SEE here the extreme
condescension and tender love of Jesus Christ, for the worst and most
miserable sinners. The holy evangelist S. Matthew seems himself astonished
at the remembrance of it. Behold, says he; as if it were something
wonderful, something more than could be looked for, even from Christ's
unspeakable mercy: that He should sit at meat in a publican's and sinner's
house, and that many of the like sort should be permitted to come and sit
down with Him. Such, no doubt, had been S. Matthew's feeling at the time:
and such it continued, so long afterwards, twenty or thirty years perhaps,
when he came to write it down in his Gospel. For he, S. Matthew's own self,
was the person to whom this great thing happened. He had been, a little
before, called suddenly by Jesus Christ, when sitting at his ordinary work.
Like a rich merchant, a lawyer, or a shop-keeper, who has many various
accounts to settle; whose time is taken up, from morning till night, with
calls of business which he is forced to attend to: all of them, more or
less, turning his thoughts towards money, as if the gain, or the loss of
it were the great business of life: such was Matthew, as he sat at the
receipt of custom: and if you would wonder to see such an one rise up
suddenly at the call of some holy man, leave his accounts, his treasures,
and his gainful employments, and devote himself entirely to the more
immediate service of God, you may in some measure judge, with what adoring
love and thankfulness the great Apostle and Evangelist would remember the
moment of his call: all the loving looks, gracious words, and merciful
condescensions of his God and Saviour towards him.
We know how Abraham rejoiced,
when he had entertained Angels unawares: but here is the God and Creator of
the Angels coming to sit down to meat in the house of one, whom He had not
long before called out of the dangerous ways of the wicked heathen world.
For the publicans, or Roman tax-gatherers, were not only wicked persons,
generally speaking, but even positive heathens; and S. Matthew, though a
Jew, must have been, by his calling, brought into frequent companionship
with such. How then must he have been transported and overpowered, what a
bowing down of heaven to earth must it have appeared to him, when the Holy
Jesus vouchsafed to enter under his roof: to sit at meat there, where so
often profane and wicked persons had been, indulging-in profane and wicked
discourse: and not only so, but as the publicans and sinners, one by one,
entered in, and took their places at the same board with the Holy and Divine
Visitor: how must the saint's heart have been filled with the thought of the
same mercy offered to each of them, whereof he had himself so happily
partaken! What joy to him to hope, that by inviting them to meet our Lord,
he might do something, under God, unworthy as he was, towards changing their
hearts, and saving their souls! And then what an enduring inexhaustible
comfort, to perceive that his Redeemer's purpose was; not only to call
sinners once for all, but to abide with them, after He had called them: to
be their Helper as well as their Converter: to abide with them not only in
Church-services, and where they appear before Him solemnly as penitents, but
also in all the ordinary concerns of life, in their business and
refreshment, their meals and conversations.
This, my brethren, is the point
of view, in which I propose to-day to consider the call of the blessed
Apostle and Evangelist, and the circumstances of the feast which shortly
followed it. May we not rightly and profitably regard the whole history as a
token of Christ's gracious Presence with true penitents, as well in all
their common employments and diversions, as when they are actually on their
knees before Him, or suffering under His rod?
It is an aweful, surely, as well
as a comfortable thought, even for a forgiven sinner, to find himself in the
immediate Presence of Almighty God. When we have been lying prostrate before
Him, confessing our secret and open sins, and humbly waiting for such tokens
of pardon and consolation as it may please Him to grant us: when, by His
especial grace and favour, the world out of sight has been made more than
usually present to us: when we have been carried up to heaven, and down
again to the deep, with the sense of His heavenly encouragement, and our own
miserable deficiencies: we may well feel afraid and ashamed to return to our
ordinary feelings and employments, and mix ourselves up with earthly
matters, as if nothing particular had happened. And yet, so it must be: it
is the condition under which we live, part of our task and burthen in this
present world: the corruptible body must press down the soul and the earthly
tabernacle; the cloud of temporal anxieties must weigh down the spirit, that
museth of many and high things. Here then the remembrance comes in of our
Lord's most loving and compassionate behaviour to penitents, such as S.
