Jesus and the Tax Collector

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9)

In Matthew 9:9, we meet the author of this gospel – the man Matthew. Mark 2:14 says that this man was also known as Levi the son of Alphaeus. Matthew 10:3 mentions that there was another disciple who was a son of Alphaeus. It may be that among the 12 disciples of Jesus, there were three sets of brothers: Peter and Andrew (sons of Jonah), James and John (sons of Zebedee), and Matthew and James (sons of Alphaeus).

Matthew was unique among the disciples, in that sat at the tax office. Then and now, many people don’t like the man who sits at the tax office.

The Jewish people rightly thought of tax collectors as traitors because they worked for the Roman government, and they used the force of Roman soldiers to make people pay taxes. They were clear Jewish collaborators with Rome.

The Jewish people rightly considered tax collectors as extortioners because they were allowed to keep whatever they over-collected. A tax collector bid among others for the tax-collecting contract. For example, many tax collectors might want to have the tax contract for a city like Capernaum. The Romans awarded the contract to the highest bidder. The man collected taxes, paid the Romans what he promised, and kept the remainder. Therefore, there was a lot of incentive for tax collectors to over-charge and cheat any way they could. It was pure profit for them.

Jesus approached this man sitting at the tax office, and told him: Follow Me. We don’t know if they ever met or spoke before this, but this was the moment of Matthew’s call. He faced a choice – to keep sitting at the tax office, or to walk away and follow Jesus as his rabbi and master.

In one way this was more of a sacrifice than some of the other disciples made. Peter, James, and John could more easily go back to their fishing business, but it would be hard for Levi to go back to tax collecting.

Understanding how almost everyone hated tax collectors, it is remarkable to see how Jesus loved and called Matthew. It proved to be a well-placed love; Matthew responded to Jesus’ invitation by leaving his tax collecting business and following Jesus – and eventually writing this same gospel account. You could say that Matthew left everything behind at the tax office, except for one thing: his pen. The pen he once used to record payments and issue receipts would now be used to write the story of Jesus.

When we follow Jesus, we must be willing to leave everything behind. But God often has a way of using something we know or are trained in to bring Him glory and advance His work. In the pattern of Matthew, follow Jesus but bring your pen.

Click here for David’s commentary on Matthew 9