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.”
This pericope is terrific. Matthew would have been, in all probability, not, ‘flavour of the month’ with his fellow Jew. Tax collectors where often seen as traitors because of their relationship with Rome and their liaison with the brute force of Roman Soldiers. They were also allowed to keep that which they over-charged citizens; therefore the incentive to cheat for financial gain was huge. Taking this into consideration, it’s fantastic to understand that Jesus walks up to Matthew and says, ‘follow me’.
You have to love how Jesus builds his team. I was reading a commentary that states there is archaeological evidence that fish taken from the Sea of Galilee would have incurred a tax. I’m sure this made for some interesting introductions between Matthew, Peter, James and John.
So we see Jesus call Matthew to be one of his 12, his next step was to get as many of Matthews friends and workmates together and get some dinner. Jesus wasn’t content with making a difference in one person’s life; he wanted to share the kingdom with as many as he could. This is a great lesson in how we seek to build the kingdom for God, being content shouldn’t be in our vocabulary.
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