Matthew 8:9-13 THE TAX MAN

Matthew 8:9-13 THE TAX MAN

--- 9 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 we meet officially Matthew the Tax Collector

We will save the ROLL CALL for CHAPTER 10 where we have the list of disciples. But let’s talk a moment about Jesus choosing

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This takes us to Matthew the Publican Matthew

In all likelihood, none of the Twelve was more notorious as a sinner than Matthew. He is called by his Jewish name, “Levi the son of Alphaeus,” in Mark 2:14. Luke refers to him as “Levi” in Luke 5:27–29, and as “Matthew” when he lists the Twelve in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13.

In a few minutes the whole town knew about low-life Levi’s decision, and they could not believe it! Would it last? they wondered. Little did they know. Levi, as he is called here, was Matthew, later to be a Gospel writer. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him” (Matthew 9:9). Whether he was then called Matthew, we do not know. 1

Matthew, one of the original twelve disciples called by Jesus. Matthew appears in all four of the apostolic lists (Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13). The tradition of the ‘call’ of Matthew is found in Matt. 9:9, where his occupation at the time of the call is identified as that of tax collector (cf. Matt. 10:3). In the parallel accounts (Mark 2:13-14; Luke 5:27-28), however, the name of the tax collector called is Levi (the son or brother of Alphaeus according to Mark). The use of different names in these parallel passages has given rise to long-standing debate as to whether ‘Matthew’ and ‘Levi’ refer to the same person. The absence of ‘Levi’ in the apostolic lists of Mark and Luke-Acts (as well as in Matthew) causes some to argue for two persons. Most, however, have maintained that ‘Matthew’ and ‘Levi’ constitute a double name (as, for example, ‘Simon’ and ‘Peter,’ ‘Saul’ and ‘Paul’) and thus have argued that the reference is to the same person. If Matthew and Levi are the same person, then Matthew is ‘the son (or brother) of Alphaeus’ (Mark 2:14) and thus perhaps the brother of James (not James the brother of John and son of Zebedee), also one of the Twelve (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13).

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1Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word: Mark—Jesus, Servant and Savior, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books) 1997.

MAT´THEW (; contraction of Mattathias, “gift of Jehovah”). The son of a certain Alphaeus, surnamed Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27). It is not known whether his father was the same as the Alphaeus named as the father of James the Less, but he was probably another.3

Matthew, of course, is the author of the Gospel that bears his name. For that reason, we might expect to have a lot of detail about this man and his character. But the fact of the matter is that we know very little about Matthew. The only thing we know for sure is he was a humble, self-effacing man who kept himself almost completely in the background throughout his lengthy account of Jesus’ life and ministry. In his entire Gospel he mentions his own name only two times. (Once is where he records his call, and the other is when he lists all twelve apostles.)

Matthew was a tax collector—a publican—when Jesus called him. That is the last credential we might expect to see from a man who would become an apostle of Christ, a top leader in the church, and a preacher of the gospel. After all, tax collectors were the most despised people in Israel. They were hated and vilified by all of Jewish society. They were deemed lower than Herodians (Jews loyal to the Idumean dynasty of Herods) and more worthy of scorn than the occupying Roman soldiers. Publicans were men who had bought tax franchises from the Roman emperor and then extorted money from the people of Israel to feed the Roman coffers and to pad their own pockets. They often strong-armed money out of people with the use of thugs. Most were despicable, vile, unprincipled scoundrels.

Matthew 9:9 records the call of this man. It comes out of nowhere, completely catching the reader by surprise: “As Jesus passed on from [Capernaum], He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ So he arose and followed Him.” That is the only glimpse of Matthew we have from his own Gospel.

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Levi was his name at the time of his call. He is elsewhere called Matthew. Either he had originally two names, as was not uncommon among the Jews, according to Edersheim; or more likely he received the name Matthew, "the gift of Jehovah," after he became a disciple, as Simon

received the name of Peter. The new name, as in the case of Peter, expressed his new life, as Jacob, "the supplanter," was changed with his changed character to Israel, "a prince of God." So

one of the rewards of the conqueror is a new name, the name of God and of the holy city (Rev. 3:12).

Matthew left his tax table….. his life was changed forever……

Luke in his parallel description says, “Levi got up, left everything and followed him” (5:28). This was a decisive act. He gave up his business—everything, and there was no going back. Luke 5:28

28 So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.

When we realize that Matthew penned these two verses about himself, we get a glimpse of his modesty and humility. In his own mind, the most important truth about the writer’s former character is given in the words, sitting in the tax office. To Jews of his day, that single phrase established Matthew as the most despised, vile, and corrupt man in Capernaum.

