Lessons from a Tax Collector

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, April 3, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 9:9-13.

            One of the things we need to deal with, when we read the Bible, is that the things that interest us are not always the things that interest God and vice versa.  There are times when the Bible goes into great detail about things, and we wonder, what’s the point of that?  And there are other times when something seems really interesting to us, and yet the Bible deals with it very quickly, with no details at all.  The Bible tells us all the things we need to know, but quite often it does not tell us all the things we’d like to know.

            In our reading for tonight, Jesus is walking along, and he sees Matthew at his tax collector booth.  He says to Matthew “follow me”.  And Matthew gets up and follows him.

            Well, there are all kinds of things I’d like to know about that.  Did Jesus know who Matthew was?  Had he met him before?  Did Jesus know Matthew would be there, sitting at his tax collector booth at that time?  Did Jesus deliberately seek out Matthew?  Or was this just a coincidence?  Did Matthew just happen to be in the right place at the right time?  If Matthew had not been there, would Jesus have gone to look for him?  Or would Jesus have chosen someone else to be his disciple?  

            And what about looking at it from Matthew’s point of view?  Matthew was a tax collector.  Tax collectors were considered the lowest of the low by the common people.  I mean, yes, they were usually wealthy and powerful, so people had to treat them with a certain amount of respect.  But the reason they were wealthy is because they cheated people.  They were able to do that because they had the force of the Roman government behind them.  A tax collector could take whatever he wanted from the people, and as long as Rome got its cut the tax collector could keep the rest.

So, while tax collectors had money and power, no one liked them.  The reason we hear the phrase “tax collectors and sinners” in the Bible so much is that tax collectors were considered lower than ordinary sinners.  And yet, one of these tax collectors, Matthew, is one of the people Jesus chose to be one of his disciples.

What do you suppose Matthew thought?  It seems likely he knew who Jesus was.  After all, in the gospel account, Jesus had already healed people and worked some miracles by this point.  Did he recognize Jesus, as he approached?  Did he wonder what Jesus would want with him?  Or did he not even realize that Jesus was coming to see him?  Did he think Jesus was just walking along, and it was not until Jesus spoke to him that he realized Jesus was coming for him?

And according to the gospel account, Jesus just says two words to him.  “Follow me.”  And amazingly, Matthew, this lowlife, this tax collector, gets up and follows Jesus.

Why would he do that?  What was going through Matthew’s mind at that point, do you think?  Had he ever considered following Jesus before?  Was there at least a part of him that wanted to?  Did he think Jesus could never be interested in someone like him?  Was he amazed, even stunned, when Jesus said those words to him?  Did he jump up eagerly, thankfully, when Jesus gave him the chance to follow?  

We’re told that Jesus then went to Matthew’s house for dinner.  As a tax collector, Matthew probably had servants and plenty of good food.  And we’re told lots of other “tax collectors and sinners” came to eat, too.  And of course, the Pharisees could not understand this.  They would not have been caught dead among such undesirable company.  

So they asked why Jesus was willing to eat with such people.  They did not ask Jesus himself–they asked the disciples.  But Jesus heard them, and he answered.  He said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

So, I’ll ask the questions I’ve asked many times before.  Why is this story in the Bible?  What are we supposed to learn from it?

Several things, I think.  One is that God does not see people the way human beings see them.  Most people looked at this tax collector and saw one of the most despicable people they’d ever known.  Someone who was out to cheat them.  Someone who had grown wealthy on the backs of other people’s hard work.  Jesus looked at him and saw the good in him.  Jesus looked at him and saw a man who could be a valuable disciple, someone who could help spread the good news of salvation and eternal life.

That’s important in two ways.  One is that, when we see someone, it’s easy for us to make a snap judgment about them.  Especially if they’re someone society would look down on.  We need to learn to see past appearances and see the good that may lie under the surface.  

Because there’s one more thing Jesus saw that society did not see.  Jesus saw someone who wanted to change his life.  After all, there had to be other tax collectors around, right?  And most of them probably were happy being tax collectors.  They did not care what they were doing to other people, as long as they took care of themselves.  But this tax collector, Matthew, was not happy being a tax collector.  Somewhere, deep down, he knew that what he was doing was not right.  He probably wanted to change, but he had no idea how to do that.  Who would trust him?  Who would give him a chance?  

Jesus would.  Jesus trusted him.  Jesus gave him a chance.  And sometimes we need to give people a chance, too.  Because if someone does not get the chance to change, they probably never will.  If Jesus had not gone to Matthew, Matthew would probably have gone on being a tax collector.  He never would’ve been saved.  If we don’t go to people, people society may look down on, and give them a chance to change, they probably won’t.  And they won’t be saved.

But sometimes, in this scenario, we’re Matthew.  We’re the one who is looked down on.  We’re the one who needs to change.  We’re the one, maybe, who wants to change, but we don’t think anyone will give us a chance.  If you’re in that situation, remember this:  Jesus will give you that chance.  Jesus is always ready to call us to follow.  Jesus will always give us the chance to follow.  

But we need to be ready to say yes when the chance comes.  If Matthew had hesitated, if Matthew had said, “well, I’m not sure”, if Matthew had said, let me get back to you on that, his chance might never have come again.  We don’t know–maybe Jesus would’ve come back to him, but maybe Jesus would not have.  Maybe Jesus would’ve gone on to someone else.  You know, when you think about it, we don’t know that the twelve people Jesus chose as his disciples were the first twelve he asked.  Maybe he asked some other people, and they said no.  Or maybe they hesitated, and Jesus moved on.  The Bible does not say that happened, but it does not specifically say that it did not happen, either.  When we get the chance to follow Jesus, we need to be ready to take it.  When Jesus says “follow me”, we need to do what Matthew did.  We need to immediately get up and follow.

There’s one more thing we need to be willing to do, too.  We need to be willing to actually change our lives.

Jesus compared himself to a doctor.  When a doctor encounters a sick person, what does the doctor do?  The doctor does not just let them continue to be sick.  The doctor heals them, to the extent he or she can.  And of course, Jesus, as the great healer, can heal anyone.

But in order to get well, a patient needs to follow the doctor’s orders.  And in order to be healed by Jesus, we need to do what Jesus tells us to do.  Think about this:  if Matthew had eaten with Jesus, and then gone to be and the next morning gone right back to his tax collector booth, would he have been saved?  Would we even have ever heard of him?  It was only because Matthew was willing to follow the doctor’s orders, was willing to truly follow Jesus right away, and follow him wherever the road might lead, that Matthew was able to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Jesus sees things in people that no one else sees.  We need to do that, too.  And Jesus sees things in us that no one else sees.  When he does, we need to be ready to follow wherever he leads us.  And we need to be ready to follow now.

Jesus is our doctor.  Let’s follow and be healed.  And let’s do what we can to help others follow, so they can be healed, too.