I have to admit that when I first read the lectionary selection for the gospel reading today, I thought that the lectionary writers had done a hack job on the gospel. After all, what in the world does the calling of Matthew, Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, and the healing of two women have to do with each other?

We begin with Matthew sitting at his booth positioned to collect the taxes on people and goods crossing between the territories. He was just having a regular day at work when all of a sudden this man passes by his booth and says, "Follow me." That’s it – no special declaration about who he is and what he wants Matthew to do – just "Follow me." This interruption of a regular day at work changed everything for Matthew when he stood up and followed Jesus. Matthew is taken out of his average workday and moved into the extraordinary realm of discipleship to Christ.

Then Jesus is relaxing at the dinner table, enjoying a good time with the hodge-podge of people he has brought together. To those on the outside looking in, it must have seemed to be the strangest and least respectable dinner party ever. Here was Jesus who is supposed to be God incarnate gathered around the dinner table with tax collectors and sinners. It’s all fine and dandy to minister to these people but to invite them to the dinner table – to break bread with them? No, that wasn’t fitting at all. So Jesus’ little dinner party is interrupted with the complaints of the Pharisees. Jesus answers their complaints with mercy. Jesus declares that he came for those who are sin-sick in order to show them mercy.

No sooner had they gone back to their meal than yet another interruption comes in the form of a leader of the people asking Jesus to leave the table and help his daughter who has just died. Jesus goes along with the interruption and leaves the table to go to the leader’s house. Along the way another interruption occurs when another woman seeks healing. Jesus notices the woman, celebrates her faith, and heals her. Then they arrive at the leader’s house and Jesus raises the little girl from the dead.

Whew! I wonder if Jesus knew what his day was going to be like when he woke up that morning. But what link is there between these stories except their closeness in proximity in the gospel? When Matthew gets up out of his tax booth, the verb used is a verb that is primarily used to talk about the resurrection. So when Matthew gets up out of his tax booth and begins to follow Jesus, he is leaving his old dead life behind in order to be born into the new life of following Christ.

At the dinner table, Jesus discusses mercy as one of the key motivators for his ministry among the people. By extending mercy to others, Christ is able to provide healing for those who need it. The woman who had been bleeding and the daughter of the leader are also extended mercy. They are resurrected from their deadness and brought into new life.

The woman with the flow of blood would have been cast out of society because of the rules about ritual cleanness. It would have been like she was part of the walking dead – cast out from the rest of society. Jesus takes her out of her outcast status and brings her back into the community – even going so far as to call her daughter. The leader’s daughter was literally dead. She is resurrected from death to life through the touch of Christ.

So if we look at it this way all of these events have to do with resurrection. Jesus brings all of these people from one form of death or another to new life.

The healing that Christ does in these passages and throughout the gospel is not just a healing of a physical nature. Christ is not concerned only with those whose injuries and illnesses are visible on the outside. Christ is concerned with the whole person: physical, mental, and spiritual. Healing isn’t just about getting people back to health but about raising them up – resurrecting them into new life within the community.

So if we look at the healing Jesus does in the gospels as not only an act of bringing an individual back to health but including that individual in the life of the community, what does that mean for us as a community of Christians? All of a sudden being healed isn’t about merely being free from disease but being healed is being a part of the community. Look at the people that Jesus worked to include in his community – tax collectors, women, children, and then a whole slew of sinners. The rest of society had cast all of these groups of people aside. They were seen as second-class citizens, collaborators with the occupying forces, and just plain bad people. Why would Jesus want to include these people in his community?

One word: mercy. This word that is chesed in Hebrew has come up often in our Presbyterian Women study and in our monthly Bible study. It can mean the loving-kindness of God, love that goes "above and beyond the call of duty", and mercy that extends from everlasting to everlasting.

That is why Jesus wants to include these people in his community. Because the rest of society has pushed these people out, Jesus brings them back in. Because the rest of society has called these people unworthy, Jesus calls them sons and daughters of God. Because the rest of society has called these people too young to be contributing members of society, Jesus has lifted them up to be an example of how to find the kingdom of God. Because the rest of society has called these people sick, Jesus heals them all, body, mind, and spirit. Because the rest of society has called for sacrifice, Jesus has called for mercy.

How many of you have ever hungered for a little resurrection in your life? Have there been times when you are sitting in your booth just waiting for someone to look at you and really see you? Have you been waiting for a hand to be reached out to draw you up from where you have been sitting? Have you ever felt as though the world is bleeding you dry and that if it goes on for even one more day it will be too much? Have you felt cast out by society, as though you are forced to live on the fringes without ever participating in the life that is out there? Have you ever felt just dead inside?

Christ is there to call you up, "Follow me." Christ is there to speak a word of resurrection. Christ is there to speak mercy when the world hungers for sacrifice. Christ is there to welcome all into the community he is creating. Where is that community now? Where is this community that Christ is calling people to join? We can hope that it is the church. We can strive to be the voice of mercy to the afflicted and hurting. We can be the voice of resurrection in a world that views life as fleeting.

I must admit that I used to get so frustrated by interruptions. I like to have things planned out far in advance – none of this "go with the flow" stuff for me. I would make lists of all the things that I want to get done in the upcoming week. But then I would get so frustrated when at the end of the week only a few things were crossed off the list. "What happened," I would ask myself. "What got in the way?" I would think about all those things that had gotten in the way of me accomplishing the things on my list.

I wonder if Jesus had a list of things to do each day or each week? He doesn’t seem to be all that concerned when things interrupt his daily life. Jesus must have viewed interruptions in a whole different way. If we look at Jesus’ reactions to the interruptions in this week’s passage, we see that he does not react with anger that something has gotten in the way of his plans. Instead, Jesus looks at all of these interruptions as opportunities to show God’s mercy.

As I started off my list for the next week, instead of writing down items one after another, I left space between the items. This was space for the interruptions. When something new would come up that needed my attention, I would write it in the space and look at it as not getting in the way of the things I needed to accomplish but as an opportunity to show God’s mercy.

Look at the example that we have in Abraham this week. God told Abraham to drop what he was doing and to leave everything he was familiar with in order to go where God was calling him. What a divine interruption that must have been to Abraham! I can imagine some of the conversations he must have had with Sarah trying to explain why they were packing up and leaving.

Perhaps as we look at the others around us, we can see not interruptions of our carefully planned life but instead see opportunities to show God’s grace. The interruptions that Jesus encountered from Matthew to the hemorrhaging woman to the girl who had died were opportunities not only for Jesus to show God’s mercy but also for the people Jesus encountered to be healed. Perhaps when we are interrupted we can show God’s grace and in the process find a healing going on within us as we seek to follow the one who truly sees us, asks us to follow, and calls us to join the community where all are welcome.