Matthew 9:9

In writing his Gospel, Matthew, for the first eight chapters of the story is an observer or a researcher – at this point he became a part of the story he is writing!  That should be noted and pondered. The fact that Jesus selected him changed his life absolutely.

A tax collector – not a job popular with the people because the taxes he collected went mainly to Rome, the unwelcome occupying force in Palestine at the time. Matthew simply mentions that he was a tax collector, probably assuming that his readers would get the picture!  I think he was the first disciple to be called who had a political job.  He may have had political leanings, but it may have just been a job, a way to survive.  In any case when Jesus said, “Follow me” Matthew left his money table – ledgers open – and followed Jesus – and that made all the difference in his life. Matthew does not speculate in his writing why it might be that Jesus chose him. He just did and Matthew simply followed – all his life time.

Jesus did something that scandalized the ritually pure Jews – he entered the house of Matthew, the tax collector- and ate at the table with him and other “sinners.”  To begin with, Jesus chose Matthew to be his disciple.  Matthew was certainly not a ritually pure Jew, but a “sinner,” a collaborator with Rome, the enemy. When the “righteous” Jews pressed Jesus on the matter he opened a new way to look at the way God works. God seems to have a problem with “good” people even though some, like “good” Nicodemus, broke through and came to Jesus as needy people, as sinners.

Jesus points to a dilemma – good people do not see themselves as sinners so they have no need of a Savior. I like the way Jesus put it, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”  The sick know that they are sick. Had the “righteous accusers” thought a bit they may have seen that Jesus saw them as the most needy even though they would never admit that! They were sick but did not know it.