Sweet Bitterness

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today, the Church remembers and gives thanks for the life and work of St. Matthew, as is right and salutary. We rejoice to remember those who have gone before us in the Faith, remembering their example of godly living and joining in their steadfast confession of the Faith once given to them, now delivered to us. St. Matthew now resides among the great cloud of witnesses, in whose midst we we one day stand as well.

So who was St. Matthew? The Gospels tell us that he was also called Levi. Scholars reckon that this is simply a case of a guy having a Hebrew or Aramaic name, and also a Greek or Latin name. Simon is Cephas is Peter. Saul is Paul. And so on; it was a common occurrence in the ancient Near East.

That Matthew is called Levi indicates that he was a Jew. Which fact makes it such an indictment of his character that he worked as a tax collector. Often we are told to think all sorts of hateful things about tax collectors. They are cheats, crooks, swindlers. They are out to steal from everyone who crosses their desks. They take delight in putting the screws to the little guy. Such is the case with Zacchaeus. He was all these things, and freely admitted it, and made it right when our Lord called him to faith. However, about Levi we have no such record. Following the Eighth Commandment, we ought simply to think that he did his job within the constraints of the laws of Rome. As far as we know, Levi was an honest tax collector.

However, that was enough of a problem for his fellow countrymen. The fact that Matthew was a civil servant in the machine of the Roman Empire meant that he was a traitor. He took their money and handed it over to the overlords afar who oppressed and suppressed the people of God.

One day, along comes Jesus, and he walks up to Matthew and says, “Follow me,” and Matthew gets up, leaves his tax-desk, and follows Jesus. He is called to faith in the Lord Jesus, and he responds by following without question.

From then on, Matthew was found in the retinue of the Savior, following where our Lord led. After Pentecost, the tradition of the Church holds that St. Matthew became an apostle and evangelist to the Hebrews, traveling the Middle East and Asia Minor preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Hebrew to those scattered children of Israel in various places, including Armenia, Persian, Macedonia, and Syria. According to tradition, St. Matthew was martyred in “Little Ethiopia”, what is now the Republic of Georgia.

Knowing who Matthew was, consider this: What did Jesus do to Matthew?

The first, most obvious thing is that our Lord called him to faith. Since Matthew was a Hebrew, it is reasonable to assume that he was an average Jew. But our Lord came to his tax-booth and called him to faith in the Lord Jesus and to service as His disciple, and later apostle.

Notice that this is how our Lord works. “I have decided to follow Jesus” is a pile of nonsense. No one decides to follow Jesus. You follow Jesus because He calls you to faith through the Holy Spirit, who only comes through His promised means – the Word of God and the Visible Word, ie., the Sacraments. Your faith is not of your own generation; it is a gift of God. Likewise with Matthew. The Lord called to him, and he responded in faith accordingly.

And, responding in faith, Matthew invited our Lord into his home and gave a banquet for Him, at which were seated Matthew's friends, the dreaded “tax collectors and sinners.”

Our Lord Christ sat down at table with the riff-raff of His day. The Pharisees were shocked by this, that the so-called Son of Man, the One who claimed to be a rabbi of the highest caliber, would pollute Himself by associating with the dregs of society. Proximity bring purity, and vice versa. Therefore, this guy must not be much of a rabbi, or much of a Jew for that matter, if He would allow Himself to be defiled by eating the fruits of ill-gotten mammon at table with the unclean and undesirables of society.

But recall who Jesus is, after all. He is God in the flesh. He is the Son of God Incarnate, the Holy One of Israel. You could not defile Jesus if you tried. He is the definition of holiness. And what happens when the Holy One enters into an unclean household, when He sits at an impure table? He sanctifies it by His presence and by His Word. So He does to Matthew's house and to his dinner party. The house that was defiled and unclean beforehand is now the resting place of the Lord God of Israel. What a testament to the mercy of God, that He eats with tax collectors and sinners, and does not destroy them with His mere presence!

