a law from God, but it was a ritual that had been inserted by the religious leaders, by the scribes. It was considered by the Jews, and especially by the religious leaders, to be a weighty tradition. It was extremely important to the people of Israel.

And I can imagine that each of us would agree. It is good, and important, to wash our hands before we eat. Anytime that we touch something that is about to go into our mouths, it is probably a good idea, from a hygenic perspective, to wash our hands. No doubt about it.

But that isn’t the sense in which the Pharisees and teachers of the law are coming to Jesus to register their concern and ask the question that they asked. No, instead, this is a delegation that has come out to where Jesus is teaching from Jerusalem, from the capitol city itself. Jerusalem is the religious center of the Israelites, so these Pharisees and these teachers of the law have come from the top. It is as if we would have said that they have come from “headquarters” to look in on what is happening with Jesus’s ministry.

And when they arrive, what do they see? They see the disciples breaking the traditions of the elders, something that, according to their tradition and teaching, should never be done by anyone, much less by the disciples of an increasingly popular rabbi, a prominent teacher in this area of Galilee.

However, in response, Jesus pointed out to these leaders that his disciples are breaking the traditions, but they, the Pharisees and teachers of the allow, are actually teaching the people to break God’s law.

How are they doing that?

They are telling the people that, despite the commandment – directly from the 10 commandments that we are to honor our father and mother – the teachers are teaching the people that if something that they have is “devoted to God” (also referred to as “corban”), then they don’t have to give it to their parents.

So what are the practical implications of this teaching?

If someone’s parents are in need, then the child would have an obligation to help them.

However, let’s say that instead of the person, that child, desiring to give something to their parents to help them, they want to keep it for themselves, for whatever reason. Maybe that person is in need themselves. Maybe they just like, and want to keep, that which they should, instead, be giving away.

But if they declare it to “corban”, if they declare it to be “devoted to God”, then they don’t have to give it. They are allowed, instead to keep it, because it is devoted to God.

Not good, right?

No, and that is what Jesus is telling the Pharisees. In his reply, he is essentially saying:

You all are coming to me to complain that my disciples are breaking a tradition, something I am not teaching them to do. However, you are actually teaching the people to break God’s law. What right do you have to come to me?

And so Jesus quotes Isaiah, saying that Isaiah was actually speaking about them, speaking about the religious leaders, prophecying about the spiritual teachers of Israel when he said:

These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.

Matthew 15:8-9

Jesus quotes Isaiah and it is recorded in Matthew 15. However, the quote comes from Isaiah 29:13. Jesus is looking back and saying that Isaiah actually is referring to the religious leaders when he prophecied in this way.

So I think it is worth asking: What about us today?

Do our lives look like what Jesus taught us to do? Or have we adopted cultural norms that teach us and lead us in the way that we live our lives more than does the word of God?

Do our Christian communities follow a Biblical pattern? Or do we instead prefer to follow the ways of the world?

Do our churches look and act the way that Jesus demonstrated for us? Or are we falling into our traditions and what we have preferred over time to adopt as a substitute?

I pray that we wouldn’t find ourselves honoring God with our lips with our hearts far from him. And if we are leading our lives, or living within our communities and churches in a way that is far from God or far from the teaching and heart of Christ, that we would turn immediately to honor him not only with our lips, but with all that we are.

Some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law had come to Jesus asking for a sign. Jesus was clearly not very pleased with their request telling them that their request shows that they are wicked and adulterous. He says that they will be condemned by the Queen of the South, and then he says that they will be like an empty house that has an impure spirit and seven of his best friends move in with him.

Ouch!

Why is Jesus being so harsh with these Pharisees? They only asked for a sign, didn’t they? Hasn’t Jesus been performing signs on a regular basis for other people?

Yes, he had, and that was exactly the point. The signs that Jesus was performing were intended to be confirmation of his words. The people should have been able to see and understand that his words were from God because, beyond his teaching, Jesus was also performing signs that only someone who had come from God could do.

And yet, instead of listening to his words, the people were more interested in seeing more signs. They wanted to see another miracle. Instead of believing Jesus, instead of believing in him, they wanted to see more signs.

Jesus said that the Queen of the South would condemn the people of this generation. He was specifically speaking to those Pharisees and teachers of the law when he said:

The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 12:42

Who is this Queen of the South? Jesus is referring to the Queen who had come from Sheba, the area that is present-day southern Arabia and possibly also the horn of Africa, in the time of Solomon:

When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the LORD, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan —with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.

She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”

And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

1 Kings 10:1-10

Why is Jesus making a reference to this Queen of the South? He is making a comparison to a queen who had come to Solomon from outside of Israel – therefore a Gentile – and believed. She came to listen to the son of David and heard all that he had to say, believing that God had truly blessed him and the kingdom of Israel.

