06/04/2026
Hurt people, hurt people. That is what this week's Gospel message communicates to my soul. When I consider it in the context of Pride Month, that message of pain requires a countermessage of healing. In the Gospel, Jesus gives us an opportunity to find healing within the midst of pain, so that we can live peacefully with others in our brokenness.
In Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, the author tells the story of how Jesus recruited his disciple Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector, and many saw him as a traitor to his community, which is not inaccurate; he worked for Rome. The author of Matthew rightly shows that working for a totalitarian global empire was a sin, but not a sin undeserving of healing. That healing opportunity came to Matthew in the form of Jesus.
When Jesus arrives at Matthew's tax booth, he commands Matthew to follow him, and Matthew just drops everything, inviting Jesus and his disciples to dinner (9:9-10). I get the feeling Matthew knew he was working a bad job and was looking for a way out. Jesus gave that to him. Healing, for Matthew, probably looked like the ability to use the skills that made him a good tax collector to do good in the world. I'm sure the things he would have been asked to do as a tax collector for Rome would have hurt his soul; after all, causing pain was part of the job. The author of Matthew recognized that Matthew the tax collector had harmed people, but that did not mean Matthew the disciple would never find healing.
I will point out that healing the harm Matthew caused did not include Matthew staying with his community; those whom he hurt as a tax collector had their own healing journey, and Matthew's repentance never erased the harm he caused. For Matthew, healing came through his transformation into a disciple able to live with his own brokenness. He left with Jesus on his own journey of healing, and that journey grew in him the emotional maturity needed to keep his own pain from harming others.
Matthew's story reminds me of Christianity and how Christian faith, currently and historically, has been used as an excuse to harm loving people. Right now, the Tans community of our nation is being violently persecuted because their differences evoke an unfounded fear in Christians that the world they knew is gone. Many Christians, instead of wrestling with the idea that they never had a full understanding of the world, choose to cut themselves off from the world and Jesus’ revelations of love in the Trans community. These Christians embrace a narrative that harming the innocent protects their faith.
In my own healing journeys, I have learned that the hurt we cause others often reflects the brokenness of our own hearts. I feel many Christians use the Church as a means to avoid addressing their own brokenness and end up transferring their pain onto others. This is profoundly sad because the ministry of Christ should help us better understand where we are broken so that we can start a process of healing.
The Ministry of Jesus not only heals our bodies, it also serves as an example of how to heal our souls. Church should offer Spiritual healing, not excuses for violence. When we learn to recognize our own brokenness, we can coexist with other broken people.
Our brokenness does not absolve us when we harm others, as with those Matthew hurt; the pain we inflict cannot be taken back. We can still choose not to repeat harmful actions.
During Pride month, the Christian Church should wrestle with this truth. Pride month exists despite the harm Christians have inflicted on the LGBTQIAS2+ community. The LGBTQIAS2+ is beloved by God; Christians can either wake up to that truth or live forever separated from the full love of God.
When we commit harm against the innocent, we Christians should hold ourselves accountable. If we are willing to examine our own brokenness, love can heal our souls, and we can safely live with others in our brokenness.
Rev. Devon Thomas
