June 7, 2026

Title: I see dead people. (Matt 9:9)
Years ago, I was asked to talk to a bunch of second graders.  They had some questions about Heaven and Hell, and DEATH.  I was expecting my usual: What does Heaven look like? Will I become an angel in heaven? But what I got was some very deep questions.  Did God create the Devil sinful? Is there any way for the Devil to return to heaven.  I must have spent almost an hour with them.  They were thinkers.  

So, I went to God to answer their questions.  Scripture teaches us that Death is separation.  Physical death is separation of the soul from the body.  At Death, the soul, that which is “us,” our personality is separated from our body.  At Death, we are separated from our friends and loved ones.  This is precisely why we grieve at death.  Because while we are on Earth, we must endure that separation.  But the good news is that for those who have faith in Christ, there is a comfort.  We will not be separated forever.  God has promised that one day we will see our loved ones again, in heaven.  Amen.  

Scripture also teaches that there is another type of death… spiritual death.  Spiritual death is more than separation of the soul from the physical body.  Spiritual death is separation of the soul from God.  Spiritual death is also a consequence of sin.  Since the time of Adam and Eve, when sin was brought into this world, the relationship between God and man was broken.  Sin stood between us and God, separating us and God.  Our human nature became utterly sinful.  Scripture says that because of our human nature we were all Spiritually dead.  It is because we were separated from God, from God who is the source of all life, that spiritual death eventually brought physical death into our world.  “Physical death” is the consequence of “Spiritual death.”  We experience “Physical death” because of the “Spiritual death” which Adam and Eve brought upon mankind.  Spiritual death, in fact, is the source of all bad things in this world.  And spiritual death pervades this entire world.  Scripture teaches that this world is filled with the spiritually dead.  We are literally a world of the walking dead.  They look alive but spiritually, they are dead.  It’s like Haley Osment in the movie “The Sixth Sense.”  He says to his psychiatrist “I see dead people.”  They walk around like normal people.”  But they don’t know they are dead.”  “They’re everywhere.”  In the same way we see spiritually dead people.  walking around like normal people.  They don’t know they are spiritually dead.  We see them everywhere.  The sad part is that they desperately want something.  There is a hole inside of them, a need which they cannot fill, which can only be filled by God.  But they don’t know what to do.  

2000 years ago, Jesus also saw dead people… people who did not know they were dead.  Jesus saw them… and loved them… perhaps not “what they were,” but loved “what they could become.”  The good news is that this is precisely why HE came to Earth.  Jesus came to heal them Jesus came to raise the dead.  In our Gospel lesson, we find Jesus, his disciples, and a large crowd of admirers, walking into the town of Capernaum.  Jesus sees Matthew sitting in the tax booth doing what he did best… collecting taxes, What Jesus does next was almost unbelievable.  He asks Matthew, a tax collector to join his disciples.  What is so unbelievable about that? When you are a rabbi, especially a respected and gifted teacher, you normally collected your followers from the best students, from the cream of the crop.  You tried to keep the best of the best, because “who your followers were” reflected upon you.  A good rabbi would try to gather righteous followers.  So here is this Jesus of Nazareth, who was supposed to be a great teacher, a prophet of God.  Here was this Jesus asking a tax collector (!!!) to be one of this followers.  In Jewish eyes, tax collectors were not one of the righteous.  Jewish tax collectors were not even the cream of the crop.  Jewish tax collectors were greatly despised.  They were despised for two reasons.  First, the Jewish tax collector worked for the Roman government, the government who was presently oppressing the Jews.  The tax collector was a traitor to his people.  Secondly, the tax collector made his living by overtaxing, by cheating his own people.  He was an outcast.  He was separated from God’s people.  He was separated from God.  He was Spiritually dead.  This was the status of Matthew, the tax collector, who Jesus met.  He was dead….  dead to his people.  This was the man Jesus called to follow him.  

The Pharisees saw this and thought in derision, “Why kind of teacher is this?  “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Is there something wrong with him? Why is he not trying to collect disciples who are the cream of the crop as a proper rabbi should?  It is here that Jesus tells them “It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.  When Jesus came to Earth, all He saw were “dead people.”  not like in graves and coffins but walking around like normal people.  Jesus did not come here to be a great teacher, (even though he was a great teacher.) Jesus did not come here to be followed and praised.  Jesus came here to heal.  Jesus came to heal the dead.  It is for this reason that the central core of his work of salvation, is the cross.  When Jesus died on the cross, the sin which blocked our relationship with God was removed.  Jesus came to Earth so that all who were spiritually dead, who were separated from God, could have a renewed relationship with God.  He offered Matthew who was spiritually dead,… life! He gave us, who were once spiritually dead, life.  And he offers to the whole world, a whole world of spiritually dead people, life,  life eternal.  

