Lost and Found
“Follow Me,” were words that perhaps Matthew the tax collector would have never expected to come in a conversation with a Jewish Rabbi. Matthew collected taxes for Herod, charging duty on goods brought into the city of Capernaum. Since the taxman was responsible to cover any shortfalls, he had to be merciless in collections. It was Rome that sanctioned certain wealthy individuals to collect for their cities, and rulers like Herod the Great would even finance the building of pagan temples with the people’s tax dollars, which left a bad taste in the mouths of Jewish people. Tax gatherers were despised by the Jewish people, and a Jewish tax collector was considered a traitor. Christ was calling Matthew to leave his old life behind and enter into a new life as a disciple. Matthew simply follows the Lord.
Who is it that Matthew leaves all to follow? The former tax gatherer offers the answer in the events leading up to his conversion. He was entering into a right relationship with God. Matthew offers a triad of the miracles wherein Jesus unveils His divine attributes in saving the disciples of “little faith” by calming the tempest (Matt. 8:23-27), exorcising demons from the Gadarean demoniacs (Matt. 8:28-34), and healing and forgiving a paralytic (Matt. 9:1-8), illustrate the reality of a gracious God saving lost souls.
Matthew also observes that while God saves sinners, the works of God are despised by others. Christ saves two demonized Gentiles, and while dark forces address Him as “Son of God” before being exorcised into a heard of swine, the Gadaremes people ask Him to leave. Christ, moreover, reverses the effects of the curse in allowing a paralytic to walk again, but religious leaders dismissed Him as a blasphemer.
The problem is not so much that God is so elusive that nobody can know He exist; rather, the problem is that God does show up and sinful people despise His works. On one occasions, Jesus plainly stated, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The Lord brings salvation and restoration to lost sinners, like Matthew the tax collector; yet, the religious leaders question His actions, never realizing that just as the sick need a doctor for physical healing, the sinner needed God for salvation from sin, and that sinners were being called to repentance (Matt. 9:9-13).
God had entered into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, and like a marriage celebration, there was good reason to feast and not fast, albeit there would come times when His followers would fast (Matt. 9:14-17). His presence in the world was inaugurating a new order of things. Just as new cloth cannot be stitched on old cloth, or new wine poured into old wine skins, the long awaited kingdom had arrived, and business was not as usual.
Who is it that Matthew leaves all to follow? The former tax gatherer offers the answer in the events leading up to his conversion. He was entering into a right relationship with God. Matthew offers a triad of the miracles wherein Jesus unveils His divine attributes in saving the disciples of “little faith” by calming the tempest (Matt. 8:23-27), exorcising demons from the Gadarean demoniacs (Matt. 8:28-34), and healing and forgiving a paralytic (Matt. 9:1-8), illustrate the reality of a gracious God saving lost souls.
Matthew also observes that while God saves sinners, the works of God are despised by others. Christ saves two demonized Gentiles, and while dark forces address Him as “Son of God” before being exorcised into a heard of swine, the Gadaremes people ask Him to leave. Christ, moreover, reverses the effects of the curse in allowing a paralytic to walk again, but religious leaders dismissed Him as a blasphemer.
The problem is not so much that God is so elusive that nobody can know He exist; rather, the problem is that God does show up and sinful people despise His works. On one occasions, Jesus plainly stated, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The Lord brings salvation and restoration to lost sinners, like Matthew the tax collector; yet, the religious leaders question His actions, never realizing that just as the sick need a doctor for physical healing, the sinner needed God for salvation from sin, and that sinners were being called to repentance (Matt. 9:9-13).
God had entered into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, and like a marriage celebration, there was good reason to feast and not fast, albeit there would come times when His followers would fast (Matt. 9:14-17). His presence in the world was inaugurating a new order of things. Just as new cloth cannot be stitched on old cloth, or new wine poured into old wine skins, the long awaited kingdom had arrived, and business was not as usual.
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