Matthew and his friends on earth: how He not only accepted their penitency,
their high and severe sacrifice of themselves, when He called them, and
they, by a mighty effort left all, rose up and followed Him: but also
continued with them in their after-life, through all ordinary times and
occasions, when there was nothing uncommon to excite them. Levi made Him a
great feast in his own house, his farewell-feast, on giving up his property:
and there came many publicans and sinners, and sat down with Jesus and His
disciples: and He did in no wise withdraw Himself, but abode with them in
their innocent refreshment. They were not all the time actually engaged in
holy services, in prayer and confession: they were taken up, as others might
be, more or less, in providing for their bodily wants: still our Lord abode
with them. He was at hand, as long as, by wilful relapsing or stubbornness,
they did not drive Him away. He was at hand to cherish in them every faint
beginning of good: to breath over their household and familiar thoughts a
deeper meaning, a spirit of warning and exhortation: to reprove those who
would discourage them by pride or censoriousness, to convince and remind
them, in every way, that He came not to call righteous persons, but sinners
to repentance. They were not to shrink from Him, though they knew themselves
to be sinners, seeing He was come on purpose to call them: yet they were
still to remember that He was calling them to repentance.
And now, see how all this
applies to the ordinary sort amongst ourselves, to all whom Christ has
called, or is daily calling to repentance. Suppose one swallowed up, like
Levi, in some gainful business, or living on from day to day just according
to the pleasure of the moment. He hears Christ speaking to him: his heart is
deeply smitten by the call to forsake all, and follow his Saviour: he cannot
be easy without seeking for a better happiness than any which his past life
promises him. What is he to do? How is he to make the most of the merciful
invitation of his good and gracious Saviour?
First and chiefly, let him once
for all forsake, not only the sin, whatever it be, which most effectually
separates him from Jesus Christ, but also everything which, he knows, will
give occasion to that sin, or put him in great danger of it. S. Matthew not
only forsook all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, but he
likewise gave up at once the business of a publican, which was continually
tempting him to that bad mind. He left his office or counting-house, called
here "the receipt of custom," his papers and bills of accompt, his heaps of
money, and all the matters, which had hitherto taken up his whole attention;
he parted with all of them entirely, he turned his whole mind and heart, his
eyes and his hands, quite another way. The very place which he had been used
to, he forsook. To continue there would have been continuing in the way of
temptation. Our Saviour expressly bade him do so: but He no less clearly,
though not in express words, instructs everyone of us to give up our
profits, our pleasures, and our acquaintances, when we know in our hearts,
that it will be dangerous for us to keep them.
Again, as Levi, being converted,
made our Lord a great feast in his own house, so if we would continue our
repentance, and make it perfect, we must order our houses and our meals so,
that Jesus Christ may vouchsafe to be there present. Great and unspeakable
as that honour is, far above what a sinner might have dared reckon upon, we
are yet encouraged to hope for it. Christ, at Whose feet we have tried to
cast ourselves, either in His Church, or in our private devotions, by deep
and sincere acts of special repentance—He offers to return with us from the
Church to our own homes, or from our silent communings with Him in our
chamber to the company and conversation of others. He will sit down with us,
even among publicans and sinners, if our duty call us into such company.
Nay, He will the rather accompany us thither, if we, out of charity and
religion, invite such as we may, to meet Him. S. Matthew, being once called,
could not endure to enjoy the blessings of his calling himself alone, but
invited many publicans and sinners, his former associates in heathenism and
covetousness, to be now sharers with him in the love and bounty of the Holy
Jesus. And in proportion as we have truly repented ourselves, we shall of
course, silently and humbly, yet really, do our best to bring others,
especially the partners of our sin, to like repentance and amendment.
Knowing in our hearts, how utterly unworthy we are to sit at meat with Jesus
Christ, yet humbly acknowledging His merciful invitation to us, we shall
never despair of any the worst sinner, never judge his case hopeless, never
think it useless to pray for him, and to watch for all opportunities of
doing him good, which may be put in our way by the Lover of his soul and
ours. We shall try to be always on our guard against that miserable pride,
which made the Pharisees cry out, "Why eateth your Master with publicans and
sinners?" [S. Matt. ix. 11.] We shall abhor the notion of grudging our
fellow-creatures and fellow-sinners that mercy, without which, we know,
ourselves must infallibly have perished. If sacrifice, i.e. God's
outward and visible service, come in the way of mercy, i.e. truly helping
our brethren, and doing them good, we shall know which to prefer. He hath
said, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice;" [S. Matt. ix. 13.] therefore
true love to Him will always prevail upon us to give up even the joy we feel
in personally serving Him; we shall willingly give up for the time even our
devotions, rather than fail to wait upon any distressed member of Christ,
who really wants our aid.
