The Gifts of Lent: Loved
Passage (NIV): Luke 5:27-32
Preacher: Mark Kingston
On Sunday we looked at the story of Matthew the tax collector in Luke 5. It is a simple story, but it carries really good news.
I started with a memory from when I was 12. I had just moved back to England from Africa and was about to start boarding school. I turned up in my new uniform wearing the “wrong shoes”. Nobody even needed to say much. I just knew... everyone else seemed to have the right kind. I didn’t. And I remember that feeling very clearly: “If I’m to be accepted here, I’m going to need a new pair of shoes!”.
That may not sound like a big deal, but it was the first time I had experience ‘conditional belonging’ - that idea that I wasn’t enough as I was. I think most of us learn that tough lesson somewhere along the way.
Sometimes we respond by trying hard to fit in. Sometimes we hide the parts of ourselves we think won’t be accepted. Sometimes we push back and act like we don’t care. Different responses, but often the same hurt underneath.
And the trouble is, we can end up thinking God is like that too. We imagine he looks at us and thinks, sort yourself out first, then come to me. But the story of Matthew’s calling by Jesus tells the opposite story.
First, notice how Jesus goes straight to Matthew. He meets him at the tax booth, the place where his shame, compromise, and mess were fully on show. Jesus does not wait for Matthew to improve first. He comes to him as he is.
That matters! It means Jesus is not put off by the places in us that feel messy, heavy, or unresolved. He is willing to meet us there. More than that, Jesus does not define Matthew by his failure. He looks through all of that and sees someone still loved by God. That does not mean Matthew’s sin and shame did not matter. They did matter. They were damaging him and hurting others. Jesus does not pretend otherwise. He simply does not let them have the final word.
So he says, “Follow me.”
That is the heart of it. Jesus meets us where we are, but he loves us too much to leave us stuck there. His invitation is not “fix yourself.” It is “come with me.”
That is what repentance really is. It is turning. Turning away from the thing that has defined you, trapped you, or shamed you, and turning towards Jesus instead, following Him. And as we follow him, God begins to work things out in us that we could never produce on our own. Forgiveness. Healing. Freedom. A new calling. A new future.
These are not things Matthew achieved before following Jesus. They are things that began to unfold as he stayed close to Him. And because Matthew stayed close to Jesus, a whole new future opens up for him. The tax collector becomes a follower. The follower becomes a host. The host becomes a disciple. The disciple becomes an apostle. The apostle becomes a gospel writer.
Matthew could not have seen all that from the tax booth. But Jesus could.
That is part of the good news here. Jesus sees more in us than we can see in ourselves. He sees beyond the mess, beyond the shame, beyond the stuck places, and he calls us into the adventure of following him. And there is no telling what good things God can do in you and through you if, like Matthew, you turn and keep following him.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Conditional Acceptance
Can you remember a time when acceptance by other people seemed to come with conditions? A moment when you realised that just being “you” wasn’t enough. How did that make you feel?Your Pattern
When acceptance has felt uncertain, what have you tended to do: fit in, hide, push back, or something else?God and Grace
How might those experiences have shaped the way you imagine God sees you? What difference does it make to hear that Jesus comes to Matthew with love and acceptance before he has cleaned up his life?Turn and Follow
Jesus meets Matthew at the tax booth as he is, but he also calls him away from it, because he has more for him than shame, isolation, and being stuck. What might Jesus be calling you to turn away from, and what might he be inviting you into as you follow him?Future Hope
Matthew could not have imagined what Jesus would do in him and through him as he followed. How does it make you feel to remember that Jesus may not be finished with you yet?