Matthew was a publicani (whence the title publican in some translations), a man who served occupying Rome against his own people as a collector of taxes. By the nature of his position, his first loyalty had to be to Rome. Nationals of a country or province occupied by Rome could buy franchises that entitled them to levy certain taxes on the populace and on travelers. A franchise required collecting a specified amount of taxes for Rome and allowed anything collected beyond that figure to be kept as personal profit. Because his power of taxation was virtually unlimited and was enforced by the Roman military, the owner of a tax franchise in effect had a license for extortion. For those reasons the publicani were understandably considered traitors by their own people and were usually even more despised than Roman officials or soldiers.

Many tax collectors would accept bribes from the wealthy to reduce and falsify their taxes and would then exact proportionately more from the middle and lower classes, making

themselves hated still more. They amassed great fortunes under the authority of the oppressor and at the expense of their own countrymen.

Most Jews believed that the only proper government over them was a theocracy-the rule of God through His appointed leaders such as they experienced under Moses, the judges, and the Jewish monarchy. Because they considered any foreign rule over them to be illicit, they

considered taxation by any such government as both unjust and unholy. Taxation by Rome was therefore not only extortive but also made them compromise both their patriotism and their religion. It was those convictions that prompted the Pharisees to ask Jesus if it was proper to pay taxes to Caesar (Matt. 22:17). For Jesus to have answered yes would in their minds have marked Him both as a traitor and a reprobate.

The noted Jewish scholar Alfred Edersheim reports that a

Jewish publicani was barred from the synagogue and was forbidden to have any religious or social contact with his fellow Jews. He was ranked with the unclean animals, which a devout Jew would not so much as touch. He was in the class of swine, and because he was held to be a traitor and a congenital liar, he was ranked with robbers and murderers and was forbidden to give testimony in any Jewish court.

to Rome) was a tenth of one’s grain and a fifth of one’s fruit and wine. Income tax amounted to one percent of one’s earnings, and the amount of the poll tax varied.

The second type of tax collector was called a mokhes, who collected a wide variety of use taxes-taxes similar to our import duties, tollway fees, boat docking fees, business license fees, and the like. The mokhes had almost unlimited latitude in their taxing powers and could attach a tax to virtually any article or activity. They could, for instance, levy a tax on a person’s boat, on the fish he caught with it, and on the dock where he unloaded it. They could tax a traveler’s donkey, his slaves and servants, and his goods. They had authority to open private letters to see if a taxable business of some sort might be related to the correspondence.

There were two kinds of mokhes. One kind, called the great mokhes, hired other men to collect taxes for them and, by virtue of partial anonymity, protected at least some of their reputation among their fellow countrymen. The other kind, called small mokhes, did their own assessing and collecting and therefore were in constant contact with members of the community as well as with all travelers who passed their way. The gabbai were despised, the great mokhes were more despised, and the small mokhes were despised most.

Matthew was obviously a small mokhes, because he himself was sitting in the tax office as Jesus passed through the outskirts of Capernaum. It was to that man, the most despised of the despicable, to whom Jesus said, Follow Me! It was clear to early readers of Matthew’s gospel, as it was clear to those who witnessed this amazing encounter, that Jesus extended His forgiveness even to the outcasts of society.

Although we are given no details of any words Matthew may have uttered in reply to Jesus’ call, it seems evident from the context that he had been under deep conviction of sin and spiritual need. Because of Jesus’ considerable teaching and miracle working in the region around

Capernaum. Matthew would have been well acquainted with His ministry, whether or not he had personally listened to Jesus preach or seen Him perform a miracle. And although he did not seek Jesus out as did the centurion (Matt. 8:5) and the paralytic (9:2), Matthew seems to have been yearning for the forgiveness that the perverted system of Judaism told him he could never have. Therefore, when the Lord called him, he immediately rose, and followed Him.

Because of his modesty, Matthew does not mention the fact, but Luke tells us that the moment Jesus called him, Matthew “left everything behind, and rose and began to follow Him” (Luke 5:28). That simple call by Jesus was more than enough reason for Matthew to turn his back on everything he was and possessed. Because of his position as an agent of Rome, he knew that once he forsook his post he would never be able to return to it. He knew the cost and

willingly paid it. Of all the disciples, Matthew doubtlessly made the greatest sacrifice of material possessions; yet he himself makes no mention of it. He felt with Paul that “whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7).

with joy. He lost a career but gained a destroy, lost his material possessions but gained a spiritual fortune, lost his temporal security but gained eternal life.

It was probably because of this banquet that Jesus first gained the reputation among His opponents as “a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners” (Matt. 11:19; cf. Luke 15:2). Most religious Jews, and especially the proud and self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, could not conceive of any Jew socializing with such a group of sinners unless he were one of their own kind.

