When Jesus called Matthew, Matthew wasn’t one of the good people. He was despised by good people. He was considered a traitor. He made his living by taking money from his own people and giving it to the Romans. Then he took even more for himself. Matthew was not one of the good guys.
Matthew was a tax collector. Matthew was a sinner.
And then Jesus called him.
The fact that Jesus called Matthew, a detested tax collector, demonstrates God’s grace to broken and sinful people. Jesus didn’t come for the healthy. He came for sinners.
He took Matthew under his wing for three years. Then he sent him out to change the world. And he had him write the first of the Gospels.
All from a sinner like Matthew.
Now he calls us. We can be tempted to think that we’re not worthy, that we’re sinners, because we are. But sinners are exactly the people for whom Christ came.
He calls us to the same discipleship to which he called Matthew. To follow him. To learn from him. And to change the world.
We read from the apostle Matthew’s eye-witness account of Jesus’ life, dictated word-for-word by the Holy Spirit, chapter 9.
Matthew 9:9–13 (EHV)
9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.
10As Jesus was reclining at the table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were actually there too, eating with Jesus and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. 13Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ In fact, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
God bless you,
Pastor Tesch
Worship at Trinity
Next week can worship together again! Sign up here: https://trinitymarinette.com/events/june-21-22-worship-2/ or you can respond to this email or call Pastor or call the church office to let us know which service you prefer.
It is wise to wait a bit if you are at risk or would just like to wait for the pandemic to fade. God willing, we will worship together when he ends this plague.
Here is this week’s bulletin: https://trinitymarinette.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-14-Announcements-The-Second-Sunday-after-Pentecost.pdf
Church Softball: All are invited – men and women – catechism age and up! You don’t have to be good, it is just for fun! It is a chance to get together, have some friendly competition and be outside. We will play with whoever is there, and will split up into two teams. (There are two fields if we have enough players for 4 teams we can do so.) We will be playing Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Grover/Peshtigo.
Opt-In Email: You may have received an email to opt in for receiving texts from church. It’s from Jon Tesch. Please click “Sign me up.” You’ll be taken to a webpage where you can enter your cell phone number. Then you’ll receive a text at that number where you can respond “Yes.” That’s it! Thank you for your participation in God’s work.
If you would like to support the Lord’s work at Trinity, you may contribute at trinitymarinette.com/giving/ or you can mail it to
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
1501 Thomas St.
Marinette, WI 54143