Matthew? Levi? Or just the “tax collector”?
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.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
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 9:9-13
Transformed. Meeting Jesus changed them. It still does. This week we study Matthew (or Levi, as he is called in Mark’s gospel), in our sermon series exploring the people Jesus encountered in his ministry. Matthew is known by the disciples mostly through his occupation, a tax collector. Tax collectors were hated because of their chummy relationship with the Roman authorities. They were doing government dirty work and keeping a little extra for themselves on the side. I can’t help but think of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood. They were not friends of the faithful Jews.
When Jesus called Matthew to follow him, and then had the audacity to eat at his home with all those “sinners”, people started talking. Jesus pushed back with the answer, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Matthew needed a doctor to give him a new heart. He needed to see his neighbor as his friend and not as an easy dollar. His heart was so transformed through his encounter with Jesus, that he went on to write the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew was well educated in the Hebrew Bible and quoted many occasions where the work of Jesus fulfilled what was said by the prophets. His was a gospel to his fellow Jews, his brothers and sisters. His heart was so transformed that he wanted all of the people whom he had formerly cheated out of their money, to be with him in the church, to understand the saving love and work of Jesus Christ. He had a change of heart.
Question for the week: Is my relationship with Jesus changing my heart?
Most Gracious and all wise God; Before whose face the generations rise and fall; Thou in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We thank thee for all of thy good and gracious gifts, for life and for health; for food and for raiment; for the beauties of nature and the love of human nature. We come before thee painfully aware of our inadequacies and shortcomings. We realize that we stand surrounded with the mountains of love and we deliberately dwell in the valley of hate. We stand amid the forces of truth and deliberately lie; We are forever offered the high road and yet we choose to travel the low road. For these sins O God forgive. Break the spell of that which blinds our minds. Purify our hearts that we may see thee. O God in these turbulent days when fear and doubt are mounting high give us broad visions, penetrating eyes, and power of endurance. Help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world, for a better distribution of wealth, and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen. (prayer by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