The Jews of Jesus’ day used the term harnartōloi (sinners) almost as a technical term for people who had no concern or respect either for the Mosaic law or rabbinic traditions. They were looked on as the vilest and most wretched and worthless of all people. Yet it was some of these that Jesus and His disciples joined at the banquet in Matthew’s house.

Matthew’s response to Jesus’ call was immediate and positive, and his sincerity was evidenced by his eagerness to share his new faith and his new Master. In a similar way, the genuine faith of Zaccheus, another despised and wealthy tax-gatherer, was evidenced by his voluntary determination to share half his possessions with the poor and to repay four times whatever he had defrauded anyone (Luke 19:8).

We are not told what the group of tax-gatherers and sinners thought of Jesus either before or after the meal, but their response to Him was at least positive enough to eat with Him and listen to Him. The main point of the incident, however-and what most offended the Pharisees-was not that the tax-gatherers and sinners were willing to associate with Jesus but that Jesus was willing to associate with them.

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TAX COLLECTOR

The system consisted of two categories of taxes. First, there were stated taxes:

There was a poll tax which all men ages 14 to 65 and women 12 to 65 had to pay simply for the reason of being alive.

There was a ground tax which required one tenth of all grain and one fifth of all wine and oil produced. In some places, the Romans also exacted a tax on fish. Very possibly this was done in Capernaum where the fishing industry was so vital.

Finally, there was an income tax which was one per cent of one’s annual income.

In these stated taxes there was not much room for extortion.

But in the second area of taxes, duties, there was ample opportunity for abuse. The people paid separate taxes for using roads and docking in harbors.

There was a sales tax on certain items, as well as import and export duties. A tax was even paid on a cart; in fact, each wheel was taxed!

cf. confer (Lat.), compare 4

The system fostered exploitation by the arbitrary power of the tax gatherers. They could stop anyone on the road, make him or her unpack their bundles, and charge just about anything they wanted. If the person could not pay, the tax collectors sometimes would offer to loan money at an exorbitant rate, thus pulling the people further into their greedy hands. They were trained extortionists. Quite naturally, they attracted a criminal element of thugs and enforcers—the scum of society. So rare was honesty in the profession that a Roman writer said he once saw a monument to an honest tax collector!

The Jewish tax collectors were easily the most hated men in Hebrew society. They were considered to be despicable vermin. They were not only hated for their extortion, but also because they were the lackeys of the Romans—much as the French hated Nazi collaborators during World War II. These Jews could not serve as a judge or a witness in a court session and were excommunicated from the synagogues. They were the lowest of the lowest!

All this made Jesus’ dealing with Levi, the tax collector, remarkable. We want to examine for our own selves Christ’s revolutionary social practices in these verses in Mark’s Gospel. They will tell us how he relates to us, and how we ought to relate to the world.5

Then you had tithing on top of this…….

%23- Tithe

%50 of income going to these two.. They were heavily taxed and hated it …

Taxes

Custom

Custom, or toll, was a Roman tax that was gathered by collectors who were known as publicans. They were commonly stationed at key locations such as city gates and along busy public roads.

The ancient publicans, apart from holding a traditionally unpopular job, were strongly disliked because they were often dishonest, extorting money from the Jews who had no recourse before their Roman rulers Publicans were often considered as among the lowest of society, but as so often was the case, Jesus Christ always welcomed, and forgave, the repentant:

"And as He sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when He

heard it, He said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." (Matthew 9:10-12 RSV)

"Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him." (Matthew 21:31-32 RSV)

Question: "What does the Bible say about paying taxes?"

Answer: In Matthew 22:17-21, the Pharisees asked Jesus a question, "Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." In full agreement, the Apostle Paul taught, "This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor" (Romans 13:6-7).

Federal income tax, state income tax, local income tax, sales tax, property tax, personal property tax, capital gains tax - the list could go on and on. Statistics show that in the United States, April 15th, tax day, is one of the most stressful days of the year. The Internal Revenue Service is probably the most despised government organization. Similarly, tax collectors were not thought highly of in Bible times (Matthew 11:19; 21:31-32; Luke 3:12-13).

As much as we hate taxes, as much as the tax system is corrupt and unfair, as much as there are far better things our money could go towards - the Bible commands, yes commands us to pay our taxes. Romans 13:1-7 makes it clear that we are to submit ourselves to the

government. The only instance in which we are allowed to disobey the government is when it tells us to do something the Bible forbids. The Bible does not forbid paying taxes. In fact, the Bible encourages us to pay taxes. Therefore, we must submit to God and His Word - and pay our taxes.

The most frequent objection to paying taxes is that the money is being misused by the government or even used for evil purposes by the government. That, however, is not our concern. When Jesus said, "Give to Caesar..." the Roman government was by no means a

righteous government. When Paul instructed us to pay taxes, Nero, the most evil Roman emperor in history, was the head of the government. We are to pay our taxes even when the government is not God-honoring.

