06/06/2026
Sunday, June 7 – Second Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The faction of one of the leading religious groups of the New Testament, the Pharisees, were unhappy with the folks Jesus associated with, ate with, and even those whom he healed. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus calls Matthew – also known as Levi – from his “corporate world” job to become one of his disciples. Even more, Matthew was a tax collector, a class of folks other Jews despised for profiting for their collaboration with the occupying Roman authorities. Yet Jesus calls him and Matthew responds. At dinner that evening, other tax collectors and folks generally grouped together as “sinners” joined Jesus and his disciples. All this was scandalous to the Pharisees – the keepers and enforcers of religious rules and rituals. Jesus makes it clear he came to bring mercy and healing, and the next two recorded acts of miraculous healing of a women suffering from uncontrolled bleeding and the raiding from the dead the young daughter of a local leader (other gospel writers identify him as Jarius, a leader of a local synagogue) reenforce his message. We’re reminded that faith is far more about merciful, transformative, and welcoming relationships than it is about right acts or rituals. Being the church is more than “going to church” – we’re to be people that reflect these priorities of our Lord.
Healing of a Woman with an Issue of Blood, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57961 [retrieved June 5, 2026]. Original source: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/105TBX.
