The life of Jesus of Nazareth was remarkable. He was a man who stood out among the men of his day. It wasn't that he looked any different to other men. It wasn't that he dressed any differently to other men. It wasn't that he spoke any differently, but there was a difference and it was a significant difference. No one was quite like this man. His whole life was so holy and righteous and pure and good. I wonder what it would have been like to have known him, to have walked with him, to have witnessed his works and listened to his words, but above all, simply to have watched him in all of his varied interactions with different people, his countenance, his responses, what he pursued, how he used his time. We know a certain amount about those things, but to have been there and seen it, he was a remarkable man. He was, among other things, considered a religious teacher, though he had not gone to the prophetic schools of his day, he hadn't sat under the rabbis, he hadn't been guided and mentored by any of the significant figures of the Jewish establishment, but no doubt, no question, he was a teacher. Even the leaders of the synagogues understood that and recognized that very fact. He was often invited to speak in the synagogues. He was a teacher, yet he was unlike any of the other teachers of his day. So many of them, the well-known rabbis, had their disciples, and the disciples would seek out The best seek out those who taught according to their own thinking. Those that they were stirred up and motivated by, they would seek them out and they would follow those rabbis. But Jesus chose his disciples himself. Yes, crowds followed him, but the crowds weren't his disciples. They weren't committed to him. They would walk with him for a while, and then they would return to their homes. But there was a small group in the midst of the crowd that were his disciples, handpicked by him, chosen by him. And they weren't the most educated. They weren't the most intellectually astute. They weren't the most promising academically. They weren't those of wealth or position in society that Jesus chose. He chose from the least promising candidates. He chose from the rough and ready fisherman of Galilee. And he chose Matthew, the author of this gospel, a tax collector. That was remarkable, that a religious Jew would acknowledge a tax collector. other than to scorn him. That a teacher among the Jews would call such a man to be his disciple, this was unheard of. But Jesus was not like other teachers. He was not like other men. He was a remarkable man. and his disciples are seeing that. Every day as they watch him, every day as they listen to him, every day as they witness his miracles, and every day as they observe his interactions, they realize, here is a remarkable man. And this question, this question that we heard uttered verbally in the becalmed boat on the Sea of Galilee after the storm, this question no doubt recurred in their minds as a repeated refrain, what kind of man is this? And now Matthew, drawing on the stories that he has heard, drawing on the things that he has seen, drawing on his own personal experience now of interacting with Jesus, explores this question, what kind of man is this? Both Mark and Luke also tell the story of Matthew's call. In those gospels he is referred to as Levi. That shouldn't trouble us. Many people in those days had two names. Often one was a Hebrew name and the other was a Greek name. But sometimes they might have more than one Hebrew name. It wasn't a surprising thing. to see and so we shouldn't think, oh these are two different men that are being referred to and the Gospels they don't, they don't, they're not reliable because they don't really tell the same story accurately. Matthew is speaking from his experience, Mark has heard from Peter and he's recorded his gospel, Luke has investigated carefully and has sought out eyewitnesses of the things of which he records. Matthew was here on this occasion and that's who we're focused on then, or perhaps it would be more correct to say we're focused on Jesus through Matthew's eyes and Matthew's experience, his own call to be a disciple of Jesus. He tells us, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." We see then firstly Jesus' call, Matthew's testimony concerning Jesus' call to him. Jesus, as he went about at various times and in different locations, called people specifically to be his disciple, to follow him. And this is Matthew's account. He was in his tax booth on the main trade route through the city of Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. He was taking taxes from the traders who passed through. They would follow this high road, taking their goods to places of commerce. Or they would cross from the other side of the Sea of Galilee and bring their goods across in boats. And Matthew, along with the other tax collectors, they were always there. And they were always ready. And they knew their rights. And they had the authority of Rome behind them as they collected their taxes. These were often wealthy men. We read a moment ago from the story of Zacchaeus in the Gospel of Luke. And we're told there that he was a chief tax collector. And so it was. There was a hierarchy. and there would be someone who was chief who had oversight of others, the clerks in the office, if you like, who would do the actual work of gathering the taxes while the chief tax collector just made sure he made a healthy profit from it all. Well, that's perhaps a little bit cynical. But