The Hospital for Sinners

Matthew 9:9-13

What makes for good hospitality? Some of you have gone on vacation and you’ve stayed at various resorts and hotels, and through your experience, you figured out which places have good hospitality and which places do not. But hospitality isn’t just important for the tourism industry, it’s also important for the health care industry, for hospitals, right? I mean it’s in the name itself. The word hospital comes from the Latin word hospitalis, which means to receive a guest or a stranger. And maybe we don’t really think about it too much, but both the tourism industry and the healthcare industry together, they employ millions of people all over the world, and they produce trillions of dollars in profit for the global economy each year. So I would say, yeah, good hospitality is important because it affects a lot of people. Okay, so maybe you don’t travel very much and maybe you haven’t set foot inside of a hospital in a long time, but I’m willing to bet that in the not-too-distant past that you either invited someone to your house or that you were invited to someone else’s house. So either way, you either experienced hospitality or you showed hospitality to somebody else. And again, what makes for good hospitality? Well, it depends on who you ask. As with anything else in life, there are books and books written about this topic. There’s books on the art of hospitality. There’s books on the philosophy behind hospitality. Not to mention, hospitality often differs from culture to culture, from family to family, and from person to person. And so that makes me wonder, what was the hospitality of Matthew like? In our appointed text, we are told that Matthew received guests into his home for a meal. And I think it’s at least possible that Matthew had a nice house because he was a tax collector. And he could probably afford a lot of food to feed a lot of people. And as we all know, it’s never cheap to feed a large group of people. But did you catch the kind of people that came to his house? It says many tax collectors and sinners came to his dinner party, but also Jesus and his disciples. As far as the tax collectors and sinners are concerned, it makes sense that they were invited. You see, though Matthew had an important job, he was by no means a popular person. In fact, we can assume quite the opposite. You see, tax collectors had this reputation of overcharging people and then keeping the difference for themselves. Something that’s strictly forbidden in the law of Moses and in Proverbs. Now this is not to say that Matthew cheated anybody, but most Jews probably did not trust him regardless. Furthermore, Matthew worked for the enemy. Matthew was employed by the Roman imperial government. And so from the Jewish perspective, their hard-earned tax dollars was not coming back into their own communities, but into the pockets of the Roman oppressors. So how could you, Matthew, how could you do this and betray your own people? Or so some of the Jews would have thought. For many of the Jews, he would have not been any different than any of the other sinners. And so Matthew invites people like him, people who are fellow outcasts of his society. They might have been pimps, prostitutes, gangsters, swindlers, whatever the type of sinner might have existed at that time. Those are the people that came to his dinner party. But then it also says that Jesus and his disciples were there too. And surely Jesus and his disciples don’t fall under the category of tax collectors and sinners, right? So then maybe we can understand why the Pharisees took issue with what they saw. Maybe we can understand why they were so scandalized by Jesus associating with the likes of Matthew. But wait a second. How did the Pharisees even see any of this happen? Well, it’s likely that they heard reports about Jesus, and so they wanted to come check him out. And if this dinner party took place in Capernaum, which it seems like it did, then the Pharisees would have traveled a long way from their home base in Jerusalem to come and check out this so-called new teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. And so when they get there, they are shocked. They’re disgusted. And so they voiced their concern. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But it’s curious that they didn’t ask Jesus himself. Instead, they go to his disciples. Why? What were they afraid of? But Jesus is aware of their sneakiness, and so he answers their question for everyone to hear. 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 would have heard a similar good news message near his tax booth. Matthew would have realized that Jesus was different than all the other teachers. And ultimately, Matthew would have realized that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah in the flesh. And that he had come to save me, even me, a despised tax collector. And so Matthew gets up from his tax booth, and he leaves everything behind to follow Jesus. And then Matthew invites Jesus to his home to celebrate. Matthew showed hospitality to Jesus because Jesus first showed hospitality to him. You see, Matthew did not choose Jesus. It was Jesus who chose Matthew. And it’s the same for all of us. None of us chose God. God first chose us and called us to faith through the preaching of his word. And as a result, we follow him. And so Matthew wanted to get this news out to everybody. He wanted to invite all his friends under one roof so that they could meet Jesus for themselves and hear this good news message. My friends, this is what a life of hospitality is all about. A life of hospitality, it’s not about the tourism industry. It’s not about inviting people over to your home. It’s about seeing every single individual person as a person for whom Jesus died for. It’s about seeing every single person as a person who has been invited to the heavenly banquet hall. A life of hospitality is giving people, both strangers and friends alike, what they need the most, even if it might inconvenience us sometimes. And what people need the most is Jesus. That’s why we’re all here. That’s why we’re all here in this hospital called church. We are here to be healed by the great physician called Christ. This is why we’re here, brothers and sisters. And this hospital is unique because all other hospitals by law cannot turn people away. But Jesus isn’t compelled by law. He is compelled by mercy. As he says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus quotes his very own words, the words that he gave to Hosea the prophet all those years ago, to prove the same point, that the focus of the people is off. That I the Lord do not delight in lip service. That I the Lord do not delight in outward actions, but in faithful love. You see the Pharisees thought that they were doing good by following all these man-made laws. But Jesus says, “I do not desire sacrifice such as this, which is no righteousness at all. For righteousness does not come from what you do, but from what I did for you.” My friends, God is hospitable. He does not show favoritism. Do we sometimes think like the Pharisees? Do we sometimes think that we don’t need a doctor? Do we sometimes think that we’re not sick like those people? Do we sometimes think that we’re better than others? My friends, God is hospitable, and he does not show favoritism. He is so hospitable that he allows us to lodge in this hotel that we call earth, and he provides for us. But he is so even more hospitable than that. He is so hospitable that he willingly went to the cross so that you and I would not have to check into that awful hotel called hell. God himself gave us his very own blood-stained key card, and with that key card, we are guaranteed access into his glorious resort, into our very own room, a place of eternal peace and happiness. My friends, God has called us through the gospel, and we follow him as a result. And now we share this good news with others, both strangers and friends alike so that they can enjoy the hospitality of God. Amen? Amen.