In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
We expect, dear brothers and sisters, those with power, with authority, even those with celebrity, to be good people, to be moral people, to be people whom we would wish to emulate. We expect a criminal to be excluded from becoming a police officer, a liar excluded from the judiciary, a thief excluded from holding political office. We do this so that we, the public, may have confidence that those with authority and power are acting for the public good, that they can be trusted and that we all benefit from the work they do on behalf of us all.
And when even an accusation is made against them we expect them to be suspended, when a credible case is built against them they should resign, when it is proven they should be ostracised from the community: all that our sensibilities may be maintained, our desire for vengeance appeased even only temporarily until we can pull down the next public figure from his pedestal in our ultimately insatiable impulse for blood. “They should have known what to expect,” we the public convince ourselves, “now we deliver whenever it seems desirable, whenever it’s been too long since the last case, whenever we need distraction.”
Yet King Solomon tells us,
For there is not a just man on earth who does good
Ecclesiastes 7:20–22
And does not sin.
Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.
For we are all sinners. “But now the righteousness of God apart from the Law is revealed,” we are told by the Apostle, “being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.” (Romans 3:21) Because in Christ, and through Christ, and by Christ, is the righteousness of God fully revealed and what the Law and the Prophets point towards has been made manifest. The Apostle continues,
even the righteousness of God, through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, to all and on all who are faithful. For there is no difference;
vv. 22–23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Yes, indeed, I have sinned most grievously, I have joined myself to the powers of this Age and robbed my neighbour, I am a sinner and worthy of no office. And sitting at the tax office, Christ passes me by. I have alienated my own people, I have wronged you all, yet He addresses me and says, “Follow Me.” He does not say, “Follow Me and continue oppressing your own people,” nor “Follow Me while remaining in your own sin,” but simply, “Follow Me.”
“If anyone desires to come after Me,” says the Lord,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Matthew 16:24–25
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Indeed, to follow Christ is to take up my cross—to give, not miserly but generously, to serve, not begrudgingly but bountifully, to love, not to placate my own feelings but to offer even my life for the sake my friends. (see John 15:13) And in doing this, in following Christ, the world will look at me as of my former state, as a tax collector, they will see my hypocrisy, they will see one who has no place to be near Christ—“Why would anyone,” they declare in disgust and ridicule, “why would anyone want to follow a religion that accepts him.” But the Church is for all those who are afflicted, who are wronged, who are sick and in need of the Physician: the Church is not a worldly organisation but the Body of the living God Who “desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth:” (First Timothy 2:4) even me!
And the Lord, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is passing by you and is passing by me in our low estate and is saying to each of us, “Follow Me.” He sees us for who we are and He knows us better than we know ourselves, yet He still says to us, “Follow Me.” And the world will try to pull us back by ridicule, to pull us back by pointing to our hypocrisy, to pull us back with temptations and snares, with excuses and delaying tactics: “Don’t follow Him it’s madness,” the Devil whispers into our hearts, “Follow Him later, but not now,” he encourages: he would have us return to our ensnarement by sin and our fear of death because it is comfortable, it is familiar, and as the proverbial frog in slowly heated water we would be doomed to die.
But having found Truth, having found reality, having found the only Way which leads to Life, let us together follow Christ. Let us, dear brothers and sisters, hear the call of the Lord and respond, for unlike the world which would have those in authority morally righteous, the Lord invites all to His heavenly Banquet where we may feast and receive Life. Our hypocrisy does not exclude us, our sin does not prevent our ascent, so long as we remain faithful to the One Who remained faithful, and as He has offered Himself for the life of the world so must we that we be Christians in Truth and inheritors of the Kingdom of God.
That we may offer true glory, honour and worship to our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who has called us from the world that we may have Life, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, God has exhibited us Apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
— First Corinthians 4:9–16
At that time, as Jesus passed on, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
— Matthew 9:9–13