June 7, 2026

My friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are facts, and then there’s interpretation.  Facts are the things that happen in life.  When we interpret those facts, we give meaning to the things that happen in life.  We make them make sense.

Now, facts are the relatively easy part.  They are, for the most part, provable.  I’m wearing a green stole, for example.  Today is Sunday.  We are all here in this place.

Interpretation is the tricky part, because when we interpret the facts – when we try to make meaning of the things that are happening to us – it’s colored by what we believe about the world.  The challenge is that different people will believe different things.  Take, for example, economists.  I once went to the Minnesota Economic Association’s annual meeting.  And I learned that if you put four economists in a room, you’ll end up with five different interpretations of the same facts – because every economist seems to have a different opinion about how the world works.  And so they all make sense of the same facts in very different ways.

This isn’t just an issue for economists or even academics.  If you stop to think about it, we’re actually doing this kind of work all the time.  We’re always trying to interpret the facts we encounter to make sense of the world around us.  And we don’t always believe the same things as our neighbors do.

Our Gospel story has something to say about this today.  And so what I want us to be thinking about this morning is – how do we interpret the Bible?  And what does that say about who we believe God is?

This morning, the Gospel tells us that Jesus called a tax collector named Matthew to be one of his disciples.  Soon after that, Jesus and his disciples ate a meal at Matthew’s house with many tax collectors and people who were – according to the Pharisees – sinners.

Now, the Pharisees were great Bible lovers.  They knew Scripture – the Old Testament – forward and backward.  And the Pharisees were very fussy about following those hundreds and hundreds of commandments you find in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Numbers.  They were so fussy about it, in fact, that they had developed an entire tradition around Jewish law.  They had a particular way of interpreting those laws – of making them make sense in their lives.

Because the Pharisees were worried about being tainted by people who didn’t follow the rules as carefully as they did, they avoided contact with “sinners”.  Peasants and laborers and everyday villagers – the blue collar workers of this society – who didn’t follow their complex rules on things like tithing or hand-washing or ritual purity.  People who didn’t follow all the rules to a “t” because they were just trying to get through another day as a poor person in an oppressed society. 

And yet, here’s Jesus.  A rabbi in a society where rabbis were highly respected and admired.  But instead of spending his time with the elite – with people like the Pharisees – he’s eating instead with social outcasts. 

Now, it won’t surprise you that Jesus is also a great Bible lover.  So when the Pharisees ask him why he would ever eat with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus quotes the prophet Hosea.  Go and learn, Jesus says, what the prophet means when he declares that God desires mercy, and not sacrifice.

This is a genius move by Jesus.  He points the Pharisees back to a time in Israel’s history when Israel’s neighbors were gaining the upper hand against it.  And Hosea sees this as God judging Israel because of its offenses.  Israel has failed to faithfully follow the God who saved them from slavery and brought them to a land of promise.  Speaking on God’s behalf, Hosea notes that although the Israelites continue to worship, their rituals are empty because they have fallen away from steadfast love and loyalty to God.  They have forgotten who God is. 

What this comes down to, Jesus is telling the Pharisees, is how we read our Bibles.  Or, more, accurately, how we interpret our Bibles.  The reality is that when we hear God’s word, our understanding of that word is colored by who we think God is.  What characteristics we think God has.

The Pharisees interpreted the Bible through the lens of obedience.  Each of the rules has to be followed to the letter and beyond.  If you can’t do that, then you can’t be part of society, as far as they’re concerned.  Their God is a bean counter who demands obedience and offers no grace for “sinners” who cannot or will not follow the rules, for whatever reason.

Jesus, on the other hand, interprets the Bible through a lens of mercy.  That’s why he tells the Pharisees to read Hosea.  You’ve spent so much time in Scripture, Jesus says, but you’ve forgotten who God is.  You think that God is about obedience, Jesus says, when God is really about mercy.

And we see Jesus doing that throughout his ministry – where he takes the rules about things like sabbath and ritual purity and eating and interprets them through the lens of mercy.  Understanding that it was a merciful God that freed the Israel from bondage in Egypt.  Understanding that it is a merciful God who again and again seeks us out from our wandering ways.  Understanding that a merciful God cares less about whether we follow each and every rule exactly, and more about whether our hearts are oriented toward him.

Today, Jesus gives us good news – that mercy is foundational to the character of God.  The mercy that is the divine goodness that withholds punishment.  The mercy that reflects a tenderhearted, patient nature that seeks to restore rather than condemn.

So as disciples of Jesus, when we read our Bibles, we read them through the lens of mercy.  When we interpret the facts – when we make sense of the events of our lives, we do it through the lens of mercy.  Because when we do that, we see the world around us with a God’s-eye view – just as Jesus intends.

And when we live with mercy, my friends – that is when we are truly living in the Kingdom of God.

Amen.