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Matthew (Levi)
Matthew 9:9-13
Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector. That means he collected taxes for the Romans from his own Jewish people. For that reason, he would have been considered an outsider from Jewish life, a kind of traitor to his people. Tax collecting was also associated with certain immoral practices, extortion, taking more money than was due and skimming it off for yourself. And yet it’s from that work, when Matthew was at his tax collecting booth that Jesus calls him to be his disciple. We’ll read that account from Matthew chapter nine.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him. As Jesus was reclining at the table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were actually there too, eating with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ In fact, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Knowing he was a tax collector, we can safely assume some things about Matthew. He was probably fairly wealthy, upper class, well-connected, good communicator, persuasive speaker to solicit taxes and also navigate tense relationships on a lot of levels. But he also likely bore this sense of shame and a lack of belonging. He wasn’t truly part of the Roman ruling class, but he also wasn’t accepted fully by his own Jews. We see the Pharisees looking down on him and others like him. Yet it’s Matthew who has chosen to write the first account of Jesus life and ministry. What we call Matthew in our Bibles. Technically, the Gospel according to Matthew.
And each of the four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John emphasize different points about Jesus life and ministry. So it’s interesting to think about what Matthew emphasizes. Matthew makes a very clear connection between Jesus and the Old Testament. He quotes the Old Testament again and again, saying, Jesus is fulfilling this scripture. Here’s how the Savior promised by God has come in Jesus. Here is how the law, which we could not fulfill, which Matthew knew he could not fulfill, has been fulfilled by Christ. Here is how all those sacrifices, proclaiming that we could have peace with God through the blood of someone else, someone innocent, shed in our place, is fulfilled in Christ going to the cross for us.
So Matthew emphasizes Jesus connection to the Old Testament, but also that this work has worldwide importance, is for all people. It’s Matthew alone who gives us the account of the Magi, the wise men, coming to worship the child Jesus. It’s Matthew alone who gives us what we call the Great Commission. Go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them. So I can’t help but think of Matthew. Who knew what his former life was like, who had Jesus come and while he was participating in what was likely a sinful profession in how it was practiced, calls him, claims him, redeems him, forgives him, and then gives him this great position of honor, of relaying what Jesus did and taught to others.
And I like to think how Matthew probably rejoiced as he was writing lines like, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Instead of the legalism of the Pharisees who put burdens and rules to make people think, they had to keep them in order to gain God’s favor. Here Jesus was proclaiming grace through what he had done. So he, an outsider from Jewish life, could be included and belong among God’s people through this grace which would go out to the world and continues to go out to claim people, sinners like you.