then when it comes to taxmen, we are a bit cynical, aren't we? And so it was, but it was even worse then. For the taxes, after the tax collector had skimmed off his portion, went to Rome, went to the enemy, went to the oppressor. So for a Jew to be a tax collector was to be in a despised role, befriending the enemy, in league with the oppressor. They were outcasts from respectable Jewish society. And this is how Matthew lived then. He lived for money. That would have been what would have motivated him. He would be a wealthy man as a tax collector and that for him was sufficient compensation for the scorn of the religious establishment of his day. It wasn't that they were without friends. There were others who were scorned by the religious establishment of the day. They were referred to as sinners. Now that term to us means, you know, murderers and adulterers and that kind of thing. But to the Pharisees in particular, it simply meant anyone who didn't abide by the standards that they lived by. They were sinners. And so we have this reality that there were the tax collectors despised by the Jews in general. And there were the sinners particularly despised by the scribes and the Pharisees and the religious establishment. And Jesus, a religious teacher, Jesus, one who was acknowledged by the rabbis to be a rabbi, one who was at times welcomed in the synagogues and invited to teach there, this Jesus is a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And Matthew discovers this. As he's there in his booth, collecting his taxes, Jesus comes by and sees him there. Matthew, no doubt, has heard at least of Jesus. Capernaum is Matthew's town. That's where he works, that's where, no doubt, he lives. This is Jesus' base. He's been here for a while. He makes excursions into other parts of Galilee and even beyond, but Capernaum is his home base. And great miracles have been performed. in and around Capernaum. No doubt Matthew has heard of these things. He knows the news. The city is buzzing with the news of Jesus of Nazareth and the works that he performs. And as he sits there in his tax booth, no doubt there's talk about this Jesus. Perhaps he himself has seen him. Perhaps in his lunch break, he's gone off to find out where Jesus is, and has listened to a few words that he's been able to catch, or he's witnessed some of the miracles that Jesus has performed, but he's always stood on the outer fringes of the crowd, perhaps, because, well, he's not particularly welcome there among the Jews. And now as Jesus walks past, Matthew perhaps looks up because when Jesus walks past, he's never alone. There's always a crowd. There will be the voices. There will be the feet dragging on the dirt road. There will be the sounds of this mob passing through. Matthew would have looked up, what's the commotion? What's going on? Here is Jesus and he's walking past and then their eyes meet and Jesus pauses and he looks at Matthew and he says to him, follow me. Follow you? Jesus, me, follow you? That thought must, even if it was only momentary, it must have crossed Matthew's mind. Why would Jesus be asking him? A tax collector, a reject. Why would he be asking him to become one of his disciples? He understands what this means. For we're told he rose and followed him. And Mark and Luke tell us even more that he left everything. That was it. The tax booth was only something in Matthew's past now. He left it behind. All the takings of the day left there on his desk. Left his records, his accounts, He wouldn't be sending in his invoice to the chief tax collector claiming his portion of the taxes. He left it all. And he followed Jesus. He knew what this command meant. Follow me meant be loyal to me. It meant cast in your lot with me. It meant, be my ally now. It meant, I'll have your allegiance in life and in death. This is what it meant when Jesus said to someone, follow me. It meant all your heart, all your strength, all your mind lived in devotion to me. And Matthew could not resist this call. Whatever he had heard of Jesus before, whatever he had seen of Jesus before, in some senses, it didn't matter. Perhaps in God's purposes, he had been prepared for this moment. through previous earlier experiences of knowing something of Jesus, seeing something of Jesus, but ultimately it would not have mattered because no one spoke like Jesus did. There was an authority in his voice that those who had ears to hear it could not resist it. Just as the wind who heard his voice stopped blowing, just as the waves were immediately calmed at his utterance, so all who are granted ears to hear the voice of this man find that they can do nothing but obey him. His call is irresistible to them, that they cannot, make any excuse that will satisfy their consciences. They cannot make any plea to delay this call. It is like an arrow that is shot into their very heart and on it is a string that is drawn and it pulls them like a harpoon. It pulls them into Jesus. And Matthew is drawn to Jesus, drawn out of his despised world to walk with Jesus, this remarkable man who everyone is talking about, and a few are following. And he now is among those who have been chosen to follow Jesus. and he's willing and he's ready and he goes and he follows him. But there's almost a before doing so, or perhaps better, as he does so, he celebrates his call. He arranges a great banquet. Matthew himself just tells us that Jesus reclined a table in the house. The other Gospels tell us that it was Matthew's house. And out