It wasn’t until chapter nine that Matthew told of Jesus speaking directly to him. Number nine symbolizes divine completeness or conveys the meaning of finality. It also represents the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit, which are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control (Galatians 5:22). Vs 23 says: Against such things there is no law.
Matthew 9:9 tells us: As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me and be My disciple,” Jesus said to him. So, Matthew got up and followed Him. Jesus had come to His own town of Capernaum, where Matthew worked as a publican. His collector’s booth was located near the highway that led from Damascus to the coastal cities. An ideal location for collecting duties on goods that were either shipped by road or across the Sea of Galilee.
This AI Overview explains: In first-century Jewish society tax collectors were despised, but Matthew was considered the worst type of tax collector because he was a publican, a specialized customs officer for the Roman Empire. These officials were not paid a salary; in fact, they bought their positions and made their money by collecting far more than the official tax rates, then pocketed the excess.
Matthew was a man with authority. He would stop travelers and force them to unload pack animals to inspect even the smallest personal items. Taxes could be demanded on everything: wheels, axles, pack animals, and even individual pedestrians. These inconveniences were routinely used to extort “hush money” to avoid having goods held or damaged.
Matthew was considered a traitor, a heretic and a collaborator, who was seen as selling out his own people to fund a pagan oppressor. Adding insult to injury, to perform his job, he was constantly interacting with Gentiles, which, according to Jewish Law, rendered him ritually unclean.
However, this wasn’t the only reason the religious leaders viewed tax collectors as sinful people. Because of their dishonesty and collaboration, they were ranked the same as robbers, murderers and prostitutes. Banned from acting as a witness in court, while many religious leaders considered them beyond the hope of repentance. Furthermore, anyone caught spending time with them could soon discover their reputation would be tarnished.
Here are a few synonyms for the word despised: Disliked, hated, ignored, neglected, alienated, abandoned…We may have experienced or may even be guilty of practicing a form of its harshness by disregarding, devaluing, belittling…behaving in malicious, vindictive, rude, disrespectful, vulgar, inconsiderate, adversarial…ways. Just as the self-righteous religious leaders were guilty of behaving. We too are guilty of mean-spirited behavior when we believe ourselves to be good and worthy and so much better than another.
I must admit, when I’m working out the details for a podcast, a lot of information is gathered, with only one thing I’m certain of and that’s the title. Uncertainty about how the information will come together at times, causes me to feel somewhat overwhelmed so I tend to procrastinate, and that’s exactly what’s been happening. Usually, Holy Spirit will nudge me one way then another until the podcast is completed. I mention this because to date, I’m lagging almost a week behind my every-other-week objective. That is until I received Max Lucado’s UpWords email: The Briar Patch of Humanity, which so relates to the above subject material. Holy Spirit never fails to amaze when my uncertainty and procrastination cease, and things start to fall into place just the way He planned.
What is the fruit of sin? Step into the briar patch of humanity and feel a few thistles. Shame. Fear. Disgrace. Discouragement. Anxiety. Haven’t our hearts been caught up in these brambles?
The heart of Jesus, however, had not. Jesus never knew the fruits of sin – until He became sin for us. And when He did, all the emotions of sin tumbled in on Him. Can’t you hear the emotion in His prayer at the cross? “My God, My God, why have you rejected Me?” Matthew 27:46. These are not words of a sinner. He stood silent as a million guilty verdicts echoed in the tribunal of heaven.
Do you want to know the most amazing thing about the One Who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns? He did it for you. Just for you!
Jesus did this for Matthew, an ordinary person, living a perfectly imperfect life that reflected his shortcomings and character deficits, his faults and foolish behaviors, his self-reliance and self-interest. Matthew was not unique, like every other person on the planet, his thoughts and beliefs were woven within the patterns of deception justifying and rationalizing his wrongdoing because he too despised the hurtful and abusive ways he was treated. Denying and minimizing the cost of his treacherous behavior.
How costly the thoughts and feelings and beliefs of the self-opinionated. Why? We all have received an education in the School of Hard Knocks. Experience tells us not to trust, to hate, to be fearful and angry, to do unto others as the world dictates because it’s all about taking care of what matters to this self-centered trio: Me, myself and I. How many reasons can be given for lying and stealing, for demoralizing and slaying.
God gave man a paradise in which to live, but thoughts about “self” got him evicted. Our heavenly Father followed through with this eviction for the protection of mankind, for it prevented us from living throughout both time and eternity in the presence of every sort of evil. Thankfully, there is another school in which we can freely enroll. One that requires self-discipline, a teachable attitude, a willingness to think differently, to do as Matthew did side with and accompany those who have chosen to join the Army of the Lord as a recruit in Holy Spirit’s Academy of Higher Education, for God’s thoughts and His ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9).
Holy Spirit is our guide to the entrance of the narrow Gate where Jesus awaits our arrival, for He is the Gate, and anyone who enters through Him will be saved. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the Gate for the sheep. All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. The thief, he comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so God’s flock may have Life, so they can share in a personal relationship with My Father and Me, and so they may have Life in all its fullness as they come in and go out and find pasture,” John 10:7-10, foraging for Truth, co-laboring with Holy Spirit as we follow the Way in our pursuit for Wisdom and Revelation.
For we have all grown wise in our own eyes and prudent and shrewd in our own sight (Isaiah 5:21). We have all learned to lean on, to depend and rely on our own understanding. As a result, we have all lived opposed to God and His Word. How can we trust in the Lord with all our heart, when trust is not so easily earned. How can we acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, when the wrongdoing we cultivate from codependence, emotional traumas, people-pleasing, cognitive imbalances become engrained so deeply within our soul many of our responses are instinctive.
We fear, we lie, we cheat and connive. We argue and turn our backs because we’re right. We know what is best not just for ourselves but others too. We place our faith and trust and hope in what is fragile and weak – flesh. Who could argue with the accuracy of the Message Bible’s translation of first Corinthians 7:8: An imagination and conscience shaped under these conditions aren’t going to change overnight!
Praise God, for He has given us His Word, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” Matthew 9:12. The Spirit of Truth comes so the children of God would produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).
This is the Message Bible’s translation of first Corinthians 1:26; Take a good look, friends, and consider who you were when you got called into this life God bestows. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious God deliberately chose men and women the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses.
He chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of those considered as “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything we have — right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start — comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
Jesus deliberately and purposefully chose Matthew, who made the decision to make a complete break from the past, when he agreed to follow Jesus, for the Lord revealed how crucial God’s unconditional Love. Matthew never turned back to his old ways because He discovered by experience in the presence of the Lord there’s fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). Matthew made his desire to be loved, to be accepted, to be valued and respected known to God. Regardless of whatever sort of difficulties arose, He found a tranquil state for his soul because of the kindness and patience, the gentleness and faithfulness, the empathy and compassion, the gentleness and peace that overflowed from Jesus filling him with the peace of God.
Matthew found contentment because he could find no reason to fear anything from God. For everything our heavenly Father bestows transcends all human understanding. For the fruit of righteousness sustains us with supernatural power as Holy Spirit fortifies our inner being with God’s Word so we not only remember but boldly proclaim: The Lord is my Strength, I will sing praises, for God is my Defense, my Fortress and High Tower, Who shows me mercy and His steadfast loving-kindness (Psalm 59), His peace guards our heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7) the Word of Truth.
Lord, consider our threats
And enable Your servants to speak Your Word
With great boldness.
Stretch out Your hand, Father, to heal
And perform miraculous signs and wonders
Through the name of Your holy and precious
Servant Jesus
Acts 4:29-30