As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9
An Unexpected Invitation
People often draw conclusions about others based on the people they associate with. And so, there may be people you don’t want to be seen with, so people don’t think less of you.
Are you ever the one someone stays away from? That can really hurt, especially if the person avoiding you is someone people look up to, or someone from whom you crave acceptance and love.
Jesus approached a man named Matthew one day. He was someone people usually avoided. Not just because he was a tax collector, and people didn’t want to pay taxes. But because tax collectors worked for the Roman Empire, which oppressed Israel. And tax collectors could demand more taxes than were required and keep the difference for themselves.
Jesus approached Matthew that day. “Follow me,” he said. Jesus wasn’t showing him how to get to a location across town. Jesus was calling him to be his disciple, to join his traveling school of theology, to spend time with him, and be seen with him.
Jesus went out of his way and risked his reputation for someone whose chosen career path had rightly branded him a sinner to be avoided. Moved by the unconditional love in Jesus’ invitation, Matthew got up and followed him. And he never looked back.
In Jesus, Matthew didn’t find acceptance of sinful ways. Instead, he found forgiveness for every fault and failure. He found pardon for his past and the promise of belonging in the family of God. He found love without condition and mercy for the messiest of lives.
No matter what you have done, no matter what others think of you, Jesus says to you, “Follow me. Know that God loves you and forgives you. Hold onto my mercy. I want you to be with me forever.” Follow him, and don’t look back!
Prayer:
Jesus, in love you found me. I want to follow you. Amen.
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:12-13
I Need a Doctor
By God’s grace, I’ve been healthy for most of my life. There have been times in my life when I didn’t have a primary care doctor, and I didn’t really need one. There were no aches or pains, no signs of any problems.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve recognized the need to at least visit my doctor for my yearly physical. They draw blood to check my glucose and cholesterol. They check my weight, my blood pressure, and a few other things. They sometimes order tests that are recommended just because of my age. Often, those visits and those tests don’t reveal a need for any further care. So, do I really need a doctor? Of course, those checkups would be needed if any problems were to show up without symptoms that caught my attention. Without those checkups, I wouldn’t be aware of the care that the doctor sometimes prescribes.
Jesus says that the same is true of our spiritual life. When he was criticized for hanging around the sinners that most people looked down on, for spending time with those who were spiritually sick, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
A doctor who isn’t honest about a risk or problem isn’t the doctor you want. The same is true spiritually. We need Jesus to come to us with his law and show us just how sick with sin we are. Our thoughts, words, and actions are infected with pride and lovelessness leading to certain death. We need to know that. But when he reveals the diagnosis, Jesus assures us that he provides the perfect and only antidote for our terminal sickness.
In mercy, Jesus took the infection of our sin into himself to purify not only our blood but our whole being. He healed our wounded hearts by being wounded for us. He suffered the death that our sins brought about, so that the prognosis is reversed. Through Jesus, we will live forever.
Prayer:
Jesus, show me my deadly sinfulness and lead me to trust the life-saving antidote of your forgiving love. Amen.
The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 1:14
Overflowing Grace
Do you ever find yourself running on empty? Your energy is gone. Your enthusiasm is nowhere to be found. Hope seems elusive. You don’t know how you will get through the day or week.
What about your spiritual tank? Doubts and questions poke holes in your faith, and it begins to leak out. Guilt and shame pile on, leaving you feeling worn out and worthless. Maybe it’s not a constant feeling, but there’s that one incident. Death or illness struck your family without warning. You heard something that left you with real unanswered questions about your faith. You made a huge mistake, and someone was really hurt. You feel empty, confused, and worthless.
When the apostle Paul wrote the words for our devotion today, he knew that, by his own strength, he could accomplish nothing. His past was checkered. His present was far from perfect. His tank was empty.
But into his emptiness God poured grace. God’s unconditional love and mercy overflowed in Paul’s life. It overflowed when he met Jesus. Face-to-face with Jesus, he knew that he deserved to die for the way he had treated Christians, to suffer for the suffering he had caused.
