Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
“Going Viral”
June 11, 2023
What was once used to refer to the spreading of a disease has taken on a new meaning – it still spreads and some might think of it as having the potential to be as hurtful, just in a different way, as COVID or Measles. This is social media and how a video or meme or tidbit of real news or celebrity gossip can, within hours, spread throughout the world.
As an example – on January 13, 2022, Baby Shark became the first and only video to surpass 10 billion views and now I have that song on continuous loop in my head.
Love it, hate it or are neutral about it – we are connected by technology just in this century in a way that was beyond the wildest imagination any of us over the age of 50 would have dreamed of as a child.
I have more information flashing onto my watch in a day than my great grandmother would have learned about in a year.
And still we struggle with the same feelings of doubt and pain and loss that every generation since the beginning of time has experienced.
We still are creatures whose lives are devoted to making meaning of our existence.
And there is still so much of life that defies explanation.
The meaning-making for some of us come in determining where we are being called to be.
For whom and with whom will we listen?
Will it be that still small voice within us that is pulling us toward work or community or cause that has our name on it but we are too accustomed to pushing it aside because other parts of life have a louder or more insistent voice?
This Matthew, sitting in the tax collector booth, a place of both profit and derision by all those who are forced to hand over exorbitant taxes to the Roman Empire, quickly abandons his place of ill-gotten gain in favor of discipleship.
We have to wonder had he just been waiting for the perfect moment to turn his life around?
Jesus’ reputation and power would have preceded him and it could be that Matthew was in desperate need of taking his life in a different direction.
He couldn’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
And the Way offered by Jesus would turn his world upside down.
We know so little about this Matthew – just his name and his job and the fact that he goes from the unsavory work of getting as much money out of people that could ill-afford it to following Jesus who had little use for money but plenty of time and room for those with few resources.
We see just how little regard Matthew is held in when the Pharisees find him along with others considered sinners and can’t believe that Jesus, this man everyone is following will sit down and eat with those they consider scum.
And Jesus turns their outrage into a lesson on mercy using words they would be only too familiar with from Hosea.
Inclusion – who is in and who is out – we still grapple with this, don’t we?
We choose neighborhoods, jobs, schools, even churches because we want to be included.
When we think back on history and how much energy was invested in welcoming some and excluding many, we recognize that we still need Jesus’ reminder.
When we get to the second part of today’s reading, we find the reversal that Jesus heralds on full display.
Jesus has a preference and extends true hospitality to those who recognize their need for help.
He walks through the world treasuring those most in need of God’s mercy.
Just after the Pharisees challenge Jesus, the synagogue leader, someone who would certainly be considered righteous, comes to Jesus for help for his dead daughter.
Just like Matthew before him, Jesus immediately and without words, gets up and follows the man who has so much faith in Jesus’ ability to heal.
And on the way, the hemorrhaging woman uses touch – something society would have told her was forbidden given her condition and what could have put Jesus at risk of being ostracized, to live out her faith.
Faith is what heals the woman and faith is what heals the father’s daughter.
And this news of faith having the power to heal, went in its own way of the time, viral.
The idea of calling and faith colliding is still ours today.
The healing we need may just be what feeds on our faith.
And the attention paid to our calling may put is in the healing business ourselves.
I know some of you have been part of what is known as the healing professions and I lift up all that you have offered to so many you have encountered through your life.
I now would extend an invitation that the rest of us, might also view ourselves as healers.
What we have to offer through the living of our days with compassion and walking beside those with hard journeys is the light and power of God because of what we have learned from Jesus.
Listening to our call and being there when others are listening does make all the difference.
Our hurting world needs us all to heed the call to healing.
Let us then find a path forward with these words from Unfolding Light…
Yes, you,
unsuspecting, unprepared, unqualified,
you are called.
The call is not about your powers or skills.
The call is to be the one you are created to be,
with all the gifts of the Spirit you’ll need to do that.
The call is to follow Jesus
in whatever unexpected way he turns up in your life,
to bring your weakness and your not knowing into his friendship,
to hand over your gifts without knowing how he may use them.
The call is to walk with him,
to hold the space while he does his miracles.
He needs you. Just keep him company.
Stay close enough to his light that you yourself are radiant. Amen. (Unfoldinglight.net)