The gospel according to Matthew!

Mark 2:13-17

13 [Jesus] went out again along the seashore; and all the multitude kept gathering about Him, and He kept teaching them. 14 And as He was passing by, He saw Levi (Matthew) son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, Follow Me! [Be joined to Me as a disciple, side with My party!] And he arose and joined Him as His disciple and sided with His party and accompanied Him. 15 And as Jesus, together with His disciples, sat at table in his [Levi’s] house, many tax collectors and persons [ definitely stained] with sin were dining with Him, for there were many who walked the same road (followed) with Him. 16 And the scribes [belonging to the party] of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with [those definitely known to be especially wicked] sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, Why does He eat and drink with tax collectors and [notorious]   sinners? 17 And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are strong and well have no need of  a physician, but those who are weak and sick; I came not to call the righteous ones to repentance, but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin).

Food for thought!

In order to understand Jesus' way of doing things, let us look at the kind of man Levi was. He was a tax collector.  In Jesus's time, the Jews were under occupation of the Romans. The Romans collected taxes on everything and on every activity of the Jews, including the fish that were caught on the Sea of Galilee.  As a tax collector, Levi worked for the occupying authority, the Roman government. 

The Romans had come up with a tax quota system for each province in the empire. They allowed their nobles to bid on the contracts for collecting the taxes in each area. These nobles usually hired locals to collect the taxes. As long as they met their quota, the Roman government didn’t care how much more they collected. As a result, the tax collectors became very rich, (like Zacchaeus, Luke 19:2), as they overcharged the people, paid the Roman government and kept the difference for themselves.  

Because of the system, all tax collectors like Levi were notoriously dishonest, and as a result he was among the most hated people in Israel. He was viewed as public sinner, isolated in the community. He would not have been allowed to go to the Temple or the synagogues. He was a social outcast, who could only socialize with other tax collectors and sinners. This is the reason why at dinner he invited others like him, "when Jesus, together with His disciples, sat at table in his [Levi’s] house, many tax collectors and persons with sin were dining with Him, for there were many who walked the same road with Him."

This is the kind of man Jesus saw and called to be his associate. Did you notice that it was as he walked along the lakeside that he called Levi (Matthew)? Even as he was walking along, Jesus was looking for opportunities and partners. Jesus was never off duty; he was always on the look out, always looking for opportunities, because opportunities are everywhere and in everybody. Train yourself to be on constant look out for opportunities.

Of all the people Jesus called to follow him Matthew gave up the most. He literally left all to follow Jesus. Peter and Andrew, James and John could go back to the boats, for they were fishermen. There were always fish to catch and always the old trade to which to return; but Matthew burned his bridges completely. With one action, in one moment of time, by one swift decision he had put himself out of his job forever, for having left his tax-collector's job, he would never get it back. For many people, his decision was the most reckless thing anybody could do.  

A certain famous man had the habit of going for long country walks on the river. When he came to a brook that was rather too narrow to cross comfortably, the first thing he did was to throw his coat over to the other side. He made sure that there was to be no turning back. He took the decision to cross and made sure he was going to stick to it. Matthew was the man who staked everything on Christ's word, "Follow me"; and he was not wrong. When and if Jesus says to you "come", leave whatever you're doing and go to where he tells you. He knows best.

From his decision Matthew got at least two things. (a) He lost one job but he got a far bigger one. It has been said that Matthew left everything but one thing--he did not leave his pen, for the first gospel was written by Matthew. With his orderly mind, his systematic way of working, his familiarity with the pen, Matthew was, the first man to give the world a book on the teaching of Jesus. 

(b) The odd thing is that Matthew's "reckless" decision brought him the one thing he had been looking for -- be of use not just to a few but to as many people as the whole world. Today, all who own a Bible own the gospel according to Matthew. Had Matthew refused the challenge he would have had a local coverage. But because he answered the call he gained a world-wide coverage as the man who gave to men the record of the words of Jesus. We need today daring people like Matthew.

Like Matthew, sometimes the Lord challenges us to leave our comfort zone, our old jobs, our old mentality, our old beliefs, our old friends to move on to territories known only to him. We do well to remember Mary's advice to the servants, (Jn 2:5) "Whatever He says to you, do it."