Again, feel free to take every legal and honest opportunity to reduce your tax burden. Illegal and/or dishonest methods must be rejected. Romans 13:2 reminds us, "Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."

Sitting at the receipt of custom," "at the place of toll." Toll house, or custom house, for the collection of the taxes on fish, or duties on the merchandise which passed along the great roads to Jerusalem, Tyre, and Damascus, and the East, which centered at Capernaum.

Cicero speaks of the toll houses erected by the publicans, "at the approaches to bridges, at the termination of roads, or in the harbors," for the convenience of collection.

It is common in Oriental towns to find, just inside of the gateway at the entrance to the town, a sentinel standing on guard before a large open room, in which is seated the collector of the public revenue in company with other public officials. The invariable coffeehouse is close at hand, so that the civilities of life can be exchanged, and all kinds of business can be here discussed and bargains ratified, and, with the help of the official scribes near at hand, the legal documents can be drawn up, and duly signed, sealed, witnessed, and exchanged between the contracting parties. It was call Telonion, "toll house," because the collection of the revenue was the most important business there transacted. The same name is still used. The traveler, on landing at any Greek port, is usually conducted to the modern day version of the Telonion for luggage inspection. These publicans were more like our customhouse officers, than the publicans in the time of Jesus, who collected for the government the general taxes of the people. Still there was abundant opportunity for making money by fraud and oppression, as is sadly true in government today. Publicans

Our word "publican" comes from the Latin publicani, those who gathered the publicum, or public state revenue. Roman knights were usually at the head of this work, but farmed out the collection of the taxes to under officers, who, in the New Testament, are termed publicans. These were usually the lowest and worst class of the native population, since no others world assume a task so hateful. They were required to pay over to their superiors the exorbitant sum fixed by the law, and depended for their profit on what they could make by fraud and extortion. They often overcharged, brought false charges of smuggling to extort hush money, seized upon property in case of dispute and held it until their levy was paid, forbade the farmer to reap his standing crops until they had wrung from him all that his penury could produce. They were universally feared, hated, and despised throughout the empire.

religion. They, as employees of heathen, could not keep the Sabbath, or the Jewish feasts. They were working for the enemies and oppressors of the Jews.

Matthew the Publican

He was probably of that class of publicans belonging to the toll-gathers, employees of the custom house; disreputable, indeed, but not as much as the tax-gatherers, and he was not necessarily dishonest. He would be in circumstances which would enable him to help many an oppressed Jew. He would be in great temptation because his occupation was one which in general was followed by bad men, in wicked ways, and which therefore threw a shadow of suspicion on every one engaged in it. Moreover the pressure on him to do as the others must have been very great, for those who want to do wrong hated a companion who by doing right is a perpetual reproof and awakener of conscience.

The late Dr. Fred Walker (Professor of Bible, Lipscomb University) in describing Matthew, said, "Do not think that Christ would have called a bad or corrupt publican -- much less that a bad or corrupt publican would have obeyed the call. That which is lost He comes to save -- yes, but not that which is defiantly going the way he has forbidden. There are no defalcations from Levi's chest, no oppressions in his tax gathering, but a true merchant of Venice, uprightest and gentlest of the merchant race."

---10 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.

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Matthew goes on in the next few verses to say, “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” (v. 10). Luke reveals that this was actually an enormous banquet that Matthew himself held at his own house in Jesus’ honor. It seems he invited a large number of his fellow tax collectors and various other kinds of scoundrels and social outcasts to meet Jesus. As we saw in the case of Philip and Andrew, Matthew’s first impulse after following Jesus was to bring his closest friends and introduce them to the Savior. He was so thrilled to have found the Messiah that he wanted to introduce Jesus to everyone he knew. So he held a large banquet in Jesus’ honor and invited them all.

Luke records what happened on that occasion: “Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance’ ” (Luke 5:29–32).

didn’t know any of the social elite well enough to invite them to his house. He was a tax collector, and tax collectors were on the same level socially as harlots (Matthew 21:32). For a Jewish man like Matthew to be a tax collector was even worse. His occupation made him a traitor to the nation, a social pariah, the rankest of the rank. He would also have been a religious outcast, forbidden to enter any synagogue.

Therefore Matthew’s only friends were the riffraff of society—petty criminals, hoodlums, prostitutes, and their ilk. They were the ones he invited to his house to meet Jesus. Jesus and the apostles, according to Matthew’s own account, gladly came and ate with such people.

Of course, the people of the religious establishment were outraged and scandalized. They wasted no time voicing their criticism to the disciples. But Jesus replied by saying sick people are the very ones who need a physician. He had not come to call the self-righteous, but sinners, to repentance. In other words, there was nothing He could do for the religious elite as long as they insisted on keeping up their pious, hypocritical veneer. But people like Matthew who were prepared to confess their sin could be forgiven and redeemed.

