The Apostles of Christ: Matthew

One of the other disciples that we know because of his gospel in the New Testament is Matthew, also known as Levi. He was a tax collector before giving up his job to follow Jesus. His call to become Jesus’ disciple is recorded in Matthew 9 (NIV): “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. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (The following story is copied from a Lutheran minister’s sermon:)

“The church of which Samuel Colgate was a member had a big push to evangelize the neighborhood. The pastor preached a moving message and at the end he extended an invitation for those who wished to come forward and declare their Spirit-given desire to leave their past behind, follow the Savior and be blessed by the forgiveness Christ has won.
“One of the first people to walk down the aisle and kneel before the church altar was a prostitute. She cried as she knelt and she renounced her licentious life. She asked God to forgive her and then she stood up and turned around. To the sea of faces before her she humbly stated she was committed to following Jesus and that she was happy in His blood-bought forgiveness. She concluded by saying: I wish to now become a member of the church. Her request was met by silence – a deafening silence – a prolonged silence. Everyone knew every time one of God’s people sins, God’s image and the Savior’s sacrifice gets tarnished. They were reluctant to have their church or their Savior besmirched by associating themselves with this sinner.

“The silence was broken when Colgate stood up and said: “I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners we had in mind.” Colgate’s words jolted the congregation into remembering who they were; that they, too, were all sinners who had been blessed by the Savior’s sacrifice; who had been forgiven by His blood and promised eternal victory through His resurrection. The motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into church membership.

“To eat with sinners, to drink with them, and save them, is why Jesus came. It is why He called Matthew to follow Him; it is why the Holy Spirit touched the heart of that prostitute and saved her; it is why He reaches out to each of us. If you are among those who are staying away from the Christ and His church because there are sinners there, let me say, “Of course there are. If they weren’t sinners, they wouldn’t need a Savior.” If you reject Christ because of what we are doing wrong, forgive us, but realize we are weak and foolish children who need God’s great grace and His ongoing guiding hand; if hypocrites in the church stand between you and your Redeemer, realize if they are between the two of you, they are actually closer to Him than you are.”