Eucharistic Gospel Reading for Sunday, Proper 5: Year A
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.” (Matthew 9: 9)
Jesus lived a life of love and leadership while he walked among us. Jesus was God’s way of seeing us, eye to eye. Jesus was God’s way of understanding what it is like to be us. Jesus knew that He would not be with us for a long time. Therefore, he needed to leave lessons behind in order that we, even of today, might read and learn how to live, learn and love one another.
During the lifetime of Jesus there were no Christians. We weren’t called Christians until much later, and, after His death and Resurrection. Jesus goes to Matthew’s home for comfort and hospitality after calling him from collecting the tax. After being at table, He is asked to come and tend to the daughter of a ruler who was desperate for his daughter’s life. He was asking Jesus because he believed He could save her.
The same is true for a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years and who came up behind Him and touched the border of His cloak; for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His cloak, I will get well.” (Matthew 9: 20 and 21)
This sick woman is an example of what Cursillo teaches us as unexpected opportunities. We know not when, or for whom we might be needed. God truly does work in mysterious ways. We should always be attentive to who God puts in our path. It is by their faith that God has put them in our path.
We need to understand, it was Matthew’s faith that made him walk out of the tax booth, it was the rulers’ faith that made him seek out Jesus, even in the home of a tax collector; and it was the faith of a bleeding woman who forced her way to the cloak of Jesus that healed her. Yashua Nazaru (Jesus of Nazareth) is still teaching us to love and to serve, regardless of a person’s station in life. Religious ruler, government worker, or sickly beggar, Jesus of Nazareth is teaching us to love all people. It is God’s lesson for us as Christians, followers of Jesus of Nazareth. And He says to us today, “Follow Me.”
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us Pray: Proper 5 The Sunday closest to June 8 (BCP p. 229)
O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
onewhoponders 