We’ve been following Jesus this lent.   It’s our decision whether we do or not.   And as we follow, Jesus invites us not simply to go where he goes, but to do and participate in his ministry along the way.

Perhaps nothing is as controversial as when some see that Jesus is going to the sinners.   The tax collectors, the prostitutes, the like.   When Jesus goes to the sinners, well then…he’s gone too far.   Too far.   Whoever dreamed he’d step right across the border and ask us to get out of our comfort zone?  

Hear our lesson this morning from Matthew 9:9-13.

 Here we have Matthew—the guy who wrote this story all down.   Jesus sees him sitting in the local H&R Block kiosk at the Wal-mart.   Sorry, couldn’t resist. Not a tax preparation booth.   NO—a tax COLLECTION booth.  The place where people were expected to fork it over for the Roman occupiers and their heavily armed soldiers.

Jesus approached the booth, and had only two words for Matthew, the fellow sitting there.  “Follow me.”  And Matthew got up, and left.  

It gets worse.   That night, Jesus goes to a dinner party filled with many tax collectors.  Apparently, the sleaze balls who betrayed their fellow countrymen to the Roman Emperor and line their own pockets along the way, all knew each other.  Many tax collectors.   And…sinners.   And…his disciples.  The followers.   The ones who were trailing in the dust of their Rabbi.

Someone was watching.   Spying from the neighbor’s back yard, I suppose.   Wondering what all these ne’er-do-wells were up to.   The Pharisees see—somehow—and they pulled some of his disciples aside.   “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  

Jesus overheard the whispers, and said, “You don’t run to the doctor when you’re well…but when you’re sick,” he said.   “I have come not for the righteous, but sinners.”

Hmm.

Do you know the great Gaither song?  “I walked today where Jesus walked.”    It begins...

I walked today where Jesus walked,
In days of long ago.
I wandered down each path He knew,
With reverent step and slow.

Those little lanes, they have not changed,
A sweet peace fills the air.
I walked today where Jesus walked,
And felt Him close to me.

It’s a beautiful song, about Gloria Gaither’s inspirational journey to the Holy Land.   It gives us a sense that walking where Jesus walked, is a peaceful, serene, beautiful journey.   And that’s the journey some of us believe we are on when we choose to follow Jesus, walking where he walked.  And so we decide to follow Jesus.

I’ll follow Jesus to church.  

    I’ll follow Jesus to Sunday School.

    I’ll follow Jesus to Bible Study.

    I’ll follow Jesus to a Mission trip.

    I’ll follow Jesus to UMW, or RZ, or Edge, or First Gifts.

    I’ll follow Jesus to the Lenten Luncheon.

    I’ll follow Jesus to the World Day of Prayer

    I’ll follow Jesus to the Christian Concert.

    I’ll follow Jesus to hear the Messiah performed.

          "I have decided….to follow Jesus. . ."

 I’ll follow Jesus anywhere that has a cross on the wall, or a painting of him hanging somewhere, or anywhere where people are praying, and praising, and pouring out their hearts to the Lord.  

But…as we spend time in the word, we are confronted that some of the places Jesus walked brought discomfort to some, and created confrontation.

Are we ready to follow Jesus everywhere he walks?   Today’s lesson shows us that he’s not all that interested in the respectable and the righteous—those you’ll find in all those places I’ve just named.  He’s more interested in the sinner.   The wretch.  The ungodly that Paul tells us he’s planning to die for.   Where do you suppose he might find some people like that?  Places beyond our comfort zone

In Jesus’ day, he found them in gathered in the homes of those who would never be caught dead in a Synagogue on a Saturday morning.   In the homes of tax collectors.  He found one at the public watering hole, literally, sitting in the noon day sun by Jacob’s well.  He found another in the bulls eye of an angry crowd who were ready to bash her head in for her sin.  He found another up a tree, and when he hopped down he wasn’t any bigger than that.  He found some on the outskirts of town, covered in leprous boils.   He had a knack, you might say, for finding sinners.   But then again, some found him, like the one who began to anoint him with oil and wipe his feet with her hair.   And when he came into contact with these sinners, he would stop, talk compassionately with them, touch them, and offer them a new life. A new way.   An opportunity to be something, someone different than they had always been.

