This week we are looking at a
section of one of the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the
Bible, called the gospel of Matthew, which was written to Jewish people to
explain and to show that Jesus was the Messiah that God had promised would come
to rescue and restore the Jewish nation as His chosen people. To prove that
Jesus was the long promised Messiah, Matthew began his gospel with a genealogy
to show that Jesus had the proper family background to be the Messiah.
The Jewish people knew their
history; their upbringing and their education revolved around the teachings of
the Torah, or the Law, which are the first five books of the Old Testament, and
the writings, which was the history of the Jewish nation. Many, if not most,
Jewish people had the entire Old Testament memorized. They knew the stories and
they knew the names and the people behind the stories.
So for Matthew, who was writing to Jewish people to
explain and to show that Jesus was the Messiah that God had promised would come
to rescue and restore the Jewish nation as His chosen people, the natural place
to start his account of Jesus life was with a genealogy that displayed Jesus
family tree. In addition, for Matthew, it made sense to write his account of
Jesus life this way because Matthew knew something that they did not know and
that we often do not recognize. Matthew wrote the story of Jesus life this way
because Matthew knew his story. And it is in Matthew’s story we find a timeless
truth about our story. We find Matthew’s story in Matthew 9:9. Let’s look at it
together:
As Jesus
went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector's
booth;
As we jump into this section of the account of Jesus life
that was written by Matthew, Jesus had just performed a miracle in the city in
which he lived in, which was Capernaum. In this miracle, which we read in
greater detail in another account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel
of Mark, Jesus healed a man who was paralyzed after his friends lowered him
through a hole that they had made in the roof of a house where Jesus was
speaking.
After healing this paralyzed man, Jesus and his disciples
left the house and began walking down the street, where they came to a booth
where Jewish people were required to pay taxes. Matthew, who was manning the
tax booth along with others, was a Jewish man who was a tax collector that
worked for the Roman Government.
Now Jews who were tax collectors were hated by their
fellow countrymen for two reasons. First, these tax collectors were hated
because they would often charge higher taxes than necessary in order to make a
profit. Since the Romans did not care what these tax collectors charged as long
as they received what was due them, many tax collectors became wealthy by
charging over and above what the Romans asked.
Second, Jewish tax collectors were hated and were viewed
as traitors because they were working for the enemy. I mean, imagine how you
would feel if Mexico invaded and conquered the United States and began to
charge large taxes that you would have to pay to the Mexican government. And
imagine if your neighbor began to work for the conquering Mexican government as
a tax collector. Imagine giving your money to you neighbor, who gave part of
that money to the Mexican government and kept part of it for himself.
Now, if that were the case, how would you feel toward
your neighbor? That is how Jewish people felt toward people like Matthew.
Jewish people so despised tax collectors that they had a separate category for
them. There were tax collectors and there were sinners. There were those who
sinned and then there were tax collectors. With this background in mind, we see
Jesus approach Matthew, this tax collector and sinner, who would later write
the letter the bears his name in the Bible and say the following in the second
half of Matthew 9:9:
and He said
to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him.
Matthew explained that when Jesus saw him sitting at the
tax collector booth, He said to him “Follow Me”. Now, in the Jewish culture of
the first century, when a rabbi or teacher asked someone to follow him, this
was a call to follow the rabbi as his disciple. So Jesus here is calling this
tax collector, who was so despised that they had a separate category for him,
to follow Him.
Now can you imagine what the rest of the disciple’s
response to Jesus invitation to Matthew would be? Can you imagine Peter, for
example “Jesus, I don’t think that is a good idea; I mean he is a tax
collector; he is the enemy”? What is just as hard to understand, however, is
how Matthew responds. Matthew responds to Jesus invitation by leaving his tax
booth and job to follow Jesus. I mean at first glance that seems odd, doesn’t it?
I mean, to just get up and leave your job because a rabbi asks you to follow
him seems strange, doesn’t it?
While it may seem strange at first glance, it would not
have seemed strange to the crowds at Capernaum. You see, Rabbis were the most
respected members of Jewish society. So to be asked to follow a rabbi was a
great honor. But Jesus was no ordinary rabbi; he was performing miraculous
signs that people had never seen. Jesus, at this point in His life, was viewed
as a rock star or celebrity in the region. In addition, this was probably not
the first time that Matthew had seen or heard about Jesus, as they both lived
in the same small town.
Plus Jesus wanted him: Jesus wanted a tax collector and
sinner to follow Him. Jesus invitation would have been unheard of by any other
Rabbi to call such a man like Matthew to follow him as a student. What would be
viewed as strange or odd would be why Jesus would want a person like Matthew
around Him as His disciple. We see the reaction of others to Jesus seemingly strange
behavior as the story continues in Matthew 9:10:
Then it
happened that as Jesus was reclining at
the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and
were dining with Jesus and His disciples.
Matthew tells us that after receiving the invitation to
follow Jesus as His disciple, he not only responded by leaving his tax
collector booth to follow Him. In addition, Matthew responded by inviting all
of his tax collector and sinner friends over to his house for a dinner party to
meet and hang out with Jesus. Matthew responded to Jesus invitation to follow
Him by inviting all of his tax collector and sinner friends to meet and hang
out with Jesus.
And what is interesting is that all of Matthew's tax
collector and sinner friend actually accepted the invitation. You see, there
was something about Jesus that made people who were far from God comfortable
enough to hang out with Son of God. While Jesus never lived a life that was
marked by selfishness and sin, people who were far from God felt comfortable
enough to engage and interact with Him. If you are a follower of Jesus, could
the same be said of you?
I want us to take a minute and imagine the scene that was
occurring at Matthew’s house. Imagine watching as Matthew’s house began to fill
up with all his tax collector and sinner friends and their girlfriends. Imagine
the sounds of salty language and music filling the room as Matthew’s tax
collector and sinner friends began to engage in conversations. Imagine the
smells of food and drink wafting through the home. Imagine Jesus engaging in
conversation with Matthew and his friends. Can you picture the scene? Matthew
then explains that as his house began to fill with all of his tax collector and
sinner friends who were far from God, others were attracted to what was
happening. We see this in Matthew 9:11:
When the
Pharisees saw this, they said
to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and
sinners?"
While the tax collectors and
sinners were drawn to and felt comfortable hanging out with Jesus, there were
others who were not quite as comfortable. Another group of people, called the
Pharisees, responded to what was happening between Jesus and Matthew and his
tax collector and sinner friends by disengaging. And so often that is what
religious people do, isn’t it? As religious people so often do, the Pharisees
viewed these tax collectors and sinners who were far from God as “unclean”.
And just like religious people,
the Pharisees would not enter into the house and engage those who were far from
God; instead, they called Jesus disciples out of the house to ask why Jesus
would consider associating with such people. “Why is your teacher hanging out
with tax collectors and sinners? Doesn’t he know who they are? Doesn’t he know
that Matthew lives there? Doesn’t he know who he is?”
What I find so fascinating is
that while those who were far from God felt comfortable hanging out with the
Son of God, those who thought that they were close to God often felt totally
uncomfortable hanging out with the Son of God. You see, Jesus made insiders
feel like outsiders while making outsiders feel like insiders when it came to
how He related and engaged them.
Jesus, however, overheard the
conversation between His disciples and the Pharisees and responded with a
timeless reality provides a timeless answer to the question “Why Christmas?”
Friday we will discover that
answer…
No comments:
Post a Comment