So also does the Holy One of Israel do for you. He enters your homes and lives, and instead of being defiled by your sin and iniquity, He sanctifies you by His gracious presence in and with you. He purifies you of your sins by means of His blood shed on the cross, so that you become a dwelling place fit for the King of the Universe. And since He deigns to dwell with you, He also dwells within your homes and lives and workplaces. He makes you and your home holy “by the Word of God and prayer.” (1Tim. 4:5)

Jesus came to Levi in his tax-booth and called him just as he was – traitor, crook, coward, sinner – whatever you might want to call him. However, our Lord did not leave Matthew that way. No, He loves His children too much for that. He invades your body and soul, you home and work, and all corners of your life, taking what you are and making you into what He desires.

Jesus commands the Pharisees, who object to our Lord associating with tax collectors and sinners, to “Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'” What does this mean? This is a quotation from the prophet Hosea, and the Hebrew text reads, “For I delight in steadfast love (or mercy) and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6) It has been said that the prophet is saying that the Lord delights in His work for you, rather than in your efforts toward Him. He delights to show steadfast love and mercy, to shower you with grace, and to supply you with His abundant gifts. This is His delight, more than your sacrifices and offerings ever could be. He rejoices that you come to the knowledge of Him and His saving work for you. This is more pleasing than the smell of a thousand bulls being burned in offering. He desires that you believe, not that you belabor.

This is what our Lord did to Matthew: He came and called him to faith through the power of the Word. He entered Matthew's home and sanctified it and both host and guests by His Word and His gracious presence. And our Lord formed Matthew to become an apostle and evangelist, to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the children of Israel who sat in darkness.

Which, then, leads us to what Jesus did through Matthew. Our Old Testament lesson for this Feast starts out strangely:

“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

The Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and it was an unpleasant Word. The Lord gave him a message of lamentation and mourning and woe – bad news. This is the Law of God, which must be proclaimed to sinners. This is the same Word which was given to Matthew.

This Word of lamentation and woe is the same Law that is preached to you: lament over your sins. Mourn for your guilt and iniquity. Fear the woe to come upon those who are unrighteous before the Judgment Seat. Hear the Word of the Lord and repent of your hard-heartedness and unbelief. Repent of your desire to think of yourselves more highly than you ought, to look down on the “tax collectors and sinners” and to favor the “desirable people”. Repent of your desire to think of yourself as well and whole, even as your sinful nature is tearing you down day by day. Repent, and believe the Gospel.

What happened when Ezekiel ate the scroll full of lamentation?

And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

That bitter Word of the Lord became in the mouth of the prophet as sweet as honey. How could that be? How can something so bitter and terrible as a message of mourning and woe become as honey in the mouth of the messenger? It was sweet to the prophet because it is the Word of the Lord.

The Word of the Lord is precious to the faithful, whether it be a message of judgment upon sin or a message of hope for salvation. The Word of the Lord always works, and it always works for the benefit of those who hear the Word and respond with repentance and faith. Even the bitter pill of the Law becomes sweet in the mouth of the children of God, because the Law shows you your need for your Savior, and drives you to despair of yourself and to cast all your sins and cares and desires upon our Lord Christ. The bitterness of the Law is that you cannot do it yourself; the sweetness of the Gospel is that it is already done for you by Jesus.

In this same way, St. Matthew was sent to preach the Gospel to the Hebrews. Just as the Lord strengthened Ezekiel to preach to the people of Israel in exile, He strengthened St. Matthew to preach to the people of Israel in exile across the Mediterranean, and to preach to you yet today through his Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel and warned him that his would not be an easy task. He would preach to his own people, in his own language, and it would be difficult. A lot of people would not listen. Their hearts and their heads would be hard as rock, and they would resist, but Ezekiel was to preach to them anyway. Undoubtedly, St. Matthew encountered the same thing among the Hebrew-speakers to whom he preached; he preached Christ Crucified anyway, whether they would hear or not.

The preachers of God are called, in every time and place, to preach the Word in season and out of season, to those who will hear and to those who will reject. Do not be those who reject. Your sinful nature excels at making your forehead hard, your neck stiff, and your heart rebellious. Cling to Christ, who has called you to faith. Hear the calling of the Holy Spirit, who works by the preaching of the prophets and apostles, like St. Matthew. Do not bash your flinty forehead against the Rock, but open your mouth to receive the sweet honey of the Word of the Lord. Hear, and be comforted. Eat, and be filled. Rest in the Lord, and be made holy by His dwelling with you. Grow up into Christ, the Head of our Body, who fills and equips you, so that you may build each other up in love, sharing in the grace of Christ delivered to you through the blessed saints.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.