I love retelling Bible stories in a way that helps my listeners connect with those stories in our lives and world today. That’s why, several years ago, when I taught on the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, I retold the story with a modern-day twist. In place of Matthew, I substituted the notorious rapper-rocker Kid Rock.
There’s a song on his album, Devil Without a Cause, entitled, Only God Knows Why. In it, he sings about the disappointment and confusion in his life in spite of his success as a musician. Yes, he’s popular, rich, and, in his words, “a big shot,” but nothing has really changed. He takes too many pills to ease the pain in his heart. Most revealing of all, Kid sings that he knows there is more to life than what he has experienced.
So, how did I retell the story of Matthew using Kid Rock? Like Matthew sitting at his tax collector booth, Kid is sitting on the side of the road with his guitar. Jesus stops, listens to what Kid is singing, and invites him to join his rag-tag group of disciples. At this point in the message, I played Kid’s song, Only God Knows Why. Heavily edited, I might add! You can listen to the song with the words displayed here.
Anyway, Kid is so overwhelmed by the call of Jesus that, just as in the story of Matthew’s calling, he throws a party. A lavish party, I’m sure, with lots of “sinners,” no doubt.
Enter the Pharisees, who ask Jesus’s other disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus overhears the question and quotes the words of Scripture from Hosea 6:6 to these holy rollers - “Go and learn what this means,” he says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” (Matthew 9:13)
The defining quality of committed, maturing followers of Jesus is not seen in their Bible knowledge, tithes and offerings, and church involvement. It is seen in God’s loving mercy demonstrated in their attitudes and relationships with others. All others. This was the message I wanted to drive home to my hearers in this modern-day calling of what many would consider a notorious sinner.
It worked! Some of my listeners were so offended by the sermon they left the church. Before long, I began to hear all kinds of stories and rumors about the nature of my preaching and ministry. None of them were good.
Jesus accused the religious leaders in his day of shutting the door of heaven in people’s faces. (Matthew 23:13) What a graphic picture! Have you ever had someone slam a door shut in your face? That’s what we do when we fail to extend God’s grace and mercy to a lost and broken world where the growing emptiness in people’s spirits carves out a hollow hole that can be filled only by Jesus.
I’ve always found it interesting that Matthew was originally known by the name Levi. His father was likely a priest. And Instead of following in Dad’s footsteps, Levi rebelled against the religion of his day. And the fact that he was sitting at his tax booth speaks volumes. This was not at all common. Most tax collectors hired men to sit at their booths collecting taxes. Not Matthew! He looked every one of his fellow Jews in the eye as he collected the taxes imposed by the Romans. This made him a traitor and blasphemer and resulted in excommunication from the synagogue.
This is the man Jesus called to be a part of his twelve-man team. And this is the man who has given us the gospel of Matthew. Jesus saw something in Matthew that others missed. He saw a tough-minded, tenacious man who had the potential to become a rebel with a cause.
There are a lot of those potential disciples all around us. Many are people we could never imagine, people who, by all appearances, don’t want to have anything to do with religion. But their hearts are hungry for God.
Let’s do what Jesus asked the Pharisees to do. Let’s go and learn what God means when He says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
In Christ,
Dan
Note: In last week’s post on Bob Seger’s “Face the Promise,” I attributed Henry David Thoreau’s comment that most men live lives of quiet desperation to Ralph Waldo Emerson. While Thoreau lived on Emerson’s land when he wrote, “Walden,” and while both he and Emerson shared similar views, the words belong to Thoreau, not Emerson.
Check out my podcasts from Church on the Edge and my books on Kindle.