Matthew 9:9-13
John Carlson was a young Lutheran minister in Minnesota who gained attention and praise when he came up with a kind of radical idea. He thought that there should be a special party on the night of senior prom for all those kids who did not have dates. He knew that there were thousands of kids in this country who spent the night of senior prom sitting at home with hurt feelings and even deep depression. To not have a date for senior prom means that you are a reject. Everybody knows if you can’t get a date to the senior prom, you must be a total loser.
So John Carlson decided that there needed to be some alternative for these kids. Senior prom was too exclusive; it seemed like it was only for the beautiful, the jocks, and the popular kids. So he planned what he called the Reject Prom, an alternative for those kids that had been labeled as losers and rejects. Anyone who didn’t have a date for the prom was invited. And the kids loved it! The Reject Prom was held on the same night as the senior prom, and it turned out to be a great blowout of a party that made the senior prom seem kind of dull by comparison. Every year the number of kids who attended the Reject Prom grew. Then the party started to attract the attention of the press. Timex started giving watches to all the kids who attended, and then other companies got involved. Those who came to the Reject Prom went home with all kinds of gifts. It wasn’t long before the kids who could get dates for the senior prom decided not to go; they attended the Reject Prom instead!
When we consider the ministry of Jesus, we might decide that he would totally love the concept of the Reject Prom. In fact, this story could be called the Reject Dinner Party. Let’s look at what happened.
Jesus was walking along and he happened to notice a man named Matthew, a tax collector, who was sitting at the tax collection station. Matthew was not a man that anyone would have chosen to associate with; he was a social and moral outcast by virtue of his profession. Tax collectors were among the most hated men in Israel. And it’s not difficult to understand why. For one thing, tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman rulers. The tax money that he collected went to support the imperial system. Not only that, tax collectors were assumed to be corrupt, probably with good reason. Taxes were not assessed individually; they were assessed regionally. A tax collector was responsible for collecting a certain amount of tax money from his region. How he assessed individuals for their share was up to him. And any money over the amount of the taxes that he collected he could keep for himself. No one knew how much his legitimate tax amount was and had to pay whatever the tax collector demanded. And tax collectors often became very rich because of their dishonest methods.
So, we wonder why in the world Jesus approached this man Matthew. What could he possibly want with a tax collector, for goodness’ sake? And Jesus spoke two words to Matthew: “Follow me.” I can almost hear those near Jesus gasp. Jesus had just invited a tax collector to become one of his disciples! How crazy was that? And miraculously, Matthew got up and followed Jesus. He accepted the invitation to come and learn from Jesus, to commit himself to the kingdom of God rather than the Roman empire. In an instant, Matthew’s life changed. And so did the lives of those who watched. Their understanding of inclusion and mercy got exponentially bigger.
Later that day, Jesus attended a dinner party which included many tax collectors and sinners. Matthew probably knew a lot of them, at least by name. Jesus sat at the table and ate with these people. It just wasn’t done. It would have made him and his disciples ritually unclean to share a meal with known sinners. In this one act, Jesus turned conventions upside down, broke down barriers, and intermingled with those that the good people would never associate with.
This action did not go unnoticed by the Pharisees, a group of righteous Jews. Pharisees were committed to obeying the Jewish religious law, all of it, to the letter. And here was this man who was supposed to be a great rabbi sitting and eating with known sinners. It was incomprehensible to them! So they asked the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” I can just imagine them looking down their noses at the guests, indignant and proud and holier-than-thou. Jesus heard what the Pharisees said, and he chose to answer their question: “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous; I have come to call sinners.”
Jesus just stated that sinners in need of redemption, those who knew they needed God’s mercy and grace, would be accepted and invited to sit at God’s table. But the righteous – those who were too proud to even be aware of their need of God’s mercy – would not be sought out. For the self-righteous, they would become the outcasts. Stephen Butler Murray, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston, writes, “We are all sinners, but the sinner who understands her need is different from the sinner who claims to need no assistance; the former welcomes Jesus into her life, while the latter slams shut the doors of hospitality.”
This story calls us to consider who we are literally and metaphorically inviting to our table, who we sit down and eat with. Do we include the outcasts? Would we accept the sinners? A church is a place where different people with different needs come to look for help. Do we welcome them? Because no matter who is sitting in our pews, this story is intended to assure them that Jesus welcomes them here. He is available to them to offer forgiveness and healing.
Who are the social or moral outcasts in our community? Who are the people we would rather drive past than sit down beside at the table? Those who committed a crime? Those who abuse drugs? The homeless? Prostitutes? Sex offenders? People from other countries? We have to remember that no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and love. It requires faith and courage to deliberately invite and welcome those who seem so far from who we are and what we consider right living. It isn’t our place to judge anyone; that right belongs to God. And the same Jesus who welcomes us to the table also welcomes those that we would deem unworthy or unacceptable. We have to pray for God to enlarge our hearts and expand our courage so that we can reach out to those we would perhaps prefer to avoid.
What might we do in our community that would be similar to a Reject Prom? Who might we invite to come into our building? Who might we be willing to sit beside at the table and eat with? If we truly want God to expand our church, we are going to have to be ready to accept whoever walks through our doors. And not only accept them, but actually love them with the love of Christ. Are we willing to hang out with the wrong crowd for the sake of Jesus?
