Matthew 9:9-13

Calling a Publican to Follow

Matthew was sitting at his tax table as he always did too collect the taxes from people who traveled from the far reaches of the Roman Empire. Capernaum was the city where Jesus made HIS headquarters, so we know that Jesus had passed by Matthew many times. Maybe they chatted, maybe they just made eye contact. We will not know until we get to heaven how much Matthew knew about this Teacher who was known to have healed the ill and fed the poor. 

On this day when Jesus saw Matthew, sitting at his customs table, HE must have seen how the people despised this tax collector. Jesus had to sense that this kind of resentment and rejection did things to a tax collector. He had to immediately feel compassion on Matthew and what it had done to him. Had it made him defensive and thick skinned? Had he become gruff and insensitive to others? Did he bark and push others away?

I imagine Matthew noticed how Jesus was looking at him. I bet he. felt like this man, this Jesus was looking straight into his soul as he looked at him.  When their eyes met, Matthew must have felt love and compassion, not blame and judgment. Jesus did not look on him with hate and contempt. Jesus simply looked at him with care, and this sinner, this traitor of the Jews who gouged them for tax money so he could be wealthy, left all he had to follow this Teacher from Nazareth. 

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. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I DESIRE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Matthew 9:9-13

1. Tax collectors in those days were also called publicans, or “Public Contractors”

1. Customs and tribute were forms of taxation that had both political and religious applications

1. Those who worked for the Romans as tax collectors were called “Publicans”

1. These publicans were stationed at key locations like city gates along the public roads

2. This is what Matthew was doing when Jesus called him to to follow

2. The political meaning of tribute was a tax which was imposed by the ruler upon his subjects

1. Similar to today, our leaders decide what taxes we will pay

2. This is what the Pharisees asked Jesus about in Matthew 22:17-21

3. To their question, “If it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar” Jesus told them;

Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's

Matthew 22:21

3. Religious tribute is what Jews were required by Mosaic Law to give to the Temple

1. Coins with images were not accepted at the Temple,

1. Under Mosaic Law, they were forbidden to have images

2. It would lead to worshipping the image

3. Thus Jewish money had no images

4. Roman coins had Caesars image, and thus un acceptable for Temple tax

2. Money changers would swap the Roman coins for Jewish money (Shekels)

3. In Mark 11:155-17we read Jesus cleansed the Temple of the money changers

1. The money changers were taking a fee to change the money

1. They were fleecing the people and Jesus was angry with them

2. Others were swapping out animals for animals more acceptable for sacrifice

1. The priests would find something wrong with the animal the person brought

2. They sold a better animal, even though nothing was wrong with theirs

2. About a 100 years before Christ began His ministry the Romans instituted a law that allowed for competitive bidding to collect taxes in any certain region. The right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) was approximately equal to the tax available for collection in that region. The payment to Rome was treated as a loan and the publican would in turn receive his money back plus interest on their payment at the end of the collection period. The Romans did not care how much the publican charged as long as Rome received what they wanted. Along with the interest on their money from Rome, they kept anything they collected over the amount Rome asked for. The principal risk to the publican was that the tax collected would be less than the sum of his bid for the licensee to collect the taxes. If the economy was bad, let's say there was a drought and the farmers had little or no money, they publicans lost money.

1. Greed always seems to set in when wealth is your goal, 1Timothy 6:10

2. Jesus told HIS Disciples, “It is easier for a camel to go through eye of a needle” Mark 10:25

3. The greed is what Zacchaeus was convicted of when he met Jesus Luke 19:5-10

3. Jews had a strong hatred for anyone who would collect taxes for the Romans

1. Especially when they charged more than was needed by Rome

2. Tax collectors were often seen as traitors by the Jewish religious leaders

3. Some called them sinners, and said they were not welcome to be part of the Jewish people or to worship with them, thus they would not be allowed in the Temples or synagogues

4. There was nothing lower than a tax collector

2. Matthew went immediately without hesitating, it has been said of Matthew that

1. He lost a comfortable job but found a destiny

2. He lost a good income but found honor

3. He gave up a future of wealth and comfort, for poverty, trials and tribulations

4. He lost his earthly security but found spiritual freedom an eternal salvation

5. He gave up a guaranteed cushy retirement an adventure that he never would have dreamed of

6. He gave up all, and became one of twelve and was honored to write the Gospel that bears his name

7. Jesus would tell him and the others, Matthew 16:26

3. Jesus was invited to have dinner with Matthew and his friends

1. Matthews friends would be similar to him, tax collectors and others known to be sinners

2. Pharisees charged Jesus with guilt by association for eating with them

3. Jesus said He came to heal the sick

4. Reality was the tax collectors and others were willing to admit there sin

5. The Pharisees refused to admit their sins

6. Had Jesus ate with the Pharisees, Jesus would still be guilty of eating with sinners, even worse sinners though

7. If Jesus never ate with sinners, He would always have eaten alonePsalm 14:3 and Romans 3:23

4. Finally Jesus says He desires mercy not sacrifice

1. God prefers an act of mercy, shown to the necessitous, to any act of religious worship to which the person might be called at that time. Both are good; but the former is the greater good, and should be done in preference to the other

2. That the whole sacrificial system was intended only to point out the infinite mercy of God to fallen man, in his redemption by the blood of the new covenant

3. That we should not rest in the sacrifices, but look for the mercy and salvation prefigured by them

4. Jesus wanted them to learn what this meant and if they did try to learn as Jesus told them to, they would have come across what Samuel told Saul when he disobeyed God's orders to destroy everything that belonged to the Amalekites 1 Samuel 15:18-22

5. Similar here to what he tells the Pharisees.

1. They think that because they sacrifice and say their prayers and read the scriptures they are saved

2. But Jesus sees their hearts, that’s why He called them white washed tombs with dead man’s bones inside Matthew 23:27

3. Jesus is saying we need to be like David who came to God with a broken and contrite heart when he was caught in his adulterous and murderous sin with Bathsheba spirit Psalm 51:15-17