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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins with his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father, to him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever.
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Amen.
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Friends, Jesus only comes for sinners.
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We're great practitioners at justifying how we're better than the guy next to us and how we're not as bad as that girl over there.
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The Pharisees thought this way in today's gospel.
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This is why they're all bent out of shape that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners.
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And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
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And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
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Why should the Pharisees have a problem with Jesus who they don't like, eating with tax collectors and sinners?
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Well, because no self-respecting follower of God's law would associate with those classified as sinners.
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How confident man is when he believes he's done everything right.
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How bold our hearts become when we feel we can look back and say, I've done all that is expected of me.
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I've followed all the rubrics, I've done all the things.
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It's the rule we live by.
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We have a way of measuring ourselves against others.
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We like to know what we're up against, don't we?
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So when we're trying to meet a standard, we love to compare ourselves to others, especially when we believe we're doing better than the person standing next to us.
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Oh, how our chest feels full when we tell ourselves, I've done a way better job at loving my neighbor than they have.
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Yes, us Christians are guilty of the same kind of pride as well.
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The Pharisees had followed all the rubrics and then some.
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But their hearts were far from God.
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Because they believed themselves to be righteous before the eyes of God and the eyes of all the people.
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If they wanted reassurance of their own righteousness, they simply looked at themselves and their deeds in order to feel confident before God.
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They loved to hold up in front of others how they accomplished God's law and what God's law required of them, how they gave a tenth of their income
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to God's house, and how they didn't break the Sabbath.
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But they were belly button gazers, all of them, just staring at themselves.
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And if they weren't focused on what they were doing, well, they were all about what everybody else was doing.
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The Lord's disciples once thought this way.
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They wanted to know what they could do to be righteous before God.
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In John's gospel, they asked Jesus, what must we do to be doing the works of God?
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As if by doing that they could say that they had God's approval.
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But Jesus has a way of reframing their thoughts.
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He has a way of changing their hearts by taking it out of their hands.
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He responded to that question by telling them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.
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Not only does he halt their self-righteousness and takes the works of God out of their hands, but they're believing as well.
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No, he says, believing in him who is sent, well, that's God's work.
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They were all looking for the minimum balance to tip the scales to their own favor.
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They're all looking for the bottom line of righteousness, you understand.
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We're all about finding the bottom line, aren't we?
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If there's a bottom line, we want to believe we'd at least met that.
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What's the minimum score I need to get a passing grade on this test?
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What's the least amount I need to pay to make sure I still have enough insurance on my home?
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What's the minimum people need to do to be saved?
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But salvation and believing in Jesus was not the disciples' work, but God's work.
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Just like believing in Jesus is not your work either, but the Holy Spirit's work.
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If we believe in Jesus, it's because the Spirit of truth has worked that belief in our hearts.
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If we don't have faith, it's because we've rejected the Holy Spirit's word preached into our ears.
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Jesus speaks and the Holy Spirit proceeds forth.
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Jesus calls and we come, but it's not our decision.
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Just like it wasn't Matthew's decision in today's gospel.
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Matthew was a tax collector just working his tax booth, minding his own business, and our Lord came by and said, Follow me.
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Matthew was all about taking another Jew's money for the Roman government.
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What kind of person works for an oppressive foreign government?
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Matthew was that kind of person.
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He was ranked up there with the worst of sinners.
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But Jesus called him anyway.
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Matthew heard and received the word of the Lord.
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He called and he came.
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And this is just as important to understand today as it was that day.
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Because what the Pharisees get wrong in today's gospel, we still get wrong in our own day and age.
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There is no minimum standard of our accomplishments that we can hold up before God in order to invoke our own salvation.
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There is no pride you get to hold up before God and man in believing in Jesus.
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There are no super Christians.
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There is nothing you can do to up the possibility of your salvation.
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Being brought into the kingdom of God is not about minimum requirements accomplished by any of you.
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The Lord must come to you.
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His Holy Spirit must work.
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He must call you through the gospel and deliver to you Jesus in the sacraments, just as he's done for every man, woman, and child here who has been baptized in his name.
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This very next week, next Sunday, we will witness with our own two eyes a man brought into the kingdom of God, brought into the Lord's family, and made a child of God.
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But not by his will, but by the will of the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit.
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And there he will be given with absolute certainty the gifts that the Word of God promises in baptism.
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Because Jesus still only comes for sinners.
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For it's just as he said in today's gospel: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
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Go and learn what this means.
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I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
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For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
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If you're not a sinner, Jesus didn't come to call you.
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But if you're not a sinner, then you have no need to receive what Jesus is giving out, do you?
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We don't observe the custom of baptizing babies, for example, because they're somehow more righteous or pure of heart than the rest of mankind.
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Rather, they're sinners too, in need of Jesus and his righteousness just as much as the rest of us.
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To children such as these belong the kingdom of heaven, and why?
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Well, not because
they're without sin, but because they especially need to receive what Jesus is giving out.
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The forgiveness of sins, life eternal, salvation.
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He calls us all, every one of you, through the waters of holy baptism.
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He calls us because we're all sinners.
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We all come to the waters of holy baptism as infants, whether we're six days, six years, or twenty-six years old.
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We all come to those waters lying there helpless, unable to make ourselves more righteous than the person next to us before the eyes of God.
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Unable to resurrect ourselves to new life in Christ.
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What does baptism have in common with being born?
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Why does Jesus use this as an analogy with Nicodemus?
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Who here asked to be born?
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But yet all of you were brought into this world not by your own will, but by your parents' will.
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So it is with being born again from above.
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You are not born again by your own will, but by the will of God in Christ Jesus, by his Holy Spirit.
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Yes, we all come to the font as infants, no matter how old we are, because you're in need of being clothed with Christ's righteousness and fed with his holy food, which is his body and blood.
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For no one can enter eternal life without being covered in Jesus.
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And if Jesus has only come to call sinners, then you should acknowledge the work of God in you and all those who believe and are baptized?
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But if you don't think you're a sinner, well, you have no need of Jesus.
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And if you believe you're righteous, well then what need do you have to turn from your ways and return to the Lord?
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And if you claim to be a Christian but don't see your need for daily repentance and forgiveness, then what need do you have to return to your baptism, as Luther exhorted?
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Where Christ promises to wash away all your sins, give you his Holy Spirit, and cover you with his very own righteousness.
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If you don't believe you're ill, well, then you have no need of the great physician who heals you, both body and soul, with his own body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.
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You have no need to remember your baptism every Lord's day when we enter in.
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You have no need to receive the Lord's absolution into your ears, and you have no need to receive the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins in your mouth.
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You may go your way.
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However, dear beloved baptized believers in Christ Jesus, we all come to the font as sinners, helpless, in need of being saved.
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We all need our sins washed away to receive God's Holy Spirit as a seal of his promises.
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Baptism saves because God's word tells us it does.
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And if you want what Jesus is giving out, well then you need to realize you're a sinner.
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Every one of you.
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And if you want a seat at the table with Jesus, like Matthew in today's gospel, well then you need to see that you're a sinner in need of the Lord's repentance so he can repent you and forgive you and call you into his very own kingdom, which is his desire.
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You're only saved by Jesus, and you cannot add to your own righteousness or salvation.
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It's either Jesus' righteousness or yours, and only one of those will get you into eternal dwellings.
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There is no room for the self-righteous or the minimalist.
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Jesus only comes for sinners.
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And it is for Jesus' sake that He forgives you all, all of you, of all your sins.
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Amen.
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Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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Amen.