Read Matthew 9:9-13 NIV
Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him
9 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.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew wasn’t exactly considered the best of company to keep by the Jewish standards of his day. He was a Jewish man collecting taxes for the Roman government. Add on the fact that many of the tax collectors collected a little extra for themselves on the side and you might as well consider him a traitor and a thief. Suffice to say he was not well liked. Certainly he wasn’t someone Jesus would have been expected to hang out with…yet Jesus did. In fact he specifically chose Matthew to follow Him. This had all the religious leaders scratching their heads and turning up their noses. The short answer to why Jesus did what He did is love. He saw Matthew. He saw beyond his occupation and even his sins and simply loved him. He saw value in who Matthew was – as one created in His own image – and He gave Matthew a shot to love Him back. …And Matthew took it!
What can you learn from Jesus’ example in this passage? What can you take away from this account that can or maybe should, shape the way you love others?
