How will you follow Jesus?

Jun 11

It was quite a day.

He was on a boat earlier and sailed to the land of the Gadarenes, to the city of Gadara.

Now, Gadara was not a coastal city but a few miles inland.

To get there, he would have had to walk a ways across a flood plain of the Jordan river and along a feeder to that river.

He was in a valley as he walked from the sea and across the plain until he climbed upwards and arrived at the city.

In that city he healed the demoniacs of their demons and the demons fled into the sea where they drowned.

And the men freed from their demons told the whole city what had happened.

And the city folk came out to greet Jesus, but this was not the attention they wanted so they asked him to leave.

So he and his disciples left.

And they walked down to the valley and they walked across the flood plain and they got into their boat and set sale for the western coast of the Sea of Gallilee.

And they crossed the sea and came to the place that was now his home, no longer Bethlehem, no longer Nazareth, but Capernaum, that village on the shore north and west of Gadara.

He must have stretched out his arms skyward and arched his back as he disembarked from that small wooden boat that just carried him the length of the sea.

Perhaps he even took a nap, Jesus was fond of naps.

And as he walked on the shore towards home, he was met by people carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher and Jesus told him his sins were forgiven.

And following that forgiveness, he healed that man and the man formerly paralyzed got up and walked home.

For the first time in ages, for the first time in perhaps forever, that man felt the sand beneath his feet.

Perhaps the sand was warmed by the Middle Eastern sun, a sun that people say sometimes feels hotter than it does in other places.

Jesus watched the man walk away, joyfully one watched and one walked.

The familiarity of one and two story buildings, the familiarity of smelling cooking fires in the warmth of daylight when you and I are mostly used to smelling fires in the winter, the familiarity of sunlight glistening on the rippling sea, made this place seem like home.

Perhaps thinking it was time to head home, his home, his little place he called his own or maybe his larger place he shared with the disciples, Jesus began walking.

And along his way, Jesus saw Matthew.

Matthew would have set up shop towards the center of town, not directly on the shore, so Jesus would have been walking a bit before he reached town, thousands of feet if not a mile or so.

Matthew, in town amidst all the hustle and bustle a town of one thousand, five hundred souls could muster, sat in his booth.

And that is where Jesus saw him.

Jesus looked Matthew over from afar.

He liked what he saw and no one knew exactly why he liked what he saw because from his booth, Matthew did not sell his wares, he did not offer up fruits or vegetables, he was not a clay merchant nor did he offer clothes for sale.

In fact, he sold nothing.

In fact, he took much.

Matthew was a tax collector, so when Jesus liked what he saw and walked up to Matthew and talked to Matthew and said two simple words to Matthew, the people were amazed.

And Jesus looked at Matthew.

He looked at his booth.

He saw the coins in his booth, the coins with the image of the Emperor on them, he saw the bags that held more treasure, he saw the clothes Mathew wore more fancy and in better shape than the rest of the disciples, he saw the largesse of empire, the labor of the poor who gave a portion of every fish sold to Matthew, he saw all of this and Jesus said, “Follow me.”

In response, Matthew did not say, hang on Jesus, just let me gather my things.

Hold up for a moment, Jesus, I need to tell my family that I am leaving.

Just a sec, Jesus, I gotta stuff my coins in my pockets and bags and then we can be on our way.

Matthew did not even say “Where?” in response to Jesus’ command.

“Follow me.”

And Matthew got up and followed Jesus.

The people were astonished.

They murmured about.

“He asked a tax collector to join him,” they said.

“Matthew might as well be a sinner, he takes from us to keep the empire fat,” they said.

“Who is this Jesus?”

“Why should we follow a man who would eat with sinners and tax collectors.”

Jesus heard this conversation whispered from afar to his disciples or maybe it was close-by, it doesn’t matter.

Jesus had a way of hearing things just as he had a way for healing, just as but the fringe of his cloak could be used for healing; Jesus had a way with hearing.

He looked at the disciples.

He looked toward Matthew.

He addressed the people.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

Jesus continued, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Jesus could hear.

Jesus could heal.

And Jesus knew scripture for here he is quoting the prophet Hosea where God is calling to the people of Judah, saying: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Jesus was looking past who Matthew was in his career or who he was as a professional or any other aspect of his life, but rather to his very essence.

In Matthew, Jesus saw a sinner.

In Matthew, Jesus saw a tax collector.

In Matthew, Jesus also saw a man capable of steadfast love who could know God.

Truly and fully down to is utter being, Jesus knew Matthew would love God.

And this was proven by Matthew’s response.

“Follow me,” said Jesus and Matthew did just that.

I ask the same of you.

Will you follow Jesus?

And your response might be, and rightly so, any number of things.

“Father Matt,” you might say, “I already follow Jesus.”

Or, “I am a sinner myself, how could I ever deserve the love of Christ? But I will try.”

The answer might even be expressed as a sense of shock, “What do you mean will I follow Jesus, I’m here aren’t I?”

There are a million ways to say yes to that question.

And yet I ask again, “will you follow Jesus?”

And you will most likely say yes because, again, there are a million ways to say yes to that question.

And when you say yes (Please say yes!) I will ask you another question.

How?

Now that might be a more difficult question and so I will do this.

I am assigning you all homework.

Don’t answer the how question just yet, but over the summer I want you to think about it.

Because this is the beginning of green season.

This is the start of Ordinary Time when the chasuble and stole, the burse and veil, the pulpit hanging all turn green.

And the beginning of Ordinary Time takes place in the summer when many of us, myself included, go on vacation.