Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
June 9, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Last month, Joy and I spend five days vacationing in New York City. Almost thirty years ago, we were married at her father’s church in Lower Manhattan. Now with the kids all grown up and having productive lives for themselves, it was time for us to “get our marriage back on track” again. We went to New York where it all got started.
When you visit Manhattan, nothing beats taking the public transit and doing a lot of walking. We took the subway everywhere. On our first day, we were on the E Subway Train that originates in Lower Manhattan near Chinatown, goes up the west side until Central Park, crosses over to the East Side before going over to Queens. We were on this train but were afraid to pull out our subway map in fear of being seen as “tourists.” When we saw 50th Street, we got off at the 50th Street and 8th Station. It was the wrong station—the wrong side of the tracks. We quickly took the next incoming train and got off at the right station, 51st and Lexington near our hotel—the right side of the tracks.
When you are riding the subways in New York, you would notice whether the neighborhood above was poor or affluent. 50th Street and 8th was poor. But 81st Street and 8th was affluent because it was near the Museum of Natural History. Some stations had clean walls and bright lights while others smelled like urine and looked dingy. Just by traveling by the different subway stations, we can see how we are separated from each other. And by human nature, people live in different and sometimes segregated communities from others. We usually don’t like to get close to people who are different from us.
Jesus Crossed the Tracks
Jesus lived in an age of divisions. Jews safeguarded themselves from others by maintaining laws of purity. The Pharisees saw to the details of those laws and kept the people on their toes by enforcing these divisions. You see, the Pharisees don’t want to be tainted themselves with uncleanness.
Gentiles were avoided. Samaritans were hated, sinners were outcasts, lepers quarantined, the sick were kept apart, and those who buried the dead were considered unclean for a week. It was like standing on the platform of 50th Street and 8th station and feeling unclean. But Jesus paid little heed to these human restrictions. It’s one of the things that got him in such trouble with religious authorities.
In today’s gospel stories, Jesus demonstrates his disregard for human barriers. He crossed the tracks to the other side. He deliberately got off at 50th Street and 8th.
When a disciple is needed, he looks in an unlikely place and calls upon Matthew, the tax collector. No faithful rabbi would consider an outcast for his disciple. Such a sinner would be too evil to be employed for God’s service. But, Matthew had some quality of leadership that Jesus could see. He stepped into Matthew’s world, ate with his friends, and put Matthew to work in spreading the good news of God’s love.
Next Jesus runs into another barrier when the leader of the synagogue bursts upon the scene. His daughter has died and he implores Jesus to come and touch her. Such a thing wasn’t done. The family should bury her and suffer the impurity of having touched death. But Jesus gets off at 50th Street and 8th and makes his way to the dead girl’s side.
Along the way, Jesus is confronted with yet another kind of separation. The bleeding woman touches his garment and makes him ritually unclean. While Jesus was at 50th Street and 8th subway station, this woman who was bleeding for twelve years touched him when he wasn’t noticing. According to the Pharisees, Jesus was now unclean. He doesn’t run away in shame. He doesn’t rebuke her for her improper touch. He doesn’t chastise her for being so bold. Rather, he heals her and speaks words of encouragement to her. “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.”
All in Need
Unlike Joy and me riding the New York subways and seeing how different each station is, Jesus rides the subways and only sees people in need. Jesus applies no test for proper doctrine, no question regarding their political convictions, no calculation of their income or ethnicity or gender. He sees only their need to be touched, to be healed, to be loved, and forgiven. He responds to a need in them that unites us all—the need to be made whole.
When the Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating and fellowshiping with Matthew and the other tax collectors, they said to them, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, do.”
None of us is whole, no matter our education, gender, nationality, race, convictions, affiliations, or income.
The Pharisees couldn’t see their own sin. They were unwilling to cross the tracks and be with those in need. They would stay on the subway when it passes 50th Street and 8th. Jesus argued with the Pharisees a lot. And it seems that he didn’t have much success with them either.
Perhaps Jesus will have more success with us. We come to church recognizing that we have needs that require attention and caring. Maybe the different and separated neighborhoods that we create and are reflected in the subway stations of our lives are often merely symptoms of our desperate need to be made whole. Maybe the divisions that we see in our world can be challenged by us with Christ’s help.
75 Cents
One of the places that we went back to visit and shop was Rockerfeller Center in Mid Manhattan. It’s where they broadcast the morning NBC Today’s Show. While there, I remembered a story told by Clayton Schmit at Fuller Seminary.
Two lonely people, a father and his ten-year-old son, were walking downtown at Christmas time looking for toys. The son was excited over each toy. When they had finally passed by all the exciting looking toys and hadn’t stopped to buy any, the son heard his father jingle some coins in his pocket. “In a flash I knew it all,” the boy later said.
He’d gotten together 75 cents to buy me a Christmas present and he hadn’t dared to say so in case there was nothing to be had for so small a sum. As I looked up at him I saw a look that brought me closer to him than I had ever been in my life. I wanted to throw my arms around him and say, “It doesn’t matter, I understand. This is better than a chemistry set or a board game. I love you.” But instead we stood shivering beside each other for a moment, then turned away from the last two stores and started silently back home.
I didn’t even take his hand on the way home, nor did he take mine. We were not on that basis. Nor did I ever tell him how close to him I felt that night. But for that moment the separation between father and son had melted away and I knew that we were two lonely people struggling to reach each other.
Jesus came to bring wholeness to people like this father and his son. We pray that Jesus will touch us the way he touched the people in these Bible stories. We pray that he will call us and use us as he used even the tax collector, Matthew. We pray that in our own healing, we may become merciful to others who seem to be on the other side of the tracks.
Today’s Tax Collectors
It seems that we still live in a world full of divisions. Whereas Jesus was unsuccessful with the Pharisees, we pray that he would be more successful with us. Like Jesus, Christians today need to show mercy beyond our comfortable neighborhoods and familiar worlds. Like Jesus, we need to ride the subways and not be afraid to get off at 50th Street and 8th.
Who are today’s tax collectors that we avoid, hate, outcast, quarantine, kept apart, and considered unclean? Maybe they are the people who don’t quite fit the profile of a typical church member. The tax collectors of today might include such people as those of different races; those of different abilities; those of Middle Eastern nationalities; those with lesser income; those who live on the other side of the tracks in the “wrong” neighborhoods; those who have green hair and pierced tongues; and maybe those whose theology is not in accord with ours.
Jesus applies no test for proper doctrine, no question regarding their political convictions, no calculation of their income or ethnicity or gender. He sees only their need to be touched, to be healed, to be loved, and forgiven.
One of the most interesting things we did in New York was to visit churches. We went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. John the Divine Cathedral. What we noticed at both of these beautiful Gothic churches was how they kept their doors opened for people to come in to visit and pray. There was no barrier to come in. You didn’t have to share their particular doctrine or theology. People who dressed very well along with street people were all welcome. People who came seeking to be touched by the beauty and welcome of these churches left with healing and wholeness.
As a church let us not be afraid of the wrong side of the tracks. Like Jesus, let’s get off at 50th Street and 8th so that we too can minister to people in need. As the body of Christ located on the corner of Waverly Place and Sacramento Street, let us make this place open and welcoming for all people who are in need. Since Jesus has healed us, let us be merciful to others in need.
By the way, our anniversary vacation to New York City was great and our marriage is on track for another 30 years!
Let us pray.
Almighty and loving God, teach us to be more like Jesus who walk with people and touch the unclean and knew nothing about the wrong side of the tracks. As you have accepted us mercifully, call us to show mercy to all people in the name and grace of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.