Follow Me
A Sermon by the Rev. James H. (Jay) Barry
T
he ninth chapter of Matthew records an evocative day in the life of the
Lord. In itself, the chapter is just a brief narrative, but during its course a
drama unfolds that has you and me in the very center of the action.
This is so because the Word has an internal sense, a Divine meaning that
teaches us about how we can grow more and more into the image and likeness
of our Creator. The revelation of the internal sense of the Word is the hallmark
of the Second Coming and the distinguishing feature of the New Church.
It defines our approach to the Word: as New Church men and women
we do not study another person’s interpretation of scripture; rather, we study
the revealed Divine meaning of the text, and then exercise the opportunity to
apply a spiritual lesson from it into the arena of our lives. In this way, the Lord
leads us by means of the Word.
In this case, we are looking at Matthew, chapter nine, in its entirety. A full
exposition is only summarized here. Nevertheless, we can learn something if
we examine the spiritual meaning behind key concepts as the story unfolds.
The story begins in a village on the northwestern edge of the Sea of Galilee.
Capernaum sat on the highway between Beit She’an and Damascus; it was
an entry point to the Roman province ruled by Herod Antipas. Though situated
in “Galilee of the Gentiles,” it had a diverse population, with a large Jewish
community and a synagogue built by a Roman centurion. It had noblemen
living in large houses (John 4:46-54), and hard-working fishermen like Peter,
Andrew, James and John. (Matthew 4:12-22) One of them had his home there.
(Mark 1:29-34; Matthew 8:14-17; Luke 4:38-41)
Matthew was a tax collector, also called a publican. He was a cog in a huge
financial wheel that operated in every Roman Province. “The Roman republic
only had a rudimentary civil service, and primitive budgeting methods,”
according to the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World (p. 1275), and as
the Empire expanded, “the efficacy of their tax collection system was the only
guarantee of the survival of a new order initiated by Caesar Augustus.” (Ibid.)
One of the manifestations of this new order we recognize from the
Christmas story: “There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the
world would be taxed. (Luke 2:1) The expansion of the empire meant they had
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