2nd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 5, Year A
June 7, 2026
Genesis 12:1-9
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Well, here we are in the season of what the church refers to as Ordinary Time or the green season. We will be green for a very long time now, well into the fall. And you know what Kermit the frog would say, it isn’t easy being green.
This year, we will also be reading and listening to the Gospel of Matthew…for months. And that won’t be easy, either. Because the Gospel challenges us with what it is to be a follower of Jesus the Christ, what it is to live in the New Covenant with God, and how we, as a church and gathered body of believers are called to carry forward the work of the church while we are still on this earthly plane.
And so, on this first green Sunday of Ordinary time, we are going to find out the season isn’t all that ordinary after all. We pick up in Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus is still in the middle of gathering his apostles, forming his first disciples who will live and work and walk with him for three years. And we launch right in, “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” Just like that. This simple introductory sentence into the Gospel reading today is already loaded with scandal and controversy. If 1st century Judeans and Romans wore pearls, they were probably clutching them.
And here’s why. This sentence points to how Jesus began to set up his ministry, and ultimately what was to become known as The Way of Jesus, the Assembly, and ultimately the Church. Jesus initiates his ministry with the calling of the unlikely. And before we get into the rest of this passage, I’ll warn you to gird up your loins, because no one is going to get out of Matthew’s message today unscathed. However, I hope you also hear the message of mercy.
You see, Matthew was a tax collector. This was not the same as an IRS agent. This was someone who engaged in a profession that contributed to the oppression and extortion of his own people. He was considered by most, a traitor, charging extra off the poor to put in his own pocket. That fact that he was in his booth indicates that he played an active role in a system that perpetuated economic oppression to benefit the empire. Perhaps he was stuck in this system, looking for a way out and without many friends couldn’t find his way out. Jesus offered him that opportunity and he high-tailed it out of that booth rather rapidly. Matthew’s life changed forever.
The next verses get us to the heart of the mission of Jesus. The mission his followers were to continue to carry until his return. The mission we have inherited. Jesus is sitting with and eating with tax collectors and sinners–whatever your definition of sin is–just fill it in here. First of all, this is Matthew’s house. Did Matthew invite him to his house or did Jesus invite himself? We don’t know, but why would Jesus do this in broad daylight for everyone to see before he’s even finished calling all his disciples?
Now the Pharisees are clutching their pearls. I want to really get the point across here because before you start thinking, “Yeah, those uptight Pharisees,” I want to put this into today’s context. You may end up clutching your own pearls because I know I wanted to. The equivalent of Matthew today would be an ICE agent. Now picture the scene with others that often get called “sinners,” immigrants, queer folk, Republicans, Democrats, the poor, the disabled, the ex-con, the drug addict, you name it. Those are sitting there, too, at the table with Jesus. I hear my own voice when the Pharisees ask the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Eating together in that culture was a sacred act, an act of inviting one in to be family. Now these disciples were newly recruited and they weren’t sure what Jesus was up to. I can just see them looking at each other, shrugging their shoulders, and responding to the Pharisees, “We have no idea.” But here they are in Matthew’s house probably hoping no one saw them enter. And I am sure they were already questioning Jesus’ choices here because this was no way to successfully get a movement off the ground. Throughout their tenure with Jesus, they frequently questioned his motives. I also hear myself from time to time lamenting, “Are you kidding me, Jesus?”
But what is his motive? He says it pretty clearly. He’s setting up a hospital for those that need healing–healing spiritually, mentally, and physically. The Son of God is a physician. “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ This statement is a direct challenge to the religious order. The Pharisees emphasize purity and sacrifice, but Jesus reorients the discussion toward mercy, toward healing, and toward relationship. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” is a direct quote from the prophet Hosea and the Pharisees would have recognized it.
In this mercy, this hesed, Jesus invites us into a relationship with God and each other. Love and restoration happen through inclusion, not exclusion. Jesus offers a way for all of us. A person is not cast out for past failures but invited to walk a new path.1 Jesus has come to call not the righteous but sinners. Too often those we call sinners really aren’t. No one is a sinner because of who God created them to be.
I desire mercy, Jesus says. And to illustrate what mercy looks like to Jesus, the next two stories of healing are intertwined. On purpose. I think it’s important to understand the difference between healing and curing. Curing is to eradicate all evidence of disease, healing is about making us whole. While a cure may not always be possible, Jesus offers healing to everyone. Healing and mercy are interconnected. These two individuals in our reading today are complete opposites on the social spectrum yet bound by their need for mercy. The synagogue leader is a prominent man in the community, part of the system, the woman is unnamed and ostracized. They reach for mercy and Jesus sees them both.
The synagogue leader has privilege and prestige. He can just walk right up to Jesus because he is comfortable in his space. But his grief brought him to his knees. Grief is a social equalizer. And while Jesus’ attention is on this man, a woman comes in secret and moves behind him to not be seen–but reaches for him while he’s distracted with someone she (and others) probably perceive as more important, not calling attention to herself. But Jesus notices. And being pulled in two different directions, he doesn’t put her off but gives her his time and attention. Both of these people were of equal importance to Jesus. This is not just a physical restoration—it is a social and spiritual reintegration.
We need to take a real honest look at what Jesus was setting up from the moment he started calling his disciples. He confronts any tendency of ours to be self-righteous–at least I am not like them! You see we are the tax collectors, benefitting off of injustices and we are also the Pharisees, incredulous at the audacity of a God who would call someone like Matthew to apostleship. If we cannot be a bridge back to wholeness and healing, love and mercy, then what is a church even about? Just like Abram who is called to be a blessing to ALL nations, not just his own tribe, we are to remember those Abrahamic roots.
We all need this spiritual hospital, we are all in need of a physician. Whether we feel comfortable to boldly seek out Jesus and ask for help or whether we feel the shame and stigma of whatever has befallen us in our lifetime that we secretly reach out a hand to touch Jesus, hoping for some left-over residual healing because we don’t feel worthy to face him, we all should know that healing and wholeness awaits us with Jesus in this church community. And for those who are reaching out for forgiveness and healing, we need to hear the potent words of Jesus who desires mercy over sacrifice, and who calls sinners into the fold before the righteous.
The world is broken and hurting. God calls us as witnesses to mercy and compassion to not forget the dignity of every human being. As Abram set out in trust from his clan so long ago he was told, “You are to be a blessing to all families of the earth. Don’t engage in retaliatory cursing–that is not your job. Your job is to be a blessing.” In the footsteps of Jesus, our job is to extend mercy, to heal and restore what is broken.
“No sin, failure, humiliation, or exclusion can diminish the profound value of a human life that God has willed and called into being.”2
- Danny Zacharias. Working Preacher, June 7, 2026. ↩︎
- Pope Leo XIV. Theo the Catholic Worker. ↩︎
Magdalena's Musings 