But Paul said, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.” God’s love overflowed to forgive him. As many sins as he had, God had more grace. Because of God’s overflowing love, Paul was forgiven.
With that forgiving grace, the Lord also poured out two more gifts – faith and love. Faith to believe that he was forgiven, and love that came from God and overflowed into the lives of those around him.
And all of this was “in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God shows his overflowing grace for sinners. In his Word is the power to work faith in our hearts. In his love is the power and motivation to love others.
When you are feeling empty, God wants to fill you up. Look at Jesus’ cross and his empty tomb. There, his grace overflows to you and every undeserving sinner. There, he fills you up with the faith and love you need to live in him and for him every day.
Prayer:
Lord, when I’m feeling empty, fill me up with your grace. Amen.
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Commencement celebrated at Martin Luther College On May 16, 166 students graduated from Martin Luther College (MLC), New Ulm, Minn. MLC’s mission is to train men and women to meet the public ministry needs of WELS. […]
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt. Each man and his household went with Jacob: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy people. (Joseph was already in Egypt.)
6 Then Joseph died, as did all his brothers and that entire generation. 7 However, the Israelites were fruitful, multiplied quickly, increased in number, and became very numerous. So the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelites are more numerous and more powerful than we are. 10 Let’s come up with a wise plan to prevent them from increasing in number. Otherwise, if war breaks out, they would join with our enemies and fight against us. Then they would leave the land.” 11 So the Egyptians placed taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. The Israelites built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, the more they increased in number, and the more they spread out. The Egyptians were filled with dread because of them. 13 So the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites by forcing them to work very hard. 14 The Egyptians made the Israelites’ lives bitter with hard work, with brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were merciless in the way they imposed work on the Israelites.
15 The king of Egypt also spoke to the Hebrew midwives. One of them was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. 16 He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, while they are still on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a son, you are to kill him, but if you see that it is a daughter, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God, so they did not do what the king of Egypt told them to do, but they let the boys live.
18 The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why did you do this and let the boys live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous, so they give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
20 So God treated the midwives well. The people also increased in number and became very numerous. 21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Pharaoh, however, commanded all his people, “Every son who is born you shall throw into the Nile, but every daughter you shall let live.”
The Birth of Moses
Exodus 2
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took a Levite woman as a wife. 2 The woman became pregnant and bore a son. When she saw that he was a special [1] child, she hid him for three months. 3 When she was no longer able to hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it in the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the child. It was a boy, and he was crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a wet nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, go.”
So the young woman went and called the child’s mother to come. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you for doing it.”
So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, with the explanation, “Because I drew him up out of the water.” [2]
Moses Flees to Midian
11 After some time, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 After he looked this way and that, and he saw that no one was there, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13 The next day when he went out, he came upon two Hebrew men who were fighting. He said to the one in the wrong, “Why were you striking your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me just as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses was afraid and thought, “What I have done has definitely become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, he sought to kill Moses. Moses, however, fled from Pharaoh’s presence and went to live in the land of Midian. There he sat down by a well.
16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and started drawing water. They filled the troughs to water their father’s flock, 17 but some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses, however, stood up and helped them. He then watered their flock. 18 When the daughters came to Reuel, their father, he said, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 Reuel said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why have you left the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man. The man gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as a wife. 22 She gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become an alien [3] living in a foreign land.”
God Hears Israel’s Groaning
23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their slavery. They cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 So God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel, and God watched over them.
Footnotes
Exodus 2:2 Literally good
Exodus 2:10 Moses sounds like the Hebrew verb for draw up.
Exodus 2:22 Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for an alien there.
1 At about that time, King Herod [1] laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church, in order to mistreat them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter during the days of Unleavened Bread.
4 After arresting Peter, Herod put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him. Herod intended to bring him before the people for trial after the Passover. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church earnestly offered up prayer to God for him.
6 The very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. He was bound with two chains, while sentries were in front of the door, guarding the prison.
