Sermon For The First Sunday Of Ordinary Time, 2026

Matthew 9:9-26

The beginning of Ordinary Time differs depending on the date of Easter. Sometimes I would adjust for that, but this year it puts us just past the Sermon on the Mount, and since we are still covering that in our men and women’s groups, I decided to go with where the lectionary takes us. As we have and are still grappling with what Jesus teaches in the Sermon, with its moral demands far higher than we can achieve on our own, we also have recognized that they are made possible because we are not left to follow the Law alone, but by the filling of the Holy Spirit by whom we are in Christ. The Law of Jesus is not just a Law of rules to follow, but of transformation from the interior to our actions, from the heart to the hands, a desire to be made whole, rather than merely following rules to avoid punishment. 

Living in this way, following Jesus and his life, upends the expectations of the world. In fact, Christians, citizens of God’s Kingdom, are called to exceed the world’s expectations, where when we are expected to retaliate with vengeance, we respond with mercy, and when we are commanded to carry a load a distance, we go twice the length. In this way “the conduct of the disciple is filled with surprise for those who experience it.”

We turn now to a representative passage from chapters 8-9 of Matthew. If the Sermon on the Mount is the definitive teaching of Jesus, the Gospel now turns to examples of his miraculous works of healing, exorcism, and even resurrection, showing us that Jesus is not just a worker of word, but of deeds. We begin here with the call of Matthew the tax collector. A Jewish tax collector was a despised position, socially and religiously, because he would be seen as a collaborator with the Romans who dominated Jewish lands, collecting money for their empire. What is more, these Jewish collaborating tax collectors often would demand more than was actually required, thus lining their own pockets. To Matthew, his status with his fellow Jews would have been painfully clear: you are the enemy, worse than the enemy, a traitor, and we want nothing to do with you. And by extension, God would also want nothing to do with him.

That is what Jesus means when he says, in response to the Pharisees questioning why he would consort with such awful people like Matthew, “‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’” Matthew was one who knew, reminded as he was constantly by his fellow Jews, that he was in need of healing, that he was a sinner. People who wield oppressive power, people who receive worldly acclaim, or hoard wealth for themselves, the Scriptures tell us over and over again have their own reward. It is those who recognize their need for God, the sick, that are able to receive the healing they need. You can deny a doctor’s diagnosis and treatment and act like you are well, but the one who is healed is the one who is willing to admit their need. That act of mercy from Jesus must have changed Matthew’s life, as the author of this gospel and if tradition is to be believed, an apostle to Persia and to Ethiopia.

Citing as he does Hosea, and God’s desire for mercy and not sacrifice, Jesus once again points back to the central point of the Sermon on the Mount: transformation into people of God’s Kingdom is not from mere conformity, but from the internal transformation wrought by changed hearts, by the work and presence of the Holy Spirit. It isn’t about simply following a rule, but about God within us, his purity purifying us and moving outward through us into the world. 

Having thus said this, two more episodes then follow that exemplify this point. Jesus goes forth, and two people are healed, not because of their outward holiness. In fact, these are two people who were impure, and in touching them, Jesus should have become ritually impure by his contemporaries standards. Instead, his purity, his holiness, his merciful and abundant LIFE flowed to them and restored them. A woman with a flow of menstrual blood was to be avoided, as anything she touched was considered unclean; likewise with the little girl, the dead were to be carefully handled and buried immediately, but in his arrival, the touch of Jesus’ hand restored her to life. The faith of the woman, that which was ready and willing to receive God to restore her, did so, because it is only God working in us that can make us truly whole. The faith of the synagogue leader, on behalf of his child, likewise led to her restoration to life. But the life, the healing, came from Jesus, who is the one who has the power to heal, the power to restore, the power to save. And it is this power that we must turn to, not any other, as the one true source of our own restoration, as that which will make us whole. To be whole is only in the power of Jesus who gives it freely to those who receive it.

Kids, have you ever gone to your parents or someone else when you have gotten hurt? I remember when I was a kid and rode my bike. I rode hard. We lived on gravel roads and with fields around, and I would go screaming down hillsides and hitting bumps to do jumps. And often, I fell, or slid, when I tried these things, losing lots of skin along the way. I can remember that happening and going in to my mom, knowing I was okay but still hurt and feeling like I needed her to do something. So she would tell me calmly that I was okay, make sure the scratches were clean, and that was often all I needed. Off I would go. That is what our relationship with Jesus is like. He is the one who we know can heal all wounds, even the ones inside, the ones on our souls. We can bring our hurt, and sadness, and fear to him, and he will heal them, partly now, and fully when he comes back. And like how you trust that your parent can make you feel better about small, insignificant pain in life, trust Jesus that he will heal all.

Jesus proved that he did not come for those who proclaimed they needed no help, that they were the masters of their own destinies. He did not come for those who would proclaim “I am not sick, I do not need help!” He did not come for those who were ritually pure, perfect in their following of the external laws. He came for the sorrowful, the outcast, the impure, the sick, and the dying. He came to bring life, and for us, all that there is to do is to receive it, accepting it by the whole-hearted trust that is faith. And it is in his mighty, divine power, possessed by God alone, that the winds obey, the seas calm, the demons are expelled, the sick are healed, and the dead are raised. So follow this Jesus, who transforms from the inside out, who heals all wounds and brokenness, and who promises to us a final rest in the Kingdom of Heaven, world without end. Amen.