We are all to be agents of the Lord’s transforming love and mercy. We too are called to transform others by our own goodness. When Jesus went on to say in the gospel reading, ‘what I want is mercy not sacrifice’, he was declaring that he wants his own merciful way of behaving to find expression in the lives of his followers. On the contrary, he knew that his own goodness had the power to transform others for the better. He was not afraid of being contaminated by others. Such people were to be avoided for fear of contamination. Matthew and people like him would have been regarded by religious people of the time as sinners who did not keep God’s law. Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him and he went on to share table with Matthew and other tax collectors. Something of his surprising ways is evident in this morning’s gospel reading. He didn’t behave as the religious leaders of the time normally behaved. The gospels record people being amazed at what he said and did. Jesus, as the revelation of God, was also full of surprises. ![]() After all, as the prophet Isaiah said, ‘God’s ways are not our ways’. There was a book written some years ago called ‘The God of Surprises’ by a Jesuit priest, Gerald Hughes. We are to be merciful as God is merciful, or as Matthew’s gospel expresses it, to be perfect as God is perfect. The same is to be true of our way of life as followers of Jesus. Jesus’ way of life, his style of table fellowship, is a response to God’s desire for mercy. God’s mercy, because it is unconditional, does not wait for people to change but empowers people to change. Jesus seeks to draw close to all men and women so as to reveal the depth of God’s mercy. ![]() Mercy cannot be shown to those who are kept at arm’s length. Jesus’ business is showing God’s mercy to sinners, bringing God’s healing presence to the spiritually needy. Jesus is declaring that what God wants before all else is ‘mercy’, and his own style of table fellowship is reflecting that primary desire of God. He prefaces this quotation with the directive, ‘Go and learn the meaning of the words’. Why did Jesus share table with, enter into communion with, those who did not keep God’s law, as the experts in that law understood it? In response to this question, Jesus quotes from one of the prophets of Israel, Hosea, ‘What I want is mercy, not sacrifice’. In this morning’s gospel reading, the Pharisees ask a question of Jesus’ disciples when they see Jesus sharing table with those who would have been regarded as religious outsiders, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ It is a good question and one that is worth our while pondering. Some of them are asked by Jesus, others are asked by his disciples and still others are asked by various other characters in the gospel narrative. ![]() There are many questions posed in the course of the four gospels. In celebrating God’s mercy, as Jesus did at table with tax collectors and sinners, we are then called to share with others the mercy we celebrate. Such a merciful attitude to others was lacking in the Pharisees, even though this was clearly revealed to be God’s will in the Scriptures they cherished, ‘What I want is mercy, not sacrifice’ (Hosea 6:6). Jesus also expected those who received God’s mercy to be merciful in their dealings with others. What distinguished them was their awareness of their need of God’s mercy and their openness to receive this gift from Jesus. Jesus knew that all were sinners and in need of God’s mercy. He was ready to share table with the religious leaders and with those whom the religious leaders considered sinners. The gospels suggest that Jesus had a very broad table. The Pharisees were scandalized at the kind of people with whom Jesus shared table. Matthew may have been an unlikely candidate to become a member of Jesus’ inner circle, but according to the gospel reading, in response to Jesus’ call, ‘he got up and followed him’. The Lord is like the fisherman who casts a very wide net that brings in all sorts of fish or like the sower who scatters seed with abandon so that it falls on all sorts of ground. As Paul declares in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are’ (1 Cor 1:28). The call of Matthew, the tax collector, suggests that the Lord does not see someone’s profession or former way of life as a block to their becoming his disciple and sharing in his mission.
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