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The Sermon for Sunday, September 21st, 2025, The Festival of St. Matthew the Apostle & Evangelist
The Lessons: Proverbs 3:1-12; Psalm 119: 33-40; 2 Timothy 3:1-17; Matthew 9:9-13
The Texts: Matthew 9:9 & Proverbs 3:5-8
INTRODUCTION
Today, as we celebrate the Festival of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we consider the great leap of faith he took when the Lord Jesus Christ called him from his work as a customs official, receiving customs duties from commercial ships arriving at Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee from territories outside the control of Herod Antipas. This was a well-paid job, and Matthew would have become wealthy from it. Therefore, he could afford to give a dinner for tax collectors and others in his home.
When the Lord called Matthew to follow him, he obeyed without delay, according to Matthew 9:9. In the Gospel that he later wrote so that many could come to salvation through Christ, he left this brief testimony to his own obedience to Jesus’ call. In his Gospel account, he shared none of any thoughts or doubts that he might have had concerning this new walk of discipleship with Jesus. He could have written, “At the time I wondered how I would make ends meet as a disciple of Jesus,” but he did not. He did not need anyone to convince him to leave the wealth of gathering customs duties. The authority of Jesus in calling him with the words “follow me” was enough. By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ at work through the Holy Spirit, Matthew was trained as an Apostle and wrote the Gospel account that bears his name, and preached the Gospel in Ethiopia, according to church tradition, and was martyred there. A life of such dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ began with his immediate obedience to Christ’s call.
PROVERBS 3:5-8
But St. Matthew would have known the Old Testament Scriptures from childhood, as St. Paul wrote of Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15, so that he would have become wise enough to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and obey Him at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. For St. Matthew, as it is for all of us, this verse from our First Lesson would have been important:
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
(Proverbs 3:5, KJV)
What does this verse tell us to do? It is an antithetical proverb, since the two halves contrast with each other. In the first half of the verse, we are told to trust in the Lord with all our heart. The Hebrew verb means to put our whole confidence in God, as one who comes to God for refuge. The second part of the verse instructs us not to lean on our own understanding. Here the Hebrew verb means “lean on” or “rely on.” The Septuagint interprets the second half of the verse more boldly to the effect that one should not exalt oneself in one’s own wisdom, or understanding. We can see that this is a very profound principle to follow, not only at the beginning of Christian life, but also throughout one’s life and walk with the Lord. We must depend on the Lord, trusting him with all our heart, and not on our own understanding. So often we follow our own rational approach to things, our own logic, but there are times when taking the course and following the way of life in which the Lord Jesus leads us, seems impractical or illogical. Then we must remember that even what appears to be God’s folly is wiser than the wisdom of man, as St. Paul teaches us:
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
(1 Corinthians 1:25, KJV)
The folly of God and the weakness of God are shown in Christ crucified, whom the Jews regarded as a stumbling block and the Greeks as folly (1 Corinthians 1:23), whereas to those who are called by God, Christ is both the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). We see then, even from the history of salvation, that it is futile to rely on our own understanding! Instead we must trust in the Lord with all our heart!
Here is the account of a prayer request that was turned down on account of this issue:
When John Kavanaugh, a renowned ethicist, went to work at “the house of the dying” in Kolkata (Calcutta), he was seeking a clear answer about how to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa (now St. Teresa of Calcutta). She asked, “And what can I do for you?”
Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she asked.
He said, “Pray that I have clarity.”
She said firmly, “I will not do that.”
When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”
When Kavanaugh commented that she seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I pray that you trust God.”[1]
St. Matthew grasped this insight and showed he did so by his immediate obedience to Christ’s call. How, then, should we continue in obedience to the Lord? Proverbs 3:6 is a verse that gives us more instruction:
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
(Proverbs 3:6, KJV)
The two halves of this verse complement each other, and the second is a consequence of the first. The word “acknowledge” means to know by seeing or to know by seeking God’s guidance, and the result will be that God will guide us in all our paths in life. The Septuagint has an additional phrase, which is a reading of some manuscripts, “so that you may not stumble.” The verse requires us to know God and find out his will in all that we do.
The next verse contains three noticeably clear commands:
Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
(Proverbs 3:7, KJV)
This verse first of all warns us not to be wise our own eyes, that is, not to trust in our own human wisdom. St. Paul reminded his readers of this when he wrote:
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
(1 Corinthians 3:18-19, KJV)
Instead of being wise in our own understanding, we must “fear the Lord and depart from evil.” The Septuagint adds “all” or “every” before “evil.” To fear the Lord means that we reverently obey Him and hold him in awe. Obedience means departing from all sin and evil, day by day. When we do these things, God brings us health and well-being (Proverbs 3:8).
APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION
St. Matthew, as did all the Apostles, followed the Lord Jesus Christ’s way of life, trusting himself to the Lord with all his heart, not relying on his own understanding of things, but knowing the Lord in his direction in life, fearing the Lord and departing from evil, and leaving us the testimony of his obedience to the Lord’s call in the Gospel account which he wrote. If he had trusted in his own wisdom, would he ever have left a lucrative way of life?
Long ago, at age seventeen, I heard God’s call to the ordained ministry of priesthood, and I followed, not relying on my own wisdom, but trusting in the Lord to lead me. Throughout my life so far, I have had to renounce my own understanding of things to discern God’s will more accurately and know it more fully.
What about you? In the course of your life, are you following these directions to trust in the Lord with all your heart and not rely on your own wisdom, to fear the Lord and depart from evil, and in all your ways to acknowledge him, so that he may direct your paths?
[1] Brennan Manning: Ruthless Trust. HarperCollins, 2000. Quoted on p.408, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.