Readings: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13; Psalm 19; Matthew 9:9-13
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Calling Matthew to be an apostle, Jesus picked one of the unlikeliest of men. Matthew -- called Levi by Mark and Luke -- was a tax collector who probably worked for Herod Antipas, collecting taxes and customs duties. It was lucrative work, and rife with corruption.
Tax collectors set rates at whatever they thought the market would bear, paid the government a prearranged amount, and kept the rest for themselves. There were no poor tax collectors in the Roman Empire…and they were universally despised. Not only were they usually corrupt, but they also worked, either directly or indirectly, for the hated Romans, pagans who had subjugated the Jews.
By selecting a tax collector as an apostle, as one of His key disciples, Jesus must have caused quite an uproar, particularly among the Pharisees. The Pharisees scrupulously avoided the company of those they considered sinners and certainly wouldn’t sit down for a meal in one of their homes. That Jesus would actually accept Matthew’s dinner invitation and share a meal with tax collectors and sinners shocked their sensibilities.
Matthew saw in Jesus the hope of true friendship and peace with God. He saw in Jesus a wealth far beyond the material wealth he had accumulated and would have continued to accumulate.
Notice, though, Matthew doesn’t take the initiative, and neither do you or I. It’s Jesus who calls, and, like Matthew, we each respond to that call with an individual, personal decision. God calls, but He never insists.
Matthew could easily have said, “Not today, Lord, tomorrow. First, I have to put my accounts in order. I’m really not ready right now.” But this excuse and any other excuse are merely signs of selfishness and fear. And “tomorrow” – there are many tomorrows – and all run the risk of being too late.
Like the other apostles, Matthew was called in the midst of the ordinary circumstances of his life -- like Peter, Andrew, James, and John, he was called while at work. If you think about it, even St. Paul was called while at work. It might have been the work of persecution, but it was nevertheless the work he, as a Pharisee, honestly believed he was supposed to do. An interesting detail, isn’t it? We don’t normally think of God’s call coming to us while we are at work in our secular jobs, or even in our retirement. And yet that’s exactly what Jesus did, and continues to do.
"Follow me," he calls to each of us.
Too often we compartmentalize our lives, separating our religious from our secular lives. But being a Christian, a disciple of Christ, isn’t part-time. It must permeate and overflow into every aspect of our lives -- because only then can we effectively share His message with others.
That’s why we must guard against the attitudes of the Pharisees, who were so critical of Jesus’ associating with sinners. For we’re all sinners, but Our Lord still calls us. He came to redeem us all, not just a select few. It’s dangerous to ignore this truth. If we don’t recognize our own sinfulness, our own need for redemption and forgiveness, we’re close the door to God’s saving grace.
And don’t be scandalized by the sins of others, since without God’s grace, we’re each capable of committing the worst of sins. Neither should you become depressed over your failings. Just look at the apostles: a collection of weak, sinful men that Jesus turned into saints. Their grace was their willingness to recognize their sinfulness and repent. Indeed, recognition that we are sinners is the only correct attitude for us to have in the presence of God.
Yes, we can learn much from Matthew. He’s really an apostle for all of us.
The sinner who became a saint.
The man who heard God’s call and responded immediately.
The one who was lost, until Jesus found him.
Jesus reached out to Matthew, and Matthew went on to reach out to the world as an Evangelist, and, through his Gospel, to all of us until the end of time.
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