When the Pharisees viewed Matthew and his friends around Jesus in Matthew 9, these influential religious leaders saw “tax collectors and sinners”. Widely recognized for their observance and teaching of the ancient Law of Moses, the Pharisees were so serious about keeping God’s Law that they avoided anything that might make them unclean.
That’s why the tax collectors bothered them so much: those men made their living gathering money from their fellow Jews for Rome. Rome, who would force the Jews to go a mile and who would mingle their blood with their sacrifices, beating them to establish dominance and crucifying them to instill fear. Because of Rome’s rampant immorality and idol worship, some Jews questioned whether they could pay taxes without becoming guilty of the empire’s evil. So, collecting them? How can someone say they’re a Jew and support a party like that?
Jesus saw things differently. He had no hesitation in calling Matthew to be a disciple, coming to his house for a party with his friends, or even making him one of the Twelve Apostles. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus told those apostles in John 14:9, and God specializes in working through unlikely people. Though the Pharisees seemed to forget this, God chose Israel not because they were greater in number or righteousness but because He loved them (Deuteronomy 7:6-8, 9:6). The Apostle Paul explained it as God choosing “what is low and despised in the world” so that “the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:28, 31).
Consider: Paul was an accomplished Jewish scholar and prolific writer. Matthew was a tax collector, despised by Pharisees like Paul. Yet, God sent Paul to the Gentiles and used Matthew to write a gospel account so focused on Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law that we refer to it as “the gospel for the Jews”. This tax collector quoted the Old Testament nearly twice as much as Mark and nearly five times as much as John! “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Like Matthew and Paul, we are following Jesus. Let us learn from Him how to view others – especially those we don’t completely understand or agree with – so that God gets the glory!
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