It is interesting to note that three tax collectors are specifically mentioned in the Gospels, and each one of them found forgiveness. There was Zaccheus, in Luke 19:2–10; the publican

mentioned in the parable of Luke 18:10–14; and Matthew. Furthermore, Luke 15:1 says that “all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.” Luke 7:29 says after Jesus commended John the Baptist’s ministry, that “when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.” Jesus admonished the religious leaders with these words: “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:31–32).

The parable of the publican and the sinner in Luke 18:10–14 might well have been based on an actual incident. Jesus said,

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Notice that the tax collector stood “afar off.” He had to. He would not have been permitted past the court of the Gentiles in the temple. In fact, tax collectors had to keep their distance from any group, because they were so hated. The Jewish Talmud taught that it was righteous to lie and deceive a tax collector, because that was what a professional extortioner deserved.

Obviously, tax collectors had a certain amount that was legitimate to collect for the

Roman emperor that they could assess whatever other fees and additional taxes they could collect, and they were allowed to keep a percentage for themselves.

There were two kinds of tax collectors, the Gabbai and the Mokhes. The Gabbai were general tax collectors. They collected property tax, income tax, and the poll tax. These taxes were set by official assessments, so there was not as much graft at this level. The Mokhes, however,

collected a duty on imports and exports, goods for domestic trade, and virtually anything that was moved by road. They set tolls on roads and bridges, they taxed beasts of burden and axles on transport wagons, and they charged a tariff on parcels, letters, and whatever else they could find to tax. Their assessments were often arbitrary and capricious.

There were two kinds of Mokhes—the Great Mokhes and the Little Mokhes. A Great Mokhes stayed behind the scenes and hired others to collect taxes for him. (Zaccheus was apparently a Great Mokhes—a “chief tax collector”—Luke 19:2). Matthew was evidently a Little Mokhes, because he manned a tax office where he dealt with people face to face (Matthew 9:9). He was the one the people saw and resented most. He was the worst of the worst. No self-respecting Jew in his right mind would ever choose to be a tax collector. He had effectively cut himself off not only from his own people, but also from his God. After all, since he was banned from the synagogue and forbidden to sacrifice and worship in the temple, he was in essence worse off religiously than a Gentile.

Therefore it must have been a stunning reality to Matthew when Jesus chose him. It came out of the blue. By Matthew’s own account, Jesus saw him sitting in the tax office and simply said, “Follow Me” (Matthew 9:9).

Matthew instantly and without hesitation “arose and followed Him.” He abandoned the tax office. He left his toll booth and walked away from his cursed profession forever.

The decision was irreversible as soon as he made it. There was no shortage of money-grubbing piranha who coveted a tax franchise like Matthew’s, and as soon as he stepped away, you can be sure that someone else stepped in and took over. Once Matthew walked away, he could never go back. Nor did he ever regret his decision.

What was it in a man like Matthew that caused him to drop everything at once like that? We might assume that he was a materialist. And at one time he must have been, or he never would have gotten into a position like that in the first place. So why would he walk away from everything and follow Jesus, not knowing what the future held?

We know that Matthew knew the Old Testament very well, because his Gospel quotes the Old Testament ninety-nine times. That is more times than Mark, Luke, and John combined. Matthew obviously had extensive familiarity with the Old Testament. In fact, he quotes out of the Law, out of the Psalms, and out of the Prophets—every section of the Old Testament. So he had a good working knowledge of all the Scriptures that were available to him. He must have pursued his study of the Old Testament on his own, because he couldn’t hear the Word of God explained in any synagogue. Apparently, in a quest to fill the spiritual void in his life, he had turned to the Scriptures.

He believed in the true God. And because he knew the record of God’s revelation, he understood the promises of the Messiah. He must have also known about Jesus, because sitting on the crossroads in a tax booth, he would have heard information all the time about this miracle worker who was banishing disease from Palestine, casting demons out of people, and doing miracles. So when Jesus showed up and called him to follow Him, he had enough faith to drop everything and follow. His faith is clearly indicated not only in the immediacy of his response, but also in the fact that after following Jesus, he held this evangelistic banquet in his home.

This is virtually all we know of Matthew: He knew the Old Testament, he believed in God, he looked for the Messiah, he dropped everything immediately when he met Jesus, and in the joy of his new-found relationship, he embraced the outcasts of his world and introduced them to Jesus. He became a man of quiet humility who loved the outcasts and gave no place to religious hypocrisy—a man of great faith and complete surrender to the lordship of Christ. He stands as a vivid reminder that the Lord often chooses the most despicable people of this world, redeems them, gives them new hearts, and uses them in remarkable ways.

