Matthew 9:14-17
There are two parts to this section. 14-15 is about John’s disciples asking Jesus a question about fasting and His response. 16-7 is about a new message and how to observe it.
In the first part, John’s disciples and the Pharisees are fasting and John’s disciples wonder why Jesus and his disciples aren’t. Jesus answer is to refer them to the Jewish custom of marriage. The Jewish wedding was a truly festive and important event. The couple would marry then spent the week after the wedding at home. They were treated as the King and Queen and were visited daily by close friends. For even the poorest Jew, this was a time to be special and it happened only once in your life. This was definitely not a time to be fasting!
Jesus likened his presence on earth, to the honeymoon of a bride and groom. His disciples were waiting on him and were very special. They were not fasting. To be with Jesus was a joyous event and the same applies to us. The dour, joyless Christian is not in the presence of Jesus. The true follower of Jesus is like those waiting on the bride and groom, very happy and joyous. But Jesus makes the point that joy does not last forever. John’s disciples were now experiencing a time of sorrow because John had gone. For Jesus’ disciples that time would also come. Likewise, human joy is transient. Only the joy of heaven is forever. In many ways Jesus was issuing a challenge to His disciples and also to us. We can experience the joy of being with Him, can we also accept and experience the trouble, hardship and suffering of denying self and taking up our cross? These two verses offer a true insight of the understanding Jesus had of what was to come. He did not enter into His ministry thinking things would go well. He always knew what the end would be, yet He served God willingly. Can we do that?
The second part is discussed in the next blog.

God asked me to pause in my series and give this message today.

Romans 12: 1-2, 9-21.
Recently I walked past a former friend of mine. I said hello to her and she ignored me. I had been expecting this because she has done this previous times I have encountered her. We saw things differently and she was not prepared to accept that and so we parted ways. The final contact we had was very nasty and angry on her part and heavily enclosed in prayer (loving) on my part. I wish her no ill will, but she obviously does wish me ill will. I thought it was sad that she behaved that way. We are adults, and counsellors. As adults, we should be able to deal with things in an adult way. As counsellors, there is even less excuse for being able to deal with things in an adult way. I was with a lovely Christian friend who discussed this incident with me on the way home. I realised I wanted the woman to see how “nice” I was being and feel bad about her childish behaviour. However, as my friend pointed out, she was probably convinced of the rightness of her behaviour and saw my “niceness” as evidence of me trying to crawl to her out of a guilty conscience. That was hard for me to accept. This woman was one who was quite likely to tell other friends of mine what a horrible person I was. I have had people spread lies about me in the past. It is horrifying how willing people are to believe lies about others. It is very hurtful when this happens.
So I arrived home feeling quite upset. I spent some time in prayer, handing my feelings over to God and asking Him to help me know the right way to think about and behave around that woman. I love the way God answers prayer! Sometimes He talks to me directly. Other times the answer lies in the pages of my Bible. In this case it was my husband who gave me God’s answer. He reminded me of these verses in Romans 12. The verses that particularly struck me were 1-2 where we are urged to give our bodies as living sacrifices and not conform to the pattern of the world. In 14 we are urged to bless and not curse those who persecute us. And in 17-21 we are told not to repay evil with evil. To try to live at peace. To not take revenge, because God will do that. 20 is a quote from Proverbs 25:21-22 to give my enemy food and drink when she needs and this will heap burning coals on her head. 21 finishes by reminding us not to be overcome by evil but instead to overcome evil with good.
So God’s answer? This woman may tell herself that I am a horrible person and may choose to interpret my hellos as evidence of her rightness, but I am still required to be polite and pleasant to her. I have a choice to behave in Jesus’ way to that woman. She has a choice to behave in her own way. If that way is the way of evil, it is not my responsibility. It is not always easy or pleasant to be polite to a person who behaves like that or worse, but it is part of our living sacrifice to behave that way. By saying hello, I offer her a blessing. I do not repay her evil with evil and I do all in my power to live at peace. There are times in our lives when the person we are in conflict with does not want peace. At those times, peace is not achievable. All we can do is do our best and rest in the knowledge we did what we could. By saying hello to this woman and refusing to treat her the way she treats me, I am heaping burning coals on her head. In everything I endeavour to overcome evil with good.
What I really want for this woman is for her to know Jesus. At the moment she is trying to reject God and maybe some of her animosity is about my faith. The burning coals I want on her head are those that will lead her to Jesus and I will continue to pray for her salvation and healing. In the meantime I will endeavour to honour the instruction of Romans 12. I know it will often be unpleasant and will involve heartache. But I also know that this is what is pleasing to God and that He will sustain me through this.