7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood near him, and a light shone in the cell. The angel woke Peter up by striking him on the side, saying, “Quick, get up!” The chains fell from his wrists.
8 Then the angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” So he did so. Then the angel told him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9 Peter went out, following the angel, but he did not realize that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed through the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city. It opened all by itself for them. They went outside, walked down one street, and immediately the angel left him.
11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who is also called Mark. Many had gathered there and were praying. 13 When Peter knocked at the entrance gate, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 She recognized Peter’s voice and was so overjoyed, she did not open the gate. Instead she ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
15 They told her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept on insisting it was so, and they started saying, “It’s his angel.”
16 Meanwhile, Peter kept on knocking. When they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned to them with his hand to be silent and described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. He said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he left and went on to another place.
18 At daybreak, there was no small commotion among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod searched for him and did not find him, he questioned the guards and ordered that they be executed.
Herod’s Death
Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. 20 Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They joined together and approached him after they had won over Blastus, the king’s personal assistant. They asked for peace because their country depended on the king’s country for food.
21 On the appointed day Herod, dressed in his royal robes and seated on his throne, delivered a public address to them. 22 The crowd shouted, “It’s the voice of a god and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give the glory to God. He was eaten by worms and died.
24 But the word of God continued to grow and increase.
Footnotes
Acts 12:1 Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great (who had attempted to kill the baby Jesus in Bethlehem)
19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that took place at the time of Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch and also began to speak to the Greeks, preaching the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22 A report about this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go on to [1] Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw God’s grace, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts. 24 He was a good man who was full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a large number of people were added to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26 When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.
The Church in Antioch Sends Relief to Jerusalem
27 In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there was going to be a severe famine all over the known world. This took place during the time of Claudius. 29 Each of the disciples, according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers [2] who lived in Judea. 30 They did this, sending it to the elders by means of Barnabas and Saul.
Footnotes
Acts 11:22 Some witnesses to the text omit go on to.
Acts 11:29 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.
1 The apostles and brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who insisted on circumcision criticized him, 3 saying, “You went to visit men who were uncircumcised and ate with them!”
4 So Peter began to explain everything to them, point by point. He said, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision in which an object like a large sheet was let down from heaven by its four corners. It came right to me. 6 When I inspected it very carefully, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’
8 “But I replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord, for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “A voice spoke from heaven a second time: ‘What God has made clean, you must not continue to call unclean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then everything was pulled up into heaven again.
11 “At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them without any hesitation. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he saw an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and call for Simon, the one called Peter. 14 He will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them, just as he came down on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered how the Lord had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ [1]17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to try to stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard these things, they had no further objections, and they praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted repentance that results in life also to the Gentiles!”
34 Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really am beginning to understand that God does not show favoritism, 35 but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 He sent his word to the people of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
37 “You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. 38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil, because God was with him.
39 “Indeed, we are witnesses of all the things he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem, yet they killed him by hanging him on a cross. [1]40 But God raised him on the third day and caused him to be seen, 41 not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had already chosen—by us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that, through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who were listening to the message. 45 All the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out, even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in other languages and praising God.
Then Peter responded, 47 “Certainly no one can refuse water for baptizing these people! They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 He gave directions that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.
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New seminary graduate Stephen Gerling and his wife, Hannah, will serve as one of two missionary families sent to a new mission in Senegal. Drawing from their unique international backgrounds […]
At the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS) graduation service on May 22, 2026, four men received Master of Sacred Theology (STM) degrees through the Grow in Grace program. Grow in Grace […]
In the last two weeks, we experienced another amazing demonstration of God’s blessing on our synod. Candidates for the teaching ministry and staff ministry received their first calls on May […]
The 2026 Report to the Twelve Districts (RTTD) is now available. You will find it at wels.net/synod-convention, along with the 2025 Proceedings. Report to the Twelve Districts, available only in […]
On May 16, 166 students graduated from Martin Luther College (MLC), New Ulm, Minn. MLC’s mission is to train men and women to meet the public ministry needs of WELS. […]