of the great wealth that he had accumulated, he arranged this great banquet. And he invited all of the people who hadn't disowned him, who hadn't despised him, All his tax collector colleagues, they were all there, every one of them. And the sinners, so despised by the religious hierarchy, they were there too. He celebrates Jesus's call upon his life and he wants all of his friends to know, I'm leaving the tax booth behind. I'm going to follow this remarkable man. This, this is Jesus's mission. Here he is, he's reclining a table in Matthew's house with tax collectors and sinners all around him. Every couch is taken. The table is loaded with provisions. People are pressing in at the door. And Jesus is there in the midst of this despised group. The outcasts of society. This teacher, this rabbi, is there among them all. for he loves them, and he's moved with compassion as he looks upon them. Here are people, to use words that he speaks elsewhere, like sheep without a shepherd. How lost they are. How deceived they are. How darkened in their minds and understandings they are. How hopeless they are, pursuing the things of this world. That all will vanish away, all the wealth. It cannot be taken into the grave and beyond. All the possessions they must be left behind. All that gave satisfaction. It's empty and vain and futile. And eternity lies ahead, not three score years and 10. Eternity, forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever, without end. And what does it hold? For those who have, pursued their lives for the things of this world. It's not a full and happy eternity that awaits. It is like their lives, dark. It is like their understandings. black. There is nothing of goodness. There is nothing of worth. And Jesus knows, and Jesus sees these poor creatures all around him. He knows their lives. He knows their sins. Like no other man, he knows them. For He is pure, He is perfect, He is holy. And can you imagine this man, Jesus of Nazareth, sitting in this crowd? The Pharisees wouldn't be seen dead there. The scribes would never have answered an invitation to have gathered in that group. They see it all happening from a distance. They ask questions about what is happening because to them, to associate with these people, well, their own standards wouldn't allow it. own righteousness would become polluted, they would become unclean and defiled by association with these people their rabbis had taught them so. There is Jesus, whose righteousness so far surpassed that they looked like soiled garments in comparison to him. He was perfect and he was pure. And there he was. He listened to them. I wonder how he looked as he listened to them. Smile? Did he laugh at their jokes? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we often think that that is referring to his own sufferings. But I don't think we can discount the fact that it also must have been an anguish of heart as he saw the wretchedness of these lives. To have been there in all of his own personal purity, where every thought of his mind was goodness, where every word from his mouth was truth, where every work of his hands was right, And here are the lives of those who are corrupt, and deceitful, and wretched. And yet Jesus is there, and he's chosen to be there. He's not there by accident, he's there by choice, reclining. with tax collectors and sinners because for this purpose he came into the world. He came into this world of sin deliberately. He came into this world where there is no one who is good, where there is none who are righteous, not even the Pharisees, not even the scribes, not even the greatest religious leaders. All are corrupt, all fall short of the glorious standards of God. And he came into this world because he had compassion, because he loved these people. He was a friend to them. Not a friend simply by being kind to them. They might see that as friendship. But he was a companion to them. He spent time with them. He talked with them and he ate with them. He walked with them. He sat with them. He fished with them. He was a friend to those whose lives were despised. The sinless one mingling with the sinners. What great love is this? And Jesus hears the criticism of the Pharisees. He knows the thoughts of the religious leaders. He knows their attitude towards these tax collectors and sinners. And as he responds to them, he responds with a quotation. A quotation from that passage that we read in Hosea, chapter six and verse six. And he says, go and learn what this means. A phrase that simply means something like, Meditate upon this. Think about this. God says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Oh, the Pharisees, they were all about sacrifice. If we take sacrifice as a word referring to all of their religiousness, all of their keeping of the law, all of their fulfilling of the requirements for sacrifices and for feast days and for fasting and for all of these things that they heaped up rules about to govern them so that they might not fall short. Jesus says, think about this, think about what God says about your priority. I desire mercy. not sacrifice. You can go through all of your religious motions. You can attend morning and evening prayers. You can bring all of your various sacrifices at the appointed times. You can keep the feasts to the letter of the law. You can add to it all kinds of other things, the tithing of mint and cumin. your Sabbath day journey limitations, your refusal even to pluck an ear of corn in the field as you walk