Sermon – Matthew’s Journey, Our Journey

Sermon – Matthew’s Journey, Our Journey

Sermon Preached by Reverend Tracey Gracey on Sunday, 21 September, 2025

Invitation to play a game.

Instructions:

I’ll begin by saying my name and something I’m going to take with me on my journey. Then I’ll invite you to come along. If you’d like to join me, all you need to do is say “yes,” tell us your name, and share what you’re bringing.

Be warned, this game has a little twist, so you might not be able to join me!

“Hi, I’m Tracey, and I’m going on a journey, and I’m going to take my tape measure. Would you like to come too?”

Keep playing until people realise that you have to say an item that starts with the same letter as your name.

[I was introduced to this game by +Phillip Aspinall at a confirmation service]

Many of you would know that Matthew was one of Jesus’ disciples.

When Jesus called Matthew, he didn’t ask him what he was going to bring or what he was prepared to leave behind.

He didn’t say, “Show me your skills,” or “Prove you’re good enough.”

Jesus simply said: “Follow me.”

And Matthew got up and followed — bringing the one thing that mattered most: himself.

Which is the starting point for following Jesus.
There’s no need for perfection, we don’t have to have a multitude of skills or knowledge, we don’t need to have influence or wealth, we just need to be willing to say yes to Jesus and bring ourselves — our name, our story, our gifts.

Matthew’s story reminds us that Jesus meets people in the midst of ordinary life. He doesn’t wait for us to get everything sorted out.

He calls us as we are and invites us to journey with him, to learn and grow as we walk with him.

In his role as a tax collector Matthew was despised. Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with the Roman occupiers, for their role was to collect money from their own people to fund the Roman Empire.

Tax collectors were often accused of dishonesty, taking more than what was required to line their own pockets.

For many, tax collectors symbolised betrayal and greed.

So when Jesus stopped at Matthew’s booth and called him, it would have been a shock to Matthew and to those who saw this exchange.

And when Jesus later sat at a table with tax collectors and sinners, people were outraged.

How could a teacher of God’s law share life with people like that?

But that was exactly Jesus’ point. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.”

In Matthew, Jesus made visible the truth that God’s kingdom is open to those who seem least likely or least worthy.

That’s why Matthew is such a powerful example: he shows us that discipleship begins with mercy, not achievement; with God’s call, not our credentials.

Matthew had no certainty about where following Jesus would lead. What he did have was trust — enough to leave his booth and step into the unknown.

And that kind of trust is what anchors our own journeys of faith.

Many scholars suggest that Matthew himself may not have directly written his Gospel. It was most likely shaped by a community that had learned first-hand from him about his encounters and teachings of Jesus.

What matters most, however, is that Matthew’s witness — his ‘yes’ to Jesus — became a pathway through which the Good News reached those who came after him.

Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t just recount events from Jesus’ life; it gathers his teaching, his vision, and his mission in a way that still shapes the church today.

• The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7): where Jesus paints a picture of God’s kingdom, encouraging people to love their enemies, offer forgiveness, maintain integrity, and trust in God.
• The Beatitudes: blessings for those overlooked or dismissed — the poor, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. A vision that turns the world’s values upside down.
• The Great Commission (Matthew 28): where Jesus sends his followers to “make disciples of all nations” and promises to be with them always, to the very end of the age.