GET UP AND FOLLOW
Matthew 9: 9-13 June 8,2008
Pilgrim Bud Precise
It is a saying. Perhaps you know it.
Don’t walk in front of me, I might not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I might not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.
I do like the saying and living together in friendship is a lot of walking beside each other. But there are always times when one will lead and the other follow. Or one will follow while the other leads. We do work things out together and that is important. Our text today is not about friendship. It is about the calling of a disciple to come and follow. Jesus has a plan. He has a direction. He needs some people to help him with his mission.
Matthew is hardly more than a name to us. We don’t really know much about Matthew. What we do know is that he is one of those people that the religious people of the day thought Jesus should not be associating with. For Jesus to associate with tax collectors and other assorted sinners was scandalous to them. His enemies ridiculed him as “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” The word sinners here means that by their very profession some people violated the Torah – such people as bankers, whose business involved lending at interest, prostitutes who had Gentile clients and people who collected taxes for the occupying Roman Government.
Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, gathering taxes for the Roman government and Jesus says to him, “Follow me.” It appears in the text that this calling is of a sudden nature. I do believe that Jesus had known Matthew for some time, I think they were friends. Matthew is at the toll office – probably on a caravan route just north of the Sea of Galilee – a road that leads from Damascus to the Mediterranean. A good spot for the Romans to collect taxes – probably at this location, the taxes were on imported products – salt and fish.
It was just another one of the ways the Romans controlled the country. I mean, it was just a road before the Romans came. Put up a toll booth and collect taxes. That is the way I felt the first time I came upon a toll booth on I-95 going from Portland up to Bangor, Maine. It was just an interstate. All of a sudden, about every 30 miles or so, there is toll booth. Cost you a dollar or a dollar and a half just to continue to drive on the interstate. Maine needs the money to keep the interstate in good shape – the winter weather is hard on the road. I thought it a little suspicious, still do!
The Romans bought the right to collect taxes in a given area. Then they would hire a local person to do the work. That is who Matthew is. He is a tax gatherer for the occupying Romans.
The religious people of that day thought Matthew to be a bad choice to be a disciple. He is a very unlikely candidate for discipleship to the scribes and Pharisees. As a tax gatherer, he was despised by the local people because collecting taxes for the Romans was considered to by unpatriotic. The very position of a tax gatherer lent itself to suspicion of one who collected more than was actually due. The tax gatherer just pocketed the extra taxes collected.
A toll gatherers money was not accepted as alms.
A toll gatherers evidence was not accepted in a court of law.
A toll gatherer was an outcast.
I think when Jesus looked at Matthew, he just saw a child of God. However long their friendship in Capernaum, the call seems to be sudden. Jesus trusted Matthew. “Follow me.” And he got up and followed.
Causes appeal to us. People we trust actually cause us to get up and follow.
A friend was teaching a 5th grade class at Greenwood Elementary school. She had 5 students that continually disrupted her class – to the point that she was about ready to leave the school. This was in late September. School was just getting started. She called me and talked about me doing a conflict resolution class with these 5 students once a week. They would get out of class for an hour each Tuesday at 10 and I would work with them on conflict resolution. Hopefully they would become a productive part of the class. I was skeptical, but it was a challenge and she needed some help. So I agreed to work with the students. They were a rough bunch – 3 girls and 2 boys. They had no help at home and school did not have time to deal with their problems. The seemed like reasonable people to me. They just had no structure in their lives. I realized that if we were going to make any progress, I would need their trust. For about 3 weeks we worked very hard on building our relationships and learning to work together. Howard was the oldest student in the group and he was the leader. The other students and the teachers were afraid of him. Though in the 5th grade, he was of the age of a 7th grader. I listened to Howard and encouraged him every chance I got. Class was okay, but we really were not getting anywhere. In the 4th week, one of the other students began to try to tear up our group. She would not listen, would not participate. She was a disruption to our work. It was then that I discovered how important trust in that group was. Howard, the toughest kid in school, confronted her. He used words like “This man volunteers his time every week to come work with us and you have got to use some respect – for him and this group. We want to learn to be better students. If you are not willing to learn, you need to get out of our group.” Howard trusted that we were on the right path. The students trusted Howard and they began to follow his lead. My eight week conflict resolution class was extended through the whole school year. On activities day in the spring, not a one of their parents could come to school. I don’t know all the reasons. But they went up to every teacher and the other students and introduced me to them as their “friend who came to activity day for them.” I don’t know how the next year for them was. I do know that if they had a good leader, like Howard, they would be alright. They trusted him to be their leader.
I believe that faith is in essence personal trust. That is a missing ingredient in our society today. It is hard to follow someone we do not trust. We need a guide when the way is hard and hidden. We need a leader. One who says, “Follow me” and I will not mislead you. I will not fail you in common everyday living or in a crisis.
Matthew heard Jesus call, “Follow me. And he got up and followed.” I believe it is the voice of God that calls to us today as a church. “Pilgrim, get up and follow.” There are people in our community who are tired of being left out. There are people who are tired of being labeled as heretics. There are people, like the outcast Matthew, who are not outcast at all. They are children of God. They need a place to be welcomed. They need a congregation who cares about them. Pilgrim, it is time for us to get up and follow.