Forgiveness is the thread that runs through Matthew 9 after the account of Matthew’s conversion. Of course, even as a tax collector, Matthew knew his sin, his greed, his betrayal of his own people. He knew he was guilty of graft, extortion, oppression, and abuse. But when Jesus said to him, “Follow Me,” Matthew knew there was inherent in that command a promise of the forgiveness of his sin. His heart had long hungered for such forgiveness. And that is why he arose without hesitation and devoted the rest of his life to following Christ.

We know that Matthew wrote his Gospel with a Jewish audience in mind. Tradition says he ministered to the Jews both in Israel and abroad for many years before being martyred for his faith. There is no reliable record of how he was put to death, but the earliest traditions indicate he was burned at the stake. Thus this man who walked away from a lucrative career without ever giving it a second thought remained willing to give his all for Christ to the very end.

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---11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

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we can be so safe within the walls of this church…. Yet that is not were Jesus was, he was there in the middle of them…. Not a stained Glass but in with those that needed him, those that here open to him…… to the hurting….. REMEMBER WHERE HE DIED

on a hill so all could see, between two thieves, solders at his feet gambling… the common people where there. That is what he was all about………

That is a tremendous answer. You don’t call for the doctor when everybody is well. It’s when you are sick that you want the doctor to come over. The Lord Jesus said that He hadn’t come to call the righteous, but to call sinners. The reason He said that, actually, was because there were only sinners there. There was only one kind of folk there that day. There was no righteous person there, by any means, but the Pharisees thought they were!

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They were self-righteous- they are going to get the point of want he is saying……

Jesus did not consider these people “rejects,” even though they had been excommunicated by the religious leaders. Matthew’s friends were patients who needed a physician, and Jesus was that Physician. We have already seen that sin may be compared to sickness and forgiveness to having your health restored. Now we see that our Saviour may be compared to a physician: He comes to us in our need; He makes a perfect diagnosis; He provides a final and complete cure; and He pays the bill! What a physician! 8

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Centuries ago a number of workmen were seen dragging a great marble block into the city of Florence, Italy. It had come from the famous marble quarries of Carrara, and was intended to be made into a statue of a great Old Testament prophet. But it contained imperfections, and when the great sculptor Donatello saw it, he refused it at once. So there it lay in the cathedral yard, a useless block. One day another sculptor caught sight of the flawed block. But as he examined it, there rose in his mind something of immense beauty, and he resolved to sculpt it. For two years the artist worked feverishly on the work of art. Finally, on January 25, 1504, the greatest artists of the day assembled to see what he had made of the despised and rejected block. Among them were Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pietro Perugino, the teacher of Raphael. As the veil dropped to the floor, the statue was met with a chorus of praise. It was a masterpiece! The succeeding centuries have confirmed that judgment. Michelangelo’s David is one of the greatest works of art the world has ever known.

Christ saw in the flawed life of Levi (tax collector) a Matthew (writer and evangelist). He still sees men and women with his consummate artist’s eye today.

7J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1981 by J. Vernon McGee.

Ephesians 2:10

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

4161  { poy’-ay-mah} from 4160; TDNT - 6:458,895; n n

AV - thing that is made 1, workmanship 1; 2 GK - 4473 { }

1) that which has been made 2) a work

2a) of the works of God as creator9 this is where we get our word Poem……..

He sees in us what no one else sees.

Levi’s life was revolutionized. So he decided to sponsor a reception in Jesus’ honor, Mark 2:15

15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.

Why the reception? Obviously, to honor Christ. That is the natural reflex of the soul which has received his touch, as we see from Genesis to Revelation. Also, this was a spontaneous celebration of Levi’s new life.

Jesus was certainly all for this, for he described the prodigal’s father as saying,

Luke 15:32

32 ‘It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”

Levi also threw the party to share Christ with his friends. Luke says it was a “great banquet” (5:29), and our text says “many” were there. Levi evidently had a big place, and it was packed

out. The guests were “tax collectors and ‘sinners’”—”sinners” being a technical term for people who the Pharisees felt were inferior because they had no interest in scribal tradition. They were especially despised because they did not eat their food in a state of ceremonial cleanness. These “sinners” even consorted with Gentiles. They were the off scouring of Capernaum—despised, social pariahs. And there reclined pure Jesus in their midst—eating, drinking, and conversing with these lawless, materialistic compromisers10

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The response of the Pharisees was quite different from Matthew’s. They were outraged that this Teacher who claimed to uphold standards of righteousness even higher than their own (see Matt. 5:20) would willingly sit down and eat with such a flagrantly sinful group. No doubt they were also resentful and humiliated that Jesus had never shown them such favor. If He were really a man of God, they reasoned, why had He not given a banquet for them, the exemplars and self-appointed custodians of religious purity?