through on the Sabbath and eat it. Keep them all if you like, but none of it is viewed by God with pleasure if you're not showing mercy. If you do not have compassion the needy. There you are in all of your righteousness and how proud you are in your righteousness, but what about these miserable creatures over here in their unrighteousness? What are you going to do to help them? What are you going to do to lift them out of the pit of their sin? What are you going to do to bring them closer to the standard of God other than your criticism and your rejection and your despising of them? What will you do? Is your heart not moved? Will you not show mercy to these wretched people? You know they're wretched, but you are not moved by their wretchedness. And Jesus was willing to come and be their friend. He was willing to come and sit down with them, eat with them and talk with them. He was willing to tell them of truth and light. He was willing to discuss with them the issues of sin and the futility of trying to overcome temptation in one's own strength, he was ready to call them to repentance and to trust in him. This is what God requires. Repentance and transformation. And that only comes with interaction. with spending time with talking and telling and opening people's eyes and understanding and their minds to the reality of their condition, to the reality of God and the reality of God's provision. This was Jesus' mission, to make God known in all of his holiness. in his own self-sacrifice. Jesus came to show genuine love and mercy to sinners. He did it all through his life, time and time and time again, we're told in the Gospels, he was moved with compassion. And so he healed the sick, he fed the hungry, He raised the dead because he was moved with compassion. And he provided a sacrifice for sin because he was moved with compassion. He gave himself that these wretched sinners might receive forgiveness, a pardon from God, be reconciled to their creator, be given hope and life. For Matthew, Jesus is the man who loved him and who drew him to himself. Matthew, the despised tax collector, one of the 12. For Matthew, Jesus is the man who reaches out to the needy, to the wretched, to the despised, to do them good. For Matthew, Jesus is the man who saves those who are drowning in their sins. Who is this man? This remarkable man from Nazareth, who is he? He is the one who loves the unlovely. He came to save sinners. And so he interacted with them, he made himself available to them, he showed kindness and patience with them, and ultimately he laid down his life for them. And he's the same today. He looks upon this world and he is moved with compassion. And he calls, he calls today and he says, follow me, follow me. Will you heed his call? Will you leave everything and follow this one so moved with compassion that he would pay the ultimate price to save his people from their sins? There is none like him in all the world. There is none like him. His is the only name under heaven given amongst men. by which we must be saved. And you can come to him now in all of your guilt, with all of your sin, and he won't turn you away. He won't say, oh, you're too bad for me. I'll not have you in my company. Oh no, he'll open his arms to you. He'll embrace you in his love. He'll cleanse you from your sins, He'll forgive you, and you will be His and His forevermore. Come, come to Jesus. He's calling you today. But we cannot leave the story there. We must not leave the story there. The Pharisees were told, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And he says it to you. You who claim him. You who are following a path of Religious obedience. He's saying to you, think about this. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Is your life marked by simple religious routine or by mercy? This is what Jesus calls us to do, you see, he calls us to follow him, to put our feet where his feet have trod. And that means going among the despised, the rejected, the tax collectors and sinners of our day. Oh, we don't want to get dirty. We don't want to become unclean. We don't want to be polluted. And so we excuse ourselves from this. We cannot do so. Jesus came to call sinners. His life was lived for sinners. His death was underwent for sinners. Sinners were at the forefront of Jesus's thinking from the very beginning of his life until today. He reigns in heaven for the sake of sinners, that they might be saved, and he gathers together a people to follow him. and to serve him. And he sends them out. And where does he send them? He sends them to sinners. Are we going to sinners? Are we friends of sinners? This is an enormous challenge to us. We want to be comfortable. We want to be easy. But we must do as he did. we must become friends of sinners, so that by his grace, they too may be saved. Let's pray. Lord God, we do ask that you would have mercy and help us. How fearful we are of the world. How easy it is for us to withdraw from it. But we pray, Lord, that you would help us to be courageous and to be determined that we too will be the friends of sinners. And that we may have many opportunities in doing so to shine the light of the gospel into dark and dreary lives, deceived by Satan and his lies. Lord, we pray that in this way many will be brought into the kingdom of Christ, many who were worthless, wretched in their sins, that they may become followers of Jesus and like Matthew, delight to celebrate his call. We ask your blessing upon us and your help in Jesus' name. Amen.