The righteous will rejoice then he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth." Verses 10-11
Yes, these words were written by the man "after God's own heart." I've noted before that it's important to remember that David had real enemies, people who were really trying to kill him. We seldom, if ever, experience this sort of thing, especially as individual people. I dare say that there aren't very many people on Diaryland who are important enough that someone wants to kill them.
But even given that, haven't you ever wanted to see God's vengeance on evil people in this world? I'm not talking about someone who might live next door to you. I'm talking about high up people who run corporations or businesses that are downright evil. I've wanted to see God bring them down. I've wanted to see evil regimes in countries that suffer terribly brought down. As much as I dislike the conflict in Iraq, I confess that I celebrated the day that Saddam Hussein was brought down.
I believe that we are given these words of David for a reason. I believe it is ok for us to pray for God's vengeance on evil. And I don't think that this is in direct conflict with our need to pray for peoples' salvation, either.
Ok...moving on.
Matthew 9:9-13
This passage relates the calling of Matthew, the tax collector. Jesus was criticized for keeping company with Matthew.
The author asks when I have ever felt like an outsider. There was a time when my wife an I were searching for a church home. We thought we had found a nice one. It was not too large, had contemporary worship, and even mixed things up a little by having worship before Bible study. But we were never accepted there. We were told we were "too bouncy" during worship. We were accused of trying to turn them into charismatics. If you know us at all, you know what a funny accusation that is! They wanted to sing the choruses, but they didn't want anyone raising hands or anything like that. We got a way from there pretty quick. In fact, I think that may have been when we got a call to come to the church I'm serving at now...can't really remember that far back.
However, this case did not involve being criticized for the company we keep, as was the case of Jesus in this passage. I've never really had a problem with that. Perhaps that's a bad thing. But what I have to realize before I start worrying about things like that is that my gifts and calling are to the church, the believers. I am a worship leader. I am gifted and called to lead God's people to worship him. So I'm not going to be spending a whole lot of time with "undesirable" people.
At any rate, thinking back to the church in a previous paragraph, I still believe that their assessment was, to say the least, unfair. These people were very inward focused. They didn't really want any new members. They were content with themselves. In fact, when we sought to join the praise team, it was even said, "We haven't had anyone new in a long time." We quickly found out why.
Jesus says, in his own defense, (which he doesn't always provide, either) "I'm after mercy, not religion." Peterson translates the next phrase, "I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." I'm not sure I like his translation. The more traditional texts say, "I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners." By "the righteous," it is clear that he is referring to those who believed they were righteous, i.e., the Pharisees. Jesus came to save those who need saving. Those who don't believe they need saving, well, they won't be saved until they recognize their condition.
The author asks one final question: "If you were present that day, how migh you have responded?" With all due respect to Mr. Peterson, I think that is a silly question. No one can possibly know how they would have responded in that day to that situation. "Oh, I'm sure I would have responded properly." But you can't know that. There are too many possible variables. I don't know what kind of family I would have been raised in. What if I had been a Pharisee? Then I probably would have responded just like the other Pharisees. Unless, of course, I were one of the elect. But that's a whole different discussion, isn't it?
Grace and peace, friends.