The Pharisees did not confront Jesus head-on but instead cornered His disciples. Having learned of the banquet, these Jewish leaders waited outside to see what would happen and to exact an explanation of the unorthodox activity. The words Why is your Teacher eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners? were more a rebuke than a query. In the Pharisees’ own minds the question was largely rhetorical, and because they did not believe a satisfactory answer could be given, they were not asking a sincere question but were venting their hostility. The purpose was to put the disciples and their Teacher on the spot. As with their many other questions to and about Jesus, their motive was not to learn the truth but to entrap and convict this presumptuous upstart who was turning their religious system upside down.

Even at this relatively early stage in Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees were becoming resentful and vindictive. Jesus had already said and done more than enough to establish Himself as an iconoclast who was at complete odds with almost everything they stood for and held sacred. They could see no defects in themselves and no good in those who were not like them. They were so pleased with themselves that they considered their enemies to be God’s enemies. They were so convinced of their own doctrinal rightness that any belief or standard contrary to their own was by definition heretical and ungodly. They were so convinced of their own moral and spiritual righteousness that anyone who questioned their holiness questioned God’s. The only thing Jesus could do that was worse than snubbing them, the religious and moral elite, was to befriend tax-gatherers and sinners, the religious and moral dregs. And He did both.

The Pharisees did not think they needed God’s forgiveness and were certain that tax-gatherers and sinners did not deserve it. Their “ministry” was not to help but to judge, not to restore but to condemn. They wanted no part of a Man who, contrarily, condemned their self-righteousness and offered forgiveness to obvious sinners.

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---12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

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When Jesus heard this accusatory question, He answered it for the disciples. His doing so doubtlessly embarrassed the Pharisees and added to their indignation. The fact that they had approached His disciples suggests that the Pharisees were afraid to confront Jesus Himself, and His overhearing and responding to their obvious indictment of His actions was more than a little disconcerting.

Although Jesus was fully aware of the Pharisees’ true intent (cf. 9:4), He took their question at face value and explained exactly why He had done what He did. In His brief reply, He gave three arguments in defense of His gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation, the gospel that was reflected in His willingness to eat with the ungodly and immoral tax-gatherers and sinners.

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First of all, Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” “If,” He was saying to the Pharisees, “you are really as spiritually and morally perfect as you claim to be, you do not need any help from God or other men. If you are indeed spiritually healthy, you do not need a spiritual physician. On the other hand, these tax-gatherers and sinners-who you declare, and they themselves admit, are spiritually sick-are the

self-confessing sinners who need God’s way of salvation presented to them. They are the one’s who seek the spiritual physician, and that is why I am ministering to them.”

The analogy is simple. Just as a physician is expected to go among people who are sick, a forgiver should be expected to go among those who are sinful. Jesus was giving Himself to those who recognized their deepest need. What sort of doctor would spend all his time with healthy people and refuse to associate with those who are sick? “Are you doctors,” He implied to the Pharisees, “who diagnose but have no desire to cure? Will you tell a person what his disease is and then refuse to give him medicine for it?” What an indictment of their self-righteous

hardheartedness! Those whom they diagnosed as sinful they were quite willing to let remain sinful.

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As the Lord charged them later, the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites who were careful to “tithe mint and dill and cummin” but had no regard for the matters of true righteousness, the “weightier provisions of the law” such as “justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matt. 23:23). They had outward form but no inward holiness, much ritual but no righteousness. They loved to condemn but not uplift, to judge but not help, They loved themselves but not others, and proved themselves to be without the compassion and mercy that God’s law required-the law they vigorously claimed to teach, practice, and defend.

How could the Pharisees have missed or forgotten God’s wonderful and merciful

declarations such as, “I, the Lord, am your healer” (Ex. 15:26). How could they neglect, and even resent, the healing of those whom God Himself desired to heal? Those who claimed to be well proved themselves to be sickest of all!

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---13 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.”

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Jesus’ second argument was directly from Scripture. “Go and learn,” He said, “what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice.’ ” He pinned the Pharisees to the wall with their own Scripture. The phrase go and learn was commonly used in rabbinic writings to rebuke those who did not know what they should have known. Jesus used the Pharisees’ own most honored authorities to rebuke them for their ignorance of God’s true nature and of their failure to follow His clear commandments.

Jesus here quotes the prophet Hosea, through whom God said, “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6) “It is the perfect Word of God and not the flawed words of men that you should be concerned about,” Jesus was saying; “and His Word calls you to be merciful and forgiving, not judgmental and condemning.”

The fact that the quotation was from Hosea made it all the more pointed. The story of Gomer’s unfaithfulness to her husband Hosea was a living illustration of Israel’s own

unfaithfulness to God; and Hosea’s continuing love and forgiveness of Gomer was a picture of the continuing love and forgiveness God offered Israel. And just as God then desired

compassion rather than sacrifice, He still did. Without compassion, all the rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices of the Pharisees were unacceptable to God. Without compassion they proved themselves to be more ungodly even than the despised tax-gatherers and sinners, who made no pretense of godliness.

