Hosea 5:15-6:6
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

The high schools seniors with us this morning who are graduating today will have a sense of empowerment that comes with a high school diploma.  Now they will decide how they will use their power.  It is the similar question we must answer every day.  “How will we use our power?  What kind of power people will we be?”
           
When you think of power people, who come to mind?  Who would you rank as the most powerful people in history?  Generally, the most powerful people also would rank among the most important people because their use of power altered life for many others.  Of course, some use their power to alter life for the better and others for the worse. 
           
Would Jesus be in your list of the most powerful people in history?  And, if he were on your list, where would you place him on your list of important people.  A survey was conducted a couple of years ago that attempted to identify the most important people in history.  The good news, I think, is Jesus was on the list.  He was not number one or two or even ten.  He also wasn’t last.  Jesus is number 21.
           
You can check it out in Details magazine. Jesus is listed as the 21st most powerful person under age 38. You might be interested in some of those who ranked ahead of Jesus.  At the top of the list are the Abu Ghraib prison scandal soldiers, infamous for their powerful cruelty. At No. 2 are the Google guys, incredibly wealthy because of their powerful Internet search engine. At No. 3 is the mastermind of MoveOn.org, famous for his powerful political movement.
           
Also beating Jesus in the list game are Nelly and Usher, celebrities who — like Jesus himself — don’t even need to bother with last names.  Halfway down the list you get to Jesus. Perhaps contributing to Jesus being on the list and ranked as high as 21st may have been influenced by the millions of very conservative Christians who vote.  Jesus did beat out rapper Eminem for whatever that is worth.
           
Taking a look at today’s text from Matthew might cause some to suggest that Jesus should be listed first rather than 21st.  This account that Matthew gives about Jesus’ ministry includes several power stories, including the account of his calling of a tax man in a toll booth. “Follow me,” Jesus says, and immediately Matthew gives his one-second notice and follows Jesus (Matthew 9:9).
           
This has to be the Reader’s Digest version of Matthew’s story.  Surely Matthew heard more from Jesus than, “Follow me,” before he decided to sign up.  If not, then, Matthew comes off as being rather impulsive.  Many of us can identify with that.  Or he comes off as living a life that had no purpose or direction and he was susceptible to any whim or offer that was suggested. 
           
Obviously, Jesus had persuasive power.  No doubt some would argue that he wasn’t too persuasive.  After three years of ministry, he had only gotten about 120 to join with him and they were all wishy-washy when life got tough, when religious leaders complained or political leaders threatened.  Perhaps it is more to Jesus’ credit that he did not abuse the power he had.  Lord Acton observed, “Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  That doesn’t seem to be true in Jesus’ life.  For Jesus, the way he used his power seemed to define his character.  “Nearly all men can stand adversity,” said Abraham Lincoln, “but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
           
The way Matthew tells the story, it seems that as soon as Jesus invited him to become a follower, Jesus invited himself to dinner at Matthew’s house.  How’s that for using power?  Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me.”  Matthew said, “Sure.”  Jesus said, “Good.  I didn’t know where I was going to eat dinner but now that you are one of my followers I’m going to eat at your house.”
           
And that got Jesus immediately into trouble, not Matthew, incidentally.  It seems Matthew was glad to have Jesus over for dinner.  It got Jesus into trouble with the religious in crowd.  Apparently Matthew was not too selective with who he let come to his house for dinner.  There were tax collectors there.  That’s not too surprising since Matthew was a tax collector.  Although Matthew became a follower of Jesus, he did not give up his day job.  He continued to be a tax collector.  He must have been friends with some fellow tax collectors.  Given the abuse they took in those days, I imagine tax collectors had to stick together just to survive.  But then, Matthew invited a bunch of sinners.  These were people who because of occupation or social status were considered unclean, could not participate in worship at the Temple, and their uncleanliness rubbed off on anyone who associated with them.  They contaminated anyone who came in contact with them.  Jesus knew that but he had already invited himself to Matthew’s house.  Frankly, Jesus was glad to relate to anybody and everybody.  It did not matter to him if they used soap and deodorant or not.  It did not matter where they worked or if they worked.  It did not matter if they were sick or well.  Jesus sat down to dinner with a group of tax collectors and “sinners,” — people in those days had this habit of calling social outcasts sinners earning the disdain of the purity-conscious Pharisees. We’re a little more sophisticated than those Pharisees.  We refer to people as the marginalized, the victimized, and the poor rather than referring to and relating with people who happen to be victims or happen to be poor or happen to live on the margins, the outer fringes of life as sinners.  This must not have been the only time that Jesus ate meals with citizens of suspect.  Later Matthew wrote that Jesus got the reputation of being a glutton and an alcoholic.   But in this incident at Matthew’s house, Jesus turned the tables on these critics, telling them that he has come to call not the righteous, but sinners. “Go and learn what this means,” he orders them, “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (vv. 10-13).  On another occasion Jesus said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor but sick people do.”  The problem was that Jesus’ audience did not know how sick they were.  Jesus’ approach was transforming.  No one had ever stepped into the circle of religious privilege and enlarged the circle to include anyone who wanted to join the circle.  The acceptance and welcome that Jesus offered, transformed people, changed them from the inside out which, as you know, is the only way that lasting change occurs.
           
You really can tell a lot about a person by the friends he keeps and the enemies he makes. Writes Brennan Manning in the book Ragamuffin Gospel: “Jesus spent a disproportionate amount of time with people described in the gospels as the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the hungry, sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, the persecuted, the downtrodden, the captives, those possessed by unclean spirits, all who labor and are heavy burdened, the rabble who know nothing of the law, the crowds, the little ones, the least, the last and the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In short, Jesus associated with ragamuffins.”
           