Matthew 9:10-13
On the surface, these verses seem fairly simple. Jesus has called Matthew to follow Him and Matthew has followed. Now Jesus is eating a meal with Matthew and many of his fellow tax-collectors. The Pharisees question Jesus’ disciples. They want to know what sort of man eats with sinners. Jesus response? “I desire mercy not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This is a reference to Hosea 6:6 “For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God, more than burnt offerings.” Amplified
He refers to Hosea in Matthew 12:7 as well. “And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless.” Amplified
Barclay interprets Jesus’ words with reference to the Feast where the righteous will not come so the King invites the poor (Matthew 22:1-10, Luke 14:15-24). “When you make a feast you invite the coldly orthodox and the piously self-righteous; when I make a feast I invite those who are most conscious of their sin and those whose need of God is greatest.”
In Jesus’ time there were those who rigidly adhered to the law in every detail without exception and those who did not observe the petty regulations but may well have had faith in God. The law followers were forbidden to associate with others in any way. But Jesus did associate with them. He went where the need was greatest. Jesus came to call the sinner not the righteous. In order to minister to the sinner, He needed to be with the sinner. Many Christians fall into the habit of having only Christian friends. But we are called to reach out in Jesus’ name to those who do not know about Jesus. How can we do that if we will not associate with those who do not yet know about Jesus? It is scary. It means stepping outside our comfort zones, but if we are genuine in our need to follow Jesus we must do it.
Barclay expands Jesus’ words to show His true meaning. “I did not come to invite people who are so self-satisfied that they are convinced they do not need anyone’s help; I came to invite people who are very conscious of their sin and desperately aware of their need for a saviour. It is only those who know how much they need me who can accept my invitation.”
The Scribes and Pharisees had fallen for the very human sin of looking to their own needs. In any organisation, and Churches are no exception, there is a danger of this happening. As followers of Jesus in the present day, we need to be wary of those who have fallen into this trap and of falling into this trap ourselves.
We would be wise to note the traps the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had fallen into:
• They were more concerned with preserving their own holiness than helping their fellow man in his sin. Their religion was selfish. Their concern was for their own souls not those of others. If we are following Jesus our first instinct should be to help rather than condemn the sinner.
• They were more interested in criticising people than encouraging them. A true follower of Jesus should be willing to help, rather than condemn, the sinner.
• They were very willing to identify a person’s sin, but not prepared to help that person change and stop sinning.
Jesus frequently quoted Hosea 6:6 because it was at the heart of God’s message. God is not interested in us being legalistic and pious. What He wants is for us to have mercy on our fellow men. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day lived a façade of great piety and observance of the law but they lacked the love that God was. Jesus was telling them that to count themselves followers of Him, they must be prepared to help those in need - the sinners.

Matthew 9:9
This is the verse where Jesus calls Matthew, the writer of this gospel. Matthew was a tax collector, a most hated occupation and one that was considered on par with a thief or a murderer. Tax collectors were so reviled and considered to be such terrible sinners that they were banned from entering the synagogue. Yet here was the tax collector being called by Jesus to be a disciple! Although Matthew would have been an outcast from his fellow Jews, he had a lot to lose in following Jesus. He particularly stood to lose the security of his job and the money that came with it. Instead, in following Jesus, he found his destiny and honour and experienced adventure greater than he had ever dreamed of experiencing. Matthew, to his credit, appears to have willingly and unquestioningly followed Jesus. This tax collector, a learned man, turned his skills into the service of Jesus. He had the ability to write, to put words together well, a skill that few of the other disciples, who were mostly fishermen, possessed.
When we accept Jesus’ call to follow Him we may lose material things. We may have to surrender our worldly ambitions. We may even be called on to leave our comfortable lives to follow Jesus to a new venture. As the Beaver told the Pevensey children in “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, Aslan was not safe, but he was good. Following Jesus is not a comfortable, safe existence, but in following Jesus we will have peace in the Lord and honour. Jesus will call us to leave our comfort zones. It takes courage to step out in faith, away from our safe places, and follow Jesus. We must take that leap of faith into uncertainty. We must leap off the cliff into the unknown, not knowing where or how we will land but trusting we will land somewhere.