Matthew the Tax Collector

Matthew the tax collector

In first century Palestine, revenue collection was rife with extortion and fraud.

Rendering its gains to an emperor, a mortal man, who likened himself to a god. 

Whatever what the character and virtue of the tax collector might be,

He held the lowest place in an Orthodox Jewish society. 

After a long day at the customs post he noticed a great crowd passing by.

Like them, he would become a disciple of Jesus, this son of Alphaeus, the one named Levi. 

They had heard the Word of God, Jesus taught them down by the sea. 

Then Jesus himself passed by the post. He said, “Levi come and follow me.”

Without hesitation, he rose up from his seat; he left everything that day.

From that point onward to find Levi, just find Jesus and the disciples onThe Way. 

With gratitude toward Jesus for his new found life and vocation,

Levi opened his house for all to dine and join in celebration. 

The scribes and pharisees were too self-righteous to join in.  

How could they eat with tax collectors and those guilty of sin? 

“Hey Jesus, why don’t you eat with us, instead of with sinners like these?”Replied our Lord, “I came not for the healthy, but for those afflicted with disease.”

Like a lamb, the tax man knew the voice of the one he had heard.

He put aside family and livelihood to follow the true, Living Word.