    The respectable and the religious couldn’t believe their eyes.   What was Jesus doing, why was he spending time with the riff-raff, the sinner, the unclean?

Do most of us church folk even put ourselves in places or positions where we might have a conversation or build a friendship with someone who does not know that God knows them and loves them, unconditionally.  Whole heartedly?  If we were serious about walking where Jesus might walk today, where would we encounter those for whom Jesus has come, offering new life to the broken?   Dignity to the disrespected?   Where would we go?   To follow Jesus to the sinner and the broken, where far would we go?

A few years back, I heard Tony Campolo tell this story of a trip to Hawaii he made to speak.   Campolo is an self-described born-again Evangelical Christian who has ruffled the feathers of some of his brothers and sisters in the Evangelical tradition with his conversation on many hot-topic social issues.

Campolo said that whenever he travels the east coast to Honolulu, his biological clock runs wild for a day or so, and the first night there, he was both hungry and awake at 3:00 a.m. He went off to find an open restaurant., but the only thing open was a greasy spoon diner run by a guy named Harry. So he sat down and ordered.

As he was beginning to eat, a group of prostitutes entered the diner and sat at the counter, trapping Campolo among them. One of the prostitutes mentioned to her friend that the next day was her birthday. Her friend said cynically, “Why are you telling me? Do you want a party and cake; or something?”  The first prostitute, said, “Why do you have to be so nasty? I was just telling you, that’s all. No, I don't expect a cake and a party; I've never have had a birthday cake in my life!”

There was something about this woman that touched Campolo.  After they left, he asked Harry if he knew these girls.  “Sure, they come in every night.” Harry said.  Campolo learned that the girl’s name was Agnes and he and Harry decided to give Agnes a party. Harry did the cake and helped get word out.  Campolo did the decorations.

The next morning at 3:15 there were crepe-paper decorations, a huge birthday cake and about thirty prostitutes and street people in the diner. When Agnes walked in, everybody yelled “Surprise” and they sang happy birthday. She began to cry uncontrollably. She was at her very first birthday party.  She didn't even want to cut the cake; she took it back to her apartment so she could look at it for a couple of days.

After Agnes left to take her cake home, something just prompted Compolo to say, “What do you say; let's have a prayer for Agnes.” It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. After the prayer, Harry said, “Hey, wait a minute…you didn't tell us you were a preacher!  What kind of church do you belong to anyway?”  In one of those flashes of inspiration where you to say exactly the right thing at the right time, Campolo answered, “I…I guess it’s the kind of church that throws parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning!”

Who was it with whom Jesus spent his time? Why was Jesus criticized by the religious establishment in Matthew 9?   He ate with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus wasn’t refined or discriminating enough in his selection of companions.  He wasn’t “respectable enough.”   He was throwing parties for prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners of every kind.  

You don’t suppose that the church become too refined and sophisticated to walk where Jesus walked?  Too respectable.   Too caught up in appearances.   I was working our booth at the home show, and someone said to me, “Was that you at the Willie Nelson concert last night?”  I affirmed that it probably was.   They said, “I nearly fell over when I saw you there.  I knew it was you!”   What would possess a person to say such a thing?   Except to say, “a preacher from a respectable church, well, I never expected ...”  Hear it?   Hear it?

If we dare follow this Jesus, and go where he goes, and do what he does, we just might find ourselves in the company of those that the respectable church has passed by.   Closed off.   Locked out.  Maybe we need to throw a few more parties for people who have never been to the party—even if it makes some of the more respectable religious folks upset.   Like the Pharisees.   They are growing more and more upset, and Jesus decides to walk directly toward Jerusalem to confront them. 

At first it will look like a party—a coronation.   But the wind will change quickly, and the road will get rough.   Jesus won’t turn away.   Are we prepared to follow?