The Calling of Matthew, Sermon on Mark. 2:14 – 17

Sermon for 'The Calling of Matthew' during English language Orthros and Liturgy in our Parish of the Transfiguration of Christ the Saviour 22/3/25.

My beloved ones, by the Grace of God, we soon approach the middle of Great and Holy Lent and tomorrow our Church will reinforce us, in our ascetic efforts by bringing forth the hope of us sinners, the staff of the just, the strength of the faithful, the hope of the world that is the all Holy and Life-giving Cross of our Lord, that through its veneration we may be granted the strength and grace to complete our journey to Golgotha and stand reverently before our Lord’s passion.

In today's Gospel reading, we hear about the calling of Levi, or the Holy and all-praised Apostle Matthew, as we better know him. In the Gospels of both Mark and Luke, Matthew is mentioned as Levi, as we just heard. Yet in his own Gospel of Matthew, he honestly gives his Christian name - Matthew - such is the humility of the great Evangelist. As St. John Chrysostom says; “we have cause also to admire the self-denial of the evangelist, how he disguises not his own former life, but adds even his name, when the others had concealed him under another appellation.”

We find Matthew “sitting at the tax office”, he is a tax collector - to this day - a universally reviled profession. Our Lord calls His Apostles from those scorned and hated by society - like Matthew, one of the tax collectors, the ‘publicans’ - and from the lowest, the most ordinary of society - like Peter, Andrew, James and John; the fishermen. And He calls them not when they have finished their despised trade or manual labour, but when they are in the middle of it - just as he calls the Holy Apostle Saint Paul during the fury and rage of his oppression of the early Christians. Our Lord did not call them at their rest, He calls them when He knows they will obey, because he knows their hearts, just as He knows our hearts.

Christ passes by Matthew at his place of work and simply says “Follow me.” That is it. “Follow me.” Matthew heard our Lord, with his ears, but more importantly in his heart. “And he rose and followed him.” It is as simple as that. Just as with the Fishermen; as we read in Matthew 4: 19-20, “Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.” At once they left their nets and went with him.” They left their nets, just as Matthew left his tax office, his desk, his work - immediately. He, like the fisherman, did not say; ‘Yes, after work or Yes, just let us bring our catch in’ - no - of Peter and Andrew we read “At once they left their nets and went with him.” of James and John, in Matthew 4: 22 we read, “at once they left the boat and their father, and went with him.” and of Matthew, “he rose and followed him.” The nets, the tax office, the work, the boat, the father even - are representative of the world, of material and familial comfort - they cast off the world, they put down material procrastinations, they set the world aside and rise to follow Christ. Just as we must die to the world, die in the world, let the world in us die - and live to God.

Their obedience is a great example for us, for man first fell by disobedience. Our blessed ancestor Adam fell when he broke the first fasting rule. But, by the grace of God, man can return to God and to his true and right position via obedience, obedience to the way and the truth and the life, that is Jesus Christ. Our Lord highlights this with the radical manner of the calling of His Apostles.

Our Lord then immediately honours this obedience - “And as he sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were sitting with Jesus and his disciples,” - Immediately the Great Shepherd brings the little sheep into His fold. Just as we see with Zacchaeus in the Gospel of Luke and also of course in the parable of the Prodigal Son; our Lord’s mercy is overwhelming, Matthew has yet to say anything, he has only risen and followed our Lord in obedience yet he immediately finds himself enveloped in our Lord’s embrace - along with his fellow publicans (tax collectors) and sinners.

This scene is now troublesome to both the Roman authorities and the Pharisees - On one hand, the Romans see our Lord converting the publicans, so who will collect their taxes? On the other hand the Pharisees, in their spiritual blindness, with their legalism and pride, judge our Lord for associating with sinners. In their blindness, they ask, “to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”. Please take careful note of whom the Pharisees ask, our Lord is nearby - He is in fact within earshot - but they choose not to ask Him but rather His disciples. See the sneakiness, the underhandedness, the Pharisees sought to drive a wedge between man and God, just as once did a certain serpent in a beautiful garden a long time ago. As Saint John Chrysostom tells us the Pharisees craftily sought to “separate from the Master the choir of the disciples.”

