The touch of grace 

This week's sermon, given by Reverend Angie Stupple is based on the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 9, verses 9-13 and 18-26.

The way this morning’s Gospel reading begins is really very interesting. Actually it is a heart-warming and touching scene because if you think about it - it is a personal testimony. It’s Matthew’s personal testimony. We are familiar with his writings about so many other experiences in other people’s lives throughout his Gospel, but now here he is sharing his own personal experience and his life-changing encounter with Jesus.

But above all, this Gospel reading is a story of Grace - the touch of God’s grace and how it brings healing. If we are honest, I think it is safe to say that most or all of us here have experience of living with something that needs healing, whether it’s physical or emotional: broken bones, broken hearts, fractured relationships, broken dreams, anxiety or a broken spirit. The world we live in so often prefers not to see these things. Generally, we are encouraged to get on with it, hide our pain, mask it with medication if needs be and put on a brave face. That good old British stiff upper lip.

But Matthew shows us a different picture. Here we encounter a God who does not turn away from our brokenness but instead steps right into it. And he encourages us to do the same, to follow him. Jesus said follow me.

So many people simply don’t know how to deal with other peoples' brokenness. It can make us feel embarrassed, unsure, fearful. But the truth is that at times our pains and sorrows are removed or eased when shared with others. And it is through each other that we can see God’s grace and glimpse his love.

Today’s reading opens with Jesus walking along the street when he saw a man named Matthew sitting at a tax collector’s booth. Matthew was alone and no-doubt lonely. In first century Judea tax collectors were social outcasts. They were despised. They were considered to be the worst kind of traitors. They were generally Jewish men working for the Romans. They collected taxes for a conquering nation while also lining their own pockets at the expense of honest, hard-working people.
 
Jesus looked at Matthew and changed his life with two simple words: follow me. He invited Matthew into a relationship with him there and then. So much so, that same day he then went to Matthew's home and had dinner with his friends who were of course the same as him – despised tax collectors. We know the reaction of the Pharisees, they asked the disciples: "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" and we know Jesus’ response.  Jesus said: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick."

The first step to recovery is recognising what needs healing. We don’t drop by the doctors' surgery to let our GP know we are in good health and feeling well, do we? No, we go when we are hurting, in pain or concerned about our wellbeing. And it’s the same with our spirit, our soul. Jesus doesn’t look for perfect people – he wants willing patients. No matter what our past looks like, his invitation to us today is the same as it was to Matthew – follow me.

Jesus’ next encounter is with a woman who had suffered chronic haemorrhaging for many years. This would have made her a social outcast just like Matthew but for different reasons and through no fault of her own. According to the law and the social norm at the time, her condition made her unacceptable. She could not touch her family or the people she loved. She wouldn’t have been included in any social or community gatherings and because she was considered ceremonially unclean she certainly wouldn’t be allowed to enter a temple to worship.

This woman would have been physically exhausted and most likely financially insecure. In this encounter she would have needed to sum up every bit of energy and courage to get through the crowd to reach Jesus. But she did because she had a desperate faith. She believed all she needed was the touch of his cloak – the touch of his grace. Matthew tells us she was rewarded, not just with physical healing but with love – Jesus called her daughter. This is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus uses such a term of intimacy towards a woman. He healed her physically and emotionally. He restored her identity, he made her family. He called her his child.

Jesus sees us too, in our isolation, in our invisibility, in our pain.
 
Intertwined with the woman’s story Jesus hears the desperate plea of a grieving father. This man was a synagogue leader, a person of substance who was revered in society - yet he falls to his knees before Jesus, not caring about his status or what the crowds might think. "My daughter had just died," he cried, "but come and put your hand on her and she will live." When Jesus got to the man's home it looks like the funeral has already begun. The gathered crowds mock Jesus when he says go away, this girl is not dead, just asleep. Then he took the child by the hand and she stood up.

This miracle of life conquering death is a reminder to us that Christ has conquered death for all of us, he promises us eternal life when we follow him. Death has lost its sting. He can bring life to the many things we might be grieving for today. He holds our hands and helps us to stand again through the death of a relationship, a dying career, a faded dream and even the literal loss of a loved one.

In this brief account from Matthew we see the healing power of God’s grace. He healed Matthew from the stagnation and paralysis of his past. He healed the woman from the isolation of her long-term illness. He healed the young girl from the finality of death.
Jesus is indeed the great physician. He doesn’t offer a magic formula for an easy life, but he does offer us his presence, his love, his restoring grace.

He doesn’t take away our freedom of choice. He grants us autonomy over our decisions.  

He gives to all of us that same invitation... follow me.

We can choose to hold on to the broken pieces on our own, or...

We can choose to follow him and step out of the booth like Matthew
We can choose to follow him and reach out for his cloak like the suffering woman
We can choose to follow him and trust him with the things that feel dead to us just like the grieving father.

The decision is ours.

Amen