Back Together Part 3
Matthew
https://www.bible.com/events/49653962
We are continuing with part 3 in our teaching series called Back Together: Broken people of the bible.
Throughout this series we will explore the stories of people in the bible who had experienced various kinds of brokenness and pain in their life, but each found redemption and restoration in the Lord.
While this makes for an encouraging bible study, the real point is that we would be challenged to see our own brokenness and pain in light of what the Lord can do and seek his restoration for our selves.
Today we are looking at the story of Matthew the tax collector.
This one verse contains what would have been a mind-blowing amount of grace and surprise for those who witnessed it, including Matthew himself.
Jesus has been performing a string of miracles since the end of the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 7.
Jesus is ministering in his hometown region when his travels take him past a tax collection booth where a man named Matthew is working.
Matthew was not well loved. That’s because his job was to collect taxes from his local community. As a Jewish man, Matthew would have been betraying his own people to be employed by Rome. Even worse that his job was to collect the Roman tax on day-to-day goods and services.
To make matters even worse he was allowed to charge whatever extra he wanted to line his own pockets. It was a very lucrative business for Matthew.
That Jesus saw a man named Matthew is significant.
That word for saw in the original Greek, has a range of meaning, from visually seeing something with your eyes, to perceiving with your mind or your heart, to take notice.
The word Luke uses in his account of this story is that of a long intentional gaze, like the intensity you would watch your favorite movie.
Follow Me in this passage is a present imperative. That means Jesus didn’t so much ask Matthew, as he told him, you need to come with me.
Matthew doesn’t elaborate on it, but this was a very costly decision on his part. Luke tells us that Matthew “Left everything and followed Jesus”. When Matthew walked out of that tax booth, he turned his back on his Roman employer and all the benefits that provided. He walked away from a very financially rewarding career. His future plans, the safety and security of having a steady job.
In an instant, he walks from everything that was holding him back from following Jesus.
Luke calls this a GAND BANQUET for Jesus…aka this was a big party at Matthew’s house.
Among Matthews friends are other tax collectors and sinners which is a broad reaching term for all kinds of people not living a good life.
The local religious leaders had some serious questions about why Jesus was hanging around with this crowd. They were used to excluding the same people Jesus was welcoming.
Jesus makes it clear why he is here. Not to call the righteous, those who think they have it together, but sinners to repentance. Afterall, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.
Jesus has come to help and heal those who are sin-sick and in need of restoration.
The real restoration story of Matthew is not just that a tax collector turns into a disciple, but that a man who had it all by the worlds standards, found the cure for the deep ache of is heart for something more.
Matthew found something real, something that would last. He found life in Christ.
Have you?