When Is Enough Enough?

Matthew 18:10-20

What in Matthew’s gospel may sound like a lost cause may not be all that final. Jesus is discussing conflict within the church when he says, “If the member refuses to listen to (two or three members), tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17). The key terms here are church, Gentile, and tax collector, and they deserve some careful attention.

First of all, we know that Jesus is really talking past the disciples to us because the church is a post-resurrection reality, birthed at Pentecost. How then are we to deal with the likes of Gentiles and tax collectors? Jesus can’t mean that we give up on them entirely. The mission of the church, as given by Jesus later in Matthew’s gospel, is to go and “make disciples of all nations (i.e. Gentiles)” (28:19). And Jesus himself has already expressed his concern for tax collectors in particular by calling a tax collector named Matthew to become a disciple. When Jesus’ choice of dinner companions (“sinners and tax collectors”) was questioned he answered, “I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners” (9:1-9).

When Jesus says that those who refuse to listen to the church should be treated as Gentiles and tax collectors he is not giving up on them, but singling them out for a renewed effort at reconciliation. So I would suggest that Jesus’ words in Matthew 18 are not a warning to those who disagree with the church, but a reminder to the church – as the body of Christ at work in the world – “to call not the righteous, but sinners,” and “to go and make disciples of all nations.” In other words enough is never enough.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to those who need the good news, and grant us the patience to live you word into reality. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Real Dr. Love

Hosea 3:1-5
Luke 5:27-39
With apologies to the rock band Kiss, I think our readings from Hosea and Luke teach us something about love that the band’s song (and current Dr. Pepper commercial jingle) “Calling Dr. Love” can’t even begin to touch. In Luke Jesus calls a tax collector named Levi to become a disciple (Luke 5:27-28). Levi then holds a banquet in Jesus’ honor to which other tax collectors and “sinners” were invited (v. 31). When the Pharisees raise concern over the type of people with whom Jesus associates Jesus replies, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (v. 32). Jesus is not excluding the Pharisees from his circle, they are essentially excluding themselves by failing to recognize the love of God in Jesus’ actions. And what about Hosea? At God’s direction he had already married the prostitute Gomer. Now he must buy her back, out of adultery and prostitution, and with love and discipline demonstrate his devotion to her. This, of course, is symbolic of God’s love and devotion for a wayward people, Israel, who have gone after idols and other gods and who now, with judgment based in love, will be “bought back” by God.

Of course, Kiss is not the only group or individual to misrepresent love. We see it movies and on TV all the time. Romantic love seems to equate exclusively with sex. Love for our enemies, for those in need, even for our neighbor seems like a quaint notion reserved for “religious types.” But Jesus, and Hosea before him, makes very clear that love for others should be neither quaint nor drenched in hedonism. God’s love is the kind of love that seeks out tax collectors and sinners and says “Follow me. Leave your sinfulness behind and I will show you a better way of life, one worth sharing with others, one with purpose and meaning, one that safeguards dignity and values the other as a child of God.”

While most people of faith have little trouble dismissing songs like “Dr. Love” as indicative of nothing but sex, we still must guard against going too far in the other direction such as limiting those with whom we associate, as if God’s love is only for the pure of heart and the blameless. In such circumstances we forget that we, too, are prone to sin and in need God’s healing love. Thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ we find a physician whose love overwhelms us all.

Prayer: Lord, help us to accept your healing love and to share it with others so that the circle of faith may grow and your light be shared with all people. Amen.