Choosing Matthew to be a follower, future evangelist and gospel writer is like you or I choosing the most traitorous and unkindly thought of person we know or know of to be a core member of the leadership group of our family business, school board, church council or charity group.

Choosing that kind of person with that kind of resume to be a trustworthy leader of people in the spreading and living of the good news of forgiveness and life in Jesus is not something many would do, but Jesus does.

Jesus seems to choose the wrong people for his right work.

As we know, in the first century, few people loved the tax-collector: just another “sinner”; a person outside God’s blessing.

Tax is never welcome (unless you get a good tax return!). It was worse for them in the Roman province of Judea.

People had to pay a lot of tax, and to two authorities – Jewish and Roman, but all under the control of Rome.

1. There was the Land tax paid to Rome on your land or house and if in business in Jerusalem – on your earnings.

2.     There was a Head tax on each male aged 14-65. You probably paid about a day’s wages per year for this tax. If you were married, you most likely had to pay double. Jewish people disliked paying this tax in particular because the coin (denarius) had the head of the Caesar on it, therefore claiming that Caesar was divine – directly violating the first commandment on graven images.

3.     Then there was the whole customs/tolling system, like you and I pay digitally when you drive across Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane on toll roads. This was especially the case if you transported goods for trade anywhere. Tolls were collected at ports, important cross-roads, places of commerce, and at offices by city gates. Capernaum was just that kind of place – a major trading city at the norther top of the country where all kinds of people transported all kinds of goods.

Matthew was probably a collector of these tolls (Mark 2:14). He had an office in Capernaum, Peter’s hometown and the headquarters of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. That office lay on the road that leads from Damascus. That road passed from the territory of Herod Philip to the domains of his brother, Herod Antipas. Customs for goods being transported and road-tolls would be calculated and collected here.

The tax rate was between two and five percent of the value of what you were transporting.

All who collected any tax were seen as traitors. Taxation was seen as a symbol of being a defeat nation and powerlessness under the Empire.

The collection of customs duties in a particular region were ‘farmed out’ to the highest bidder, like a modern retail store franchise. The bidder paid the tax in advance to Rome, then made his own living by charging commission on tolls and customs.

These tax farmers were treated with scorn. Like a dodgy used car dealer, they were presumed to be dishonest. They were highly visible and they made their living from commissions, by charging a higher rate of tax they decided themselves. This would become a very easy way of charging whatever they liked!

Even worse, only people with great wealth could have been able to pay the tax to Rome in advance. The money Matthew had was probably raised by money lending at high interest.

One more and deeper level: Jews also considered tax-collectors as ritually unclean. They had dealing with Gentile Romans. The tax collector could not be caught dead in the temple or synagogue. So, Matthew and those like him had no way to have sins forgiven or be a part of the spiritual community in any way, even if they wanted this.

So why do this unenviable job? It sure was profitable. For many it was a sought-after job. Like working in the fly-in, fly-out mining industry job, it was a way to get ahead and move up a rung.

Whether it was to be pursued honestly or dishonestly would depend on the character of the officer. We don’t really know whether Matthew lived up to expectations of dishonesty or not.

So, would you really enlist this kind of person in G od’s holy work? Probably not, but Jesus does. This is a gesture of defiance to the established prejudices and legalised corruption.

Mark tells us that ‘Matthew’ was not always named ‘Matthew’. His name was Levi, until Jesus renamed him.

‘Levi’ is thought to mean something like ‘joiner’: a person who

‘joins things together’ (like a circular wreath) – calculator, deducer…. Good tax officer qualities!

“Matthew”: ‘Mattai’ in Aramaic, ‘Matthew’ in English, meaning, ‘gift of God’. The man assumed to be a traitor of ill repute and unclean heart before a holy God is simply re-named, “Gift of God”.

Matthew just ‘got up’ or literally ‘arose’ (sounds like a resurrection) from his tax office. He seems t be now living the life of the lilies and the birds who never did a day’s calculation in their lives (Matthew 6:25ff.). All of a sudden Matthew’s master was no longer Herod Antipas, the shrewd ‘fox’, as Jesus named this particular Herod family member, (Luke 13:32). Now Matthew is one who, unlike the foxes, had not even a place to lay his head – Just like his new master, Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 8:20).

The change destroyed all Matthew’s future business and wealth prospects. If all this following Jesus ended up coming to nothing, the others, like Simon and Andrew, could have returned to fishing, but Matthew had no trade to fall back on. He left a lucrative business and could never recover it. He was ‘all in’, as we say.

He left it gladly, it seems, and completely. Matthew was not the one who kept the accounts for the apostolic group. Judas did that (John 13: 29).

That very night Matthew throws a party for all the wrong people! “Tax collectors and Sinners”; as unclean a group as you could get.

