If the Persecution came and a Tyrant was burning all our Bibles, what part of the Bible would you consider to be the most important? What would you memorize and pass on to the coming generations?
In our Gospel tonight, we learned that St. Matthew was one of the Twelve Apostles, called by Jesus. He traveled with Jesus, lived with Jesus during his ministry and we have a Gospel attributed to him.
It is not my intention to tell you about St. Matthew. My intention is point out and honor what I think is his single most important message, the one thing that he would want to say if he were here right now.
When I turn my Bible to Matthew Chapter 1, I see two incredible things;
Verse 18 - "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit."
and
Verse 23 - “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).
Matthew is telling us something monumental! He's telling us the Yin and the Yang have come together, that Physical and Spiritual have come together, that Heaven and Earth (God and Human) are One - in Jesus, the Bridge-builder.
In Matthew Chapter 2, our Saint tells us another story, one that should leave us breathless. The Magi, Gentiles, worse! They're pagans! They see an unusual star in the night sky and they follow it to come worship the new King. What's more is, Joseph & Mary, Jews who are not allowed by Mosaic law to bring Gentiles into their home, open their doors in hospitality... Matthew is saying that Jesus is going to do away with all social classes; there will be no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no rich or slave - all is becoming one in this bridge-building Messiah. Jesus will turn the world upside down and inside out, leaving no stone unturned and make everything new. Forget what you thought you learned, what you thought was important, this is new world. And Jesus shows us to get there.
As an adult, Jesus goes out to visit John the Baptiser and he is baptised by him. This is a rich scene, entire books have been written about it and what it might mean. But I'll say this much. Matthew has just shown us that Jesus has just de-throned the "god of money". Knocked him right out of his chair... Jews, in order to obtain forgiveness of sin by God, had to undertake a perhaps long and expensive travel to Jerusalem. Upon they had buy a pigeon or a lamb and present it to the priest for sacrifice. John and Jesus were both saying; God is everywhere, his heart is with the people and his forgiveness is as free and easily obtained as water. This is why the priests were standing on the shoreline pulling their beards in frustration and crying out; "By what authority do you do this?!" They were losing authority and money... But the people lined up. They were finding God, here, on earth. All were converging and becoming One.
Still, the baptism, renouncing our enmity with God and humanity, becoming reconciled with God and one another, that's just the very FIRST step. In the Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5 through 7, Matthew presents us with the heart of Jesus's teaching. And it's a revolutionary, transformative teaching, in every way. Matthew says: if we repent and come into the kingdom of God, we will be changed, then we can change the world.
How? In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives us the heart of Jesus's Gospel. Transform your minds, open your hearts. Recognize the HEART of crisis. Divorce is evil, he said, but the lust of adultery is the core of the problem - don't invest your time and energy in fantasizing about other people. Murder is evil, he said, but it is harboring anger and holding grudges that is the real root of the problem - take care of the anger and you'll never have to worry about murder... The whole of the Middle-East is rising up in anger against the United States right now, there will be much more blood-shed. If only the home of the Messiah could see this with the eyes of their hearts and be transformed. "Blessed are the Peacemakers!"; Jesus said. They shall be called children of God.
What else did he say? He said; "Blessed are the poor and blessed are you who hunger now."... Jesus had a table theology. When he set out the loaves and fishes, a prefiguration of Communion, he fed everyone who came to the table. No one was excluded. The rich and the poor were there, the Jew and the Gentile, the male and the female and he fed them all with love - for the scriptures say, he had looked upon them with compassion. And again, at the Last Supper and Institution of the Eucharist, Jesus lovingly hand-fed even Judas, the sinner and betrayer... This was incredible! Remember, the priests and public authorities of the day criticized him for this very thing. They criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners. And they, themselves, would never have been in the same room with gentiles, which is why the Jews remained in the court-yard and had forced Pontius Pilate to get up off his throne come out to confer with them... Jesus did away with all of these social rules and more. He not only said, but showed us that what is most important is the state of the heart. An excluded heart is a hurting heart, he told us to be open, to love enough to heal the world, to become one. To share our burdens and our joys, as one, as the Body of Christ to the world. Love sees all as sacred and transforms everything it touches.
Ok. So, once we've opened our hearts with love and we've set the table, then what? Then, the great Commission, preach the Gospel and when necessary, use words. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick and visit imprisoned. These are all incredible, revolutionary things. We hear the world clamoring about it today. Turn on the tv and you hear people say; "Why should I pay for food or health care for THOSE people? Why can't they take personal responsibility?"... When Jesus healed the woman who'd had a bloody hemorrhage for years, the scripture tells us; "she'd spent all her money on doctors and they could not heal her." Can you imagine? Can you just see how angry those doctors were that Jesus had just "stolen" a source of their income? And he did it not just for her, we're told that Jesus healed the blind, the lame, those with leprosy - he put a lot of doctors out of business giving away free health care.
Jesus transformed the world, he was building the kingdom of God and through St. Matthew's Gospel, especially the Sermon on the Mount, he calls us to do the same. Forget money and social status, he says. Love sees all as sacred and heals, transforms everything it touches.
I'd like to close with this portion from the Sermon on the Mount
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
