Matthew 9:9 “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.”

We can learn many things following Jesus. His teachings can make your family a happy place–if your spouse, and your parents, and your children, and your in-laws are on board with the program as well. Jesus teaches things that could move your career forward–if your boss, your employees, your coworkers, and your customers are willing to live by more-or-less the same principles. But none of their reactions are guaranteed.

More than anything, following Jesus can teach us about God’s grace. Matthew saw him tell prostitutes the parable of the lost sheep and the lost son, stories of God’s great joy and forgiveness when a sinner comes home to him. He heard Jesus defending the woman caught in adultery from stoning, and promising grace to the sinful woman who washed his feet with her tears. “Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much.”

All of this culminates at his cross. Matthew actually took a pass on watching that, but this was the crowning moment of Jesus’ love. We see it through what the gospels record. Have you ever watched the movie The Passion of the Christ? It is hard to watch because of the graphic way in which we see Jesus brutalized by his enemies. It is one of only two movies I have ever seen in the theaters after which no one in the audience said a word when the end credits rolled. On the way to the parking lot the only sound was the sound of some people softly weeping. It is hard to watch what he suffered, but this is how much he wanted your forgiveness.

The love we see is not just love in a story, or watching love between two other people, like you might read in a book or see in a movie. This is how much he loves you and me. If all the world of people had remained perfect, and you were the only sinner there ever was, Jesus would still have died just so that you could be saved, and just so that you could be forgiven.

This is the key that fits the human heart like nothing else in the world does. One thousand six hundred years ago St. Augustine prayed, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are never at rest until they rest in you.” Money and sex and drugs and power and prestige and things and mindless entertainment, and even other people, will never fully satisfy. But Jesus will. And those other things will never last. But a billion years after this world has passed away we will still be feasting with Jesus at his heavenly table, worshiping him before his throne, and exploring our new and glorious home. It will all be as fresh and fulfilling as the day we first arrived. Jesus’ invitation has some serious implications to consider. But today he is still calling to you and me, “Follow me for my grace.”