She believed that God was with Solomon. She believed that God was with Israel. But now, Jesus says someone even greater than Solomon had come.

The people asked themselves as they heard and saw Jesus, “Could this be the Son of David?” And by this, they wondered if Jesus was the Messiah king that would rise up to restore the kingdom back to Israel.

Jesus is telling the Pharisees that they are wicked, adulterous, and that the Queen of the South will condemn them. Why? Because instead of believing him…instead of believing that the Son of David – that is, Jesus – was even greater than Solomon, the first son of David, they just asked for a sign. They wanted more signs, when instead what they needed to do was listen and believe, doing what he said to do. That is what the Queen of the South did, and that is what they must do as well.

For us, Jesus’s words are also a warning. For those that don’t believe, they must hear so that they can know Jesus and come into relationship with God through him.

For those that do believe, we must believe to the extent that we do what Jesus says to do, treating him as the king and the Lord that he is, the ruler over all of heaven and earth, just as he has called each of us to do.

It must have been dizzying to listen to Jesus speak. The way in which he spoke, the authority with which he said the things that he said, and the audacity of the meaning behind what he was saying, all would make it a challenge to listen to Jesus. In some ways, I can understand why it would have been difficult for the Pharisees and other religious leaders to listen to him. No one else ever spoke the way that Jesus spoke.

Here is a great example:

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Matthew 11:27

Wow – I can only imagine what it would have been like to hear Jesus say this directly. Let’s take it one step at a time:

All things have been committed to me by my Father.

This is similar to Jesus saying that he has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) . His Father, God himself, had given Jesus authority over everything. Over all of heaven. Over all of the earth.

That is: Everything.

Why? Because Jesus is, himself, God.

That’s shocking because he is also standing there in front of all of the people, in human form, teaching them. He touched them with his hands. God touched them.

They heard him with their ears. The very voice of God was resounding.

He was God, right there, in the flesh. The ruler over all things. The king of heaven. The king of the earth. Speaking to them.

No one knows the Son except the Father…

Jesus referred to himself as the Son. He would typically say he was the Son of Man, but he called himself the Son regardless. There is no doubt that Jesus is referring to himself in this case as he speaks of the Son.

Jesus was being revealed to the world. He was being revealed to those to whom the Father called to know the Son. So at this time, Jesus says that the one who knows the Son is the Father, and yet we will see that the Son is revealed to the people by the Father.

…no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Jesus, as the Son, knew the Father. The Father was the one who had sent the Son and so there was an intimate relationship between the Father and the Son. Jesus was carrying out the mission of the Father, and at the same time, he was the mission of the Father. The Father had placed all things under the Son, and yet the Son was there to give his life as a ransom, to purchase people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to come into the kingdom of God, where the king himself is Jesus.

As I said, it must have been dizzying to listen to Jesus.

And yet we still have his words, even here today. It isn’t as if we have less of a possibility to understand Jesus because we weren’t there to hear him. It isn’t that we have less of an opportunity to know him because we weren’t there. No, perhaps we can know him even more. We have his words and we can hear him. We can understand him. We can know him.

We can know the king. The Father has revealed the Son to us and now we must seek to know him more. We must seek to know him even more deeply. Father, I pray that you would help us to know the Son!

Yesterday, I had a great conversation with a Muslim friend of mine. We were talking about the final days of the earth, discussing that both we as Christians as well as Muslims are awaiting Jesus’s return to the earth to bring judgment and justice amongst all people.

Then this morning I read these words from Jesus:

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 10:37-38

I immediately had this thought: On that last day, as my friend and I were discussing, I certainly don’t want to hear those words from Jesus:

“You are not worthy of me.”

The one who has authority over all of heaven and all of earth could potentially say to each of us: You are not worthy of me.

Jesus is not content with second place. He will not allow us to put him in a lower priority in our lives. First place – of greatest importance, in the greatest priority – is the only position, the only priority, that we can possibly give to him. Otherwise, we are not worthy of him.

Can I go even one step further?

In the context of what I was reading in Matthew 10, Jesus had just called his twelve disciples to himself. These are the men that he had chosen. These are the ones that will walk with him in the closest possible way. In fact, these are even the twelve men who, in the context of what is happening in this time, will go out to represent Jesus. They will pray for workers. These disciples will tell these other new workers about the kingdom of God. They will be beaten and will suffer for Jesus.

Presumably Jesus is even speaking these difficult words, this difficult teaching, directly to the disciples.

Isn’t he? Even if they have put their faith in him… Even if they have believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior… Even if they have been baptized… Can’t we say, based on what Jesus has said here, that if they love their mother and father, or their sons and daughters, more than they love Jesus, they won’t be worthy of him.

