Matthew, Evangelist of the Presence of God

 Sermon. 21 September 2025. St Peter’s Merton.

 

Feast of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

 

Gospel: Matthew 9.9-13

 

A blessed Feast of St Matthew! What can we say of Matthew? The historically critical among you will say: precious little. There are two references to him. One we have heard, as today’s gospel reading. A certain tax collector is called by Jesus to follow him, and this causes controversy if not consternation. But it happens! And his name is Matthew. A little later [Matthew 10.3] he is named as one of the Twelve. Tellingly, there, too, he is called “Matthew, the tax collector”.

 

And that… well, that is it. No further references in that gospel, and nothing in Mark, Luke, or John, unless the tax collector Levi, called by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel [Luke 5.27ff] is one and the same person (which is possible).

 

We of course feel we know Matthew much better than that. Because we are in the habit of thinking of him as the person who wrote the Gospel which now bears his name, the first Gospel in the ordering of the New Testament (which is not to say the first to be written). The habit of thinking of Matthew as evangelist is ancient. Papias of Hierapolis – remember him? His dates are approximately 60-130 AD. And he wrote: “Matthew put together the oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.” That means Matthew wrote in Hebrew or Aramaic, and others translated it into Greek. And that claim attached itself to the gospel we know. Linguists now think that is unlikely that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, or Aramaic. There are certainly phrases in Matthew which are structured like Hebrew phrases. But most scholars now think that Matthew was deliberately setting out to sound “biblical” (to sound like the Old Testament), when he wrote these.

 

No matter! The link was made, and Matthew the tax collector has at least in pious imagination (nothing wrong with pious imagination) dissolved into Matthew the writer of the gospel bearing that name.

 

What then can we say of Matthew as the writer of the Gospel of Matthew? Much in every way.

Of the material which only Matthew brings, we might consider:

the mysterious story of the Magi from the East;

or the still-well-known injunction not to cast your pearls before swine;

or how Peter tries to walk on water.

And so on. They say there are 28 passages unique to Matthew.

 

Today, though, let me mention just two.

When it comes to the birth of Jesus, it is Matthew and only Matthew [Matthew 1.23] who quotes Isaiah [Isaiah 7.14], saying

“‘…the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’”

 

Only Matthew calls Jesus “Emmanuel”, which is Immanu El, God-with-us or God-is-with-us. (Or if you want to be yet more literal it is Immanu, with us, El, God – so it is “With us, God!”)

 

So what? So what that Matthew calls Jesus Emmanuel? It’s a passing reference of which nothing is made – funnily enough, much like the passing reference to Matthew the tax collector? I don’t think so.

 

How does Matthew’s Gospel end? It ends with Jesus, risen Lord, at the summit of a high mountain, giving the command to the disciples to teach and baptise among all the nations (or all the peoples), and concluding (concluding his speech and the whole gospel)… how?

 

Jesus says: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28.20b].

 

I, God-is-with-us, am with you always.

 

Brothers and sisters, in the Gospel of Matthew we have

the most direct promises of the presence of God and of Christ,

the presence with us,

the promised presence with us.

With us is God!

 

What to do with

the promise of the presence of God and the presence of Christ,

with us, for all time?

 

I cannot tell you. And there is this:

I dare not even assume that it is something that is necessarily welcome.

You see: anthropologists say that an awful lot of religious ritual – in all religions – is actually about keeping God or the Higher Power in its place.

The idea is: if we do this, God won’t come too close.

But that is not how we as Christians are called to behave.

We are called to welcome the promised presence of God and presence of Christ, with us, for all time,

and (crucially) to let that promised presence make a difference to us.

 

I, God-is-with-us, am with you always.

 

I do want to return for a moment to Matthew the tax collector. We have seen that Jesus’ calling a tax collector caused controversy and even consternation. Why? Because tax collectors, in this time and place, were thought to be all collaborators, doing the dirty work of the occupying power, the Romans. In other words, those around Jesus were convinced of what we would call a conspiracy theory. The conspiracy is this: all those who work for the government are crooks, in it for themselves, not on the side of the people; and the government itself is malign. 

 

The conspiracy is this: all those who work for the government are crooks, in it for themselves, not on the side of the people; and the government itself is malign! That claim – and thousands of variations of it – is something claimed on social media every second of the day. We live in a cynical age. It seems that people have never been more distrustful of – more hostile to – the government and those who work for the government. There are all kinds of moves to fight back against the wicked government, the powers-that-be, or the supposed “elite”.

 

And I feel compelled to say that such cynicism is dangerous.

 

Criticism of the government is of course permitted; it is important; it is a right. But cynicism can corrode us. We can come to enjoy just a bit too much looking down on those we feel have let us down.

 

Remember: Jesus saw through the outer “accidents” of Matthew’s life –

his work, his role, his status;

what his taskmasters demanded of him;

maybe (yes) the short cuts he allowed himself to take –

Jesus saw through all of that and saw…

saw an apostle, one called to be with Jesus.

So let us not let criticism of actions become cynicism for people.

There may be – will be - other hidden apostles out there.

 

There are other hidden apostles.

Maybe you are one of them.

Know yourself with the one who is God-is-with-us.  

Amen.