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God had divinely instituted the sacrificial system, and when the prescribed offerings were made to Him in a spirit of humility, penitence, and reverence, they were pleasing to Him. But when offered insincerely and in a spirit of self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, they became instead an abomination. The rituals and ceremonies were only as valid as the contriteness of the worshiper. And the person who sacrificed to God in genuine reverence would serve his fellow man in genuine compassion. Conversely, the person who is cold toward other people proves he is also cold toward God, no matter how orthodox his theology and how impeccable his external moral standards. The person who sees obvious sinners as those only to be condemned proves himself to be a greater sinner than they. Those who are furthest from giving mercy are furthest from receiving it (see Matt. 6:15; 18:23–35).

God is never pleased with religious routine and activity that does not come from sincere love of Him and of other people. Ritual separated from righteousness is a sham and an affront to God. “I hate, I reject your festivals,” God declared to Israel. “Nor do I delight in your solemn

assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21–24).

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Third, Jesus defended His work on the basis of His own authority: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. He gladly associated and identified with tax-gatherers and other sinners, because they are the ones who needed Him. The parallel passage in Luke 5:32, and some Greek texts and English translations of Matthew 9:13, include the ending phrase, “to repentance.” It is the repentant person, the person who is sinful and who acknowledges and turns from his sin, who is the object of Jesus’ divine call. The person who is sinful but thinks he is righteous shuts himself out from God’s mercy, because he refuses to acknowledge his need of it. He rejects Jesus’ call to salvation because he rejects the idea of his lostness.

In response to a later similar charge by the Pharisees and scribes that He “receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2), Jesus gave three illustrations of God’s concern for and

forgiveness of the penitent sinner Through the stories of the lost sheep and lost coin He pointed up the truth that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (v. 7; cf. v. 10). In the story of the prodigal son He dramatically illustrated the double-sided truth that God is overjoyed with a humble sinner who repents and is grieved by the self-righteous person (represented by the older brother) who is himself unforgiving of others and even resents God’s forgiveness of them (see espec. vv. 21–32).

Kaleō (to call) was often used of inviting a guest to one’s home for food and lodging. The inference here is clear. Jesus did not come to call the self-righteous to salvation for the same reason He did not call the Pharisees to recline with Him at the dinner in Matthew’s house. They were too good in their own eyes to condescend to such humiliation. And because they would not

v. verse

identify themselves with fellow sinners, they could not be identified with Christ, who offers salvation only to sinners who willingly acknowledge they are sinners.

“Because you consider yourselves already righteous,” the Lord was saying, “I have not come to call you. Because you are satisfied with yourselves, I will leave you to yourselves.” the Pharisee who stood proudly in the Temple and thanked God for his own goodness saw no need for forgiveness and thus was not forgiven. But the penitent, heart-broken tax-gatherer who beat his breast and cried out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner! … went down to his house

justified” (Luke 18:10–14). At that same Temple, Jesus said to a group of Pharisees, “I go away, and you shall seek Me, and shall die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come” (John 8:21; cf. v. 24). The one who thinks he is righteous and spiritually safe without Christ has no part in Christ, who came to call … sinners. He cannot seek and save those who will not

recognize they are lost (see Luke 19:10). Logic, Scripture, and Jesus Himself together affirm that forgiveness is for the sinful and salvation is for the lost.

In one of His last parables Jesus graphically portrayed that truth. He pictured His kingdom as a great royal wedding feast for the king’s son, for which the king had sent out many invitations. When the previously invited guests, who represented Israel, were called at the appointed time but were unwilling to come, the king several times sent his servants out again to plead with them to reconsider. When they still refused, and mistreated and killed some of the servants, the enraged king ordered his armies to destroy the murderers and set their city on fire. He then sent servants throughout the rest of the kingdom, even to the most out-of-the-way places, to gather all they could find and bring them to the feast (see Matt. 22:1–10; cf. 21:33–46). That was the message He gave to the Pharisees at Capernaum. As Jews, they were the already invited guests to the Lord’s banquet, but they refused to attend and acted with hostility toward the messengers. Therefore, just as they stood outside Matthew’s house and watched the tax-gatherers and sinners eat with Jesus, they would also stand outside God’s kingdom and watch every sort of repentant sinner and outcast be welcomed into it.

The kingdom of God is for the spiritually sick who want to be healed, the spiritually corrupt who want to be cleansed, the spiritually poor who want to be rich, the spiritually hungry who want to be fed, the spiritually dead who want to be made alive. It is for ungodly outcasts who long to become God’s own beloved children.

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