The keepers of the rules are not happy. They cannot figure out why all the rules are being broken by this so called “Teacher”.

Jesus is clear: rules must be challenged when they stop us from reaching those who are sick. Like an army stretcher-bearer crossing no-man’s-land to reach a wounded soldier, the sick need healing wherever they are.

You know that. When you have been sick, you know you need whatever you can get from whoever can give it.

When that stretcher bearer, that stranger, that healing person appears before you and offers grace, care and calling when you don’t deserve it, can’t pay for it, but know you need it and want it, you are overwhelmed with it.

Is that what Matthew sensed and why he was so happy he received what he needed? Is that your story? If you were going to tell the story of why you are following Jesus, what would that story be?

The all-powerful Son of God who can cast woes of divine doom on sinners does not.

Everyone here has ‘issues’. Everyone here has internal and external problems – inner weakness, addictions and flaws or body, mind, spirit; outside relational struggles of ack of forgiveness, pain and loss.

If Matthew’s telling of his own story here says anything, it says there is hope for you who think you are too bad, too bold or too ugly for God!

There is hope for those who are scared of God. There is hope for those who struggle, those who cheat and lie, those who are cast out of communities, those who are all alone, those who have harmed and hurt and don’t know how to start the healing.

There is even hope for the proud and highly moral people casting many judgements on many people.

If we, the chosen and called, in our baptism get complacent or distracted or become cold and heartless in a lack of grace, as we stand in judgement over others in holy indignation or just plain human pain and shame, Jesus says that the God of the universe heart’s desire is not your personal sacrifice to earn his favour, not your demands and assumptions made about others, not your being very, very good and squeaky clean, but mercy.

Mercy is his preferred option for you and them. His goodness is good and it is enough for you inside, and how you relate outside. Mercy and kindness are his greatest gifts. Mercy triumphs over judgement.

In this mercy Jesus chooses the wrong people for his right work. He turns flawed people into flourishing people. He calls, selfish, lazy and disloyal sinners into his holy team ministry of co-workers in his gospel; making them into a holy priesthood who do his holy work.

Jesus’ call changes the course of this man’s character and life’s direction. Jesus’ call has changed this man’s character and life too. How about you?

You are Matthew; once only named “Sinner”, assumed to be outside any grace and life and love of God, now named “gift of God” for others.

So the call goes out to the called ones again;

“Gifts of God”, be his gift of mercy.

And for a special Barossa style celebration, do as they do in Spain on St Matthew’s Day, which they call Las Fiestas de San Mateo, which happens to coincide with the grape harvest, eat grapes or drink wine!

Amen.

Personal Bible Reflection

Sermon Summary

This sermon reflects on Jesus’ call of Matthew, a tax collector despised by many and assumed to be outside God’s blessing. Jesus chooses someone others would likely reject and names him as a gift of God. Matthew’s response is immediate and costly: he rises from his old life, leaves behind his security, and follows Jesus. The sermon connects this calling with Paul’s words in Ephesians 2: we are saved by grace, not by our own goodness or achievement. God’s mercy is not earned; it is given. Jesus comes not for those who think they are already well, but for those who know they need healing. The heart of the message is that mercy triumphs over judgement, and that Jesus still calls flawed people into his holy work.

Personal Reflection

Lord Jesus, I hear your words to Matthew: “Follow me.” I notice that you did not wait for Matthew to become respectable, acceptable, or spiritually impressive before you called him. You came to him while he was still sitting at the tax booth, in the place of compromise, rejection, and judgement. That gives me hope. You do not come only to the cleaned-up parts of my life. You come to the places where I feel unworthy, stuck, ashamed, or afraid.

Like Matthew, I can be tempted to believe that my past, my failures, or other people’s opinions have the final word over me. But your mercy speaks a better word. You call me not by the labels of sin, weakness, failure, or exclusion, but by grace. You remind me that I am God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works prepared in advance for me to do.

This reflection challenges me to ask where I have stood with the Pharisees rather than with Jesus. Where have I judged others as beyond mercy? Where have I preferred sacrifice, respectability, or rule-keeping over compassion? Jesus, teach me again what it means that God desires mercy. Heal in me whatever is cold, proud, defensive, or harsh, and make me a bearer of your mercy to others.

Today I receive again the gift of grace: I am not saved by my works, my reputation, or my ability to prove myself. I am made alive with Christ because God is rich in mercy. As one called by Jesus, I am invited to rise, follow, and become a gift of God for others.

Reflection Questions

• Where do I most need to hear Jesus say, “Follow me,” today?
• What old name or label do I need to let go of in the light of God’s grace?
• Who might God be calling me to see with mercy rather than judgement?
• How can I be a gift of God to someone else this week?

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