Matthew: Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector!

Who hasn’t heard a candidate for public office promise to reform the tax code? Citizens and businesses hire professionals who are well-informed about the law and calculate the taxes they owe. In America, tax forms can be complicated. Taxes are nothing new; just read Exodus 30:11–16; 1 Kings 12:4; 2 Kings 12:10, 23:35; Matthew 17:24–27, 22:15-22; Mark 12:13–17; Luke 2:1-5; 20:22; Acts 5:37; and Romans 13:7.
During the days of the apostles, the tax system was no less troublesome. Palestine was occupied by Rome. Tax collectors were issued contracts by Caesar to collect taxes. Tax collectors could tax people for their use of roads and bridges, their goods, their animals, and methods of transportation. Some were accused of inventing taxes. Some, like Zacchaeus, were chief tax collectors and were rich. Others, like Matthew, sat in tax collection booths along roads to collect the tolls.
An occupied country, especially that of the deeply nationalistic Jews, resented tax collectors. The Jews often spoke of them in the same breath with sinners. It was assumed that they were dishonest. One of the most often repeated complaints against Jesus was that He was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” It is very telling that Jesus called Matthew (also known as Levi) to follow Him while he was sitting in his tax office along a trade route that ran past Capernaum (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14; and Luke 5:27) and chose him to be one of the twelve (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; and Acts 1:13).
God did use and can still use the skills, talents, and treasures of His disciples. They, after all, belong to Him (Psalm 24:1). He can also supply the grace and gifts needed to work His will through His servants. Tax collectors had to be good at writing and keeping accurate records; these skills would help Matthew as he carried out his office as an apostle and evangelist. According to Papias, the bishop of Hieropolis in Asia Minor during the first and second centuries, Matthew made a collection of the sayings of Jesus in Hebrew.
The readiness with which Matthew responded to Jesus’ call tells us that he was familiar with Jesus and His teachings, that the Spirit was at work in his heart, and that he treasured his Savior. His subsequent actions provide insight into his spiritual convictions, his genuine love for his colleagues and the evangelical ministry of Jesus:
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).
The popular saying, “Never discuss politics or religion,” does not seem to be a principle that Matthew embraced. He could not keep his spiritual convictions and his genuine concern for his associates in separate compartments. St. Paul said much the same thing: I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).
St. Peter tells us that revealing our faith is not always a wooden proclamation to strangers, but a response to the people who notice it: Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15).
This will happen naturally when people come to know us. Disciples simply cannot and will not hide their faith (Matthew 5:14–16). Their light shines, not in order to be seen by men for their own personal advantage (Matthew 6:5–18), but that men might “give glory to God.”
Matthew had a sincere faith and it could be seen in his Spirit-worked response to Jesus’ call. Christ’s disciples share in the desire to tell others about Jesus as God gives them the grace and the opportunity to serve Him.
Thomas Smuda is pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Deshler, Ohio.