In other words, according to what Jesus is saying, they will be judged, and they will come up short. They will be found wanting and not enter into eternity with Christ.

Let’s take one last step forward. Jesus says that if we don’t pick up our cross, just as Jesus did, we will not be worthy of him.

Let’s be clear in the words that Jesus uses: He doesn’t say whoever isn’t willing to take up their cross. Neither does he say whoever isn’t ready to take up their cross. We frequently add words like this in our teaching and preaching, but that isn’t what Jesus said. He said, “Whoever does not take up their cross…”

How should we read those words? How should we understand what he is saying? I think it is simple. Jesus took his cross and went to die. Now he says that if we don’t do the same, we are not worthy of him.

And then he goes on to finish the statement saying that we will find our life by losing it, but we will lose our life if we think that we have found it.

In other words, if we live our life in the way that we want – or maybe we could say, if we live our best life, as is popularly said today – we are destined to lose it. Living in this way, in the way that we want, thinking we have found our life, we are not worthy of Jesus. We have prioritized what we want. We have prioritized the things that we desire instead of the things that Jesus desires.

Instead, if you lose your life – if you give the entirety of your life to Christ and allow him to direct your steps, doing what he says that we must do to be his disciple – you will find your life. You will find the life that he desires to give you. You can be sure that it will be difficult. You can be sure that there will be one challenge after another. You might even quickly find that you will be called to suffer or even die. But you will truly find your life, a life full of joy, a life full of peace, a life full of love. The fruits of the Holy Spirit will be the marks, the description, of your life.

So we must make a choice. Will we live in a manner that is worthy of Jesus? Will we prioritize him over mother, father, children, and even our very own life? Only in this way will we be worthy of him.

Several years ago, when we lived in St. Louis, we were part of a new church that we called Levi’s Table. Rob and Karen Graham are our good friends and they led this church at that time. We took the name from the story that I’m reading today in Matthew 9, and I’m remembering some of the beautiful times that we had together.

We called this new church Levi’s Table because – as I recall – we had a desire to call the “sick”, to call the sinners to come to the table with Jesus.

Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees, the religious rulers at the time. They couldn’t understand how Jesus could come to a tax collector’s booth – Matthew’s booth – where a Jew worked for the Roman government, then went to his house where he proceeded to have dinner and take part in a party that was thrown by Matthew, the traitor tax collector, alongside several of his best friends, other sinners.

Yet this is exactly where Jesus wanted to be. He wanted to be with the “sick”, the sinners who were far from God so that he could call them to come to repentance, to believe in him. He didn’t intend to become one of them. Neither was he tolerant of their sin and behavior. He called them sick and in need of a doctor. He called them sinners, not righteous.

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:12-13

At the same time, Jesus’s response, when asked why he was eating with these tax collectors and sinners, seemed to rebuke the Pharisees. Aside from explaining what he was doing, as I read what he is saying, Jesus almost seems to be calling out these religious leaders. Without him saying it directly, I think you can read between the lines of what he is saying and almost hear Jesus asking a question or two:

Why wouldn’t I eat with the sinners?

Why aren’t you eating with the sinners?

Do you think you are so “healthy”, Pharisees?

We need to be asking ourselves similar questions. Even if we aren’t criticizing others, or asking the same questions that the Pharisees are asking – why are those people eating with sinners? – are we abstaining from inviting others who are sinning from coming to Christ?

One of the greatest joys that I have had in the work that we have done recently is to invite some of the ladies, the prostitutes of our city, into parties that we have thrown. Especially as teams have come to town to work along with us, we have invited people that we have met while the teams have ben here with us to come to a party, typically toward the end of the time that the team has been with us. We have food, games, music, sometimes some dancing, and celebration. But in the midst of the various interactions, those who were invited and have come to the party are hearing about Jesus.

The last group that visited us spoke Spanish. Many, if not nearly all, of the prostitutes of our city also speak Spanish. Having room yet at the party, we sent the team to go and invite the ladies to come and join us at the party. Two of them did. They ate. They laughed. And they had a good time.

But most of all, they heard about Jesus. They understood that the reason for all of this was to spend time together and know Jesus. And they stayed. They didn’t run. They received an invitation to the banquet, and they came.

As far as I know, they haven’t yet gone on to believe. We have yet to see the ladies of the area that men typically frequent, where their bodies are sold, and where drugs and alcohol are freely distributed, come to faith in Christ and be baptized. But we are continuing to pray that this will become a reality. We continue to ask God that Jesus would be known amongst these people and that the work of these women would end because they have repented and left behind their old lives for something new. A new life. A life in Christ.

But that will only happen if we will go to the sinners, if we will eat with them, and we will share Jesus with them, just as Jesus did at Matthew’s house.