However, our Good and True Shepherd is most attentive and watchful over His flock and He Himself replies. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;” As is so frequent with our Lord He turns everything completely on its head, He points out that those who are not suffering have no need of help, so why would the helper sit with them? - The Pharisees suggest the sinners are not worthy to sit with our Lord, that it is not proper - yet our Lord tells us that His not being with the sinners would be unworthy of Him and of his great love for man, for He is the physician of our souls and bodies and His proper place is amongst those who need His care.

He finishes the answer to the Pharisees, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” and glory to God for none amongst us is righteous before Him, so we can take strength knowing truly that He comes for us all. All of us sinners, He comes to call - but to what? Many English translations are sadly omitting the final words of our Lord here. Yet they can often be found in the Gospel of Luke - “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” To repentance. That is what our Lord calls us to.

He calls us sinners, and like Matthew and the Apostles, he bids us to follow Him. But just like Matthew and the Apostles, we must follow Him in repentance. This means we must strive not to remain sinners. The Christian, the Orthodox Christian, must be a person in constant flux, in continuous metamorphosis, undergoing a constant change and transformation of the heart - which will bear fruit in our words and works. We cannot continue to dwell and revel in the mire of our sin, in the dirt, and filth of the pig pens, just as the Prodigal Son realised, and like the Prodigal Son we must allow our heart to undergo a metania and turn back to God. Our Lord comes to us sinners, so that we may not remain sinners, but that, by His grace, we might emulate Him and alter and change our course and ultimately change our destination.

My dear ones we cannot remain as we are. As painful as that sometimes is, we have to acknowledge that our Lord calls us to repentance. Our Lord wants us to repent and follow Him, He wants us to change, to grow. As we see with Matthew, He calls us, He wants us even though we are sinners, He calls us all, He wants all of us. But we must answer in obedience, and in humble obedience, we must strive to change ourselves in repentance and undergo a constant metamorphosis.

We must allow ourselves to accept this radical call with a radical obedience, the Celtic Tradition of the Saints of these blessed islands is one of radical obedience and radical acceptance of this radical call. Saint Brendan essentially formed a monastic community on a boat - a floating monastery - because our Lord called Him to, and he sailed to North America in the 6th Century simply because our Lord called Him to. May our Celtic Saints intercede for us, may God grant us the strength of their Faith, and their truly mad and foolish love for Christ.

Let us be like Matthew, like Peter - who when he saw our risen Lord on the shore at Galilee jumped out of the comfort and safety of the boat and swam to Him - like Saint Brendan and faithfully answer the call of our Lord when He bids us “Follow me.”

What does it mean for us to follow Him? To be obedient to God? The most obedient human being, the greatest human being that there has ever been and ever will be, is the Mother of God - our Panagia. Who should we look to for help and guidance but to her; it is for good reason that our Bishops wear a Panagia. The final words recorded in our Holy Scripture from the Mother of God are from perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes revealed to us; the wedding at Cana in Galilee. Panagia’s final words recorded are among those times in Holy Scripture where - much like during our Lord’s interactions with Pontius Pilate - the speaker seems to be talking directly to us, two thousand years later. In John 2:5 we are told “His mother said to the servants,” - Well who are His servants? I hope we are my beloved ones - Then Panagia seems to jump out of the page, and look us directly in the eyes and say, “Do whatever he tells you.” That is the last instruction our universally beloved and all-praised mother gives us in our Holy Scripture. The word that our Lord chooses to begin His public ministry with, as recorded in Matthew 4:17, is “Repent”.

Here we have everything; the gateway, the keys and the path beyond to our salvation.

“Do whatever he tells you.” - “Repent.” - “Follow me.”

Together let's follow Him in repentance, but remember my dear ones; we are not going to another wedding at Cana in Galilee, we travel, we struggle, we fight, all of us together, with our crosses up to Golgotha. It is not wine and water that await us there, but blood and tears. Since we go to die with Him, that we might live with Him. For “...being united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Rom 6:5

Beloved ones, let us listen then to our Lord, to our mother Panagia, and like the Apostles, Saint Brendan and all the Saints, let us too be madmen in our love, our obedience, our following and our repentance for Christ.

Glory to God for all things.

- Rev. Dcn. Charalambos Clark