Well, having seen Jesus taint himself with the “ragamuffins,” a leader of the synagogue pulls Jesus away, begging him to lay hands on his dead daughter and bring her back to life. It was forbidden to touch anything dead, but Jesus follows the father, and on the way he encounters a faith-filled woman who reaches out and touches his garment, hoping that she can somehow be cured of her horrible hemorrhages. Jesus is batting a thousand.  Like a magnet Jesus was drawn to those who were unclean and he drew the unclean to himself.  When this woman touched him, Jesus turned on his heels, and, sensing her faith, pronounces that she has been made well.  Who gave him the power to heal anybody?  With each encounter Jesus gets deeper into trouble with the establishment.
           
He continues on to the house of the leader of the synagogue, brushes away the mourners, and brings the dead daughter back to life (vv. 18-26).  Jesus had persuasive, transforming, death-defeating power and he used his power to care for those whom the religious community said were powerless and worthless, cast out, people of no value.           Taken together, this string of events demonstrates that Jesus has the power to persuade people to drop what they are doing and follow him ... the power to turn the tables on conventional religious wisdom and transform lives ... the power to heal the sick and bring the dead to life.
           
We can argue all we want about who’s got the most power, but at the end of the day you’ve got to answer the “So what?” question.  So what if the Google guys invented a newer and better search engine? So what if a political visionary created MoveOn.org? So what if Nelly and Usher sold a limo-full of CDs? So what if Jesus attracted disciples, corrected Pharisees, healed the sick and raised the dead?
           
What did these power plays really accomplish? This is a critical question to answer, because the definition of power is the ability to perform effectively. What’s the effect of all this power?
           
Sometimes, it’s not much. MoveOn.org quickly moved off the front pages after the 2004 election.  It has resurfaced some this year but its power is questionable. Artists like Nelly and Usher are hastily ushered off the stage by the next rising stars. People even ask if Jesus accomplished much, since he performed his entire ministry in a fairly insignificant outpost of the Roman Empire, and he isn’t mentioned in any Jewish or Roman documents written during his lifetime. He lived his short life and was crucified, probably not even rating an obituary in The Jerusalem Post.
           
Because of his failure to shake up society, Jesus is sometimes downplayed by historians. In Michael Hart’s book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, the top spot is held by Muhammad, because of his combination of secular and religious influence. Muhammad gets top billing because he preached a religion, founded a state, established a moral code, and promoted social and political reforms.
           
At No. 2 on Hart’s list is Isaac Newton, the most influential scientist who ever lived. His achievements in mathematics, optics and physics provided a foundation for modern science and changed our understanding of the world.
           
Jesus comes in at No. 3. Apparently, he wasn’t as effective as Muhammad or Newton — not as powerful in terms of secular influence or scientific insight. It is certainly true that Jesus had little interest in establishing earthly kingdoms, and he gave more attention to parables than to physics problems.
           
But if you’re talking about persuasive power, transformative power and death-defeating power, Jesus is No. 1. The call to “Follow me,” comes to any and to all, bringing together a mosaic of people through the centuries forming what we call the church. It’s a call that comes to bankers, lawyers, shopkeepers, clerks, teachers, politicians, revenue agents, computer programmers, scientists, northerners, southerners, high-brow, low-brow and rednecks.
           
At the same time, Jesus shows real transformative power when he surprises the Pharisees with a call for mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus knew that it was a religious violation to break bread with tax collectors and social outcasts and misfits, not to mention to be in close contact with a diseased woman, but he did both. He did these things because he believed that showing mercy is never against what God wants done.
           
We see this today in the work of “25:40,” a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children in South Africa survive the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A large number of these children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and many are HIV-positive themselves.
           
As easy as it would be to judge the South African adults who now suffer from HIV/AIDS, we’re challenged to take another approach, and reach out with mercy.  It is our call to faithfulness to address the needs of the more than one million children who have been orphaned by AIDS in South Africa, and we can show them the love of Christ by supporting organizations like 25:40 — organizations devoted to the creation of orphanages, health clinics, day care centers and other institutions that have a positive impact on children affected by AIDS.
           
All of this brings us to the most impressive aspect of the ministry of Jesus: his healing and death-defeating power. Jesus was passionately committed to overcoming sickness and death throughout his earthly ministry, and his healing work continues today as people relate to others with interest, respect, care, and acceptance.  This causes us to want the very best for others.  This is death-defying power.   
The classic devotional message by James Allen Francis, originally published in 1928 portrays Jesus’ life.
           
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was 30. Then for three years he traveled and preached. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He did not go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place where he was born.
           
He did none of the things people usually associate with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a stake between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.
           
When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone and today he remains the central figure of the human race and the leader of humankind’s progress.
           
All the armies that ever marched, all the fleets that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the lives of people on this planet so much as that One Solitary Life. (End of Francis’ quotation)
           
We talk about being like Jesus.  We come to church, read and study Scripture that teach us about Jesus and invite us to be followers like Matthew was.  We sing hymns that describe Jesus’ ministry and challenge us to minister in a similar way in our day to our culture.  I’m unsure how interested we are in doing that.  We know the fate of this One Solitary Life.  We can guess what the fate would be for our lives were we to take a similar approach toward acceptance, justice, and mercy that Jesus took.  We are tempted really just to have our faith and keep it than to give it away.  What would happen to us if we used our power to be persuasive, transformative, and death-defying for the benefit of the person who is homeless, the person who is battered, the Iraqis, the Lebanese, people in Darfur, or the prisoners at Guantanamo?  Will we risk it?  How will we use our power?  Will it be the way so many have gone, following conventional wisdom but in the end repeat the mistakes, errors, and problems of the past?  Or will we use our power like the One Solitary Life?  Which will it be?  What kind of power people are we?  What kind of power people will we be?