Crowd Sourced

Where Jesus looks and listens

Photo by Rob Curran on Unsplash

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. (Matthew 9:9-10)

This snippet from an upcoming Sunday Gospel brought me back to something I’d noticed in a Morning Prayer lesson earlier in the week.

Jesus draws people out of crowds. Often, they are people the crowd resents and keeps in the back of any gatherings.

Matthew was a tax collector, despised by the crowd as a parasite and a collaborator with their Roman oppressors. Jesus calls him, and in so doing draws more tax collectors and other resented sinners from the back of the crowd to come forward to eat with Jesus and his disciples.

On another occasion, a blind man calls out to Jesus and the crowd tries to shush him. But Jesus tells the crowd to bring the man forward, responds to the man’s faith, and restores his sight. The man follows Jesus.

Shortly after, another tax collector, this one a short man stuck at the back of the crowd and unable to see Jesus, climbs a tree to get a look. Jesus calls him to come down and take Jesus home with him. This tax collector, overwhelmed by the honor, repents of overcharging his neighbors and vows to restore money to those he’s defrauded. Jesus declares him saved from his sins, and restored to a legitimate place in the crowd that disowned him — Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham (Luke 19:9).

In his book Dignity, Chris Arnade walks through American cities to photograph and write the realities of what he comes to call Back Row America. He finds that the storefront churches in “back row” neighborhoods are one of the places that people ignored or even despised by the “front row” crowd can find dignity.

Jesus looks upon and listens to the crowd as a source of those who will respond to and follow him — often those hidden in the back or shushed by their neighbors.

The record of Jesus’ words and deeds in the Bible does not sugarcoat or romanticize the people he welcomes. They are tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners. Yet he calls them forward, honors their glimmers of faith, praises them to humble the self righteous, and declares them the focus of his saving work.

It is not a comforting thought for those of us who have place in the front row, who are part of the acceptable crowd in our communities. It’s not that Jesus condemns us out of hand. But he’s looking around and frequently has to look past us to get at those most in need of his Good News. Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:13).

It is right that we look to Jesus. But it is also true that he ascended into heaven so that we would not gawk at him, wondrous as he is, but receive the Holy Spirit to look with him at the crowds who need the salvation that he offers, and with him call those for whom he came. And they’re often the ones pushed to the back.