He that walks faithfully by
these rules, forsaking, at his Saviour's call, not only sin but the
occasions of sin: anxiously forwarding other men's repentance, in such ways
as God's providence may enable him; delighting most of all in devotion, but
preferring charity even to it: he shall find this great reward, that Christ
will fill his heart more and more with loyal love for Himself and sense of
His presence. Christ will reveal Himself to that man, as He revealed Himself
to the blessed S. Matthew, enabling him to know more than others of His
glorious and merciful life here on earth, of His sermons and conversations,
His miracles of power and mercy. S. Matthew, at Christ's call, forsook all
and followed Him: welcomed Him to his house: was charitably anxious to
introduce his brethren and friends to Him: and, for his reward, he became
the first evangelist: the writer of the first of the four Gospels: to him
was especially committed the charge of making known the kingdom of God and
of Christ. As that kingdom especially belongs to those who are poor in
spirit, so Matthew, who, of all the Apostles, did most particularly make
himself poor for Christ's sake, had commission to write that Gospel, in
which that kingdom is most particularly set forth. For you will find, on
comparison, that S. Matthew speaks of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of
heaven, the kingdom of Christ, and the like, and that he sets forth Christ
as a King, oftener and more plainly and in a greater variety of ways, than
either of the other Gospels: and this is supposed to be the reason, why his
Gospel is represented in visions among the cherubim by the lion, the royal
animal; viz. that it makes known Christ as a royal Person; "the Lion of the
tribe of Judah."
[Webmaster's note: St.
Matthew has more commonly been understood to be represented by the "likeness
of a man", see for example Blunt.] For which cause also his
Gospel is particularly addressed to the Jews, to whom the kingdom had been
promised by the prophets. We cannot suppose that there was no remarkable
meaning in one being chosen before all the rest, so to proclaim the great
King. It was as if some mighty monarch, first entering into a place, should
callout of the multitude around him some one person, whom no one thought of
before, to do the work of a herald, declaring his glory: and as if people
should find, on enquiry, that he chose that one on account of his being
ready and forward to deny and humble himself, and make himself poor. So Levi
the son of Alphaeus left all and followed Christ: and Christ made him
steward of the riches of His grace: Christ entrusted him before others with
the Gospel of His kingdom, to make known to His own people.
In conclusion, we may learn by
our Lord's dealings with S. Matthew, not only how to repent, but also how to
deal with others repenting. A feeling will sometimes come up even in a
well-disposed mind, in spite of ourselves a feeling will arise, as if such
persons were being too highly favoured: we are inclined to grudge them the
high privileges of the Gospel. Let us beware of this; for too often it is
part of the leaven of the Pharisees, it comes of our having too good an
opinion of ourselves. Let us quiet every such thought with the remembrance
of our own sad and shameful backslidings. Let us seriously consider, that to
indulge any prejudice against any repenting sinner, as though he were too
easily forgiven, is in fact grudging ourselves the salvation which we hope
for. For how do we expect and hope to be saved? Is it not in the character
of repenting sinners? And if we think scorn of their hope, what becomes of
our own?
Instead then of grudging and
envious emotions, when we behold persons, whom we know to have been wicked,
apparently repenting, and in consequence absolved and admitted to Holy
Communion, let us endeavour to have nothing in our hearts, but sincere love
for them, and prayer that they may go on and prosper. Let their earnestness
put us to shame for being so dull and languid as we too often are: let their
rapid improvement stir us up to a holy jealousy, and quicken us day by day
in the good path; that we, with the holy S. Matthew, and all true Gospel
penitents, may be admitted, though in far lower places, to sit at meat with
Jesus and His disciples in the kingdom of heaven.