The sad part is that “There are those who don’t know they are dead.”  They walk around like living people, but they are spiritually dead.  and they don’t know it.  They are like the Pharisees of our Gospel lesson.  You see, though they appeared righteous… they too were the walking dead.  Check it out… vs 11.  The Pharisees are watching Jesus.  They say “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  They ask this because they are jealous.  What they are actually saying is “Why is he not paying attention to us!!” “We are the righteous.”  “If he was a real prophet, he would want our attention.”  “We are the people of God.”  

To this, Jesus says something cryptic.  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…” “I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners.”  At first glance is sounds like He is saying, “Oh you Pharisees, “ “you are so perfect and righteous, you don’t need me.”  But that’s not the case at all… Rather He is saying to the Pharisees, “You are dead”  “You are dead and you don’t even know you are dead.”  It’s in our scripture lesson but it’s kind of hard to catch.  When He says to the Pharisees “Go and learn what this means… ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.’” he is trying to give a hint to the Pharisees about their error, about what he is really all about.  He is quoting the prophet Hosea, chapter 5 verse 15.  Hosea was a prophet who condemned Israel for abandoning God.  The Jews at the time thought that simply making sacrifices to God was sufficient to maintain their righteousness before God.  But Hosea said “God desires mercy, not sacrifice,… and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.  Israel needed a relationship with God, not hollow rituals.  Because they did not have a relationship with God, even though they would practice the right rituals they were spiritually dead.  In the same way, in Jesus’ time, the Pharisees needed a relationship with God, not hollow rituals.  Because they did not have a relationship with God, even though they would practice the right rituals they were spiritually dead.  Jesus wanted to tell the Pharisees, who were watching him eat with the tax collectors and sinners, You are not “the healthy who do not need a doctor” “You are spiritually dead too.”  “You too need a doctor.”  “You too are among ‘the sinners’ I call.”  

Now it’s very important to note that his words were not a judgment.  It may sound like a rebuke or condemnation… But his words were not a condemnation….  They were an invitation.  You who are spiritually dead… come and join me for dinner.  Come eat with me.  Come and drink from the fountain of eternal life.  I am the doctor who has come to heal the spiritually sick, to heal those in danger of eternal damnation.  Come and be healed.  I have come for sinners to make them righteous.  Come and become a child of God.  What a wonderful offer! That is the Grace of God.  

And the good news is that … this offer has been made to us.  This offer has been made to the whole world.  For those who have put their faith in Christ, they have received healing from the great doctor Jesus.  They have a relationship with God.  Each of us have been healed by Christ, have a new relationship with God.  We are children of God.  Each of us has been promised eternal life.  Each one of us can celebrate that comfort, that joy because of our baptism.  

That offer of healing, has also been extended to the whole world.  There is a whole world of spiritually dead.  “they walk around like normal people.”  “They don’t know they are spiritually dead.”  and they are everywhere.  In those who do not know Christ there is a hole inside of them, a need which they cannot fill, which can only be filled by God.  They desperately want something, but they don’t know what it is.  Jesus came for them.  Jesus offers healing to them as well.  God calls us, you and me, to share that offer with those in this world.  The world was filled with Matthews, taxcollectors and sinners, the outcast.  the non-Christians.  Jesus came for those who were not in the in-crowd.  Jesus came for the spiritually sick.  Jesus is the spiritual doctor.  And now he extends a calling to us to be the same.  Jesus calls us to be spiritual doctors.  Jesus call us to bring healing to those in need.  Know that here on earth, the church is a hospital for the sick.  It’s important to remember that a hospital which accepts only the healthy is not a hospital.  Doctors who will not heal the sick are not doctors.  A hospital accepts the sick because they are equipped to do so.  Doctors heal the sick because they were trained to do so.  You are God’s spiritual doctors.  The church has been specially equipped to heal the spiritually sick.  Through baptism, through the Lord’s supper, through worship and the reading of God’s word, our spiritual hospital, the church, is equipped to bring life to the spiritually dead.  You have a personal relationship with the master healer, Jesus Christ.  You have the Holy Spirit working within you.  You know the word of God.  You know the message which brings life.  You are God’s doctors, specially trained to heal the spiritually sick.  Go out and bring the spiritually dead to our hospital, that they may have spiritual life.  Amen