Coming or Going?

Are you coming or going?  Matthew 9:9-13

This is a bar of Divine Chocolate. If anybody can work out the link between what I say this morning and Boy George then they can have it. You have until I leave the building this morning to work it out. The answer will be on next week's notice sheet.

As I was mulling over the gospel passage for this morning, I was struck by the contrast between the two commands that Jesus gives in the course of the story. There are some similarities between the two orders: they both involve movement, they both require the hearer to do something, and they will both result in a changed life. But there is also a big difference between the two directions.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what I'm talking about? What are the two commands?

The first is “Follow me” and the second is “Go and learn”.

In this story the first command is given to Matthew. Jesus is wandering around his home town, and he comes across one of the local tax collectors. The fact that he is a tax collector is very important.

We know that it is very important because it is the only detail we are given about Matthew.

Here we have the story of the most important encounter in Matthew's life, and he tells it in about thirty words. We don't know his history, what he looks like, about his family, about his faith journey up to this point, anything. The only thing we know about Matthew is that he is a tax collector.

It's a bit difficult for us to really get why this is so important because we don't live in an occupied country. In Jesus' time, Judea was occupied by the Romans. The tax collectors were native Jews who collected taxes on behalf of the Romans, and took a fair bit for themselves as well. The two closest things I can think of are the collaborators in France during World War 2, and Guy of Gisbourne in the Robin Hood stories. This man extorted money from his countrymen, was hated by them, despised by the Romans and was barred from the Temple, prevented from going to worship God.

It was this person that Jesus invited to follow him. Come follow so that I can show you a better way to live and heal you.

In contrast we have the Pharisees. These guys were the guardians of the true faith. They were as upright and law abiding as you can imagine. They never missed a service at the synagogue. They knew their Bibles really well, or, at least, they thought that they did. But it was these people that Jesus told to, “Go and learn”. They hadn't got the point of the Scripture and they didn't know God as well as they thought they did. They had to go and think again because until or unless they did they could not follow Jesus.

So Jesus sent away those who he might have been expected to invite to walk with him, and invited along the person who he would have been expected to avoid.

It got me thinking that we might find out some interesting things if we looked at other examples of Jesus inviting to, “come follow” or to “go, learn”. First we'll look at some examples of “come follow” and then we'll look at some “go learn”. All of these from Matthew's telling of Jesus' ministry.

A little bit earlier in book, right at the beginning of the time of Jesus' ministry, we read this:

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers for people." At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:18-19

These were the very first people that Jesus had invited to follow him. These guys were getting on with their lives. There were in good health, they had jobs that kept them and their families. They were doing all that was expected of them. Then Jesus comes along and asks them to do something unexpected, to follow him. He wants them to follow so that they can discover a new way of life, a new career path.

Later on in their journey together, Jesus is showing his followers that he is more than they thought he was. By now they're realised that he is the Son of God, the one sent by God to rescue God's people. But, they still don't really understand what that rescue will involve. So Jesus says,

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25

Here Jesus lays out the cost of following him. As we have already discovered, the way that Jesus leads us is one of healing and restoration, and of equipping and fulfilling. These things, however, can only come through recognising our own weakness, the fact that we cannot do it ourselves. The only path to resurrection and new life is by way of the cross.

Having looked at some of the things that are involved with “come follow”, we can now think about “go and learn”.

As Jesus travelled around the countryside he attracted many people who were interested in what he did and what he had to say. Some of them liked what they saw and what they heard and wanted to follow him. To one of these, Jesus said,

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matthew 19:21-22

So, we hear Jesus send someone away, because there is preparation to be done before this person is ready to follow. They are not ready to lay down their life and take up their cross. Now, it seems to me that the money itself isn't so much the problem as the self-reliance and pride that it represents. Until this lad had learnt that his money was getting between him and God, he could not follow.

For a more positive example of Jesus telling people to go and learn, we return to the disciples. They have all now been called to follow. They have been going around with Jesus, listening to the teaching and watching the works of power that he has been doing. Now it is their turn, so Jesus tells them to go and learn:

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep. Matthew 10:5-10

Now that the disciples have followed Jesus for a while they are sent out. The are sent out to do the work of the Kingdom. They are sent out to learn how to walk the way, together, but without Jesus with them in person. Again we might notice that they are told not to take anything with them that might tempt them to be self-sufficient. They are to go and learn by doing, but as they go they are to rely on God to provide for them.

Of course this short field trip ended with the disciples coming back to Jesus and reporting all the fantastic things that they had seen happen. They returned to a life of following and of being with Jesus in his time on earth. That time came to an end with his death on the cross, his resurrection and his rising into heaven. Before he went he told his disciples he gave his followers a final command, he told them to go:

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

Having had the training trips whilst Jesus was on earth, the disciples are now ready to walk in the way, led by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus returns to heaven. So Jesus sends them out for the final time to call others to follow. We also, having been called to follow Jesus in our live's journeys invite others to walk with us.

Some of us might be hurting and need restoring. We know that our lives are broken, and that we have done wrong to others and to God. We might feel like we are excluded from society or from church. To us Jesus says, “Follow me and I will heal you”.

Some of us might be just getting on with our lives, minding our own business. We're feeling OK, quite happy with a comfortable life that matches up with the expectations of those around us. To us, Jesus says, “Follow me so that I can do something extraordinary with your life.”

For some of us, there might be something that is stopping us following Jesus. Usually this is something to do with our own self reliance. We think that we can earn our way into God's good books, we judge those we think are worth less than us, we trust in our own strength and wits. To us, Jesus says, “Let those things go, and then come follow me”.

Some of us have been following this Jesus for a while. We've been soaking up the training, we've been restored and received healing, we've been watching others. Now it is time for us to be sent out. To us, Jesus says, “Go, I have work for you to do. Don't fret and don't try to do it in your strength, I am with you by the Holy Spirit.”

For all of us, wherever we are on our journey through life, this truth remains. The only path to resurrection and new life is by way of the cross. Jesus promises us life in all its fullness, forever, if we will follow him that way.

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