Jesus' Encounters
Jesus’ Encounters
Gen 12:1-9; Mt 9:9-13, 18-26
Gen 12:1-9
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Mt 9:9-13, 18-26
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, 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, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
Prayer - Lord Jesus, we come to you this week on the cusp of a long journey during this season after Pentecost. We have heard and we believe that your Spirit has been poured out on us, so we come together this week in anticipation of your Word, trusting that the same Spirit continues to move and speak in our midst. As we encounter you, our ever-active, always engaging Christ, this week, may we heed your call on our lives and have the faith that you will bring restoration and life not just to ourselves, but to all of your children. May we not fall prey to questioning your company or doubting your life-giving power. May we instead be raised ever and again to new life in your name - Amen.
Have you or your family ever moved because of a call from God? I asked my wife, at the time, and my kids to move from the mountains of NC to Richmond, VA, for me to follow my call and attend seminary. And if I’m honest about it, there was some discussion about it, but I was listening to God much more than I was listening to my wife and kids. Since then there have been a few moves to follow God’s call on my life as well as my following God’s call on Valerie’s life. The reason we moved to Texas was for her job at TCU. I had planned on working out my career at the hospital in Anderson and retiring from there. She wanted to move, to seek out a new opportunity which was right up her ally, and reluctantly to a degree, I came as well. I didn’t have a whole lot of voice in that move as I choose to support her career and opportunities and not throw a hissy fit. We came here and her job didn’t work out as she hoped while I have found a place for ministry at Baylor and here at Trinity.
I can imagine there are a few of you here in our church who have followed career opportunities from place to place and your spouse may have been willing to move in support of your career. And I can’t help but wonder if they experienced the same type of call to move as you did? How much voice did they have, or express, when it was time to move for a new job opportunity? Maybe like my first wife, some discussion, but not a lot of listening on my part. And maybe it worked out well and maybe sacrifices and compromises had to be made. I’m really not trying to dig up old arguments or sore spots – I am going somewhere with this.
As we reflect on God’s call on Abram, we hear very little from Sarai. Was she a willing participant in that move? Or did she go along simply because that was the expectation in her culture and time? Our text doesn’t speak to their experiences. Instead, it is a text of silenced voices. We don’t know how Sarai felt about moving nor do we see God talking to her about the promise God just made Abram about a child. As I reflected on our two passages for this morning, I realized that it is important to attend to the silent voices in scripture, the silent perspectives that we tend to gloss over.
And maybe that is why Jesus spent so much time with those who were silent in those times – those folks who were considered to be on the margins. Jesus was, is, notorious for this companionship with tax collectors and sinners throughout Matthew’s gospel. His opponents detested and wanted to keep silent the voices of the company Jesus kept. Yet, Jesus kept spending time with the silent and one can’t help believe that part of his ministry was to ensure that those who were silenced, ignored, forgotten – were no longer unseen.
And though we have stories of healings in our passage this morning, Jesus says he didn’t come for the healthy, or those who were seen as having value, rather he came to attend to those who were silent, unseen, even dead. Jesus’ companionship with sinners appears to be just that, companionship and not treatment. Jesus most harsh words in Matthew’s gospel are pointed at the elite, the seen, the noticed, the status quo and not at those who were silent and unseen by most of society. Most of Jesus’ pronouncements of woe was against the scribes and Pharisees and not once in Matthew’s gospel does Jesus denounce the sinners – the silent, unseen, ill and marginalized. Jesus didn’t criticize them; he didn’t demand repentance as he did against the elite authorities; he simply eats and drinks with those who are set aside by the 1%.
Why was Jesus so concerned with those on the periphery? If he was indeed the Son of God, shouldn’t Jesus have been hanging out with, well, more important people, the ones who could relate and appreciate that he was the Son of God. Why hang out with the moral ingrates? The Jesus we encounter in the scriptures, or perhaps the Jesus who encounters us in scriptures, refuses to bend to our rules or expectations. He throws them in a blender, pours them over a hot meal and shares that meal with a crowd we would never think twice about dining with.
Jesus encountered Matthew, a tax collector, a person seen as bottom of the barrel, for those of you who have viewed, The Chosen know full well that Matthew is seen as a scuz-bucket. But Jesus called him to join and be part of his work, certainly the last person anyone would want on their ministry team. Time and time again Jesus straps on his sandals, gets to walking, and finds those on the edges of society and offers them the healing, the inclusion, the grace they so desperately need.
Following his encounter and invitation with Matthew, we find another Jesus encounter with those we would least expect. A ruler in the community comes to him and shares that his daughter has died but if only Jesus would come and lay his hand on his dead daughter, she would be renewed and live again. On the way to the ruler’s home for a miracle of life raising, Jesus encounters yet another person who is on the margins of first century society. A woman, a woman sees the Holy Healer and just reaches out and touches Jesus’ cloak. After bleeding for 12 years this woman was as unclean and silenced as anyone in town.
Here are two individuals coming to encounter Jesus out of faith that he has something to offer their destitute situations. The ruler seeks life in the face of his daughter’s perceived death. The woman burdened by her body’s bleeding seeks a life which her ailment has all but killed her to her community. Both encounters are not expected, not with one who would be seen as worthy of the Messiah’s touch, attention, care. And Jesus answers them both. Without scolding, blaming, shaming, Jesus says first to the woman and then to the father, your faith has made a difference, your voice, your trust will not, cannot be silenced any longer as the region learned of both healings.
It is clear from our passage this morning that encounters with Jesus are often with those who one wouldn’t expect. And each of those encounters are life-changing, especially for those who typically are unseen, forgotten, excluded in normal circumstances. Perhaps it is good news for us that Jesus is responsive, perhaps showing us, or at least reminding us, that any fear of worshipping a God who remains in the heavens, detached from earthly existence and experience, is not one of great concern. Matthew shows us that Jesus, regardless of the audience, responds; calls the least expected to serve; quiets the short-sighted religious authorities; heals those on the outskirts; dismisses those who would mock him and his work; and raise a girl most thought was dead. The gospel is littered with encounters between God and humanity. Jesus, far from aloof and uninterested, engages with this world and its people, bringing new life, restoration and hope to a broken world.
Each of us have encounters every day – some are unexpected – seeing an old friend by chance standing in line at the store. We talk and catch up, ask about the family and reminisce about the old days. Some encounters are meticulously planned such as worship each week; community bible study; watching The Chosen. The planned encounters are routine and perhaps provide a sense of comfort to our daily lives.
However, I’d bet good money that Jesus’ encounters that we frequently read or hear about in scriptures were unplanned and unexpected, and most often with those that we would least expect. I wonder how Jesus’ impromptu activity during this compilation of stories compares to our expectations of the way Jesus works, shows up, and moves about in the world today. I admit that most of us would just as soon confine and package Jesus in a way that is reflective of the kind of Savior we would rather have than one who most often is hanging out with all kinds of unsavory characters at underpasses and crossroads.
The Jesus we encounter is scripture is the same Jesus who encounters us time and again today. Our lives, and the lives of our fellow church members, are full of ways that Jesus shows up in expected and unexpected places. And these encounters change us just as they changed the lives of Matthew, the ruler and his daughter, and the woman who had been bleeding for years. Any attempts on our part to compartmentalize Jesus are futile. Jesus is going to continue to show up in our lives, in our ministry here at Trinity and even though it is not always expected, these Jesus encounters are life-changing because voices once silent, people who have most often been excluded and forgotten are now healed, renewed, strengthened just as we are. How can that be bad news – thanks be to God – amen.